THE SKY-LARK. 231 



" We laid her there, the Minstrel's darling child ; 



Seem'd it then meet that, borne away 



From the close city's dubious day, 

 Her dirge should be thy native woodnote wild ? 

 Nursed upon nature's lap, her sleep 

 Should be where birds may sing, and dewy flowrets weep?" 



As the free lark rises in the air, we wonder 

 alike at its strength of wing and power of vision. 

 It is near to the sun, and among those clouds 

 which give so dazzling a reflected light, that the 

 human eye cannot rest for a moment upon them. 

 And yet from that height it can descend to the 

 spot where its nest lies, or pounce on the insect 

 which it needs for its food. Buffon has said of 

 the hawk, that it can see from on high a lark upon 

 a clod of earth at twenty times the distance at 

 wliich man or horse can perceive it. We know 

 tliat the scattered crumbs around our dwellings 

 are at once espied by the sparrow on the house- 

 top, and the redbreasts on the bough ; nor is the 

 lark less gifted than either. Sight, indeed, is 

 extremely perfect in birds. Whether that faculty 

 of discerning equally well the near or distant 

 object, is owing to some power which they possess 

 of changing the convexity of the eye, we know 



