124 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Hook XVIII. 



dications of stormy weather: the same, too, when frogs 12 croak 

 more than usual, or coots 14 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 15 and sea-mews forsake the sea or the creeks. Cranes 

 when they fly aloft in silence announce fine weather, arid so 

 does the owlet, 16 when it screeches during a shower ; but it' it 

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

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

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

 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 return 

 late from feeding, give notice of stormy weather, arid the same 

 with the white birds, 17 when they unite in flocks, and the 

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

 besprinkle themselves, the crow more particularly. The 

 swallow, 18 too, when it skims along the surface of the water, 

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

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

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

 they set up a continuous gabbling, 19 at an unusual time, and 

 the heron, 20 when it stands moping in the middle of the sands. 



CHAP. 88. PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM QUADRUPEDS. 



Nor, indeed, is it surprising that the aquatic birds, or any 

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



is Yfrgil s a y 8 the same, Georg. i. 378. 



14 " Fulicse." See B. x. c. 61, and B. xi. c. 44. 



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

 Pharsalia, v. 553. 9 



16 Both Theophrastus and JElian mention this. 



17 It is not known what bird is here alluded to, but Fee is probably 

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



lb This is still considered a prognostic of rain. Fee says that the swal- 

 low descends thus near to the surface to catch the insects on the wing, 

 which are aow disabled from rising by the hygrometric state of the atmo- 

 sphere. 



19 This is confirmed by experience. 



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

 proach of rain, the heron soars m the upper regions of the air ; and Virgil 

 says the same, Georg. i. 364. 



