The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-02-18

HliIe! ne said 1n eftecr. He always
 knows what weather is coming, for when rain will fall he turns his tail to , the wind, and when the day will be
 fine he grazes with his head to the
 wind. And so know what the weath- CT will be-"
 l Another sign of coming rain or strong wind is evident when herd of
 cows gather together at one end of a
 pasture, with their tails to windward.
 Again, when COWS are unusually frisky-so that even sedate old grand
 mother cows caper about the field and
 butt imaginary objects with their
 horns, whilst they fling up their heels often storms are in the air. Cows
 are sometimes thus playful in the witching hours of twilight-to the ter | TOT of nervous ladies who must cross their pastures!
 l But when, in twilight, cows follow
 one along field path unpleasantly closely, and gambol unple2santly
 around one, fear of storm need not
 necessarily add terror to the situation.
 For cows are very inquisitive. and in the light of twilight like to make care
 ful investigation of strangers, without
 meaning any offense. Cows show
 sogn of heat and it's accompaniment, annoying insects, when they thus col lect together, rubbing themselves against each other-and one might
 read in this sign of fair weather ahead.
 Shepherds generally agree that sheep foretelI the approach of storm by showing an unusual liveliness. They frisk and gambol, as though de- termined to make the most of the fine.
 weather while it lasts, butt each other and go through surprising leaping evo- lutions, playing the lambs great game of follow-my-leader, and jump-when- my-leader-jumps, whether there is anything to jump over or not. Anoth- CT sign of storm is when pigs cry and run uneasily and carry their litter ip their mouths. Si+
 Coming to wilder, freer animals, there is no difficulty in supposing that they are highly sensitive to the changes in the weather. Delicate hu-
 man bodies respond to atmospheric changes, and aches and nervousness
 may be laid to the charge of that de creasing atmosphere pressure that pre- | cedes storm. So are animals restless when the barometer falls. And wild
 animals, of course, are far more sens- tive to weather influences than is man, the house-dweller. ..-
 Weather means so much to animals
 and birds. To the lions and tigers, a storm might mean the loss of meal; to birds, it might mean washed out;
 ruined nests, if they were absent when the storm broke. To insects a storm of a few minutes duration might
 mean a sudden ending of their little lives, So nature gives warning to her
 creatures, through some unknown
 sense, so that the lion may eat more
 heartily before the storm that may rob him of food, so that the birds may sit
 securely on their nests when the sud- den floods descend, and so that the wise bees may stay at home, and the dragon. flies may save their delicate wings from destruction.
 But so far as one can observe, no an- imals forecast the weather more than 8 few hours ahead. Their actions are governed by present conditions. When wheat-ears fly to shelter before the storm, it is because the sky has be- come covered with clouds, and clouds indicate storms, as every wise bird knows and wheat-ears are particularly nervous about rain. If squirrels store their nuts early in the autumn, they do so because the cold has set in early, not because they can foretell that the winter will be long and hard, as folk lore would have us believe.
 About birds as weather prophets, the Americans have many beliefs. Eve rything is lovely, and the goose honks high" This is an expressive saying, implying that the geese are flying high because the weather is fine; and the fact that the birds fly high may be taken as one of the surest of all signs made by birds that the weather will be fine. In North Carolina the birds fly south from cold weather and north from warm weather and when a se- were cyclone is at hand, they are pug zled, fly in circles, dart about wildly, and may be easily decoyed. Change of 1 weather is indicated when geese fly past large bodies of water, not paus- ing for refreshment. American Indi- ans predict a deep fall of snow when grouse drum at night.
 The cuckoo is looked upon as true herald of spring, and, naturally enough, herald he is, because he comes in April. Another joyous token of the end of winter is found in the wild notes of the missel thrush, when they ring out like a trumpet call from the sWaying treetop. The screeching of the missel thrush be fore and dur ing storms has given him the name of storm cock, for he loves to brave the gale. A still better token of spring is the laughing call of the green wood l becker. Even though snow is on the ground, we may be sure that winters reign is ended when the yikeing laugh of the woodpecker rings out. An odd assortment of ideas connecting birds and the weather has been collected by the United States Weather Bureau. Many of the ideas have sound sense in them, or doubtless such a scientific body would not have troubled to re- cord them.
 At sea, when porpoises, dolphins or grampus sport about 8 ship, chase one another in play, and are numerous on