XXXIII. SKYLAEK. 



(Alauda arvensis.) 



THE illustration was done from a caged bird lent me by a work- 

 man, who had a variety of birds in his room, in the High Street, 

 opposite Old Glasgow College. There were many Skylarks kept 

 in the slums of Glasgow. I used often to hear them singing 

 at the windows of houses in the Yennel while I walked in the 

 College Green. It was rather touching to see them in that 

 smoky place flapping their wings and singing their gloria in 

 excelsis, with their feet on a withered turf, and with a board or 

 canvas over their low, dark cages to prevent them trying to fly 

 upwards to the light. 



It is pleasanter to see a Canary in such circumstances. 

 " Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage " to it ; 

 it is " home, sweet home." It has never known another, nor a 

 better. 



We have no Skylarks in this place ; the ground does not 

 suit them. They inhabit the open ground near Loch Sheil all 

 the year round, and begin to sing in February. 



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