ANIMALS AND THE WEATHER

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 13

ANIMALS AND THE WEATHER

The elaborate apparatus at the command of the modern meteorologist ensures a fairly reliable forecast of tlie atmospheric conditions lor some twenty-four hours in advance. .Tlie weather bureau, is, however, a comparatively recent innovation, and at sea and in rural districts many still attach some importance to the signs and portents of the members of the animal world. In olden times man relied almost entirely upon the movements of animals to foretell the weather, and in this respect many creatures, though frequently proving themselves very false prophets indeed, have gained considerable reputations. Birds from tlie very earliest tames have been regarded as weather wise. The swallow, originally associated with all kinds of gods and goddesses, is still regarded ns a herald of spring in-nor-thern climes. Frequently, however, the bird ushers in but a sorry travesty, its arrival really implying that in. his winter quarters in Northern Africa the food supply is becoming less abundant. Similarly the bird’s (light when persistently close to the water is regarded as a forecast of approaching rain, and til is again is to be explained by an economic factor, a wet and heavy atmosphere causing the insect food to fly low. The swallow, it must lie confessed, is but a poor weather prophet, lor, whilst setting forth from this country confident of a fair passage, it is frequently caught and killed by sudden tempests and oven snowfalls. Some years ago thousands of swallows were thus caught on the French side of the Simplon tunnel, and were saved by tlie humane railway authorities, who loaded them into a goods train and released them in tiic sunshine of Italy at the lar end of the tunnel. Ducks often become extremely restless just before a thunderstorm. Their skulls arc very thin, and they arc consequently extremely sensitive to sudden changes in the atmosphere. Hence a “ dying dnek in a thunderstorm ” is a phenomenon by no means rare. . . . In the Regent’s Park menagerie the wolves have earned a reputation for being able to forecast lain, their method of signifying a break in the weather taking the form of a prolonged chorus of discordant howls, repeated at frequent intervals for a day before the change takes place. Their predictions are almost invariably correct, and tlie Zoo’s head gardener can always rely on a period ot wet weather when he hears this frenzied pandemonium. The inhabitants of certain parts of Hampstead regard the sea lions as wea-ther-wise, having learned that when they can hear them barking rain, is indicated. 'file harking, however, merely denotes a healthy appetite, and a reference to the Zoo’s topographical position will explain tlie phenomenon—the sea lions being only heard, when the wind changes to the south-west!