102 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



than seen, and their song, by those who have never heard 

 the nightingale, is regularly mistaken for that bird's. Indeed, 

 when two blackcaps are singing against each other, the alter- 

 nating songs seem continuous, and the strength of the voice 

 and the extreme beauty of their notes arrest the ear at once, 

 while, being so unlike the song of either blackbird or thrush, 

 which are heard as a rule only from tops of trees, the music 

 is at once called the nightingale's. Or how many of us 

 notice the woodlark (a bird that stays with us all the winter 

 through), even though its song is finer than the skylark's ? 



" A woodlark, o'er the kind contending throng 



Superior heard, ran thro' the sweetest length of song." 



On the wing, no doubt, it is mistaken for " the lark," but when 

 singing, especially at night, in the shrubbery or copse, as often 

 for the nightingale ; yet it is common enough, and if those 

 who care to do so will, when they hear its exquisite song, 

 stop and look round for the singer, they will see, sitting on a 

 branch, a bird just like the skylark, but will notice, if they 

 listen, that its voice is richer and its notes more varied than 

 the laverock's, and that the bird shifts from one perch to 

 another while it is singing, sometimes even mounting to the 

 top of a tree, and thence, still in song, flying up into the air 

 to circle. If you startle a skylark it will never, you will 

 notice, fly to woodland for shelter, but only to another part of 

 the meadow or into the next, and settle there on the ground, 



