close. The Prussian was attempting by his own skill to please the company, when a large black cat, which had been long on the watch, sprang unobserved from a corner on the poor bird, seized it in its mouth, and rushed out of the room notwithstanding all opposition. Pursuit was immediate, but in vain : the Prussian brought into the room the mangled body of his poor canary, with looks and words of most poignant distress.

THE SKY-LARK.

THIS well-known bird is a great favourite. It inhabits most, if not all the countries of Europe, preferring cultivated districts, particularly arable lands when uninclosed. Grahame might well say

"Thou, simple bird, dwellest in a home

The humblest,"

for it is placed on the ground, and frequently sheltered by a clod of earth, or a tuft of herbage.

equal truth he might add

"The daisied lea he loves, when tufts of grass,
Luxuriant crown the ridge; there, with his mate,
He founds their lowly house, of withered bents,
And coarsest spear-grass: next, the inner nook
With finer and still finer fibres lays,

Rounding it curious with his speckled breast."

And with

Sky-larks have usually two broods in the year on the same grounds. The eggs are four or five, of a dull greenish white, mottled with brown. The first brood is usually fledged in June, and the second in August; but

I

in those parts of the country where the snow lies long, it is probable there is seldom more than one brood. The song of the sky-lark is cheerful, though monotonous but here is another description:

"With fluttering start, in silence, from her nest

The sky-lark breaks: then, steadier, upwards soars,
And, with melodious trill, her prelude pours
To earth, in hues of full-flushed summer drest;
Now, poised on moveless wing, she seems to rest,
Careless what bird, beneath the airy height,

May stop her path with horizontal flight.

The measured lay she breathes: then, like a guest,
Singing to other spheres, is lost in light,

Till, fondly lured, she turns her faithful breast

Downwards through fields of blue. The warbling strain
Near and more near she swells; then, hushed again,
Falls like a shadow from the sunny dome,

And chaunts her three wild notes, to welcome home."

It has been observed by a naturalist, that if the lark hears the voice of its mate, it falls to the earth apparently like a stone; but that this does not take place during the period of incubation, or before the young birds have left the nest. At such times, the lark, in its descent, flies along the surface of the field, and alights at some distance from its nest. And why is this? is evident," he says, "that this foresight is given to it by its benevolent Creator, for the better preservation of its young; as, if it alighted at its nest, the spot might

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