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perpendicularly or obliquely in the air, with a fluttering motion, and continues it until it has 

 attained its highest elevation, which not unfrequently is such as to render the bird scarcely 

 perceptible. Even then, if the weather be calm, you hear its warble coming faintly on the ear 

 at intervals. It has been alleged that the Lark ascends in a spiral manner ; but my observation 

 does not corroborate the statement. It rising it often passes directly upward, but with the body 

 always horizontal or nearly so, then moves in a curve, and continues thus alternately, but without 

 a continued spiral motion. At first, the motion of the wings is uniformly fluttering, but after- 

 wards it shoots them out two or three times successively at intervals, and when at its greatest 

 height exhibits this action more remarkably. When it descends, the song is not intermitted, 

 but is continued until it approaches the ground, when it usually darts down headlong, and 

 alights abruptly. Frequently it resumes its song after alighting, and continues it for a short 

 time, but more commonly it stops when it has reached the ground. Often the Lark may be seen 

 hovering over a field, in full song, for a considerable time, at a small height. On the 4th May 

 1837, I observed a Lark perched on a half-burnt whin branch, where it remained singing a long 

 time. I have often seen it perch on a wall, and several times on a hawthorn bush in a hedge ; 

 but it never, I believe, alights on tall trees. 



" The song of the Lark is certainly not musical ; for its notes are not finely modulated, nor 

 its tones mellow ; but it is cheerful and cheering in the highest degree, and protracted beyond all 

 comparison. In a sunny day in April or May, when the grass-fields have begun to resume their 

 verdure, it is pleasant to listen to the merry songster that makes the welkin ring with its sprightly 

 notes ; in the sultry month of July, still more pleasant is it to hear its matin hymn while the 

 dew is yet on the corn ; and in winter should you chance to hear the well-known voice on high, 

 it reminds you of the bright days that have gone, and fills you with anticipation of those that are 

 to come. No doubt much of the pleasure derived from the Lark's song depends upon association ; 

 and to him who finds delight in wandering over the green fields, along the daisied margin of the 

 clear stream that winds in the bottom of the pastoral glen, or upon the ferny brae, where ' the 

 lang yellow broom,' and 'blossomed furze unprofitably gay,' shoot up amidst the wild thyme, 

 yarrow, and blue bell, it is pleasant to listen even to the ' skirl ' of the Corn-Bunting, the see-saw 

 song of the Tit, the creaking cry of the Partridge, or the singular crake of the Land Eail ; but, 

 independently of circumstances and associations, the song of the Lark imparts an elasticity to the 

 mind, elevates the spirits, and suspends for a time the gnawing of corroding care. The mellow 

 song of the Merle or Mavis is apt to inspire melancholy, especially if heard in a sequestered 

 valley toward the close of day, and the feelings which it excites have perhaps as much of a 

 depressing as of a soothing tendency ; but the carol of the Lark, like the lively fife, excites pure 

 cheerfulness, and might with propriety be prescribed as an antidote to dulness. It is not merely 

 music that we look for in the song of birds, but variety, and the expression of passions, feelings, 

 and wants. Were all our warblers to tune their throats according to rule, we should become 

 sickly and sentimental, fill the valleys with sighs, and groan from the mountain-tops ; but the 

 loud war-whoop of the Eagle, the harsh scream of the Heron, and the croak of the Eaven are 

 antidotes to the bewitching melody of the Black-cap and Nightingale. I have endeavoured to 

 trace a repetition at regular intervals in the strains of the Lark ; but its modulations seem to 

 have no rule. In confinement this bird sings every whit as well as when at large ; and when 



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