214 Vrcfcnjalhii -ivhich Anhnah have 



<leed appears {Irange to explain the fame phenomenon from 

 two perfe6llv oppofite caufes, a want and an excefs of elc6lri- 

 city ; but we know cafes of the like kind in medicine, fuch, for 

 example, as that where the cramp and fleep produces atonia. 

 People who have wounds or old ulcers feel, on a change of 

 weatlier, a contraftion and burning in thofc parts; and why 

 fliould not fuch aflcftions take place in animals ? 



All thefe grounds taken together will be fufficient, in my 

 opinion, to explain why horfes and afles rub thcmfclves, 

 ihake thL-ir heads, and fnuff the air by turning up their noics; 

 why affes bray much, and jump about; why cattle fcnipe up 

 the earth, and ftanip with their feet; and why fwine, though 

 not hungry, eat greedily and dig up the earth a ^rcat deal 

 with their fnouts. The reillefrners, running about, Icraping 

 with the feet, and eating o-rafs, amono; door-; • and moles 

 continually throwing np the earth, can all be deduced from 

 the fame; as well as the cals dreQing ilieinlclvcs. 



I have remarked that cocks crow on every change of 

 weather, bcfides at the ufual time. They as well a? pigeons 

 haften to their places of (heUer in order to be fecurcd againft 

 the rain, the approach of which thev mufi: be fenfible of, by 

 the continuallv increaling weight of the atmofphere. 



The caufeot fowls, pigeons, ']uai!s, and other birds, wa{h- 

 ing themfelves, appears to me to be a certain heat or itching, 

 which they wifh by thefe means to remove. 



Swallows, in all probability, take a low flight on the ap- 

 proach of rainy weather, becaufe the clecfric atmofphere is 

 too heavy for them, and becaufe they have not fuflicient 

 ftrength to n)ount above it. But cranes, as being flronger 

 birds, employ all their ftrength to rife above it, and therefore 

 fly fo high. 



I have remarked in ravens, that their croaking, unlets 

 ■when they faiell carrion, proceeds from fear. They obferve 

 perhaps, by the atmofphere (till becoming heavier, that a 

 'llorm highly difagreeable to them will foon take place, and 

 therefore they croak, ai;d attach themfelves to trees; and when 

 they are ftartleu by any thing uncommon, they take a high 

 flight, makinii; a lond erv. They eafily difcover their perle- 

 cntors among men, and always cry with a loud noifc as long 

 as they think they are purfned by them. 



That jackdaws, on the" approach of rainy weather, flap their 

 wings, and pick their feathers with their bills, may be ex- 

 plained partly by an nnpleafant fcnfation before rain, and 

 partly from the Ihite of the atmofphere. 



To the before-mentioned itching or burning fcnfation I 

 refer alfo the bathing and plunging of water-fosvl. That the 



birds 



