272 FOREST CREATURES. 



Forest 



Each period of the day has its ac- 

 customed visitants, every hour has its 

 " certain signs," that can be read and understood 

 by those only to whom jungle voices are familiar, 

 and who, from long habit and experience, have 

 been enabled to observe and mark the systematic 

 order of Nature's handiwork. 

 Early Morn- ^ n tropical climates the interval be- 

 Forest. * tween the first glimmering of dawn and 

 daylight, is very short, and on entering the forest 

 at this hour, jungle-cocks (whose plumage gleams 

 like gold as they run by followed by their dusky 

 seraglio) may be heard crowing merrily on every 

 side, whilst great hooded-owls, like drowsy re- 

 vellers after their night's carouse, sail hooting, 

 leisurely flapping their wings as they return to 

 their haunts in some hollow tree. As the light 

 increases, the notes of the earliest of the feathered 

 songsters are heard, and troops of monkeys are 

 seen making their way to some pool or stream for 

 their morning draught, but who fly skipping from 

 branch to branch, chattering and showing their 



