EARLY AWAKENING OF BIRDS. 
164 
it appeared the reflection of reason. This procedure 
may be judged, perhaps, a trifling event to notice ; but 
the ways and motives of creatures are so little under- 
stood, that any evidence which may assist our research 
should not be rejected. Call their actions as we may, 
they have the effect of reason; and loving all the 
manners and operations of these directed beings, I 
have noted this, simple as it may be. 
At one period of my life, being an early waker and 
riser, my attention was frequently drawn to “ songs of 
earliest birds ; ” and I always observed that these crea- 
tures appeared abroad at very different periods as the 
light advanced. The rook is perhaps the first to salute 
the opening morn ; but this bird seems rather to rest 
than to sleep. Always vigilant, the least alarm after re- 
tirement rouses instantly the whole assemblage, not 
successively, but collectively. It is appointed to be a 
ready mover. Its principal food is worms, which feed 
and crawl upon the humid surface of the ground in the 
dusk, and retire before the light of day ; and, roosting 
higher than other birds, the first rays of the sun, as 
they peep from the horizon, become visible to it. The 
restless, inquisitive robin now is seen too. This is the 
last bird that retires in the evening, being frequently 
flitting about when the owl and bat are visible, and 
awakes so soon in the morning, that little rest seems 
required by it. Its fine large eyes are fitted to receive 
all, even the weakest rays of light that appear. The 
worm is its food too, and few that move upon the surface 
escape its notice. The cheerful melody of the wren is 
the next we hear, as it bustles from its ivied roost ; and 
we note its gratulation to the young-eyed day, when 
twilight almost hides the little minstrel from our sight. 
The sparrow roosts in holes, and under the eaves of the 
rick or shed, where the light does not so soon enter, and 
may call the instincts of animals those unknown faculties implanted 
in their constitutions by the Creator, by which, independent of in- 
struction, observation, or experience, and without a knowledge of the 
end in view’, they are impelled to the performance of certain actions 
tending to the well-being of the individual, and preservation of the 
species.” 
