270 HISTORY OF 



plenty ; but the red-breast continues with us the 

 year round, and endeavours to support the famine 

 of winter by chirping round the warm habitations 

 of mankind, by coming into those shelters where 

 the rigour of the season is artificially expelled, 

 and where insects themselves are found in greater 

 numbers, attracted by the same cause. 



This bird breeds differently in different places : 

 in some countries its nest is usually found in the 

 crevice of some mossy bank, or at the foot of a 

 hawthorn in hedge-rows ; in others, it chooses the 

 thickest coverts, and hides its nest with oak leaves. 

 The eggs are from four to five, of a dull white, 

 with reddish streaks. 



The Lark, whether the sky-lark, the wood, or 

 the tit-lark, being all distinguishable from other 

 little birds by the length of their heel, are louder 

 in their song than either of the former, but not 

 so pleasing. Indeed, the music of every bird in 

 captivity produces no very pleasing sensations it 

 is but the mirth of a little animal insensible of its 

 unfortunate situation : it is the landscape, the 

 grove, the golden break of day, the contest up- 

 on the hawthorn, the fluttering from branch to 

 branch, the soaring in the air, and the answering 

 of its young, that gives the bird's song its true 

 relish. These united, improve each other, and 

 raise the mind to a state of the highest, yet most 

 harmless exultation. Nothing can in this situa- 

 tion of mind be more pleasing than to see the 

 lark warbling upon the wing ; raising its note as 

 it soars, until it seems lost in the immense heights 

 above us, the note continuing, the bird itself un- 



