riNCIIES. 
159 
Here is another, of a different character, from the 
pen of Wordsworth, the poet of Nature : 
“ Ethereal miustrel ! pilgrim of the slry ! 
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound ? 
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye 
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground ? 
Thy nest, which thou canst dro}) into at wiU, 
Those quivering wings composed, that music stiU ! 
To the last point of vision, and beyond. 
Mount, daring warbler ! that love-prompted strain 
(’Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond). 
Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain ; 
Yet might’st thou seem, proud prudlege ! to sing 
AU independent of the leafy spring. 
Leave to the Nightingale her shady wood, — 
A privacy of glorious light is thine ; 
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood 
Of harmony, with instinct more divine : 
Tyije of the wise who soar, but never roam ; 
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home.” 
The AV^oodlark (Alauda arbor ea) is found over every 
part of Europe, even as far north as Sweden ; in 
colder countries it is migratory, hut not in those 
which are more temperate. In our island it abounds 
most in the midland and southern districts, if not, as 
before stated, almost confined to them. It frequents 
wooded and well-cultivated parts of the country. It 
generally gives utterance to its song when it is on the 
wing, often continuing it for an hour without inter- 
mission, while all the time it is describing a series of 
widely-extended circles. Occasionally it pours forth 
its strain when perched on the branch of a decaying 
tree. It breeds in April ; placing its nest under the 
shelter of a dwarf shrub or tuft of herbage. The 
nest itself is constructed of dried stalks and grass, 
