Sketches from Nature. 291 



if it be rough. The cry of the chaffinch has 

 already been mentioned ; in Scotland the children 

 say, "Weet-weet [the cry], Dreep-dreep" [the 

 consequence]. 



In Hampshire swans are believed to be hatched 

 in thunderstorms ; and it is said that those on the 

 Thames have an instinctive prescience of floods. 

 Before heavy rains they raise their nests. This 

 is characteristic of many birds, which add piles 

 of material to their nests to prevent swamping. 

 When rooks fly high, and seem to imitate birds 

 of prey by soaring, swooping, and falling, it is 

 an almost certain sign of coming storms. Staying 

 in the vicinity of the rookery, returning at mid- 

 day, or coming to roost in groups, are also said 

 to be omens to the like effect. Various proverbs 

 would seem to indicate that the cry of the owl, 

 heard in bad weather, foretells a change. The 

 constant iteration of the green woodpecker's 

 cry before a storm has given it the name of 

 rain-bird, rain-pie, and rain-fowl. Storm-cock is 

 a provincial name shared by this bird and the 

 missel-thrush, the latter often singing through 

 gales of wind and rain. Storm-bird is also 

 applied to the fieldfare. The abhorrence in 

 which the mariners hold the swallow-like storm- 

 petrel is well known ; its appearance is believed 

 to denote wild weather. This little bird is the 

 Mother Carey's chicken of sailors, and is also 

 called storm-finch and water-witch. Herons, 



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