hey had been well
fed.--_Redi, Generat. Insect._

Spiders are excellent barometers: if the ends of their webs are found
branching out to any length, it is a sure sign of favourable weather:
if, on the contrary, they are found short, and the spider does not
attend to repairing it properly, bad weather may be expected.--_Times._

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SWARMING OF BEES.

The ingenious President of the Horticultural Society, Mr. T.A. Knight,
has been led from repeated observation to infer, that, in the swarming
of bees, not a single labourer emigrates without previously inspecting
its proposed future habitation, as well as the temporary stations of
rest where their numbers collect soon after swarming.--_Philosophical
Magazine._

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THE CHAMELEON'S ANTIPATHY TO BLACK.

Whatever may be the cause, the fact seems to be certain, that the
chameleon has an antipathy to things of a black colour. One, which
Forbes kept, uniformly avoided a black board which was hung up in the
chamber; and, what is most remarkable, when it was forcibly brought
before the black board, it trembled violently, and assumed a black
colour.--_Oriental Mem_.

* * * * *

RULES FOR THE WEATHER.

A wet summer is always followed by a frosty winter; but it happens
occasionally that the cold extends no farther. Two remarkable instances
of this occurred in 1807-8 and 1813-14. With these exceptions, every
frosty winter has been followed by a cold summer.

The true cause of cold, or rather the direct cause, is to be found in
the winter excess of west wind, every winter with excess of west wind
being followed by a cold summer; and if there is no cold before, or
during a first excess, then a second excess of west wind in winter
occasions a still colder summer than the first. It also appears, by
repeated experience, that cold does not extend to more than two years at
a time.

Again, if the winter excess of east wind be great, in the first
instance, the winters will be mild, and followed by mild summers; while
the summer excess of east wind is itself, in the first instance, always
mild; but uniformly followed by cold winters and cold summers, which
continue, more or less, for one or two years, according to
circumstances.--_Mackenzie, Syst. of the Weather_.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

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