Birds as Messengers 
the shortage of paper, what about crossing 
these birds with cockatoos and teaching them 
to deliver verbal messages?’ (Globe, 
31.v.18). On another occasion, during an 
engagement on a big scale, a certain Head- 
quarters Staff was very anxiously awaiting 
news. For a long while none came. Then 
a PIGEON flew into sight, circled several 
times, and alighted on a roof. A man was 
sent to catch it. He brought down the 
packet containing the message. The Staff 
gathered round the officer who took the mes- 
sage. They listened with intense eagerness 
to learn the news. What the officer read out 
was: “‘I am fed up with this blasted bird ’”’ 
(Daily Mail, 14.11.18). This story, when 
brought to the attention of the War Office, 
provoked an encomium of our Pigeon Ser- 
vice, which, it was said by the officer in 
charge, had proved invaluable, the birds 
frequently homing through gas clouds and 
barrage after all other means of communica- 
tion had failed. All the birds were presented 
to the service from the finest strains of long- 
distance pedigree stock, and the majority of 
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