ON INSTINCT. 
351 
There is a perfect consistency in the order in which Nature 
seems to have directed the singing birds to fill up the day with 
their pleasing harmony. To an observer of those divine laws 
which harmonize the general order of things, there appears a 
design in the arrangement of the sylvan minstrelsy. 
First the robin, and not the lark, as has been generally ima¬ 
gined, as soon as twilight has drawn the imperceptible line 
between night and day, begins his lonely song. How sweetly 
does this harmonize with the soft dawning of day ! He goes 
on till the twinkling sunbeams begin to tell him his notes no 
longer accord with the rising scene. Up starts the lark; and 
after him a variety of sprightly songsters, whose lively notes are 
in perfect keeping with the gaiety of the morning. This general 
warbling continues, with now and then an interruption by the 
transient croak of the raven, the screaming of the jay and the 
swift, or the pert chattering of the daw. Yet all is perfect,— 
the interruption is of short duration, and without it the long- 
continued warbling of the softer singing birds would pall and 
tire the ear with excess of melody, as the exhilarating beams of 
the sun, were they not at intervals intercepted by clouds, would 
rob the heart of the gaiety they for awhile inspire, and sink it 
into languor. 
At length evening advances, the performers gradually retire, 
and the concert softly dies away. The sun is seen no more. 
The robin again sets up his twilight song, till the still more 
serene hour of night sends him to the bower of rest. And now, 
to close the scene in full and perfect harmony, no sooner is the 
voice of the robin hushed, and night again spreads a gloom over 
the horizon, and the whole feathered choir which during the 
day made the woods and vales re-echo to their cheerful notes, are 
slumbering in^ the recesses of the grove, and 
** The sea-fowl is g’one to her nest. 
And the beast is laid down in his lair,” 
than the owl sends forth his slow discordant screech. 
[To be continued.] 
