98 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



On comparing the above tables, it will be seen 

 that on all three occasions the skylark was the earliest 

 of our song-birds, strictly so called, heard actually 

 singing. It commences about two o'clock ; which, 

 in the first of the above instances, would be very 

 nearly two hours before sunrise. 



" Up-springs the lark, 



Shrill- voic'd and loud, the messenger of morn ; 

 Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings 

 Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 

 Calls up the tuneful nations." 



This fact is worth noting, because Dr. Jenner has 

 denied that the lark is entitled to the credit of this 

 precedency, giving it to the red-breast.* The red- 

 breast is undoubtedly an early bird, but it is not, 

 usually, even the next after the skylark. In two of 

 the above instances, though heard chirping, it was 

 not heard to sing at all. This may have been acci- 

 dental ; but in the third instance it was not heard 

 till after the blackbird, and not till nearly half an 

 hour after the lark. The earliest species, in gene- 

 ral, after the lark, appear to be the thrush^ the 

 swallow, the blackbird, and the yellow-hammer. 

 The blackbird I have repeatedly noted on various 

 occasions to commence about ten minutes after the 

 thrush, as in the first two of the above instances ; 

 though in the third of these instances the blackbird 



* Phil Trans. 1824, p. 37. 



t Mr. Thompson states that he has heard the thrush singing 

 in Ireland in June as early as a quarter past two in the morning. 

 Mag. ofZool and Bot. vol. ii. p. 434. 



