motes of tbe 



IT is the purpose of Nature that man shall labor 

 while it is day, and then rest ; but the contrary 

 is true of many millions of living creatures. These 

 nocturnal toilers are not curious, in a human sense, 

 as to man's doings, though influenced by them; 

 but some of us are curious as to their ways, and 

 so it is not strange that the question is often asked : 

 What of the night ? 



Let us first ask : What is night ? As treated in 

 the following pages, it is that portion of every 

 twenty-four hours when we are without direct sun- 

 light. Its birth is the gloaming or twilight; its 

 maturity, darkness; its death, the dawn. 



In the city these conditions are not so well 

 marked, but beyond the town's limits, Nature still 

 rules, and he who is curious in such matters finds 

 the twilight the beginning of a day of new activ- 

 ities, in which he may take no part, but of which 

 he may be a spectator. 



To the novice, it is a trying experience to dis- 

 tinguish objects in the twilight. The more or less 

 i i 



