0F BIRDS* 203 
I umbrageous grove or rural landscape, the golden break 
of day, the fluttering from branch to branch, the soaring 
in the air, or the answering of its young, that gives the 
bird’s song its true relish, and elevates the mind to a state 
of the highest yet most harmless exultation.— Nothing 
in this point of view, can be more gratifying than to see 
the lark warbling upon the wing: raising its note as it 
comes from the clouds, yet sinking by degrees as it ap- 
proaches its nest — the spot where all its affections are 
centered — the spot that has excited all his joy, and cal- 
led forth those harmonious strains. 
The female builds her nest upon the ground, beneath 
| some turf that serves to screen it from observation: she 
| lays four or five eggs, of a dusky hue; and when her lit- 
i tie family come forth, she may be seen fluttering over 
! their heads, directing their motions, anticipating their 
wants, and sedulously guarding them from danger. In- 
deed, the instinctive attachment which this animal bears 
to her young is sometimes discovered at a very early pe- 
riod, and even before she is capable of becoming a 
mother. 
The common food of the young larks is worms and 
insects; but after they are grown up they live chiefly on 
seeds, herbage, and most other vegetable substances. 
Bulfinch. (PI. 33.) This is a very common bird, and 
when at full growth measures, from the point of the bill to 
the end of the tail, six inches, of which the tail is two. It 
has a black short bill, very strong and crooked, the upper 
part hanging over the under like that of a hawk; the tongue 
short, and the eyes of a hazel colour; the head and neck in 
proportion to the body larger than the generality of small 
birds, from which, most probably, they derived their 
name. In some places they are called ropes; in others, 
thick bills, and in some hoops, probably from their wild 
hooping kind of note. 
The bulfinch maks its nest of an ordinary mean fabric, 
in bushes, in which the female lays five or six eggs of a 
bluish colour, with dark brown and reddish spots. In 
the summer it mostly frequents woods, and the more re- 
tired places: but in winter it approaches gardens and or- 
