190 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



to fanciers who aim at something beyond a mere 

 increase in our food-supply in their selecting and 

 refining processes, 



To continue my narration, I woke in the morning 

 at my usual time, between three and four o'clock, 

 which is not my getting-up time, for, as a rule, after 

 half an hour or so I sleep again. The waking is not 

 voluntary as far as I know; for although it may 

 seem a contradiction in terms to speak of coming 

 at will out of a state of unconsciousness, we do, in 

 cases innumerable, wake voluntarily, or at the desired 

 time, not perhaps being altogether unconscious 

 when sleeping. If, however, this early waking were 

 voluntary, I should probably say that it was for the 

 pleasure of listening to the crowing of the cocks at 

 that silent hour when the night, so near its end, is 

 darkest, and the mysterious tide of life, prescient 

 of coming dawn, has already turned, and is sending 

 the red current more and more swiftly through the 

 sleeper's veins, I have spent many a night in the 

 desert, and when waking on the wide, silent, grassy 

 plain, the first whiteness in the eastern sky, and the 

 fluting call of the tinamou, and the perfume of the 

 wild evening primrose, have seemed to me like a 

 resurrection in which I had a part ; and something 

 of this feeling is always associated in my mind with 

 the first far-heard notes of Chanticleer, 



It was very dark and quiet when I woke ; my 



