140 PICTURESQUE ANIMALS. 



owl has obtained an emblematical character for wisdom, 

 the bat is regarded as the emblem of guilt. He is repre- 

 sented as shunning the broad eye of day, and as flying 

 out on leathern wing, when the dusky shades of evening 

 may serve to hide him from detection. The sight of the 

 bat, however, is far from awakening in our minds the idea 

 of guilt; but his image is strongly suggestive of the 

 pleasant serenity of evening, as the butterfly reminds us 

 of summer fields and flowers. Our ideas of the bat are 

 somewhat grotesque ; and when, after the graceful swal- 

 low has retired to rest, we observe his irregular and zigzag 

 flight, we are unavoidably reminded of his peculiar hid- 

 eous formation, from which the idea of making him an 

 emblem gf guilt probably originated. It would, seem as 

 if he hid himself during the day, lest his relationship 

 to a race of beings now almost banished from the earth 

 might be discovered. His emblematical character does 

 not prevent his forming an interesting feature in a rural 

 scene. Hence in pictorial representations of evening we 

 see the last rays of the sun streaming upward in beauti- 

 ful radiations from behind a hill, while the bat is flitting 

 about an old house in a rude and rather quiet landscape. 

 All animals are picturesque which are consecrated to 

 poetry. In English descriptive poetry the lark is as 

 familiar to us as the rose that clambers around the cot- 

 tage door. The unrivalled brilliancy of his song, which, 

 by description, is impressed' on our minds with a vivid- 

 ness almost like that of memory, and its continuance 

 after he has soared to an immense height in the air, cause 

 him to be allied in our minds with the sublimity of 

 heaven and with the beauty and splendor of morning. 

 I never had an opportunity to witness the flight of the 

 skylark ; but I have always imagined that the sentiment 

 of sublimity must greatly enhance the pleasure with 

 which we gaze upon his flight and listen to his notes. 



