ANIMALS IN ECLIPSES.
A good many strange examples are extant of the behaviour of animals during an eclipse of the sun, and it will be worth the while of observers to take special notes next week. Birds are astonishingly sensitive to light. If its house is darkened. the domestic hen so hurries to her perch that she is apt to bump into her neighbours, and cause no little disturbance. This is a cause of such confusion in some intensive houses that when the electric light is turned off a certain number of so-called " moonlight burners " are left in order that the scurry to the perch may be less uncomfortably pronounced. But evidence is wanted on the point whether the eclipse affects animals for other reasons than the mere absence or eeriness of the light. They are said to show fears peculiar to the occasion and to behave oddly. The same sort of stories is told of many animals on the eve of an earthquake.
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