210 
BIRDS AND INSECTS AS METEOROLOGISTS. 
lE know that authors from the remotest times have often 
I referred to the habits of members of the animal world as 
I unerring indications of coming changes in the weather. 
Aratus, Hesiod, and Virgil are great authorities on this 
subject, if we search amongst classical authors : indeed, Virgil, 
judging from his frequent references to this matter, must have 
been little less than a White of Selborne in his close observations 
of the flights and warning notes of birds, and of the habits of bees 
and other insects. 
There is every indication of what we may term a tele- 
pathic instinct in birds and animals, a kind of fore-knowledge 
of disturbances in their immediate surroundings, a fact which 
is especially noticeable before the occurrence of an earth- 
quake or a thunderstorm, when a sense of indescribable terror 
seizes upon members of the animal world, causing them to 
utter unusual cries and to slink away into places of concealment. 
The reasons for this are probably to be found in the facts that 
sounds which may not reach the human ear are keenly heard by 
animals, and that they too observe changes in the state of the 
atmosphere which are not directly observed by human beings; 
mammals and birds having probably, besides, instinctive indica- 
tions of coming dangers about which we know nothing. 
The following are examples of Hesiod’s remarks on the habits 
of birds, &c., in connection with agricultural operations : — The 
cry of the crane is the signal for ploughing, so that every pre- 
paration should be made beforehand, that the work may be begun 
at once. Before the swallow appears the vines should be pruned. 
When the snail (the “ house carrier ”) leaves the earth and 
mounts the trees the sickles should be sharpened. When, about 
midsummer, the cicala sings in the trees, weary man must look 
for enjoyment, a rock to shelter him, and plenty of food and 
wine, for it will be too hot to work in the fields. 
I think it will be interesting if 1 refer to a few instances bear- 
ing upon the subject as I find them in \hrgil, who, in his works 
on agriculture and allied subjects, often considers the flights 
and warning notes of birds, &c., before he recommends the per- 
formance of certain acts of husbandry, since the success of many 
agricultural operations will depend upon the state of the weather 
directly following them, and who can foretell this so well as birds, 
insects or beasts ? The modern farmer may laugh at Virgil’s 
old world ways, and yet he may observe and note various things 
in nature with a view to his operations which are much on a par 
with the wisdom and forethought of the old Roman poet. How 
often do we hear someone exclaim, “ 1 am not in the least super- 
stitions,” and then again the same person on another occasion 
will solemnly declare that “ he knows some terrible calamity is 
about to happen, because some indescribable feeling tells him so.” 
