A FAITHFUL MOTHER. 171 



On tree, or bush, no Lark is ever seen : 

 The daisied lea he loves, where tufts of grass 

 Luxuriant crown the ridge; there, with his mate, 

 He founds their lowly house of withered bents, 

 And coarsest speargrass ; next, the inner work 

 With finer and still finer fibres lays, 

 Rounding it curious with his speckled breast. 

 How strange this untaught art! it is the gift, 

 The gift innate of Him, without whose will 

 Not e'en a Sparrow falleth to the ground. 



Thus exposed as the eggs and young of this bird are to 

 many dangers, the wonder is that their numbers do not 

 diminish. We find Skylarks soaring and singing still in 

 all parts of the country, as they have ever soared and sung. 

 Very anxiously does the mother bird watch over her nest- 

 lings, and very carefully does she guard them, as far as her 

 power goes, from the perils with which they are ever 

 surrounded. Several instances are related of her sitting 

 close until the scythe of the mower had actually cut her 

 in two. When driven from her nest, she still keeps near to 

 her precious charge, and utters plaintive cries, which express 

 her fears for their safety. Says Bishop Mant : 



Boused from her humble pallet mark, 

 Up starts alarmed the brooding Lark, 

 And round and round her dwelling flies, 

 With fluttering wings and plaintive cries. 



When alarmed, the bird is even said to remove its eggs 

 to another situation. Jesse testifies to this, observing : 



The Lark makes its nest generally in grass fields, where it is 

 liable to be injured either by cattle grazing over it, or by the mower. 

 In case of alarm from these or other causes, the parent birds remove 

 their eggs, by means of their long claws, to a place of greater secu- 

 rity ; and this transportation I have observed to be effected in a 

 very short space of time. By placing a Lark's egg, which is rather 

 large in proportion to the size of the bird, in the foot, and then 

 drawing the claws over it, you will perceive that they are of suffi- 

 cient length to secure the egg firmly, and by this means the bird is 

 enabled to convey its eggs to another place, where she can sit upon 

 and hatch them. 



When one of my mowers first told me that he had observed the 

 fact, I was somewhat disinclined to credit it ; but I have since ascer- 

 tained it beyond a doubt, and now mention it as another strong 



