THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 73 



stinct of greater individual safety seems tlie dominant factor 

 in such communities. Many species of birds, as well as quad- 

 rupeds, as is well known, have strong- congregating tenden- 

 cies, and it oftimes seems curious to observe that the sudden 

 oncoming of great danger or cause of alarm impels different 

 behavior or strategy at some times from that at others. Some 

 of the more courageous species of birds, as the crows, jays 

 and picadae, unite their numbers for defense and retaliation 

 when assailed by certain kinds of enemies, and especially 

 such is the case when called on to brave dangers that seem a 

 menace to their young; but there are other occasions when 

 the danger is of a paralyzing nature, such as is sometimes ex- 

 perienced in thunderstorms and tornadoes, by quadrupeds as 

 well as birds. On one such occasion, that we were witness 

 of, one of a flock of thirteen or fourteen sheep was struck 

 when grazing in a field by the electric fluid, and the flock was 

 seen instantly to radiate from the danger center, as the spokes 

 do from a hub of a wagon wheel. One of the ovine group 

 was struck between the hips by the lightning, and in a few 

 hours afterwards died from its injuries. The unfortunate 

 animal was about the finest of the flock, and the only black- 

 colored one in the number, with an extraordinary heavy fleece, 

 and the electric current seemed to have passed along the spine, 

 thence to the stomach, and by way of the oesophagus gullet, 

 etc., through the mouth (as the animal was pasturing at the 

 time), into the ground; the digestive fluids passed from the 

 full stomach in a yeasty condition to the mouth, until the 

 speedy death of the unfortunate beast. 



On another similar occasion, being at work in the forest 

 when a violent thunder storm came on, and we were fain to 

 take shelter in a dilapidated log shanty that had been built 

 for the use of wood choppers in years agone, on looking out 

 when the storm gave signs of abatement a vivid flash seemed 

 to strike a large tree not far distant from the shanty, followed 

 instantaneously by the thunder clap, and a flock of about 

 twenty or thirty grackles which had been sheltering near by 

 suddenly dispersed in flight, notwithstanding the rainy down- 



