290 Poachers and Poaching. 



to prevent the honey and pollen from being 

 rendered useless or washed away. 



Birds are admirable weather prophets, and from 

 their number and obtrusiveness have furnished 

 many examples. In his " Paradise of Birds," 

 Mr. Courthope makes one of them say 



" Besides, it is true 



To our wisdom is due 

 The knowledge of Sciences all ; 

 And chiefly those rare 



Metaphysics of air 

 Men ' Meteorology ' call. 



And men, in their words, 



Acknowledge the Birds' 

 Erudition in weather and star; 

 For they say ' Twill be dry, 



The swallow is high,' 

 Or ' Rain, for the chough is afar.'" 



Mr. Ruskin says that he was not aware of this 

 last weather-sign ; nor, he supposes, was the 

 Duke of Hamilton's keeper, who shot the last 

 pair of choughs on Arran in 1863. He trusts 

 that the climate has wept for them, and is cer- 

 tain that the Coniston clouds grow heavier in 

 these his last years. All the birds of the swallow 

 kind fly high at the advent of or during fine 

 w T eather, and low before a storm. These facts 

 are accounted for by another. When the weather 

 is calm the ephemerae upon which swallow r s feed 

 fly high in air, but just over the earth or water 



