the British Song Bird. 81 



assuring myself, by inquiry, that my informant was a truthful 

 and respectable man, and have no doubt at all of the accuracy 

 of his statement. I learned from several other quarters that 

 the larks had been heard on the Barrabool Hills and in other 

 directions. As far as I can recollect they were turned loose 

 about the year 1850. About a year and a-half ago, Mr. 

 Hickenbotham, the draper, in Swanston-street, called at the 

 Argus office, to say that he had just heard an English skylark 

 at Flemington. I have lately seen Mr. Hickenbotham, and 

 questioned him particularly, and he states that he is quite cer- 

 tain that it was an English skylark. He says that he is the son of 

 an English farmer, over whose fields the skylark sang almost 

 incessantly ; that he lived there till the age of manhood, and 

 knows the skylark as well as any one can know it. About this 

 having been an English skylark he has no doubt whatever. 



As for any Australian lark so nearly resembling the English 

 skylark as to be indistinguishable from it, I must plead guilty 

 to a strong tendency to scepticism. I would appeal to my 

 hearers as to whether any one of them ever heard or saw such a 

 bird. I have ridden over the country all the way between this 

 and Sydney in one direction, and between this and Portland in 

 another, with some vigilant attention to the mam features of 

 the natural history of the continent, and I never saw such a 

 bird. There is indeed upon our plains a bird somewhat resem- 

 bling the skylark in size and color, which flutters upwards while 

 it sings ; but its song is little better than a sort of melancholy 

 croak. There is as little chance of any one mistaking its voice 

 for that of the skylark of England, as there is of anybody mis- 

 taking mine for that of Madame Bishop. I confess that with 

 regard to the remark I have alluded to, I am utterly at sea. 



I will now show that in some of his predictions the expe- 

 rienced naturalist was completely wrong. While making some 

 further inquiries, and hesitating what my next step should be 

 to test the experiment, I noticed some months ago the arrival 

 here of a well-known bird-dealer, with a great variety of English 

 song birds, including five healthy nightingales. I immediately 

 put myself in communication with him, agreed for a price for 

 his nightingales, and was kindly furnished with a great deal of 

 information upon the whole subject of the shipment of birds. 

 Mr. Brown is a partner in a concern long largely engaged in 

 this business, and having branch establishments hi various parts 

 of the world — Germany, London, Paris, New York, Valparaiso, 

 San Francisco, &c. Mr. Brown had brought out by this ship 

 an assortment of birds, comprising nightingales, blackbirds, 



VOL. II. G 



