When Mr. Loudon was at Schwetzingen, Rhenish Bavaria, in 1829, he
witnessed in the post-house there for the first time what he afterwards
frequently saw--an amusing application of zoological knowledge for the
purpose of prognosticating the weather. Two tree-frogs were kept in
a crystal jar about eighteen inches high and six inches in diameter,
with a depth of three or four inches of water at the bottom, and a
small ladder reaching to the top of the jar. On the approach of dry
weather the frogs mounted the ladder, but when moisture was expected
they descended into the water. These animals are of a bright green, and
in their wild state climb the trees in search of insects, and make a
peculiar singing noise before rain. In the jar they got no other food
than now and then a fly; one of which, Mr. Loudon was assured, would
serve a frog for a week, though it would eat from six to twelve flies in
a day if it could get them. In catching the flies put alive into the jar
the frogs displayed great adroitness.
Snails are extraordinary indicators of changes in the weather.
Several years ago, Mr. Thomas, of Cincinnati, known as an accredited
observer of natural phenomena, published some interesting accounts
of Weather-wise Snails. They do not drink (he observes), but imbibe
moisture in their bodies during rain, and exude it at regular periods
afterwards. Then a certain snail first exudes the pure liquid; when
this is exhausted, a light red succeeds, then a deep red, next yellow,
and lastly a dark brown. The snail is very careful not to exude more
of its moisture than is necessary. It is never seen abroad _except
before rain_, when we find it ascending the bark of trees and getting
on the leaves. The tree-snail is also seen ascending the stems of
plants _two days before rain_: if it be a long and hard rain they get
on the sheltered side of the leaf, but if a short rain the outside
of the leaf. Another snail has the same habits, but differs only in
colour: before rain it is yellow, and after it blue. Others show signs
of rain, not only by means of exuding fluids, but by means of pores and
protuberances; and the bodies of some snails have large tubercles rising
from them _before rain_. These tubercles commence showing themselves
ten days previous to the fall of rain they indicate; at the end of each
of these tubercles is a pore; and at the time of the fall of rain these
tubercles, with their pores opened, are stretched to their utmost to
receive the water. In another kind of snail, a few days before rain
appears a large and deep indentation, beginning at the head between
the horns, and ending with the jointure at the shells. Other snails,
a few days before the rain, crawl to the most exposed hill-side,
where, if they arrive before the rain descends, they seek some crevice
in the rocks, and then close the aperture of the shell with glutinous
substance; this, when the rain approaches, they dissolve, and are then
seen crawling about.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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