22 By Leafy Ways. 



poised high on quivering wings, scatters over the fields 

 his floods of melody from earliest dawn, till 



' Pallid evening twines her beaming hair 

 In duskier braids around the languid eyes of day.' 



The actual time that a skylark remains on the wing 

 is but brief. The bird usually descends after a flight 

 of from five to ten minutes rather less than more. 



Quite different are the ways of the woodlark, whose 

 rich but broken warble is uttered from time to time as 

 he soars in wide circles, sometimes half a mile in 

 diameter, and he will stay in the air for more than half 

 an hour at a stretch. 



The thrush and the blackbird two of our finest 

 musicians are now at their very best. 



The robin's tender strain, the wren's brief lyric, the 

 roundelay of the chaffinch, the rhythmic song of the 

 yellow-hammer, with now and then the laugh of the 

 light-hearted woodpecker, each lends its own rare 

 colour to the chorus. 



But still we are only on the threshold of the season. 

 We look away from bare brown branches, and from 

 wet April fields, whose red is just melting into green, 

 to the flowery month of May. In May, at least, the 

 sky is blue and fields are fair. Then these sober 

 meadows will be jewelled with golden cowslips. Then 

 the wild cherry will light with its pearly blossoms the 

 depths of the dusky coppice; the hedges will be 

 crowned with the splendour of the hawthorn. 



Down in the lowlands the ditches will glow with 



