Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FO:^ THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: a 



Vol VII.] 



WINTER, 1917. 



[No. 8. 



Birdlife and War's Alarums. 



How far wild birds are affected by shell and 

 shock, and by the presence of aircraft, in 

 their own particular element is still a 

 subject for interesting speculation. In 

 England the birds do not seem greatly 

 concerned by the passing of aeroplanes, 

 though it has been noted from the first that a 

 night invasion excites Pheasants into mid- 

 night crowing, and that by day too they are 

 sensibly perturbed. The small birds ap- 

 parently pay no heed to either sight or sound 

 of the air-monsters. Larger species have 

 been occasionally reported as showing anger 

 and curiosity. One singular instance is 

 cited in the Bulletin of the Ligue Francaise 

 pour la Protection des Oiseaux. M, C. 

 van Kempen narrates how he saw at Saint 

 Omer the Jackdaws quitting their homes 

 in the steeples, throwing themselves on the 

 aeroplanes,, clinging on to them and strildng 

 them with tbcir beaks as if to drive away 

 these enormous unknown birds. 



On the other hand, Captain Shipton, 

 R.A.M.C, writing in the Field (Nov. 17) 

 from Palestine, refers to the indifference 

 of the great swarms of birds on a fresh- 

 water lake, to the planes flown above them. 

 Herons, Redshanks, Bitterns, Spoonbills, 

 Sandpipers, betrayed no concern. A flock 

 of Pelicans alone heeded the aircraft. 

 " They came over rather late, at a good 

 height, in their stately, orderly formation, 

 and a couple of aeroplanes were flying not 

 very far above them. They did not show the 

 slightest alarm, but after circliig round the 

 lake decided to go a little further, and I lost 

 sight of them flying north along the coast." 

 " I have been astonished," adds Captain 

 Shipton, " to find how little bu'ds notice 

 aeroplanes. The lake is flown over many 



times a dayj but it creates no more alarm 

 than a steam engine in the next parish." 



The fact is perhaps not so very surprising. 

 Birds are not commonly afraid of large 

 objects on land or sea, until they learn by 

 bitter experience that such objects are 

 dangerous. It is man the}'- fear, not the 

 elephant ; and a ship is a thing to follow, 

 not to flee from. To suppose that they 

 should recognize the strangeness of any 

 moving thing but themselves sailing in the 

 air, is probably to expect too much of their 

 perceptive, or reasoning, faculties. Also 

 there can hardly exist in their little minds — 

 the minds of creatures equally at home on 

 land or in the air — the same strong line of 

 demarcation between the two elements which 

 has been impressed upon earth-bound man. 

 The species which have been chiefly observed 

 to regard the flight of airships with apparent 

 fear have been those, like pheasant and barn- 

 door poultry, which do little flying and fear 

 the monster, not as a rival in the air, but as 

 a menacing bird-of-prey approaching them. 



From the actual field of war the records 

 are continually of fearlessness or heedless- 

 ness on the part of birds, even amid the 

 thunder of guns and bursting of shells. This, 

 again, is on a par with the indifference 

 shown by many small birds in building in 

 and about railway stations, under railway 

 bridges shaken constantly by the passing of 

 thundering trains, and in and amongst 

 machinery. Whether or not such heavy 

 rumbling and booming noises affect their 

 hearing as they affect man's — which is 

 questionable — they are clearly regarded as 

 non-dangerous. And as non-dangerous they 

 have accepted the hideous uproar of the 

 battlefield. Numerous stories have been 



