AWAKENING BIEDS. 17 



In these excursions I was interested in marking the 

 successive awakening of the early birds. Passing through 

 the wooded j^astures and guinea-grass fields of the upland 

 slopes, while the stars were twinkling overhead, while as 

 yet no indication of day appeared over the dark moun- 

 tain-peak, no ruddy tinge streamed along the east ; while 

 Venus was blazing like a lamp, and shedding as much 

 light as a young moon, as she climbed up the clear, dark 

 heaven among her fellow-stars ; — the nightjars were un- 

 usually vociferous, uttering their singular note, "witta- 

 wittawit," with pertinacious iteration, as they careered in 

 gi-eat numbers, flying low, as their voices clearly indi- 

 cated, yet utterly indistinguishable to the sight from the 

 darkness of the sky across which they flitted in their 

 triangular traverses. Presently the flat-bill uttered his 

 plaintive wail, occasionally relieved by a note somewhat 

 less mournful. When the advancing light began to break 

 over the black and frowning peaks, and Venus waned, 

 the peadove from the neighbouring woods commenced 

 her fivefold coo, hollow and moaning. Then the petchary, 

 from the top of a tall cocoa-palm, cackled his three or 

 four rapid notes, " OP, PP, P, Q ; " and from a distant 

 wooded hill, as yet shrouded in darkness, proceeded the 

 rich, mellow, but broken song of the hopping-dick-thrush, 

 closely resembling that of our own blackbird. Now the 

 whole east was ruddy, and the rugged points and trees 

 on the summit of the mountain-ridge, interrupting the 

 flood of crimson light, produced the singularly beautiful 



phenomenon of a series of rose-coloured beams, diverging 



B 



