130 THE LARK, 
then, leads us to ascribe the circumstance, not to defect of 
memory, but rather to a roughness in the vocal organs, 
arising from disuse. It is in this way that the chaffinch 
makes endeavours during several successive weeks before 
attaining to its former perfection, and the nightingale tries 
for a long time to model the strophes of its superb song, 
before it can produce the full extent of compass and 
brilliancy.” * , 
The nightingale has not more happily inspired our poets 
than the Lark (A/auda arvensis). Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, 
Shelley, and Wordsworth have all sung the praises of this 
famed songster ; while Shakespeare, in undying verse, has 
paid many a tribute to “the blythesome bird.” Let us, then, 
“Leave to the nightingale her shady wood,” 
and turn our attention to— 
“ The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,” 
Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
This “tirra-lirra” with the other notes of the bird is 
well illustrated in the following lines :— 
“La gentille alouette avec son tire-lire, 
Tire-lire, a lire, et tirelirau, tire 
Vers la voite du ciel, puis son vol vers ce lieu 
Vire, et désire dire adieu Dieu, adieu Dieu.” 
As the nightingale is called the “bird of eve,” so has the 
* Bechstein ‘' Ornithologisches Taschenbuch.” 
