174 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
moods and contend with torrents and tempests, are 
a hardy and determined folk ; they may sing less, 
but they accomplish more. 
But the Skylarks. Isuppose you will have learned 
Shelley’s famous ode to this soaring, songful bird. 
It commences : 
‘* Hail to thee, blithe spirit— 
Bird thou never wert— 
That from heaven or near it 
Pourest thy full heart 
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. 
Higher still and higher 
From the earth thou springest : 
Like a cloud of fire, 
The blue deep thou wingest, 
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.” 
Several poets have attempted to immortalize the 
Skylark in their verses, but I think Shelley has 
succeeded beyond them all. I like the concluding 
lines of the ode : 
“Teach me half the gladness 
That thy brain must know; 
Such harmonious madness 
From my lips would flow, 
The world should listen then as I am listening now.” 
It always seems significant to me that this bird, 
which sings so gloriously and soars so high, makes 
its simple nest and rears its family on the ground. 
There seems to be a suggestion of poetry in the facts. 
Does it not often happen that the sweetest music, 
the most moving poetry, and the noblest lives 
emanate from the humblest and most lowly hearts ? 
While we are thinking about birds, just take the 
field-glass and watch the common Sandpiper (Z'ring- 
cides hypoleucus) that is slowly and jerkily making 
