270 VOICES OF BIRIXS. 



proach of man, it crouches close to the ground, then 

 suddenly darts away, as if for a distant flight, but 

 settles again almost immediately. This lark will 

 often continue its song, circle in the air, a scarcely 

 visible speck, by the hour together ; and the vast 

 distance from which its voice reaches us in a calm 

 day is almost incredible. In the scale of compari- 

 son, it stands immediately below the nightingale 

 in melody and plain tiveness ; but compass of voice 

 is given to the linnet, a bird of very inferior powers. 

 The strength of the larynx and of the muscles 

 of the throat in birds is infinitely greater than 

 in the human race. The loudest shout of the 

 peasant is but a feeble cry, compared with that 

 of the golden-eyed duck, the wild goose, or even 

 this lark. The sweet song of this poor little bird, 

 with a fate like that of the nightingale, renders 

 it an object of capture and confinement, which few 

 of them comparatively survive. I have known 

 our country birdcatchers take them by a very 

 simple but effectual method. Watching them to 

 the ground, the wings of a hawk, or of the brown 

 owl, stretched out, are drawn against the current 

 of air by a string, as a paper kite, and made to 

 flutter and librate like a kestrel over the place 

 where the woodlark has lodged; which so in- 

 timidates the bird, that it remains crouching and 

 motionless as a stone on the ground ; a hand-net 

 is brought over it, and it is caught. 



