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themselves when a rain is pending.  When the stormy petrel shelters itself in the wake of the ship, [[strikethrough]]the[[/strikethrough]] it looks for a coming rain.  When peacocks cry at night it foretels rain.  Nearly every living thing has its prognosis of rain, or a change in the atmosphere.

  If the weather is likely to become rainy or windy, spiders fix their webs accordingly by making the filaments from which they are suspended extremely short.

  In the history of British birds the author says he is indebted to the kindness of Lord Braybrooke for the account of a female swan, on the small stream at Bishop's Strotford.  He says "This swan was 18 or 19 years old, had brought up many broods, and was highly valued by the neighbors.  She exhibited some 8 or 9 years past, one of the most remarkable instances of the power of instinct that was ever recorded.  She was sitting on her eggs, and was observed to be very busy in collecting weeds, and grasses, &c. to raise her nest; a farming man was ordered to unload part of his straw for her use; with this she most industriously raised her nest and eggs two feet and a half high; that very night there came down a tremendous rain, which flooded all the malt shops in the neighborhood and did great damage. Man made no preparation: the bird did.  Instinct prevailed over reason; her eggs were above, and only just above the water."

  We must not pass over the vegetable kingdom without noticing its electrical instincts and weather prognoses. Mr. Gutch of the British Meteorological society says, The [[underscore]] german speedwell [[/underscore]], so universal a parasite in every hedge row, closes its blue corolla before rain comes.  Some [[strikethrough]]flowers[[/strikethrough]] plants give unmistakable evidence of sleep.  The wood sorrel closes its leaves on the approach of night