A sign of coming rain or strong wind is evident when a herd of cows
gather together at one end of a pasture, with their tails to windward.
Again, when cows are unusually frisky—so that sedate old grandmother
cows caper about the field and butt imaginary objects with their horns,
while they fling up their heels—often storms are in the air.
Cows are sometimes thus playful in the witching hours of twilight, to
the terror of nervous ladies who must cross their pastures.
But when in twilight cows follow one another along a field path
unpleasantly close and gambol unpleasantly around one, fear of a storm
need not necessarily add terror to the situation. For cows are very
inquisitive, and in the dusk of twilight like to make careful
investigation of strangers, without meaning any offense.
Cows show a sign of heat and its accompaniment, annoying insects, when
they thus collect together, rubbing themselves against each other, and
one might read in this a sign of fair weather ahead.