he wind all have noticed. It is not uncommon
to hear the expression, "The wind sounds like rain." Jenner says:

"The _hollow_ winds begin to blow."

And Virgil:

"The _whispering_ grove
Betrays the gathering elemental strife."

This whispering is the motion of the leaves; and they are often stirred by
a peculiar motion which is not that of wind. Sometimes every leaf upon a
tree may be seen _vibrating_ with an _upward and downward_ motion, when
there is not wind enough to stir a twig. This interesting phenomenon is
electrical. Trees, and all vegetables, confessedly discharge electricity,
and such discharges move the leaves, when very active.

With us, sounds can be heard more distinctly from the east or south,
before storms, according to the character of the coming wind. Howard
mentions an instance when he heard carriages five miles off. Steamboat
paddles, rail-road cars, and other sounds, are often heard a great
distance. The distance at which the now common steam-whistle is heard, and
the direction, is not an unimportant auxiliary indication of the weather.
Howard attributes these peculiar phenomena to the "_sounding board_," made
by the _stratum of cloud_; but sounds may be heard from the north-west,
when there is no condensation, and the wind is from that quarter, and also
from the east when it is not cloudy; and in a level country the village
bells often tell the direction of the current of air just over our heads
when we do not feel it at the surface. The wind is undoubtedly moving in a
rapid, and perhaps invisible current, not far above us. If from the east
or south, it betokens rain; if from the western quarter, fair weather.

The conduct of the different animals furnish a considerable portion of the
signs alluded to by Virgil and Jenner, and are never unimportant auxiliary
evidence of the approaching changes, whether from dry to wet, or wet to
dry.

The observer will find, in the conduct of our birds and animals,
especially those which are not domestic, ample evidence of the truth of
the descriptions of Virgil. He denies the animals and birds foresight, but
he does not seem to have observed that the swallow leaves for the south as
soon as the _autumnal_ change begins to be felt, and in August; nor the
evident sagacity of other _migratory_ birds. They do not act from the
"_varying impulse_" produced by an actual state of things, but a knowledge
or apprehension of those which are to come. This is noth