214 WHY BIRDS SING IN THE NIGHT. 



The cause of the nocturnal singing of birds that do not 

 go abroad during the night, and are strictly diurnal in all 

 their other habits, has never been rationally explained. 

 It is natural that the whippoorwill, which is a nocturnal 

 bird, should sing during his hours of wakefulness and 

 activity, and we may explain why ducks and geese, and 

 other social birds, should utter their alarm-notes when 

 they meet with any midnight disturbance. The crowing 

 of a cock bears still more analogy to the song of birds ; 

 for it is certainly not a note of alarm. This domestic bird 

 might therefore be considered a nocturnal songster, though 

 we do not hear him at evening twilight. The cock sings 

 his matins, but not his vespers. He crows at the earliest 

 dawn and at midnight when he is wakened by the light 

 of the moon, and by artificial light. Many birds are ac- 

 customed to prolong their notes after sunset to a late hour, 

 and become silent only to begin anew at the earliest day- 

 break. But the habit of singing in the night is peculiar 

 to a small number of birds, and the cause of it is a curious 

 subject of inquiry. 



By what means are they qualified to endure such ex- 

 treme watchfulness, — singing and providing for their off- 

 spring during the day, then becoming wakeful and musical 

 during the night ? Why do they take pleasure in singing 

 when no one will come in answer to their call ? Have 

 they their worship like religious beings; and are their 

 midnight lays but the fervent outpouring of their devo- 

 tions ? Do they rejoice like the clouds in the presence 

 of the moon, hailing her beams as a pleasant relief from 

 the darkness that has surrounded them ? Or, in the 

 silence of the night, are their songs but responses to the 

 sounds of the trees, when they bow their heads and shake 

 their rustling leaves to the wind ? When they listen to 

 the streamlet that makes audible melody in the hush of 

 night, do they not answer to it from their leafy perch ? 



