THE SKYLARK. 299 



f 



Maternal solicitude. 



rally produces two broods in the yenr. When 

 hatched, the mother watches over them with a 

 truly maternal affection ; she may then be seen 

 fluttering over their heads, directing their mo- 

 tions, anticipating their wants, and guarding 

 them from danger. 



The instinctive warmth of attachment which 

 the female skylark bears to her young, often dis- 

 covers itself at a very early period ; and even be- 

 fore she is capable of becoming a mother, which 

 might be supposed to precede, in the order of 

 nature, the maternal solicitude. " A young hen- 

 bird," says the Comte de Buffon, " was brought 

 to me in the month of May, which was not able 

 to feed without assistance: I caused her to be 

 educated; and she was hardly fledged, when I 

 received from another place a nest of three or 

 four unfledged skylarks. She took a strong lik- 

 ing to these new-comers, which were scarcely 

 younger than herself; she tended them night an4 

 day, cherished them beneath her wings, and fed 

 them with her bill. Nothing could interrupt her 

 tender offices ; if the young were torn from her, 

 she flew back to them as soon as she was libe- 

 rated, and would not think of effecting her own 

 escape, which she might have done a hundred 

 times. Her affection grew upon her; she neg- 

 lected food and drink; she now required the 

 same support as her adopted offspring, and ex- 

 pired at last consumed with maternal anxiety. 

 None of the young ones survived her, they diejd 

 2 P -2 



