22 
THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
months, when this care is over, except from acci- 
dental causes, where a second nest is formed, few of 
our birds bringing up more than one brood in a season. 
The redbreast, blackbird, and thrush, in mild winters, 
may continually be heard, and form exceptions to 
the general procedure of our British birds ; and we 
have one little bird, the wood- lark, {alauda arbor ea,) 
that, in the early parts of the autumnal months, de- 
lights us with its harmony, and its carols may be 
heard in the air commonly during the calm, sunny 
mornings of this season. They have a softness and 
quietness perfectly in unison with the sober, almost 
melancholy, stillness of the hour. The sky-lark also 
sings now, and its song is very sweet, full of har- 
mony, cheerful as the blue sky and gladdening beam 
in which it circles and sports, and know^n and ad- 
mired by all ; but the voice of the wood-lark is local, 
not so generally heard, from its softness must almost 
be listened for to be distinguished, and has not any 
pretensions to the hilarity of the former. This little 
bird sings likewise in the spring ; but at that season 
the contending songsters of the grove, and the variety 
of sound proceeding from everything that has utter- 
ance, confuse, and almost render inaudible, the placid 
