1910-1911.] Bu rns and the Song- Birds of Scotland, 329 



Thus, in his song to " Fair Jenny " — 



" Where are the joys I have met in the morning, 

 That danced to the lark's early song '? " — 



that is the record of a real experience, not the fruit of a poet's 

 imaginative dreaming. Men born and bred in the country- 

 have had a similar experience, and know how true it is to the 

 facts of nature. In another poem on the season of spring we 

 find the same idea expressed in even nobler fashion, — 



" The wauken'd laverock, warbling, springs 

 And climbs the early sky, 

 Winnowing blithe her dewy wings 

 In morning's rosy eye." 



This is truly Shakespearean in its splendid mirroring forth of 

 a scene in nature. Many things have been said and sung 

 about the lark, for it has inspired more poets than Burns, but 

 nowhere else have I seen this description used, " Winnowing 

 blithe her dewy wings In morning's rosy eye." How accurate, 

 how vivid, how brilliant the picture ! In another he makes a 

 beautiful use of the lark's hovering flight. Burns in this, as 

 in other aspects of his poetry, displayed a marvellous power 

 of portraying the ordinary facts and incidents of Scottish 

 country life, and the description was often given to serve a 

 higher moral purpose than has always been noted. He de- 

 liberately and consciously, I believe, desired to throw around 

 the life of the Scottish peasant a halo of delightful interest 

 which might afford him many an hour of innocent happiness. 

 Here is a case in point : it touches the heart, — 



" The laverock shuns the palace gay, 

 And o'er the cottage sings ; 

 For nature smiles as sweet, I ween, 

 To shepherds as to kings." 



The next in interest to the eye and ear and heart of Burns 

 was a song-bird which he calls the lintwhite. ITow, what 

 was the lintwhite of his poetry ? It is, of course, one of the 

 finches. It may be either the chaffinch or the linnet. The 

 linnet is rather a sparse bird in the county of Mid-Lothian, 

 but in Ayrshire it is abundant. The songs of these two birds 



