THE SKY-LAEK. 237 



are there, it never alights near it, but flies along 

 the surface of the ground;^ and stops at some dis- 

 tance from the dwelling. 



The length of the full-grown male skj-lark is 

 seven inches and a quarter; and the female bird 

 is rather smaller, and darker in colour. It is 

 universally diffused over the British Islands, large 

 numbers, during severe winters, leaving the north- 

 ern parts of the kingdom to come into the some- 

 what milder climate of the southern counties. 

 In Ireland the lark is very much valued as a caged 

 bird. Our sky-lark, too, sings its cheerful strains 

 over the mountains of that land, although in 

 Britain it evidently prefers the green fields and 

 plains. There is a wild and gloomy valley, the 

 Vale of Glendalough, which is said never to be 

 cheered by the singing of the lark; because, in 

 olden times, when the Seven Churches were being- 

 reared, the loud matin songs of the sky-lark 

 awoke the wearied masons when they needed rest. 

 St. Kevin miraculously commanded their silence, 

 and never again has the sweet laverock come with 

 the daisy, and the primrose, to gladden the green- 

 sward and the silence of that lonely spot. Around 

 the hilly pastures of Belfast, the lark sings long 



