124 plikt's natueal nisTuiiy. [Book XVIII. 



dications of stormy weatlier : the same, too, when frogs^" croak 

 more than usual, or coots'^ make a chattering in the morning. 

 Divers, too, and ducks, when they clean their feathers with 

 the bill, announce high winds ; which is the case also when the 

 aquatic birds* unite in flocks, cranes make for the interior, and 

 divers^^ and sea-mews forsake the sea or the creeks. Cranes 

 when they &j aloft in silence announce fine weather, and sc 

 does the owlet,^® when it screeches during a shower ; but if it 

 is heard in fine weather, it presages a storm. Ravens, too, 

 when they croak with a sort of gurgling noise and shake theii 

 feathers, give warning of the approach of wind, if theii 

 note is continuous : but if, on the other hand, it is smothered, 

 and only heard at broken intervals, we may expect rain, ac- 

 companied with high winds. Jackdaws, when they returr 

 late from feeding, give notice of stormy weather, and the samt 

 with the white birds, ^'^ when they unite in flocks, and the 

 land birds, when they descend with cries to the water anc 

 besprinkle themselves, the crow more particularly. The 

 swallow, ^^ too, when it skims along the surface of the water 

 so near as to ripple it every now and then wdth its wings, anc 

 the birds that dwell in the trees, when they hide themselves 

 in their nests, afford similar indications ; geese, too, wher 

 they set up a continuous gabbling, ^^ at an unusual time, anc 

 the heron,"^" when it stands moping in the middle of the sands | 



CHAP. 88. niOGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM QUADRUPEDS. 



!N'or, indeed, is it surprising that the aquatic birds, or an) 

 birds, in fact, should have a perception of the impending 



13 Virgil says the same, Georo-. i. 378. 



^* " Fulicae." See B. x. c. 61, and B. xi. c. 44. 



15 Virgil says the same of the diver, or didapper,Georg. i. 361 ; and Lucau 

 Pharsalia, v. 553. 



>^ Both Theophrastus and JElian mention this. 



'7 It is not known what bird is here alluded to, but Fee is probabl; 

 right in suggesting a sort of sea-mew, or gull. 



^•^ This is still considered a prognostic of rain. Fee says that the swal 

 low descends thus near to the surface to catch the insect's on the wng 

 Avhich are now disabled from rising by the hygrometric state of the atmo 

 Bphere. 



^' Tills is confirmed by experience. 



20 On the contrary, Lucan says (Pharsalia, B. v. 1. 549), that on the ap 

 proaoh of rain, the heron soars in the upper regions of the air ; and Virg 

 says the same, Georg. i. 364. 



