INDICATION OF TIME BY THE COCK. 



or suspicion to the infant charge and the mother 

 bird. 



Of the several intimations relating to the voice of 

 animals as preserved to us in Scripture, we have 

 none more deserving of attention than the " crow- 

 ing of the cock" throughout the night, there being 

 a first crowing about midnight, and a second again 

 as day began to dawn ; and this so regularly pro- 

 ceeded in, as to be made use of to mark the pro- 

 gress of time from a very early period, it being 

 pointed out as a well-known and established occur- 

 rence above eighteen centuries gone by. Though 

 this vociferation of the bird is yet persevered in, it 

 seems to be without any regularity, except, perhaps, 

 the general clamour of the early morning, as in 

 particular nights this crowing may be heard at 

 various intervals during the darkness. Night-travel- 

 ling birds sound a signal for the guidance of their 

 followers ; but these creatures^ usually when at rest, 

 or feeding in the gloom, observe a profound silence, 

 and perhaps the cock is the only creature that 

 notifies to any enemy within hearing his asylum 

 on the roost. If such are the habits of these 

 creatures in an unreclaimed state, it must very 

 frequently be productive of injury to them and 

 their families around them. But in this his do- 

 mesticated state, it is a voice which, heard during 

 some sleepless hour, in the deep quiet of the night, 

 becomes most impressive and solemn, brings past 

 events to our recollection, and has, perhaps, often 

 produced holy thoughts and meditations. 



