280 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

four times over, like a fantasia, in the same key and time.
If there be any wind, he rises perpendicularly by bounds,
and afterwards poises himself with breast opposed to it. If
calm, he ascends in spiral circles; in horizontal circles during
the principal part of his song, and zigzagly downwards during
the performance of the finale. Sometimes, after descending
about half way, he ceases to sing, and drops with the velocity
of an arrow to the ground. Those acquainted with the song
of the skylark can tell without looking at them whether the
birds be ascending or stationary in the air, or on their
descent; so different is the style of the song in each case.
In the first, there is an expression of ardent impatience; in
the second, an @endanfe composure, in which rests of a bar
at a time frequently occur; and in the last, a gra#uated
sinking of the strains.”
ie Mrs. Bowdich quoting from “The Naturalist”
Maternal gives the following pretty story of the maternal
Instinct of instinct of the Lark:—“The other day, some
the Lark. nowers shaved off the upper part of the nest of
a skylark, without injuring the female, who was sitting on
her young: still she did not fly away; and the mowers
levelled the grass all round her, without her taking any notice
of their proceedings. The son of the owner of the crop
witnessed this, and, about an hour afterwards, went to see
if she were safe; when, to his great surprise, he found that
she had actually constructed a dome of dry grass over the
nest during the interval, leaving an aperture on one side for
ingress and egress; thus endeavouring to secure a continuance
of the shelter previously supplied by the long grass.” Buffon
tells a remarkable story of the self-sacrifice of a young lark
who took upon itself the duties of a foster mother. He
says:—*“ A young hen bird was brought to me in the month
of May, which was not able to feed without assistance. I
caused her to be educated, and she was hardly fledged when
I received from another place a nest of three or four unfledged