Night duty.



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NIGHT DUTY.


By A Night Bird.


A strange title, perhaps, for an article in an avicultural

magazine ! But I wonder if those who have never done it realise

the wonders of the night. They know the beauties of moonlight,

perhaps, may have even seen the mysterious figure of an Owl flitting

across their path, but what do they know of the dawn and the

wonders that precede it'?


I was on night duty at a Y.A.D. Hospital “ somewhere in

Kent ” last May, and never shall I forget the joy and beauties of the

early morning. There was a wide verandah running round the

house, and I would slip out every morning to watch the waking

world. Is it a known fact, I wonder, but I noticed the birds always-

woke in the same order ? The first to sound the alarum was a

Lark, who, some time before it was light, would sing a short song,

and then apparently doze off again ; then a Cuckoo in a small copse

near by; after that a pause ; then another Cuckoo would wake

further away—I knew it for another owing to a peculiarity in its

note—followed by a Blackcap; and then a burst of music, as every

bird within hearing broke into his song of praise, as the light slowdy

spread, and gradually the wonders of the mist-shrowded valley came

into view. How those birds sang! Apparently the choir was not

without its leader, for of a sudden it would stop and the choristers

disperse for breakfast, after which every bird was free to sing or not

as he chose. Breakfast never lasted more than half an hour, but the

music was never so intense as before. And so I found one of the

few reasons to be grateful to the authors of this war for showing me

a fresh beauty in Nature. If this meets the e3 r e of any other night

bird, she or he need never be dull if duty ordains a spell of night

work in the month of May.



