150 NOTES BY THE WAY. 



act, and might serve very well as a national emblem. 

 The Old World can beat us on rats and mice, but we 

 are far ahead on squirrels, having five or six speciea 

 to Europe's one. 



THE SKYLARK ON THE HUDSON. 



MY note-book of the past season is enriched with 

 the unusual incident of an English skylark in full 

 song above an Esopus meadow. [ was poking 

 about a marshy place in a low field one morning in 

 early May, when through the maze of bird-voices: 

 laughter of robins, call of meadow-larks, song of bob- 

 olinks, ditty of sparrows, whistle of orioles, twitter of 

 swallows, etc., with which the air was filled, my ear 

 suddenly caught an unfamiliar strain. I paused to 

 listen : can it be possible, I thought, that I hear a 

 lark, or am I dreaming. The song came from the 

 air, above a wide, low meadow many hundred yards 

 away. Withdrawing a few paces to a more elevated 

 position, I bent my eye and ear eagerly in that direc- 

 tion. Yes, that unstinted, jubilant, skyward, multi- 

 tudinous song can be none other than the lark's ! 

 Any of our native songsters would have ceased while 

 I was listening. Presently I was fortunate enough to 

 catch sight of the bird. He had reached his climax 

 n the sky and was hanging with quivering wings 

 beneath a small white cloud, against which his fore 



