Year: 1874

BY JOHN BURROUGHS.


Before had got fifty yards from the
station began to hear the larks, and being
unprepared for them was a little puzzled
at first, but was not long in discovering.
what luck | was in. The song disappoint-
ed me at first, being less sweet and melo-
dious than | had expected to hear, indeed
! thought it little sharp and harsh,-a
little stubbley,--b in other respects, in
strength and gladness and continuity, it
was wonderful And the more l heard it
the better / liked it, until would gladly
have given any Of my songsters at home
for bird that could shower down such
notes, even in Autumn. Up, up, went
the bird, climbing the silver spiral Of his
song, till he attained an altitude of three
or four hundred feet, when, spread out
against the sky for space of six or eight
minutes, he poured his delight, filling all
the vault with sound The song is of the
sparrow kind, and, in its best parts, per-
petually suggested the notes of our yesper
sparrow-but the wonder Of il is its CO.
piousness and sustained strength There
is no theme, no beginning, middle or end
like most of our best bird songs, but per-
feet swarm of notes pouring out like bees
from a hive and resembling each other
nearly as closely, and only ceasing as the
bird nears the earth again. We have
many more melodious songsters the bob
olink in the meadows, for instance the
vesper sparrow in the pastures, the purple
finch in the groves, the winter wren, or any
Of the thrushcs in the woods, or the wood
wagtail, whose air song is of a similar char
actcr to that Of the sky-lark's and is even
more rapid and ringing, and is delivered
in nearly the same manner but our birds
all stop when the sky-lark has only just
begun. Away he goes on quivering wing,
initiating his throat fuller and fuller, mount
ing and mounting, and turning to all points
of the compass az if to embrace the whole
landscape in his song, the notes still rain
ing upon you as distinct as ever, after you
have left him far behind. This strain in
deed suggests some rare pyrotechnic dis
play, musical sounds being substituted for
the many-colored sparks and lights. And
yet | will add what perhaps the best read
ers do not need to be told, that neither the
lark song, nor any other bird song in the
open air and under the sky is as noticeable
feature as my description of it might i'm
ply, or as the poets would have us believe
and that most persons, not especially in
terested in birds or their notes, and intent
upon the general beauty of the landscape,
would probably pass it by unremarked.


suspect that it is little higher fight
than the facts will bear out when the writ
ers make the birds go out of sight into the
sky. / could easily follow them on this
occasion, though il l took my eye away
for moment it was very difficult to get it
back again. Ihad to search for them as
the astronomer searches for a star. Itmay
be that in the Spring, when the atmospere
is less clear, and the heart of the bird full
of more mad and reckless love, that the
climax is not reached until the eye loses
sight of the singer.


Several attempts have been made to in
troduce the lark into this country, but for
some reason or other the experiment has
never succeeded. The birds have been
liberated in Virginia and on Long Island,
but do not seem to have ever been heard
of afterwards. l see no reason why they
should not thrive anywhere along our At
lantic sea-board, and l think the question
of introducing them worthy of more
thorough and serious attention than has
yet been given it, for the lark is really an
institution, and as he sings long after all
other birds are silent,--as if he had per-
petual spring in his heart,-he would be a
great acquisition to our fields and mead
ows. 1t may bc that he cannot stand tho
extremes Of our climate, though the Eng



lish sparrow thrivcs well enough. The
Smithsonian Institute has received speci-
mems Of the sky-lark from Alaska, where,
no doubt, they find n climate more like the
English. Scri6ner's for September.