Birds as Messengers 
of wild birds in the night, of a coming attack 
of poisonous gas. Before the smell of the 
fumes could be perceived in the trenches, the 
soldiers were awakened to their danger by 
the noise of birds which had detected the first 
fumes of the vile infection (Bird Notes and 
News, vol. vi. p. 102), CANARIES and other 
cage birds were extensively used by both 
our own and the German miners at the front, 
when tunnelling, to detect the presence of 
subterranean gas (Daily Mail, 29.v.18). A 
soldier, writing of his company’s CANARY, 
says: ‘‘ Many were the nights on which he 
was rudely disturbed from his slumbers, 
dumped unceremoniously into a sandbag, 
and carried through rain and snow up to the 
trenches. Here he would do his job under- 
ground, and as often as not reach the surface 
again a limp little form lying at the bottom 
of his cage; he never failed us, though” 
(Bird Notes and News, vol. vili. p. 26). In 
many cases the CANARIES, issued as tests for 
the presence of poisonous gas, were made 
pets of by our soldiers and placed by them 
in the safest places (Daily Mail, 10.iv.19). 
23 
