Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/247

Rh nest, and almost ready to abandon it altogether. He would always delay his attack till this period, but as the young advance in age and size, the more extensively and recklessly do their parents cater for their support.

When ravens set out on a long journey they always travel in pairs, and so high in the air, that were it not for their frequent crying, they would escape notice altogether. So great is the height at which they fly, that no cliff or peak, however lofty, can cause them to swerve from the direct course on which they are bent. W. H.

Enquiry.—Does the Female Sky-lark ever sing? It has been a question in dispute whether the female sky-lark (Alauda arvensis) sings or not. That she sometimes attempts to do so I have no longer any doubt; for the other morning, walking in the fields, up sprang a lark from his "dewy couch," and with his throat full of music and his heart full of joy, rode higher and higher, bringing to my mind those beautiful lines by Wordsworth, addressed to the sky-lark, in which he apostrophizes it as— "Type of the wise who soar but never roam; True to the kindred points of heaven and home." When he had got through about the half of his song, and was preparing to descend, up rose another candidate for attention, mimicing every action of the first, now hurrying upwards as though in haste to get beyond the clouds, now shooting a little to the right or to the left, then pausing for a moment suspended on vibrating wings, again springing upwards, and so on, as larks are wont to do on a sunny morning; but alas, this was only a dumb show, or at least as nearly pantomimic as would consist with a faint sparrow-like "chittering" uttered ever and anon. When wearied with its exertions, this would-be songstress descended precipitately secundum artem f and rejoined her mate, who, no doubt, felt considerable surprise at the ambitious vagaries of his cara sposa. So miserable a performance involuntarily brought to my mind those of a similar character emanating from another section of the female part of creation; to the authors of which one of the leading reviewers lately administered some judicious advice, saying, that instead of imposing upon the world with their literary pretensions, "they ought to be contented with marking pinafores and labelling pots of jam."—Edwin Brown; Burton-on-Trent, May 1, 1843.

Note on the arrival of a few summer Birds of Passage in the interior of E. Lothian, during the years 1841–2.