Animals as Barometers. 73 



shower, to see how painfully destructive are mod- 

 erate wind and rain when they rush across the 

 country hand-in-hand. There is no more touch- 

 ing sight in all nature than the lowly-murmured 

 plaint of nesting-birds as they contemplate, after a 

 shower, their ruined home and drowned fledg- 

 lings. It is not a common occurrence, it is true, 

 but frequent enough to make it an open question 

 whether or not diabolism, in this world, has the 

 upper hand. To credit a bird with weather- 

 wisdom, and yet with no power to guard against 

 probable danger, is to assume that it leads the ter- 

 rible life of one in constant fear, — a mental condi- 

 tion the bird's daily life flatly contradicts. I lay 

 stress upon birds rather than mammals, because 

 of the two classes of animals the former are much 

 more at the mercy of storms or even vicissitudes 

 of temperature. Of the two, wet feathers are 

 likely to lead to more serious consequences than 

 wet fur. Again, of the two groups, mammals and 

 birds, that have been exposed to persecution by 

 man for centuries, the birds have acquired greater 

 cunning, and we naturally look to them for the 

 more marked evidences of intelligence; and, 

 D 7 



