THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
207 
And we were blessM. Oft, with patient ear, 
Long-listening to the viewless skylark^s note, 
(Viewless, or haply for a moment seen 
Gleaming on sunny wing,) in whisper'd tones 
I've said to my beloved, " Such, sweet girl ! 
The inobtrusive song of happiness, 
Unearthly minstrelsy ! then only heard 
When the soul seeks to hear; when all is hushed. 
And the heart listens 
Here all nature harmonizes with our finer and 
purer feelings! Never have I felt more seriously 
sensible of the goodness of the Almighty than when 
listening to the matin song and vesper hymn of the 
skylark. 
Mr. White, in his Natural History of Selborne, 
speaks of a curious little bird, which he calls the 
" grasshopper-lark."* He says, The grasshopper- 
lark began his sibilous note in my fields last Satur- 
day. Nothing can be more amusing than the whis- 
per of this little bird, which seems to be close by, 
though at a hundred yards distance ; and, when 
* More modern Ornithologists do not consider it to be a 
lark, but a brake-locustelle. 
