12 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



presently, becomes a sad object to all that loved and beheld him, 

 and in an instant turns to putrefaction. 



Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not hawks, 

 are both so many and so useful and pleasant to mankind, that I 

 must not let them pass without some observations : they both feed 

 and refresh him ; feed him with their choice bodies, and refresh 

 him with their heavenly voices. I will not undertake to mention 

 the several kinds of fowl by which this is done ; and his curious 

 palate pleased by day, and which with their very excrements 

 afford him a soft lodging at night. These I will pass by, but not 

 those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their 

 curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the 

 shame of art. 



As first, the lark,* when she means to rejoice, to cheer her- 

 self and those that hear her, she then quits the earth, and sings 

 as she ascends higher into the air ; and having ended her 

 heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad to think she 

 must descend to the dull earth, which she would not touch but 

 for necessity. 



How do the blackbird and thrassel with their melodious voices 

 bid welcome to the cheerful spring, and in their fixed months 

 warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can reach to ! 



* What can be more delightful than this description of the lark ! In 

 all the poets there is nothing said of the lark or of the nightingale com- 

 parable to this exquisite passage of our pious author. Bishop Home, in 

 his commentary on Psalm civ,, 12, quotes the description of the nightin- 

 gade, prefacing it thus : '* The music of birds," as one has well observed 

 (Wesley's Wisdom of God in creation), " w^as the first song of thanks- 

 giving, which was offered on earth before man was formed. All their 

 sounds are different, but all harmonious, and all together composed a choir 

 which we cannot imitate." If these little choristers of the air, when 

 refreshed by the streams near which they dwell, express their gratitude 

 by chanting in their way the praises of their Maker and Preserver, how 

 ought Christians to blush, who, besides the comforts and conveniences of 

 this world, are indulged with copious draughts of the water of eternal 

 life ; if, for so great blessings, they pay not their tribute of thanks-giving, 

 and sing not unto the Lord the songs of Zion : " He that at midnight,'* 

 &c. The tlirassel is the song-thrush ; laverock is a name still used in 

 Scotland for the skylark, and the fondness of the robin for church yards is 

 well known. — Am. Ed. 



