§ ii. Prognostics from Animals.

1. Previously to rain and wind, or stormy weather, neat cattle and sheep seem more than usually desirous of feeding in their pastures, and to leave them with reluctance; also swine grunt loudly, and retire to their sties; geese and ducks wash themselves repeatedly and with little intermission, flying anxiously backwards and forwards; swallows fly low, and skim along the surface of the water, twittering with more loudness than usual; and poultry roll much in dust and sand, or gravel.

2. Wet and windy weather is likewise indicated by dogs becoming drowsy and stupid, and exhibiting an evident reluctance for food, except grass (particularly the species denominated dog's-grass, or couchgrass); and by cats losing their vivacity, and remaining within doors.

3. Continued rain is announced by pigeons returning slowly to their cotes; a change from cloudy or unsettled to greater wet, by flies stinging and swarming more than usual; and a sudden variation, accompanied with a storm, by wild ducks, plovers, bustards, and other aquatic birds, withdrawing to the sea-coast, or to the marshes.

4. The contrary circumstances evince the longer or shorter continuance of Ine weather; to which may be added, that bees flying abroad, and labouring with that industry which has become proverbial; crows croaking in the morning; the robin or redbreast singing early from the more elevated branches of trees; and gnats flying in a columnar form, within the rays of the setting sun, are all indications of fine or serene weather.

5. Against rain, earth-worms creep out of the ground, moles cast up more earth than usual, and spiders come abroad.

6. Spiders' webs appearing in the air, or on the grass and trees, and a more than usual appearance of glow-worms at night, are a sure indication of fair and hot weather.

7. If larks soar aloft, and continue to sing for a long time, and kites fly high, we may expect fair and dry weather.

8. If, after long continued dry weather, the sky is thickening and rain approaching, we may frequently observe the cattle stretching their necks, and snuffing in the air with distended nostrils, and often, before srorms, assembled in a corner of the field, with their heads to the leeward.

9. The missile thrush (turdus viscivorus) in Hampshire, called the storm-cock, sings particularly loud and long before rain.

10. The swan. A correspondent in the Athenæum (vol. iii, p. 229) observes, I have for several years lived on the banks of a large river; and having from my boyish days heard it observed by people living in the neighbourhood, that rough weather was near at hand, as the swans were flying, I have for the last five years made it a practice to watch the movements of this beautiful bird. I have invariably found by observation, that when the swan flies any distance against the wind, however serene and fine the weather may appear at the time, so certainly will a wind, amounting almost to a hurricane, ensue within twentyfour hours after the animal has taken wing, and, generally, within twelve. I have frequently, after seeing the bird take a flight, told my acquaintance that a storm was near at hand, who have laughed at my suspicion, as there was not the slightest indication of a change observable; and afterwards, when the result has fulfilled my prediction, they have asked me by what sign I formed my prognostic.'

11. In men, frequently, aches, wounds, and corns, those keen and sensible announcers of every change in the weather, are more troublesome towards rain or frost.

12. Virgil, in his first Georgic, has beautifully described the sensibility of the brute creation to the various changes in the weather— Kk

Wet weather seldom hurts the most unwise;
So plain the signs, such prophets are the skies:
The wary crane foresees it first, and sails
Above the storm, and leaves the hollow vales:
The cow looks up, and from afar can find
The change of heav'n, and snuffs it in the wind.
The swallow skims the river's wat❜ry face,
The frogs renew the croaks of their loquacious race,
The careful ant her secret cell forsakes,
And drags her eggs along the narrow tracks.
Huge flocks of rising rooks forsake their food,
And, crying, seek the shelter of the wood.
Besides, the sev'ral sorts of wat'ry fowls,
That swim the seas or haunt the standing pools,
Then lave their backs with sprinkling dews in vain,
And stem the stream to meet the promised rain.
The crow with clam'rous cries the show'r demands,
And single stalks along the desart sands.

Then, after show'rs, 'tis easy to descry
Returning suns, and a serener sky.

Their litter is not tossed by sows unclean.

And owls, that mark the setting sun, declare
A starlight evening, and a morning fair.

Then, thrice the ravens rend the liquid air,
And croaking notes proclaim the settled fair:
Then round their airy palaces they fly
To greet the sun; and, seized with secret joy
When storms are over-blown, with food repair
To their forsaken nests and callow care.

DRYDEN.

1

§. iii. Prognostics from Vegetables. 1. The flowers of many vegetables expand their leaves as if to welcome the fair weather, and shut them to guard the tender fruit from the impending storms. This is remarkably apparent in the flowers of pimpernel (burnet), which have been called, for that reason, the countryman's weather-glass; in the down of dandelion and other downs; and in the contraction of the stalks of trefoil against rain.

2. When the flower of chickweed is fully open, fair weather may be expected: the convolvulus, and a species of wood-sorrel, shut up their leaves at the approach of rain.

3. Besides foretelling, changes in the weather, many plants close and open their petals at certain hours of the day.

Linnæus has enumerated forty-six flowers which possess this kind of sensibility; he divides them into three classes. (1) Meteoric flowers, which less accurately observe the hour of folding, but are expanded sooner or later according to the cloudiness, moisture, or pressure of the atmosphere. (2) Tropical flowers, that open in the morning and close before evening every day; but the hour of expanding becomes earlier or later as the length of the day increases or decreases. (3) Equinoctial flowers, which open at a certain and exact hour of the day, and for the most part close at another determinate hour.-(Darwin). The most common of these, in our own country, are thus prettily enumerated by Mrs. Charlotte Smith:In ev'ry copse and sheltered dell, Unveiled to the observant eye, Are faithful monitors, who tell... How pass the hours and seasons by.. The green-robed children of the spring Will mark the periods as they pass, Mingle with leaves time's feathered wing, And bind with flowers his silent glass. Mark where transparent waters glide, Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed; There, cradled on the dimpling tide, Nymphea rests her lovely head. But conscious of the earliest beam, She rises from her humid nest And sees reflected in the stream ...The virgin whiteness of her breast. Till the bright daystar to the west Declines in Ocean's surge to lave, Then, folded in her modest vest, She slumbers on the rocking wave. See Hieracium's various tribe,

C

t

Of plumy seed and radiate flowers,
The course of Time their blooms describe,
And wake or sleep appointed hours.
Broad o'er its imbricated cup

The Goatsbeard spreads its golden rays,

But shuts its cautious petals up,
Retreating from the noontide blaze.
Pale as a pensive cloistered nun
The Bethlem-star her face unveils,
When o'er the mountain peers the Sun,
And shades it from the vesper gales.
Among the loose and arid sands
The humble Arenaria creeps;
Slowly the purple star expands,
But soou within its calyx sleeps.
And those small bells so lightly rayed
With young Aurora's rosy hue,
Are to the noontide Sun displayed,
But shut their plaits against the dew.
On upland slopes the shepherds mark
The hour, when, as the dial true,
Cichorium to the towering lark

Lifts her soft eyes, serenely blue.
And thou, Wee crimson-tipped flower,'
Gatherest thy fringed mantle round
Thy bosom, at the closing hour,

When nightdrops bathe the turfy ground;
Unlike Silene, who declines

The garish noontide's blazing light;
But, when the evening crescent shines,
Gives all her sweetness to the night.
Thus in each flower and simple bell,
That in our path untrodden lie,
Are sweet remembrancers, who tell
How fast their winged moments fly.

§ iv. Prognostics from Philosophical Instruments.

1.-The Barometer.

The barometer is an instrument to measure the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, and is so well known, that it is unnecessary here minutely to describe it. Suffice it to say, that the mercury in the glass tube is supported by the pressure of the air upon the mercury in the bason, in which the lower and open end of the tube is immersed; and the space in the tube above the mercury is a vacuum. When therefore the pressure of the air is increased, the mercury must rise in the tube; and when the pres