London to John O 1 Groat's. 



CHAPTER III. 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. 



" What thou art we know not ; 

 What is most like thee ? 

 From rainbow clouds there flow not 

 Drops so bright to see, 

 As from thy presence showers a rain of melody." 



SHELLEY'S "SKYLARK." 



" Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these ? 

 Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught 

 The dialect they speak, whose melodies 

 Alone are the interpreters of thought ? 

 Whose household words are songs in many keys, 

 Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught ! 

 Whose habitations in the tree-tops, even, 

 Are half-way houses on the road to heaven." 



LONGFELLOW. 



HAYING- spent a couple of hours very pleasantly 

 at Tiptree Hall, I turned my face in a northerly 

 direction for a walk through the best agricultural sec- 

 tion of Essex. While passing through a grass field 

 recently mown, a lark flew up from almost under my 

 feet. And there, partially overarched by a tuft of 

 clover, was her little all of earth a snug, warm nest 

 with two small eggs in it, about the size and colour of 

 those of the ground-chipping-bird of New England, 

 which is nearer the English lark than any other Ameri- 

 can bird. I bent down to look at them with an interest 



