94 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



the same luxurious wealth and variety of life is 

 presented in the plant as well as in the animal 

 world. This glorious pageant of Life is endless ; 

 from morning until evening, and from evening 

 until dawn, the wild denizens of the woods and 

 fields, the mountains and the waters, are all astir 

 each creature has its own particular time of 

 activity. No matter which hour of the twenty- 

 four we may stroll abroad, the same restless 

 activity prevails in bird life, perhaps, most ap- 

 parently of all. 



Go out among the birds at very earliest dawn 

 of day. Not even the faintest streak of light yet 

 glimmers in the eastern sky, still the Thrushes 

 are awake ; and you may hear the speckled 

 songsters begin their morning anthem, even 

 though the birds themselves are hidden in the 

 gloom. The Robin sings long and loudly from 

 the bushes, and the restless Wren chants cheerily 

 from the briars and thickets. Then watch the 

 rosy streaks of morning spread athwart the sky ; 

 see the sun at last appear, the narrowest of 

 crescents, above the green expanse of forest, and 

 slowly rise in glorious splendour, dispelling the 

 night mists from the hillsides, and waking all 

 diurnal creatures from their short and fitful sleep. 

 How cool and fresh all Nature seems in the first 

 few hours of these summer mornings ! What a 

 matchless concert of wild melody swells through 

 the woods and groves ; what flitting of busy wings 

 amongst the foliage ; what hurrying to and fro ; 



