NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 183 



Meadow Lark of America upon our hills, I took my gun, 

 and proceeded to the spot. Called at the cottage where 

 my informant lived, and saw his mother, from whom I 

 learned the usual haunts of the stranger, and was on the 

 point of leaving when, to my utter surprise, the well- 

 known delightful cadence of the European Skylark burst 

 in full power and sweetness upon the senses. The woman 

 at once exclaimed, " There he is," and endeavoured to 

 point out the bird as he floated beneath the clouds above 

 us, but as fate would have it, my eye met not the moving 

 speck. All doubt being at an end as to the real character 

 of the strange bird, I followed in the direction in which 

 it was seen by the woman " to go down like a stone," and 

 diligently hunted for an hour without finding it, and then, 

 the weather being warm, I seated myself upon a stone, 

 determined to wait till the interesting songster should 

 think proper to take another flight. In a quarter of an 

 hour he rose at a considerable distance, and after pouring 

 forth a flood of melody (which to me, who had not heard 

 the Skylark for sixteen years, was an indescribable 

 pleasure), went down in the true Skylark style, on the 

 top of a neighbouring hill. Of course, I followed, and 

 with no little sense of shame for the act, shot the poor 

 bird as it rose in a fallow field — a genuine Alauda 

 arvensis, or European Skylark, and a total stranger to the 

 neighbouring shores of America. Whence he came is an 

 interesting problem for the consideration of ornithologists. 

 It was a male, and it is by no means improbable that 

 the female of this bird may be engaged in the duties of 

 incubation at the present time. I am not aware of her 

 having been seen by anyone, but judging from the well- 

 known habits of the male bird, I am inclined to think he 

 was not altogether alone. This is an addition to our list 

 of birds. 



