NOTES BY THE WAY. 151 



was clearly revealed. I had seen and heard the lark 

 fn England, else I should still have been in doubt 

 about the identity of this singer. While I was climb- 

 ing a fence I was obliged to take my eye from the 

 bird, and when I looked again the song had ceased 

 and the lark had gone. I was soon jn the meadow 

 aj)ove which I had heard him, and the first bird I 

 flushed was the lark. 



How strange he looked to my eye (I use the 

 masculine gender because it was a male bird, but an 

 Irishman laboring in the field, to whom I related my 

 discovery, spoke touchingly of the bird as " she," 

 and I notice that the old poets do the same), his 

 long, sharp wings and something in his manner of 

 flight that suggested a shore bird. I followed him 

 about the meadow and got several snatches of song 

 out of him, but not again the soaring, skyward flight 

 and copious musical shower. By appearing to pass 

 by I several times got within a few yards of him ; as 

 I drew near he would squat in the stubble, and /hen 

 suddenly start up, and, when fairly launched, sing 

 briefly till he alighted again fifteen or twenty rods 

 away. I came twice the next day and twice the next, 

 and each time found the lark in the meadow or heard 

 \iis song from the air or the sky. What was espe- 

 cially interesting was that the lark had " singled out 

 with affection " one of our native bi; ds, and the one 

 that most resembled its kind, namel} the vesper-spar- 

 row, or grass-finch. To this bird I saw him paying 

 bis addresses with the greatest assiduity. He would 



