urbica) was taken from a nest which contained young, under the eaves of Lowry's Hotel at Tubercurry, County Sligo, and after being placed in a cage, was conveyed ten miles away to Ballymote, where at 10.30 A.M. it was liberated. The nest was watched, and at 10.43 A.M. the bird returned, having accomplished the ten miles in twelve minutes, a rate of speed equal to fifty miles an hour.

An idea prevails amongst clean and tidy housewives that the martin brings lice to the houses, and therefore they often destroy the nest on that account. It is true that a kind of louse is found in the nests of the swallow and martin, but it is quite another species to that which attacks the human body, and is perfectly harmless. They swarm in the nests and on the birds, but can live nowhere else.

Another of these birds of the air, the SAND-MARTIN (Hirundo riparia), arrives in this country earlier than the two preceding, but is the smallest of the Hirundinida, and in early spring may be seen in considerable numbers hunting for its food up and down the river-side and over the surface of the water. It is easily distinguished by the mouse-coloured plumage of its upper-part. It breeds in holes in high sand-banks, in railway cuttings when through sand. In other ways its habits are much the same as the other members of the family. The sand-martin usually leaves us early-about the beginning or middle of September; but should the second broods be late, or any great change in the temperature take place, they are very likely to perish. We have been told, upon excellent authority, that in some seasons, when a severe frost has occurred early in September, great quantities of the young birds have been found dead floating on the surface of the Thames.

CHAPTER V.

THE LARK.

No bird is better known or more appreciated than the SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis; family, Alaudida). Its presence, either when standing on the top of a molehill among the flowers, raising its crest and scrutinising our movements, or when carolling in the air above us, imparts a sense of exhilaration not produced by the voice of any other of our songsters. Its glossy, light-brown back and speckled breast, with his long hind-claw-as Drayton says, "The lark with his long toe "—and full eye, is readily distinguishable when pert and erect on a clod; but when alarmed it can crouch and hide itself very effectually, and will not take wing till almost trodden on, particularly in the breeding season.

One of the earliest birds. The skylark often commences its song at break of day; hence the old saying, "Up with the lark." Chaucer calls it

"The merrye larke, the messenger of day."

And we all know Shakespeare's lines from "Cymbeline : "—

"Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins to rise."

Elliott calls it the "Bird of the Sun :".

"The cloud of the rain is beneath thee, thou singest
Palaced in glory; but morn hath begun

A dark day for man, while the sunbeam thou wingest,
Bird of the Sun, Bird of the Sun.”

As regards the skylark's song, careful observers have

noticed that in the beginning of the season it seldom lasts more than two minutes, and in the full tide of spring, when

F

gives the following lines to illustrate successfully the skylark's note

"La gentille alouette avec son tirelire,

Tirelire, relire et tirelirant, tire

Vers la voûte du ciel, puis, son vol en ce lieu

Vire, et semble nous dire. Adieu, adieu, adieu !”

and in noticing the difference in the song of this bird whilst on the ascent and descent, says: "A close observer of its habits has said, with reference to this, that 'the notes in the former case are of a gushing impatience, hurried out, as it were, from an excessive overflow of melody, which becomes gradually modulated, until the bird attains an elevation, when, as if satisfied with its efforts, it sinks gradually towards the earth with a sadder and more subdued strain."" Dante has noticed this variation in his Divina Commedia :

"Like the lark,

That, warbling in the air, expatiates long,
Then, thrilling out her last sweet melody,
Drops, satiate with the sweetness."

There is scarcely a British poet, from the earliest to the latest times, who has not sung the praises of the skylark; and, as Professor Newton truly says, a volume might be filled with extracts describing or alluding to its marvellous power of song. All lovers of nature should remember Bloomfield's beautiful lines in his "Farmer's Boy." But a still more beautiful allusion to this bird, not so well known, was written by the Rev. Hart Milman on an incident he saw whilst reading the burialservice over Mrs. Lockhart, the daughter of Sir Walter Scott:

:

"Over that solemn pageant mute and dark,
Where in the grave we laid to rest

Heaven's latest, not least welcome guest,
What didst thou on the wing, thou jocund lark,
Hovering in unrebuked glee

And carolling above that mournful company?

O thou light-loving and melodious bird,
At every sad and solemn fall

Of mine own voice, each interval
In the soul-elevating prayer, I heard
Thy quivering descant full and clear,
Discord not inharmonious to the ear!

We laid her there, the minstrel's darling child;
Seem'd it then meet that, borne away
From the close city's dubious day,

Her dirge should be thy native wood-note wild;

Nursed upon Nature's lap, her sleep

Should be where birds may sing and dewy flowerets weep."

From its blithe, joyous song, the skylark is often kept in captivity. Gay, in Epistle IV., makes the bird relate how the advantages of his song doom him to captivity and misery :

"For what advantage are these gifts to me?
My song confines me to the wiry cage ;
My flight provokes the falcon's fatal rage!"

There is one consolation to the poor caged prisoner. Could he but know it, he gives solace and joy to many a poor bedridden sufferer, and to others in our crowded cities, in hours of toil and pain; but when we see it trampling on its bit of turf in its bow-windowed cage, with head upraised and fluttering wings, we realise that it has indeed lost its liberty, and no longer

"Singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest."

It is remarkable how the skylark easily distinguishes. its enemies amongst the Falconida. Professor Newton says: The appearance of a merlin will cause the sudden cessation of the song-at whatever height the performer may be, his wings are closed, and he drops to the earth like a falling stone. The kestrel, however, is treated with indifference, and in the presence of a sparrow-hawk the skylark knows that safety is to be sought aloft."

The skylark's nest is always placed on the ground, and generally contains three to five eggs of a French white colour, freckled with brownish blotches. Grahame, in his