al grounds, but the majority are the creation of the
imagination, strengthened possibly in certain instances by remarkable
coincidences which were remembered, whilst if no death occurred after any
of the omens, the failure was forgotten.

BIRDS AND BEASTS.

Folk-lore respecting animals is common in Wales. It has been supposed
that mountainous countries are the cradles of superstitions. But this
is, at least, open to a doubt; for most places perpetuate these strange
fancies, and many of them have reached our days from times of old, and
the exact country whence they came is uncertain. Still, it cannot be
denied that rugged, rocky, sparsely inhabited uplands, moorlands, and
fens, are congenial abodes for wild fancies, that have their foundation
in ignorance, and are perpetuated by the credulity of an imaginative
people that lead isolated and solitary lives.

The bleating of the sheep, as they wander over a large expanse of barren
mountain land, is dismal indeed, and well might become ominous of storms
and disasters. The big fat sheep, which are penned in the lowlands of
England, with a tinkling bell strapped to the neck of the king of the
flock, convey a notion of peace and plenty to the mind of the spectator,
that the shy active mountain sheep, with their angry grunt and stamping
of their feet never convey. Still, these latter are endowed with an
instinct which the English mutton-producer does not exercise. Welsh
sheep become infallible prognosticators of a change of weather; for, by a
never failing instinct, they leave the high and bare mountain ridges for
sheltered nooks, and crowd together when they detect the approach of a
storm. Man does not observe atmospheric changes as quickly as sheep do,
and as sheep evidently possess one instinct which is strongly developed
and exercised, it is not unreasonable to suppose that man in a low state
of civilisation might credit animals with possessing powers which, if
observed, indicate or foretell other events beside storms.

Thus the lowly piping of the solitary curlew, the saucy burr of the
grouse, the screech of the owl, the croaking of the raven, the flight of
the magpie, the slowly flying heron, the noisy cock, the hungry seagull,
the shrill note of the woodpecker, the sportive duck, all become omens.

Bird omens have descended to us from remote antiquity. Rome is credited
with having received its pseudo-science of omens from Etruria, but whence
came it th