NATURE AND THE POETS 



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 

 understood 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 blue- 

 bird." 



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

 starling, and the titlark and shore lark breed and 

 pass the summer far to the north, and are never 

 heard in song in the United States. 1 



The poets are entitled to a pretty free range, but 

 they must be accurate when they particularize. 

 We expect them to see the fact through their imagi- 

 nation, but it must still remain a fact; the medium 

 must not distort it into a lie. When they name a 

 flower or a tree or a bird, whatever halo of the ideal 

 they throw around it, it must not be made to belie 

 the botany or the natural history. I doubt if you 

 can catch Shakespeare transgressing the law in this 

 respect, except where he followed the superstition 

 and the imperfect knowledge of his time, as in his 

 treatment of the honey-bee. His allusions to nature 



1 The shore lark has changed its habits in this respect of late 

 years. It now breeds regularly on my native hills in Delaware 

 County. New York, and may be heard in full song there from 

 April to June or later. 



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