56 
EARLY RISERS. 
The birds are very early on the wing. The majority cease to 
slumber when the first vays of the sun redden the horizon, when it is 
even yet difficult to distinguish day from night. Thomson is not 
more poetical than accurate when he writes : — 
" The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top, 
Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawu. 
Blue, through the dusk, the smolcing currents shine , 
And from the bladed field the fearful hare 
Limps, awkward ; while along the forest-glade 
The wild deer trip, and, often turning, gaze 
At early passenger. Music aioakes 
The native voice of undissembled joy ; 
And thick around the woodland hymns arise." 
At midnight the voice of the cuckoo has been heai-d ; and only an 
hour later he resumes his song, to pass the entire day without repose. 
If we pass through grove or forest at early dawn, before the summer 
day has fully " gilded the mountain-tops," we hear already the music 
of the birds on every side, and we know it will not be hushed until 
after the setting of the sun. Some few hours in the night, some few 
