It would be hard to find a better epitome of the “signs” given by birds to the weather-prophet. Similar behavior in sea-gulls is interpreted in the same way: but in most cases high flight is said to denote continuance of fine weather, and in general there is good sense in that view, because, as a rule, bad weather descends upon us from the higher strata of the atmosphere, and birds up there would be the first to feel its approach. Hence the joyous greeting, “Everything is lovely and the goose honks (not ‘hangs’) high.” Sailors have a rhyme—
When men-of-war-hawks fly high, ’tis a sign of clear sky;
When they fly low prepare for a blow.
This point is made in particular in respect to swallows of various kinds, which are regarded in most countries as presaging rain when they all go skimming along close to the ground; but it was pure fancy that expanded this warning into the senseless couplet
When the swallow buildeth low
You can safely reap and sow.
That is, I suppose, the season will then furnish rain enough for a good crop. The same thing is sung of swans. But even the swallows cannot be depended on as indicators, for in late summer and autumn they are more likely to skim along the ground and over ponds than to go anywhere else; and, as showing the uncertainty in men’s minds in this matter, or else how signs change with locality, it may be mentioned that in Argentina swallows are held to indicate coming storms not by low but by elevated flight. Thus the naturalist Hudson[[44]] writes of the musical martin (Progne), familiar about Buenos Ayres: “It is ... the naturalist’s barometer, as whenever, the atmosphere being clear and dry, the progne perches on the weathercock or lightning-rod, on the highest points of the house-top, or on the topmost twig of some lofty tree, chanting its incantation, cloudy weather and rain will surely follow within twenty-four hours.”
None of the host of sayings, of which you may read hundreds in the publications of the United States Weather Service, and in such collections of odd lore as Gleanings for the Curious,[[96]] that pretend to foretell the character of a whole season from what birds do, are worth credence. For example, some declare that “a dry summer will follow when birds build their nests in exposed places,” on the theory, I suppose, that the builders will have no fear of getting wet; and
If birds in the autumn grow tame,
The winter will be cold for game.