362 



THE SKY-LARK. 



Fergusson, for in his fine song of the " Lea Rig," which Burns 

 copied, he sings — 



Nae herds wi' Kent or collie there 



Shall ever come to fear ye, O ; 

 But lav'rocks whistling in the air, 



Shall woo, like me, their dearie, O !" 



And in his "Drink Eclogue," he says — 



" Nae stream but kens and can repeat the lay 

 To shepherds streekit on the simmer brae, 

 Wha to the whistle, wi' the lav'rock bang, 

 To wauken flocks the rural fields amang." 



In another poem he makes melancholy Sandy say — 



* Ance I could hear the laverock's shrill-tuned throat, 

 And listen to the clattering gowdspink's note." 



But none of all our poets sang more in praise of the skylark 

 than our national bard, Burns, nor mentions it more. In 

 " Hallowe'en " he tells us that — 



" Amang the brackens, on the brae, 



Between her an' the moon, 



The de'il, or else an outler quey, 



Gat up an' ga'e a croon ; 

 Poor Leezie's heart maist lap the hoo I; 



Near lav'rock height she jumpit, 

 But miss'd a fit, and in the pool 

 Out-owre the lugs she plumpit, 



Wi' a plunge that night." 



And in his fine ode to " The Mountain Daisy" crushed by his 

 plough, he says — 



" Alas ! it's no thy neebor sweet, 

 The bonnic lark, companion meet 

 Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet ! 



Wi' spreckled breast 

 When upward-springing, blithe, to greet 



The purpling east." 



In his song to " Menie " he also says — 



" And when the lark, 'tween light and dark, 

 Blithe waukens by the daisy's side, 

 And mounts and sings on flittering wings, 

 A woe- worn ghaist I hameward glide." 



This is exquisitely true to nature, as all know who have heard 

 the lark 'tween light and dark, at earliest dawn, when, as 

 Southey says — 



"The nightingale not yet 

 Had ceased her song, nor had the early lark 

 Her dewy nest forsaken." 



