Crested Lark

"The lark of which St. Francis was so fond was the crested lark.  It appealed to him because it was dressed as a good religious should be dressed; it had a real friar's hood and its feathers were the proper penitential color.  Besides, its sweet song gave it an affinity with those whom he wished to be the Minstrels of God.  On the evening of his death, a great flock of them wheeled over the roof of the house in which he lay and sang their 'good bye' to the man who had done so much for them and would have done much more if he could only have got at the Emperor***.  The birds are still fed in the market-place of Assisi when the Angelus rings each day.  At the sound of the bell they fly in from all quarters guided by an instinct handed down for several  hundred years.  We may be sure the crested lark is well to the fore and that he gets the very best of the pickings.

***St. Francis' idea was that the Emperor (of the Holy Roman Empire) should pass some laws forbidding the snaring of larks and obliging all Mayors and corporations to have the roads strewn with crumbs  on Christmas Day.***

Taken from "A Bedside Book of Saints" by Aloysius Roche