60 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



branch, the soaring in the air, the answering of the young, that 

 give true relish to the enrapturing strain. These united improve 

 each other, and exhilarate the mind that is endowed with sensi- 

 bility and refinement. The whole scenery of Nature scarcely 

 affords any thing more pleasing than to see the lark warbling 

 on the wing, and hear it raising its notes as it soars aloft, and by 

 degrees becomes invisible : it seems, indeed, to excite in the 

 mind an idea of something celestial, when the most melodious 

 strains continue to charm the ear, while the musician is lost in 

 ♦he immense heights above. 



The warmth of maternal attachment often discovers itself in 

 the female sky-lark, at a very early period, and sometimes before 

 she is capable of becoming a mother. " A young hen bird," 

 says M. de Buffon, " was brought to me in the month of May, 

 which was not able to feed without assistance : I caused her to 

 be educated ; and she was hardly fledged, when I received from 

 another place a nest of three or four unfledged sky-larks. She 

 took a strong liking to these new T -comers, which were scarcely 

 younger than herself: she tended them night and day, cherished 

 them beneath her wings, and fed them with her bill. Nothing 

 could interrupt her tender offices ; if the young were torn from 

 her, she flew back to them as soon as she was liberated, and 

 would not think of effecting her own escape, which she might 

 have done a hundred times. Her affection grew upon her ; 

 she neglected food and drink ; she now required the same sup- 

 port as her adopted offspring, and expired at last, consumed 

 with maternal anxiety." 



The sky-lark and the wood-lark are larger than the sparrow, 

 but not so large as the thrush. They have nothing particularly 

 ornamental in their plumage, the colour of which is a sort of un- 

 varying dappled grey. Their delightful music, however, entitles 

 them to the second if not to the first rank among the feathered 

 choristers. Two species of larks are remarked as the only 

 birds that chaunt while on the wing. 



THE NIGHTINGALE 



Is the most famous of all the songsters of the groves, and has 

 so long been celebrated for the charms of its music, that the 

 idea of harmony seems to be associated with its name. This 

 charming bird was so admired by the ancients, that every allu- 

 sion to it was considered as an embellishment to poetical de- 

 scription. The melody of the nightingale cannot be better de- 

 scribed than in the words of the ingenious author of L'Histoire 

 des Oiseaux : 



" The leader of the vernal chorus begins with a low and 

 timid voice, and prepares the hymn to Nature, by essaying his 



