The Coming of the Dawn 



ward to the center of some convenient 

 stage releases that resounding reveille 

 that serves at once as love-song, call 

 and challenge. And how quickly all 

 his kind join in to swell this morning 

 carol to the dawn! Mind you, the 

 sun is not yet risen. Robin does not 

 wait for that. Neither does the turkey 

 gobbler. The "turk" is one of the 

 very early birds, and Tom loses no 

 time in trying to impress his impor- 

 tance upon .the farmyard population. 

 About the same time that the robins 

 wake, your gobbler spills a series of 

 those bronchial ebullitions, the like of 

 which is not to be located elsewhere in 

 the entire realm of vocal acrobatics. 

 Just why such really beautiful birds 

 as the turkey and the peacock should 

 have been condemned to walk the 

 earth with such ideas of music in their 

 silly heads presents one of the un- 

 solvable riddles of creation. 



In a hollow in the oak the flickers 

 have a nest. Roused by the robin's 



[77] 



