100 NATURE AND THE POETS. 



meadow slope and sunny nook. Yet, for all that, it 

 does not awaken the emotion in one that the earlier 

 and more delicate spring flowers do ; the hepatica, 

 say, with its shy wood habits, its pure, infantile ex- 

 pression, and at times its delicate perfume ; or the 

 houstonia, " innocence," flecking or streaking the 

 cold spring earth with a milky way of minute stars ; 

 or the trailing arbutus, sweeter scented than the Eng- 

 lish violet, and outvying in tints Cytherea's or any 

 other blooming goddess's cheek. Yet these flowers 

 have no classical associations, and are, consequently, 

 far less often upon the lips of our poets than the 

 violet. 



To return to birds, another dangerous one for the 

 American poet is the lark, and our singers generally 

 are very shy of him. The term has been applied 

 very loosely in this country to both the meadow-lark 

 and the bobolink, yet it is pretty generally under- 

 stood now that we have no genuine skylark east of 

 the Mississippi. Hence, I am curious to know what 

 bird Bayard Taylor refers to, when he speaks -in his 

 " Spring Pastoral " of 



" Larks responding aloft to the mellow flute of the bluebird." 



Our so-called meadow-lark is no lark at all, but a 

 starling, and the tit-lark and shore-lark breed and 

 pass the summer far to the north, and are never 

 heard in song in the United States. 



The poets are entitled to a pretty free range, but 

 they must be accurate when they particularize. We 



