From The Sky Is Our Song: The “Phaenomena” of Aratus, a third century bc poem, which was published in February by the University of Chicago Press. Translated from the Greek by Stanley Lombardo.

Oxen have always looked up at the sky
and sniffed the air before an oncoming storm,
and ants are quick to transport all the eggs
from their underground nests. Centipedes are seen
to swarm up walls, and forth the worms crawl
to wander about the black earth’s intestines.
And barnyard fowl that are born of the cock
preen themselves well and make low clucking sounds
like the patter of water that drips upon water.
The generations of crows and tribes of jackdaws
have long been a sign of rain from Zeus
when they appear in flocks with hawklike screeching.
And crows will mimic the crystalline splashing
of rain yet to come, or after two deep croaks
will set up a whir with furious wingbeats.
Domestic ducks and roof-nesting jackdaws
head for the eaves and flap their wings,
and the heron’s sharp cry trails off on the waves.
Disregard none of these when on guard against rain.