Canaries
Canaries, too, are finches, and are plentiful in the islands from which they take their name. But if you were to see them in their own home you would hardly recognize them; for a wild canary that is yellow all over is hardly ever seen. Our cage-canaries, in fact, are an artificial breed, the natural color of the plumage being olive green, marked with black and yellow. Neither would you recognize the song of the wild birds, which is not nearly so powerful nor so varied as that of the feathered pets which we all know so well.
Now and then talking canaries have been known, which had learned to utter a number of different words quite distinctly.
The Skylark
No bird is more celebrated than the skylark, which has inspired countless poems. It is a plain brown little bird, like one of our field-sparrows; and would attract little attention were it not for the sweetly clear and varied music of its joyous song as it mounts higher and higher in the air, till at last it looks a mere speck in the sky. For nearly eight months in the year it sings, and one can scarcely take a ramble in the country without seeing and hearing it. A small colony of skylarks dwells on Long Island, in the edge of Brooklyn, N.Y., where the song may be heard by many a person who cannot go to Europe to listen to it.
The skylark builds upon the ground, in some little hollow, and its nest is so well hidden that one scarcely ever finds it. It is made of dry grass, leaves, and hair, and contains four or five yellowish-gray eggs speckled with brown.
CHAPTER XXIII
WAGTAILS, SHRIKES, THRUSHES, Etc.
One can scarcely walk along the banks of a British stream in spring or summer without noticing a pretty and graceful bird, sometimes running along near the edge of the water, and stopping every now and then to pick off an insect from the herbage, and sometimes rising into the air to catch a fly or gnat. And one can easily understand why the name wagtail has been given to it, for no matter whether it is flying or running, its tail is never still. Sometimes, too, it may be seen in a damp meadow, or even on a lawn in a garden; and where one wagtail is, others are sure to be not very far off.