THE SKY-LARK. 
221 
gale is a bird of passage, and now that the sea- voyage is so much 
sliorter, possibly, if the experiment were repeated, it might suc- 
ceed. Birds are great travellers, and they have undoubtedly 
spread themselves over the world as we now find them. Within 
our own short history, we know of well-accredited instances of 
changes in their course. In this very State we now have the 
singular Chff-swallow, which a few years since was entirely un- 
known, and the first seen here were a solitary pair. The Cat- 
birds also are said to have been unknown on the Genesee until 
several years after the country had been opened. Blue-birds 
and robins are far more numerous than they used to be, while on 
the other hand several birds are known to have deserted our 
neighborhood for regions more to their taste, such as the quail, 
the kill-deers, the crested woodpeckers, &c., &c. 
The sky-lark is more hardy than the nightingale, and possibly 
might bear our climate better, though not a migratory bird. Of the 
two, we should perhaps prefer the lark. In the first place, he sings 
'more or less the whole year round, and never deserts his native 
fields, while the nightingale is only in voice for a few weeks in 
May and June. And then the habits of the lark are peculiar to 
himself. There is no act of the eagle so noble in character as the 
uprising of the lark to greet the sun ; it is the very sublime of 
action. We know nothing within the whole range of nature more 
eloquent. If we may believe Lafontaine, this bird likes to build 
his lowly nest in a grain-field — 
* Les alouettes font leur nid 
Dans les bles, quand ils sont en herbe." 
The lark of the fable sings wittily, rather than lyrically; but 
