154 FOREST CEEATURES. 



goat-sucker — earliest of birds — as he flew through 

 the darkness over the marsh ; and presently, from 

 the skirts of the wood, came the bleat of a roe that 

 had been startled by a sound, or, not improbably, had 

 caught the taint of our presence as a breath of air 

 began to stir the leafless brambles on the dry spots 

 around. The cry of a scared animal thus heard amid 

 ' he profound stillness is very startling.* It makes the 

 same impression as of a man talking in his sleep. 

 Presently the faint chirping of the water-lark was 

 audible ; of the coot and other dwellers in the morass. 

 But now came a cheery sound, foretelling that the sun 

 was about to appear, and that he — that rejoicing singer 

 — was going forth to meet and watch him come. 

 Straight overhead rose a lark, pouring forth his glad- 

 dening song ; and, accustomed as we are to hear the 

 bird when we can look up and follow him on his 

 heavenward flight, it did seem strange to listen to his 

 warbling now while no light as yet was in the air. 

 Then from a distant villao^e came the luofubrious " toot, 

 toot ! " of the watchman's horn, and a clock announced 

 it was past three. Again the sharp bleat of a roe, but 

 this time from a meadow in the direction of the hamlet. 



* Cooper, in " The Last of the Mohicans," gives an instance of this, 

 when the party who have sought refuge in the cave hear suddenly, 

 amidst the stilhiess of night, a cry none of them had ever heard before. 

 It made them all pause ; and those who were less accustomed to natural 

 sounds and appearances it inspired with an undefinable fear. 



