Animals as Barometers. 75 



had these happy creatures but an inkling of what 

 was coming. 



Were animals in any sense weather-wise, there 

 would be unmistakable evidences of anticipatory 

 preparation ; and it is unquestionable that vast 

 numbers of animals are destroyed by storms 

 which might easily have saved themselves by a 

 little foreknowledge. Thus, the feathers of birds 

 often become so soaked as to render flight im- 

 practicable, and so the birds fall victims to car- 

 nivorous mammals. My attention was called to 

 this fact during the past autumn, when, after a 

 sudden dash of rain, I found a number of warblers 

 that were too wet to fly. Their fluttering did not 

 prevent my catching one, and directly after I saw 

 a redstart in the clutches of a red squirrel. I 

 could not see the captor and captive as plainly as 

 I wished, but still sufficiently distinctly to recog- 

 nize both the mammal and the bird. 



John Burroughs thinks I made a hasty inference 

 in the matter of rain-soaked warblers. He says, 

 " There is no more danger of a well bird being 

 disabled by a storm of rain than there is of a 

 squirrel being disabled. The robin will some- 



