THE SKYLARK. 
63 
The daisied lea lie loves, where tufts of grass 
Luxuriant crown the ridge : there, with his mate, 
He founds their lonely house, of withered herbs, 
And coarsest spear-grass ; next the inner work, 
With finer, and still finer fibres lays, 
Rounding it curious with his speckled breast. 
Grahame. 
Larks breed thrice a year, in May, July, and August, 
rearing their young in a short space of time. 
ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 
The instinctive warmth of attachment which the female 
Skylark bears towards her own species, even when not her 
nestling, is remarkable. “In the month of May,” says 
Buffon, “ a young hen bird was brought to me, which was 
not able to feed without assistance. I caused her to be 
reared ; and she was hardly fledged, when I received from 
another place, a nest of three or four unfledged larks. She 
took a strong liking to these new comers, which were but 
little younger than herself; she tended them night and 
day, cherished them beneath her wings, and fed them with 
her bill. Nothing could interrupt her tender offices. If 
the young ones were torn from her she flew to them as soon 
as they were liberated, and would not think of effecting her 
own escape, which she might have done a hundred times. 
Her affection grew upon her; she neglected food and drink; 
she at length required the same support as her adopted 
offspring, and expired at last, consumed with maternal soli- 
