ransferred from
the living to the dead. The objection to whistling is also explainable
by the time-honoured practice of 'whistling for a wind,' for an
injudicious whistler might easily bring down a blow from the wrong
quarter.

There are some animals and birds which have a peculiar significance at
sea. The cat, for instance, is generally disliked, and many sailors will
not have one on board at any price. If there is one which becomes
unusually frisky, they will say the cat has got a gale of wind in her
tail. On one part of the Yorkshire coast, it is said, sailors' wives
were in the habit of keeping black cats to insure the safety of their
husbands at sea, until black cats became so scarce and dear that few
could afford to buy one. Although Jack does not like a cat in the ship,
he will not throw one overboard, for that would bring on a storm.

Miss L. A. Smith, in her book about the Music of the Waters, states that
a dead hare on a ship is considered a sign of an approaching hurricane;
and Cornish fishermen declare that a white hare seen about the quays at
night indicates that there will be rough weather.

The pig is an object of aversion to Japanese seamen, and also to Filey
fishermen, who will not go to sea if they meet one in the early morning.
But, indeed, the pig seems to be generally disliked by all
seafarers--except in the form of salt pork and bacon.

Rats, however, are not objected to; indeed, it would be useless to
object, for they overrun all ships. And rats are supposed to leave a
vessel only when it is going to sink. A Welsh skipper, however, once
cleared his ship of them without the risk of a watery grave, by drawing
her up to a cheese-laden ship in harbour. He quietly moored alongside,
and, having left the hatches open all night, cast off with a chuckle in
the morning, leaving a liberal legacy to his neighbour.

The stormy petrel is supposed to herald bad weather, and the great auk
to tell that land is very near. This is true enough as regards the auk,
which never ventures beyond soundings; but one doubts the truth of the
popular belief that when the sea-gulls hover near the shore, a storm is
at hand. The Scotch rhyme runs:

'Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand;
It's never good weather when you're on the land!'

Mr. Thiselton-Dyer quotes from Sinclair's Statistical Account of
Scotland, in confirmation of this belief, that in the county of Forfar,
'when they appear in the fields, a storm from th