174 AN UNWILLING CAPTIVE. 



Who can divine what impulses from God 

 Reach the caged Lark, within a town abode, 

 From his poor inch or two of daisied sod ? 

 yield him back his privilege ! No sea 

 Swells like the bosom of a man set free ; 

 A wilderness is rich with liberty. 



' Of all the unhallowed instances of bird incarceration,' says 

 Broderip, ' the condemnation of the Skylark to perpetual confinement 

 is surely the most repugnant to every good feeling. The bird, whilst 

 its happy brethren are carolling far up in the sky, as if they would 

 storm heaven itself with their rush of song just at the joyous season, 

 " when wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear," is doomed to 

 pine in some dingy street. There, in a den with a solid wooden 

 roof painted green outside, and white, glaring white, within which 

 in bitter mockery is called a Skylark's cage, he keeps winnowing 

 his wretched wings and beating his breast against the wires, panting 

 for one, only one, upward flight into the free air. To delude him 

 into the recollection that there are such places as fields, which he 

 is beginning to forget, they cut what they call a turf a turf dug up 

 in the vicinity of this smoke-canopied Babel of bricks, redolent of 

 all its sooty abominations, and bearing all the marks of the thou- 

 sands of tons of fuel which are suffered to escape up our chimneys, 

 and fall down again upon our noses and into our lungs. 



' Well, this abominable lump of dirt is presented to the Skylark 

 as a refreshment for his parched feet, longing for the fresh morning 

 dews. Miserable as the winged creature is, he feels there is something 

 resembling grass under him, and then the fond wretch looks up and 

 warbles, expecting his mate. Is it possible to see and hear this 

 desecration of instinct unmoved ? ' 



Need we describe the Lark ? A handsome sprightly- 

 looking bird, about nine inches long, with a light reddish 

 brown plumage, spotted and streaked with black on the 

 upper parts, and dull brown upon the lower ; there is an 

 obscure brownish white band over the eye, and a short crest 

 on the head ; the bill is stoutish, and conical in shape ; 

 the tail somewhat long, and so are the slender legs and 

 toes, the hinder claw being much the longest. Whether 

 these claws are ever employed in carrying the eggs, as < 

 Jesse states, has been questioned ; his authority is gene- 

 rally to be depended on, and as he positively asserts that 

 they are, to his certain knowledge, we must believe him. 



The food of this Lark during the summer consists of in- 

 sects, caterpillars, and worms, especially the latter; it is 

 said to stamp with its feet on the ground near worm-casts, 



