SKYLARK 



175 



a brief and prosaic account of its habits would appear superfluous. 

 His image, better than any pen can portray it, already exists in every 

 mind. A distinguished ornithologist, writing of the sparrow, declines 

 to describe its language, and asks his reader to open his window and 

 hear it for himself. In like manner, I may ask my reader to listen 

 to the lark's song, which exists registered in his own brain. For he 

 must have heard it times without number, this being a music which, 

 like the rain and sunshine, falls on all of us. If someone, too curious, 

 should desire me not to concern myself with the images and regis- 

 tered sensations of others' brains, but to record here my own im- 

 pressions and feelings, I could but refer him to Shelley's ' Ode to a 



FIG. 58. SKYLARK. ^ natural size. 



Skylark,' which describes the bird at his best the bird, and the feel- 

 ing produced on the listener. Some ornithologist (I blush to say it) 

 has pointed out that the poet's description is unscientific and of no 

 value ; nevertheless, it embodies what we all feel at times, although 

 we may be without inspiration, and have only dull prose for expres- 

 sion. It is true there are those who are not moved by nature's 

 sights and sounds, even in her ' special moments,' who regard a 

 skylark merely as something to eat with a delicate flavour. It is 

 well, if we desire to think the best that we can of our fellows, to look 

 on such persons as exceptions, like those, perhaps fabled, monsters 



