THE GREAT SINGERS. 



207 



"Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest of 



singers, 



Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hangs o'er the water, 

 Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music, 

 That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent 



to listen." 



Mr. Champlin, of New York, with a coaching party 

 in England, witnessed the flight and song of five sky- 

 larks together. After this unusual concert, he says of 

 the American mocking-bird's song: "It is sweeter, 



Prairie-lark. 



richer, mellower, more varied and more brilliant, of 

 greater compass, more powerful and more prolonged 

 than that of any songster in British woods." 



Our most remarkable bird-vocalist seems to be the 

 western meadow-lark, or prairie-lark. Because of its 

 superiority, and because few had noticed it, Audubon 

 called it neglecta. It is essentially the same, in form 

 and colors, as the common meadow-lark, or starling. 



