IO+ BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



"like an embodied joy whose race is just begun," and 

 " shower a rain of melody." For some stay with us all the year 

 round, though most of their companions go, and in such vast 

 flocks that fifteen thousand have been caught in a single 

 night out of a flight passing a single spot. And, poor little 

 birds, wherever they rest on their journey they find nets 

 spread for them, for every nation alike is agreed that larks 

 are good to eat ; and so they go, to and fro, literally "larding 

 the earth " with their bodies. Yet in spite of these periodical 

 massacres, and in spite of perennial persecution for the 

 cage and the table, their numbers never seem to lessen, and 

 our skies and meadows are as full of them one year as 

 another. And it is well that it is so, for wdiat should we 

 miss more in a country walk than " the lark's blithe carol 

 from the clouds " ? 



" Sound of vernal showers 

 On the twinkling grass, 

 Rain-awakened flowers. 

 All that ever was 

 Joyous and clear and fresh, thy music doth surpass." 



Yet, introduced into New Zealand, they have become a pest, 

 ravaging the cornfields when the blade first appears above 

 ground, and pulling up, grain by grain, every plant in the 

 field. The goldfinch, also imported into the colony, now flies 

 about in wisps of hundreds, inflicting serious damage on the 

 buds of crops and fruit-trees. It is a severe lesson this in 



