Animals as Barometers. 79 



of by-gone years who attributed weather-wisdom 

 to animals that possibly the peculiar act of a 

 mammal or bird, or insect even, and the quickly- 

 following change of weather were mere coinci- 

 dences ; and this is what they are in almost every 

 instance. It matters little what "saying" you 

 select, it needs but a six weeks' drought to demon- 

 strate that rain does not follow any particular 

 action of an animal ; and, strangely enough, there 

 appear to be no " sayings" referring to these pro- 

 tracted spells of rainless weather. It is a logical in- 

 ference, were weather-wisdom reliable, that animal 

 life during a drought should be peculiarly monot- 

 onous and undemonstrative, but this is not true. 



A drought, however, will cause a change of 

 base, and this is a matter the out-door naturalist 

 should never overlook ; for the habits of an ani- 

 mal will not remain essentially the one thing 

 wherever they are. Birds generally love the 

 water. The chicken that delights in a dust-bath 

 walks with evident satisfaction to the pool that it 

 may drink, and in times of a drought the upland 

 fields will be practically deserted and the low 

 meadows overcrowded. At such places, and at 



