“Every one in the least conversant with the structure of birds, must be aware that with them, the organs of intonation and modulation are _inward_, deriving little assistance from the tongue, and none, or next to none, from the mandibles of the bill. The windpipe is the musical organ, and it is often very curiously formed. Birds require that organ less for breathing than any other animals, because of the air-cells, and breathingtubes with which all parts of their body (even their bones) are furnished. But those diffused breathing organs must act with less freedom when the bird is making the greatest efforts in motion, that is, when ascending or descending, and in proportion as these cease to act the trachea is more required for the purpose of breathing. The sky-lark thus converts the atmosphere into a musical instrument of many stops, and so produces an exceedingly wild, and varied song—a song which is perhaps not equal either in power or compass, in the single stave, to that of many of the warblers, but one which is more varied in the whole succession.” “Every body knows the sky-lark,” continues Mr. Mudie, but the American reader may like to be reminded that this celebrated bird is about seven inches long, with a brown plumage, tinged with reddish, yellowish, and dusky shading in places. These larks are abundant in Europe. They are brought to market in great numbers. In England, they are sold for the table at about a dollar the dozen. It is said that at Leipsic in Germany, a duty of twelve thousand crowns per annum was raised on the larks eaten in that city, at the rate of about five cents for every sixty larks, and if the English crown be meant this would give the number of birds eaten in the town at the incredible amount of nearly four millions. They have a legend in Ireland, that the larks of the wild valley of Glandalough never sing, “having been miraculously silenced by St. Theresa, during the building of the Seven Churches, because they broke the morning sleep of the wearied masons, by their loud native warblings.” NOTE Z. THE WINTER GNAT, (_tipula hiemalis_) p. 189.