J. O.
FOLK LORE.
Gabriel Hounds.—Seeing that Mr. Yarrell, the distinguished ornithologist, is a contributor to "N. & Q.," may I ask that gentleman, or any other correspondent, what is the species of bird whose peculiar yelping cry during its nocturnal migrations, has given rise to the superstition of the "Gabriel Hounds," so common in some rural districts?
D.
Weather Prophecy.—Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the truth or falsehood of a proverb I have heard, namely, that the dryness or wetness of a summer may be prognosticated by observing whether the oak or the ash tree comes first into leaf? I cannot recollect which denoted which; but I should much like to know whether there is such a proverb, and whether there is any truth in it.
G. E. G.
Oxford.
Origin of Moles.—Meeting with an octogenarian molecatcher a few weeks since, in the neighbourhood of Bridgwater, the old man volunteered the following account of the origin of moles, or wants as they are sometimes called in Somerset. "It was a proud woman, sir, too proud to live on the face of the earth, and so God turned her into a mole, and made her live under the earth; and that was the first mole." My informant was evidently much confirmed in his belief, by the fact of "moles having (as he said) hands and feet like Christians."
W. A. J.