50 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
In his now doubtless frequent intervals of leisure he 
made botanical and ornithological observations, gathered 
fossils (his general collections and preparations in compar¬ 
ative anatomy would, it is said, have constituted a museum 
of no mean magnitude), and, follower of Apollo as well as of 
HCsculapius, played on the flute and violin, composed son¬ 
nets and sang them at the dinner-table, and wrote occa¬ 
sional poems, of which the best are said to have been two 
addresses to a robin-redbreast, and “Signs of Rain.” The 
connection of a fondness for natural history with that for 
poetry has been often noticed. Virgil, Shakespeare and 
Cowper; Keats, who wrote of the nightingale; Tennyson, 
of the owl, black-bird, eagle, the dying swan and talking 
oak; Moore, of the fire-fly, the shamrock, and the flying-fish; 
Holmes, of the chambered nautilus. I have not time even 
to commence the list. Bryant’s “Ode to a Waterfowl” might 
have been by Audubon himself, had he but possessed the 
sacred fire. Even this Society of our own rejoices in an 
ardent lover of nature, Mr. A. O’D. Taylor, who has most 
worthily sung her praises upon the tuneful lyre. Jenner’s 
“Signs of Rain” gives evidences of such minute accuracy 
of observation that I may perhaps be permitted to quote 
it entire. As a word painting it is delightful. 
SIGNS OF RAIN. 
An excuse for not accepting the invitation of a friend 
to make a country excursion. 
BY DR. EDWARD JENNER. 
The hollow winds begin to blow, 
The clouds look black, the glass is low. 
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep, 
And spiders from their cobwebs creep. 
Last night the sun went pale to bed, 
The moon in halos hid her head, 
The boding shepherd heaves a sigh, 
