Bird Notes and News 



79 



that the vicinity of a balloon or an aeroplane 

 threw the birds into great alarm and sent 

 the chicks running to their mothers. The 

 presumption in this case is that the instinc- 

 tive fear of Hawks and other raptorial birds 

 survives even among barn-door fowls, and 

 that the air-machine is to them a gigantic 

 Hawk. * * * 



Following on these stories came an 

 anecdote narrated by a bluejacket, who tells 

 how a flock of Gulls following his warship in 

 the North Sea for the usual supply of food, 

 gave the alarm of a submarine's presence by 

 circling round about its periscope when no 

 one on the ship had detected it. "I assure 

 you," says the A.B., " had it not been for 

 the Sea-Gulls, we should have been in Davy 

 Jones's locker." " One may indulge the 

 fancy," comments the Spectator, " that the 

 seamen accepted the warning as a reward for 

 having fed the Gulls. Apart from the 

 scraps which continually go overboard and 

 cause the Gulls to follow any vessel, no 

 doubt the seamen followed the ordinary 

 British practice of sharing their food with 

 any living creature that happened to come 

 their way. Here was the reverse order of 

 things from the curse which fell on the 

 Ancient Mariner's ship after the killing of 

 the Albatross." 



Another instance of this " ordinary British 



practice " gives singular charm to a scene 



from the battlefield vividly depicted in the 



Times by an Englishman with the French 



Legion on Christmas Day. For five days 



he had been surrounded by crashing bullets 



and bursting shells ; he was exhausted for 



want of sleep, and smothered in dirt. And 



he writes : — 



" Shall I ever forget this Christmas Day ? 

 My two hours ended at midnight, a bell rang 

 in the ruined village, and instantly a great 



volley, preconcerted, from all our line — 

 our way of heralding Christmas with a 

 message of ' Peace on earth, goodwill towards 

 men.' 



" Slowly dawn rose, and there was I, 

 with rifle between two loopholes, the ground 

 white with frost . . . feeding a tame Robin 

 at my feet, the only Christmassy thing on 

 this Christmas morn. On my left what 

 remained of a once beautiful old church ; I 

 could see a lovely old oak-carved screen 

 and pulpit, all shattered ; every house 

 ruined. A little flock of Chaffinches, two 

 Bullfinches, and some Sparrows joined my 

 Robin just at dawn. Suddenly I heard deep 

 singing on my right, louder and louder — 

 the stirring strains of the * Marseillaise,' wild 

 and beautiful in the semi-darkness." 



It may be doubted whether any other 

 nation could have furnished that picture 

 of the soldier in the trenches, feeding 



the " Christmassy " Robin. 



* * * 



To return to the Gulls. It is worth 

 recalling that less than a year ago, at a 

 great Aviation Congress at Dresden, a 

 cultured Hamburg professor of aeronautics 

 gave a demonstration with living Sea-gulls 

 and Doves, to show that although a great 

 part of the brain of these birds had been 

 removed, they could still maintain their 

 balance. This experiment was supposed to 

 demonstrate that aeroplanes could be in- 

 vented which would keep stable in the air 

 without attention from the airman. But 

 the portentous German brain has not yet 

 invented the equal of a Sea-gull, even 

 though one of his huge Zeppelins succeeded. 

 in the raid on King's Lynn, in killing a 



Canary in its cage. 



* * * 



It is satisfactory to know that the British- 

 made Nesting-boxes, manufactured for the 

 Society, have proved equal in every respect 

 to those formerly imported from Germany. 

 " The Bird-box came on Saturday and was 

 put up at once, and on Monday morning the 



