Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1885 — Animals as Barometers. [ARTICLE]

Animals as Barometers.

A writer in the Cincinnati JShr/jttirer says: Ido not know of any surer way of predicting the changes in the weather than by observing the habits of the snail. They do not drink, but imbible moisture during a rain and exude it afterward. This animal is never seen abroad except before rain, when you will see it climbing the bark of trees and getting on the leaves. The tree snail, as it is called, two days before a rain will climb up the stems of plants, and if the rain is going to be a hard and long one, then they get on the sheltered side of a leaf, but if a short rain on the outside. Then there are other species that before a rain are yellow; after it,blue. Others indicate rain by holes and protuberances, which before a rain rise as large tubercles. These will begin to show themselves ten days before a rain. At the end of each tubercle is a pore, which opens when the rain comes, to absorb and draw in the moisture. In other snails deep indentations, beginning at the head between the horns, and ending with the jointure of the tail, appear a few days before a storm. Every farmer knows that when swallows fly rain is coming; sailors, when the sea gulls fly toward the land—when the stormy petrel appears, or Mother Carey’s chickens, as they are called, predict foul weather. Take th© ants: have you never noticed the activity they display before a storm —hurry, scurry, rushing hither and yon, as if they were letter carriers making six trip* a day, or expressmen behind time? Dogs grow sleepy and dull, and like to lie before a fire as rain approaches; chickens pick up pebbles, fowls roll in the dust, flies sting and bite more viciously, frogs croak more clamorously, gnats assemble under trees, and horses display restlessness. When you see a swan flying against the wind, spiders crowding on a wall, toads coming out of their holes in unusual numbers of an evening, worms, slugs and snails appearing, robin redbreasts pecking at our windows, pigeons coming to the dovecote earlier than usual, peacocks squalling at night, mice squeaking or geese washing, you can put them down as rain signs. Nearly all animals have some way of telling the weather in advance. It may be that the altered condition of the atmosphere with regard to electricity, which generally accompanies changes of weather, makes them feel disagreeable or pleasant. The fact that the cat licks herself before a storm is urged by some naturalists as proofs of the special influence of electricity. Man is not so sensitive. Yet many people feel listless before a storm, to say nothing of aggravated headaches, toothaches, rheumatic pains, and last, but not least, corns.