42 
NATURE NOTES 
Parsley Fern.— W e are glad to learn that one of our corre- 
spondents has brought our note in last month’s issue under the 
notice of the Lake District Association, who will at once take 
the matter into consideration. 
Save the Skylarks ! — A letter of protest against the sale of 
this most melodious of songsters for food appeared recently in 
The Standard, the writer of which truly remarks that the fact 
that the birds so sold are imported in no way lessens the revolt- 
ing philistinism of the practice. We have received the following 
letter on the subject from Miss Rose Turle : — 
It must indeed be a “ savage breast ” that is not soothed by the charm 
of the skylark’s song ! Often indeed a sightless song — as Shelley so well 
puts it in his matchless ode “ To a Skylark ” : — 
“ Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.” 
And yet — oh, the pity of it ! — one’s heart is made to ache by the sight of 
them, strung up by those tuneful little throats in the poulterers’ shops, 
and all for the sake of the one dainty mouthful that the breast affords ' 
One can but rejoice that the close time for these and other wild birds has 
arrived, and must trust that those who have partaken of the dainty morsel 
will, on hearing its spring-song — the “ rain of melody ” — say “ never 
again.” In this connection I cannot do better than quote the following, 
taken from a delightful little book, “ St. Francis of Assisi,” by Brother 
Leo of Assisi, edited by Paul Sabatier, translated by Sebastian Evans : — 
On St. Francis' Love for Larks . — “ Above all other birds did he love 
the crested lark, the little bird that in the vulgar tongue is called Lodola 
capellata, and he would say of her : ‘ Sister lark hath a hood like the 
Religious, and an humble bird is she, for she gladly goeth by the way to 
find her a few grains of corn, and so she findeth them even among the dung, 
she taketh them therefrom and eateth them. When she soareth she doth 
praise God right sweetly, even as the good Religious that doth look down 
on earthly things, whose conversation is evermore in Heaven, and whose 
intent is always towards the praise of God. Her garments, to wit, her 
feathers, are like unto the earth, and she giveth ensample unto the Reli- 
gious that they wear not delicate and gaudy garments, but such as be 
vile in price and colour even as the earth is viler than the other elements.’ 
“ And for that he did perceive these similitudes in them, he did most 
gladly look upon them. Therefore it did please the Lord that these most 
holy birdies should show some token of the love they bare unto him in the 
hour of his death. For on the Saturday evening after Vespers, before the 
night wherein he passed away unto the Lord, a great multitude of birds of 
this kind that are called Larks came above the roof of the house wherein 
he lay, and flying a little way off did make a wheel after the manner of a 
circle round the roof, and by their sweet singing did seem to be praising 
the Lord along with him. 
“ We that were with the Blessed Francis and have written these things 
do bear witness that oftentimes have we heard him saying : ‘ And I ever 
have speech with the Emperor I will entreat him, and persuade him, and tell 
him that for the love of God and of me he ought to make a special law that 
none snare nor kill our sisters the Larks nor do any evil unto them. In 
like manner that all the Mayors of the Cities and the Lords of the Castles 
and towns be bound every year on the day of the Nativity of our Lord to 
compel their men to throw wheat and other grain along the roads beyond 
the cities and walled towns, so that our sisters the larks may have whereof 
to eat, and other birds also on a day of so passing solemnity, and that for 
reverence of the Son of God Whom on such a night the most Blessed Virgin 
