280 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



four times over, like a fantasia, in the same key and time 

 If there be any wind, he rises perpendicularly by bounds, 

 and afterwards poises himself with breast opposed to it. U 

 calm, he ascends in spiral circles ; in horizontal circles during 

 the principal part of his song, and zigzagly downwards during 

 the performance of the finale. Sometimes, after descending 

 about half way, he ceases to sing, and drops with the velocity 

 of an arrow to the ground. Those acquainted with the song 

 of the skylark can tell without looking at them whether the 

 birds be ascending or stationary in the air, or on their 

 descent; so different is the style of the song in each case. 

 In the first, there is an expression of ardent impatience; in 

 the second, an andante composure, in which rests of a bar 

 at a time frequently occur; and in the last, a graduated 

 sinking of the strains." 



Mrs. Bowdich quoting from "The Naturalist" 

 Maternal gives the following pretty story of the maternal 

 Instinct of instinct of the Lark : " The other day, some 

 mowers shaved off the upper part of the nest of 

 a skylark, without injuring the female, who was sitting on 

 her young: still she did not fly away; and the mowers 

 levelled the grass all round her, without her taking any notice 

 of their proceedings. The son of the owner of the crop 

 witnessed this, and, about an hour afterwards, went to see 

 if she were safe; when, to his great surprise, he found that 

 she had actually constructed a dome of dry grass over the 

 nest during the interval, leaving an aperture on one side for 

 ingress and egress; thus endeavouring to secure a continuance 

 of the shelter previously supplied by the long grass." Buffon 

 tells a remarkable story of the self-sacrifice of a young lark 

 who took upon itself the duties of a foster mother. He 

 says : " A young hen bird was brought to me in the month 

 of May, which was not able to feed without assistance. I 

 caused her to be educated, and she was hardly fledged when 

 I received from another place a nest of three or four unfledged 



