1 8 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



heard uttering a few sharp call notes ; the little Wren too 

 is now on the move. A word in respect to the awaken- 

 ing of .birds. We are gravely told that those birds 

 roosting in high situations rise the first, because the sun 

 is seen sooner from their elevated roosting-place. But this 

 .is incorrect, for the Robin, Wren, and Thrush, roosting 

 in a lowly shrub, rise just as soon from their slumbers as 

 the Rook, perched some fifty feet above them in the 

 towering elm, and long before the sun is visible from the 

 highest tree in the vicinity. Another, I believe a French 

 naturalist, tells us that the Lark is a sluggard. Let him 

 come hither and behold this charming little songster 

 rise from its lowly bed with the first glimmer of sunrise 

 in the eastern sky. Methinks our forefathers of old, or 

 even the village swain of the present day, could have 

 given this grave scientist a lesson in this simple matter. 

 After close attention to this special habit in the 

 feathered tribe, I am able to inform thee, gentle reader, 

 that birds awake with but little approach to regularity, 

 and probably thy first ramble will be quite at variance 

 with thy second, although they be taken but a few days 

 apart. The Carrion Crow and Rook are probably the 

 first birds astir : Thrushes follow them closely. The 

 Cuckoo, too, is a very early riser ; so are the Lark and 

 sylvan birds ; while Finches as a rule rise late in com- 

 parison to their above-mentioned congeners. However, 

 as soon as the first bird is heard to move, the other 

 members of the feathered race are heard in rapid suc- 

 cession, and I am often in my rambles, especially in 

 the vernal year, greatly puzzled as to which of my little 

 favourites was the first to greet me with its notes. But 

 to return to our ramble. 



A warm glimmer appears in the sky, 'tis the har- 

 binger of the glorious sun, and the Song-thrush and 



