PART II. However high the skylark soars, he never loses sight of home, and never stays away long. He generally descends leisurely, but rather more rapidly than he rose ; and he continues to pour out his song as he comes down to rejoin his mate, till he reaches a certain distance above the ground, where for a moment he remains suspended over the spot he so well knows; then, folding his wings, the notes cease, and the vocalist drops like a stone close to the nest. Wordsworth speaks of this, and draws a moral from the life of the bird, in the following beautiful lines: Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth, where cares abound? Mount, daring warbler! that love-prompted strain, Leave to the Nightingale the shady wood- True to the kindred points of heaven and home. Mrs. Hemans, too, has written in a similar strain :— Oh! Skylark, for thy wing! Thou bird of joy and light, At heaven's empyreal height ! I would range the blessed skies, Where the low mists cannot rise! And a thousand joyous measures From my chainless heart should spring, But oh the silver cords That around the heart are spun, And kind eyes that make our sun! The skylark always builds on the ground in cornfields and meadows. The nest is composed of vegetable stalks, lined with fine hay and hair, the latter generally white. It is often placed in a little hollow of the ground or next a stone, to screen the inmates from the cold, and in any case it is built so as to have the full benefit of the sun's heat and light. The bird is said sometimes to mine and drain the locality chosen. 'The skylark,' says the 'British Naturalist,' selects her ground with care, avoiding clayey places, unless she can find two clods so placed as that no part of a nest between them would be below the surface. In more friable soil she scrapes till she has not only formed a little cavity, but loosened the bottom of it to some depth. Over this the first layers are placed very loosely, so that if any rain should get in at the top, it may sink to the bottom, and there be absorbed by the soil.' The poet Grahame has the following description of the skylark's nest, which is pretty accurate : The daisied lea he loves, where tufts of grass Rounding it curious with his speckled breast.' Another of our writers, Walter Thornbury, draws a lesson of humility from the lowly abode of the skylark. He says: Three foot in the pleasant corn, The lark has sought his nest at night, Yes, deep below the sun and wind, Down far below the sparrow-hawk, The eagle seeks the snow Alp-top But the humble lark, safe and content, In England the skylark delights in open meadows and arable lands; but in Scotland and Ireland its favourite dwelling-place is the wild mountain moorland. So that James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, did not err in the following beautiful lay, describing the bird as belonging to the uncultivated country, or, as it is termed, the 'wilderness: :' 'Bird of the wilderness, Blithesome and cumberless, Sweet be thy matin o'er moorland and lea! Blest is thy dwelling-place Oh, to abide in the desert with thee! Far in the downy cloud; Love gives it energy, love gave it birth. Where art thou journeying? Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth. O'er fell and fountain sheen, O'er moor and mountain green, O'er the red streamer that heralds the day, Over the rainbow's rim, Musical cherub, soar, singing away! THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. Then, when the gloaming comes Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be! Blest is thy dwelling-place Oh, to abide in the desert with thee!' 73 In the birdsellers' shops of London and other large towns, larks are very common during the proper season, when generally they may be purchased for a trifling amount. A first-rate singer, however, will command a high price; and large sums have often been rejected for a pet bird by its owner. A naturalist tells us of a poor chandler in Belfast who refused to part with his favourite songster for five guineas, ten guineas, and even a cow, successively offered by a gentleman for it. Although the skylark's song in captivity is undoubtedly very sweet, especially when the bird is well looked after, yet most lovers of nature will prefer seeing this songster free on the wing. If possible, see it thus in the early morning; and then say with Thomson Feather'd lyric, warbling high, While the bloom of orient light THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail; And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, Byron. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. THE King was on his throne, In Judah deem'd divine- The godless Heathen's wine. In that same hour and hall, And wrote as if on sand: |