Birds as Messengers 
Bon jour, merry bird |! 
Your bonny life we ask, 
That we may know 
When gases blow, 
And spring to don a mask. 
We would that we might mask you too, 
So beautiful, so fair. 
You sing to-day 
Your roundelay, 
And love is everywhere ! 
Bon soiy, merry bird ! 
In war you’ve played your part— 
Nor knew that death 
Was in the breath 
That stilled your little heart. 
Your perch swings idly in your cage— 
Unscathed we march along. 
So may we learn, 
If fortune turn, 
To greet death with a song ! 
(Life: 14. xi. 18, p. 700). 
It is consoling to learn that CANARIES were 
also used in ambulance trains to cheer our 
wounded soldiers with their sweet song (Sfort- 
ing and Dramatic News, 8.vi.18). 
SEA-GULLS on more than one occasion 
betrayed the presence of submarines and 
floating mines to anxious mariners. A French 
writer, M. Louis Rousseau, claimed them as 
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