VOICES OF BIRDS. 265 



adorned, and the fine gradations of sober browns 

 in several others are very pleasing. Those sweet 

 sounds, called the song of birds, proceed only from 

 the male ; and, with a few exceptions, only during 

 the season of incubation. Hence the comparative 

 quietness of our summer months, when this care is 

 over, except from accidental causes, where a second 

 nest is formed ; few of our birds bringing up more 

 than one brood in the season. The redbreast, 

 blackbird, and thrush, in mild winters, may con- 

 tinually be heard, and form exceptions to the general 

 procedure of our British birds ; and we have one 

 little bird, the woodlark (alauda arborea), that, in 

 the early parts of the autumnal months, delights us 

 with its harmony, and its carols may be heard in 

 the air commonly during the calm sunny mornings 

 of this season. They have a softness and quiet- 

 ness, perfectly in unison with the sober, almost 

 melancholy, stillness of the hour. The skylark 

 also sings now, and its song is very sweet, full of 

 harmony, cheerful as the blue sky and gladdening 

 beam in which it circles and sports, and known and 

 admired by all; but the voice of the woodlark is 

 local not so generally heard from its softness, 

 must almost be listened for, to be distinguished, and 

 has not any pretensions to the hilarity of the former. 

 This little bird sings likewise in the spring; but, at 

 that season, the contending songsters of the grove, 

 and the variety of sound proceeding from every 

 thing that has utterance, confuse and almost render 

 inaudible the placid voice of the woodlark. It 



