374 THE WOOD- LARK. 



Thou tells o' never-ending care, 

 O' speechless grief and dark despair ; 

 For pity's sake, sweet bird, nae mair ! 

 Or my poor heart is broken /" 



The same license is used in his song of " The Banks of Cree" — 



" It is Maria's voice I hear ! 



So calls the wood-lark in the grove, 

 His little faithful mate to cheer, 

 At once His music and His love /" 



The same discerning license is taken in his lines "On 

 Sensibility," to his "much honoured friend and patron, Mrs 

 Dunlop"— 



" Hear the wood-lark charm the forest, 

 Telling o'er his little joys ; 

 Hapless bird ! a prey the surest 

 To each pirate of the skies. 



Dearly bought the hidden treasure 



Finer feelings can bcstoio ; 

 Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure 



Thrill the deepest notes of woe." 



White of Selborne perhaps more correctly, but not so sweetly, 

 says— 



" While high in air, and poised upon his zvings, 

 Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs 

 Thrd all his maze of melody ; the brake 

 Loud with the blackbird's bolder note resounds." 



For, while the sky-lark rises and falls perpendicularly as he 

 sings, the wood-lark hangs poised in the air when singing. It 

 generally sings on wing, but it differs from the sky-lark by 

 sweeping the air in widely-extended circles, instead of rising 

 perpendicularly, and will sometimes sing nearly an hour 

 without intermission. It sometimes sings on a tree, but never 

 on the ground. Mr J. S. Wood says in the Naturalist : — 



" The lark ascends until it seems no larger than a midge, and with 

 difficulty seen by the unaided eye, yet every note will be clearly audible 

 half a mile from the nest over which it sings. It never ceases to sing for a 

 moment — a feat which seems wonderful to human beings, who find a song 

 of six or seven minutes, though interspersed with pauses, is more than 

 trying. Even a practised public speaker, though he can pause at the end 

 of each sentence, finds the applause of the audience a welcome relief. 

 The singer and speaker need use no exertion but their voice, yet the bird 

 pours out a continuous song, and all the time has to support itself in 

 the air by continuous use of its wings." 



It breeds early — hence an early singer; often heard in 

 England soon after Christmas, and will continue till the end of 



