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Oh! give me that-I cannot, will not fly
Within a cage less ample than the sky :
Then shalt thou hear, as if an angel sung,
Unseen in air, heaven's music from my tongue.
Oh give me that ;-I cannot rest at ease
On meaner perches than the forest trees;
There in thy walk, while evening shadows roll,
My song shall melt into thy very soul;

But till thou let thy captive bird depart,

The sweetness of my strains shall wring thy heart."

-Montgomery: Birds.

The soft woodlark.

-Wordsworth: Excursion.

The woodlark breathes, in softer strain, the vow;
And love's soft burthen floats from bough to bough.

-Leyden: Scenes of Infancy.

Hear the woodlark charm the forest,

Telling o'er his little joys;
Hapless bird, a prey the surest,

To each pirate of the skies.

-Burns: To Mr. Dunlop.

So calls the woodlark in the grove
His little faithful mate to cheer,

(9)

At once 'tis music-and 'tis love.

-Burns: Banks of Cree.

(10)

The woodlark at his partner's side
Twitters his evening song.-Scott.

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The woodlark soars aloft.-Hemans: Liberty.

High in air and poised upon his wings,

Unseen, the soft enamoured woodlark runs
Through all the maze of melody.-Gilbert White.

Linnets on the crowded sprays

(13)

Chorus, and the woodlarks rise

Soaring with a song of praise

Till the sweet notes reach the skies.

-Cunningham.

(14)

A woodlark o'er the kind contending throng
Superior heard, run through the sweetest length of notes.
-Thomson: Spring.

(15)

The woodlark sings from sandy fern.

-Keats: On Burns.

(16)

He liked, amid a thousand throats,

The wildness of a woodlark's notes;

And searched and spied and seized his game,
And took him home and made him tame:

Found him, on trial, true and able,

So cheered and fed him at his table.

-Delany: Pheasant and Lark.

3. LARK WITH LINNET.

Or hear'st not lark and linnet jointly sing, Their notes blithe-warbling to salute the spring? (Phillips: Pastoral); Hark, the larks and linnets sing, with rival notes, They strain their warbling throats, To welcome in the spring (Dryden); The lark and linnet that chaunt o'er the plain, All, all are in love while the summer remain (Cunningham); Ye larks and linnets, now resume your song (Lyttelton); The linnet and the lark then vespers sung (Watts); Nor lark nor linnet shall by day delight (Phillips), &c., &c.

4. LINNET.

Artless linnet (Shenstone); The linnet in simplicity1 (Montgomery); The linnet's lay of love (Beattie); Tender song (Darwin); The linnet's vernal song (Shenstone: Odes); Sweet the merry linnet's note (Scott); Linnet's random strain (Akenside); Chirping linnets (Falconer); The chanting linnet (Burns); Chuckling linnet (Keats); Careless lay (Beattie).

(1)

None-offending song, of quiet prettiness.

-Hurdis: Favourite Village.

1 Also Burns.

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And show me your nest with the young ones in it,
I will not steal them away;

I am old-you may trust me, linnet, linnet

I am seven times one to-day.

-J. Ingelow: Songs of Seven.

The linnets, o'er the flowering furze,
Poured out profusely.—Thomson: Spring.

So sings the summer linnet on the bough,
And, pleas'd with the warm sunbeam, half asleep,
The feeble sonnet of supine content

To his Creator warbles, warbles sweet,

And not contemn'd, till some unfeeling boy
His piece unheeded levels, and with show'r
Of leaden mischief, his ill-utter'd song
Suddenly closes.-Hurdis: Tears of Affection.

A linnet, starting all about the bushes.

-Keats: Sleep.

The half-seen mossiness of linnets' nest.

-Keats: Miscellanies.

Within the bush, her covert nest,

A little linnet fondly prest,

The dew sat chilly on her breast
Sae early in the morning,

She soon shall see her tender brood,
The pride, the pleasure o' the wood,

Amang the fresh green leaves bedewed,
Awake the early morning.-Burns: Song.

The warbling linnets sing,

Prepare to welcome in the gaudy spring!

-A. Philips: Pastoral.

In spring-time, when the woodlands first are green,
Attend the linnet singing to his mate.

-Akenside: Pleasures of Imagination.

(10)

'Tis morning prompts the linnet's blithest lay.

-Scott: Lady of the Lake.

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-Cowper: Anti-Thelyphthora.

"Linnet, canst thou not change that humble coat?
Linnet, canst thou not mellow that sharp note?"
"If rude my song and mean my garb appear,
Have you, sir, eyes to see and ears to hear?”

-Montgomery: Birds.

Week after week, regardless of her food,
The incumbent linnet warms her future brood;
Each spotted egg with ivory lips she turns,
Day after day with fond expectance burns,
Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell,
And breaks in hemispheres the obdurate shell.
-Darwin: Reproduction of Life.

The breakfast done, behold each thankless guest
(Some birds, like men, make gratitude a jest),
With insolence and pamper'd pride elate,
Presumes his merit should provide him meat,

And thinks the hostess thanked, that he vouchsaf'd to eat.

A linnet, perching on a neighb'ring tree,

The well-provided banquet chanc'd to see,

The lights, and mingling with the motley crew
Feasted, as most at free expense will do;

Then, singling from the mercenary throng,
Repaid the generous donor with a song.

Could well-wrought numbers with my wish agree,

The grateful linnet you behold in me,

But doom'd to silence from my want of skill,
Accept, kind patrons, of a warm good will.

-Cunningham: An Epilogue.

1 Cunningham, Pope, and others describe the linnet's song as

twitter."

a

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(18)

(RED LINNET.)

"Sweet is thy warble, beautiful thy plume."
"Catch me and cage me, then behold my doom;
My throat will fail, my colour wear away,

And the red linnet soon becomes a gray."

-Montgomery: Birds.

The linnet of the roseat plumes.—Grahame: April.

MAGPIE.

I have already noted how its companionship with the magpie, a bird of very shabby reputation with the poets, tells against the jay; but why it should, seeing how delightful the magpie is in Nature, it is difficult for the prosaic to say.

Wordsworth, perpetually musing among rural scenes, never speaks unkindly of the bird, for no one who knows what a sense of gladness this pretty merry-andrew lends to the woodland could be harsh to it. Shakespeare says it "sings in dismal discord;" Scott thought it merely a "feathered thief;" Thomson calls it "harsh;" Chaucer, Pope, Prior, Waller, and others know it as wanton and wild," an idle gossip, a kind of Wife of Bath, or Miller's Wife :

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"So have I seen, in black and white,

A prating thing, a magpie hight,

Majestically stalk;

A stately, worthless animal,

That plies the tongue and wags the tail,

All flutter, pride, and talk ;"

while Cunningham sums up this class of imputations in the couplet

"An impudent, presuming pye,
Malicious, ignorant, and sly."