THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 41

THE NATURALIST.

Animals Which Foretell the Weather.

Different animals give evidence of approaching weather changes in many different ways. Some become silent and pensive, others noisy and active. The pensive oat gives o'er Her frolics, and pursues her tail no more.

The dog, too, on the approach of rain, grows Bleepy and dull, and likes to lie before a fire. Swine, on the other hand, become exceedingly restless, and give, by their incessant movement and snorting, a reliable prediction that rain is at hand. Dogs and cats, besides growing drowsy as rain approaches, sometimes herald its coming in another manner. When a dog or cat is observed to bite and chew the grass rain must be expected very shortly. Ducks and peacocks, by their apparently causeless quacking and crying, are also considered infallible rain prophets.

Among the very best of animal barometers, however, is the snail. This mollusc usually lives retired during the day in some hole or cranny. At night it comes out and feeds, and imbibes the dewy moisture with which the vegetation is covered dnring its nocturnal rambles. When rain approaches the snail departs from its wonted hiding place, and may be seen climbing walls or the trunka of trees. Then he takes up an exposed position, so that he may catch the full benefit of the refreshing shower. Spiders, which, like mo3t predatory creatures, live solitary or in pairs, may be frequently seen to assemble on a wall or bank before a rain Btorm, although at other times the fact of their meeting would have been provocative of a most fierce encounter. Ants before a storm will hurry and scurry, rushing here and there as if they had much work to do before the rain prevented, them.

Flies and gnats cease their flights in the higher regions of the atmosphere, and descending to the level of the ground are there pursued by the swallows, which before rain may be seen skimming the surface of the meadows in eager pursuit of their insect prey.

Another creature that affords an infallible index of weather changes is the frog. The frog croaks more loudly and incessantly just before rain than at any other time. He has the reputation, too, of changiag the colour of his skin from yellow, which is his normal colour, to a russet red. Another sign of rain noted by many writers is that of the toad leaving his hole in the daytime. Usually the toad remains closely hidden during the day, and only emerges from his hiding place at night. The toad is an insect eater, and seems well aware that just before a rainfall is the time when he can best obtain his prey. Probably the change in the temperature of the higher regions of. the atmosphere which must precede a rainstorm, drives the insects to the surface of the earth, and thus accounts for the vagaries of the swallow and the toad prior to the shower.

Dr Livingstone states that certain Becbuana tribes repose implicit confidence in frogs as barometers. The rain that falls is accompanied by great electrical disturbance and is very sudden and heavy. These frogs, which are nearly 6in long, give the natives timely warniDg of the approach of these thunderstorms, and thus enable them to remove both themselves and their stock to a safe cover.

Crickets, living as it were in a perpetual summer, are peculiarly sensitive to atmospheric changes, and have very aptly been termed the " housewife's barometer." Their increased activity and boldness is regarded as prognostic of rainy weather.

Gilbert White, in his " Natural History of Selborne," says of the tortoise : "If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather glass, for as sure as it walks elate and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestnes3 in a morning, so sure will it rain before night." The flight of birds, too, furnishes us with another natural barometer. When a swan ia observed to fly against the wind, rain will shortly follow. Rooks change the manner of their flight before a rain storm, flying in the most erratic fashion, rather after the manner of the hawk tribe than the staid and sober flight that rooks usually adopt. Pigeons returning to the dove-cote earlier than usual is generally regarded as indicative of an advancing storm.

The rolling of barn-door fowls in the dust is looked upon by farmers as a sure sign of the weather changing.

The benefits conferred upon man by animal barometers are not confined, however, to the mere predicting of rain or thunder storms. The restless movements of animals, both domestic and wild, furnish the Hindoo with abundant warning that the monsoon or periodical wind is about to change, and thus days before the frightful storms that accompany the change take place, he is enabled to make preparations for the safety of himself and his household. Camels, in their journeyings across the desert regions of Northern Africa and Arabia, never fail to warn their drivers of the approach of the fatal sand storms. Their restless, uneasy gait and suspicious sniffing proclaim the approaching danger long before it is apparent to the duller senses of their masters.

Plinius Secundus, in his "Historia Naturalis," says the devastating earthquakes which in his time were so common among the rocky islands of the Augean Sea were alwajs prognosticated by the domestic fowla, as well as by the wild birds that dwelt thereon. Long before the shock came the birds would leave the venue of the impending earthquake and fly seawards until the danger was over. This observation of Pliny, noted no doubt from mere hearsay knowledge, has been corroborated by more recent investigation. At the volcanic cone of Cosequina in Central America an eruption, accompanied by severe earthquake disturbance, commenced on the morning of the 20th January 1833. For days previous the domestic fowls in the neighbourhood weie observed to be very uneasy and to behave in an apparently inexplicable manner. Before the volcanic outburst had made its approach suspected, even by the slightest earthquake shock, the fowls went to roost and continued in that state until the eruption was over.

Before civilisation had made such rapid strides in North America, the hunters of the West always received the first intimation of

a prairie or forest fire from the uneasy condnct of their horses, or the frightened movements of the beasts of the forest.

Thus it will be seen that all animals have developed in them, to a greater or less degree, a sense which warns them of approaching atmospheric disturbance. Thisbarometricsense would appear to be least developed in man, no doubt through his artificial method of life ; while in certain creatures the sense is so subtle and so certain in its prognostication of | weather changes that it fully justifies the application to them of the title of " animal barometers."