AN OCTOBER DIARY. 347 



sprung up, there would have been a change at once. 

 The insects would be first to respond, then batra- 

 chians; then birds, half roused from their slumbers, 

 would chirp ; and long before dawn predatory mammals 

 would yawn, shake themselves, and start upon their 

 rounds. I have known such changes to occur, and the 

 breeze and the activity might, of course, have been a 

 mere coincidence. Such an objection is easily urged, 

 and bears upon its face a winning reasonableness, but 

 my conviction of a mysterious relationship between at- 

 mospheric conditions and animal activity is not dis- 

 turbed. 



