264 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE LARK. 



the continent. Whether they come to us at a 

 more wary season we do not know. However, 

 they become sufficiently tame when they suffer 

 from a deficiency of food in hard weather ; but are 

 then not so worthy the aim of the true sportsman, as 

 when they are full and fat. 



The Lark (Alanda arvensis, Linn.), One of our 

 poets thus addresses this sweet warbler : 



" Hail to thee, blithe spirit ! 

 Bird thou never wert, 

 That from heaven, or near it, 



Pourest thy full heart 

 In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. 



Higher still and higher, 



From the earth thou springest ; 

 Like a cloud of fire, 



The blue deep thou wingest, 

 And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 



What objects are the fountains 



Of thy happy strain ? 

 What fields, or waves, or mountains? 



What shapes of sky or plain ? 

 What love of thy own kind ? What ignorance of pain ? " 



It is, indeed, true of this bird, the favourite of the 

 skiey space, that its song is gladsome and enlivening ; 

 and that as it darts upwards, in the clear radiance of 

 dawn, its exulting and far-reaching note appears the 

 harbinger of fullest day. The lark is a salacious bird ; 

 nor is it difficult to form a hybrid between it and the 

 linnet, and other small birds. 



