Sufferings of Birds 
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SPARROWS were quite unconcernedly hopping 
about the roads not a hundred yards from 
where shrapnel was bursting, and PIGEONS 
and STARLINGS were equally undisturbed. 
As regards raids by night, the same com- 
petent observer gave his opinion that they 
caused no disturbance whatsoever among 
roosting birds (Manchester Guardian, 
29.xi.17). During the air-raid of May roth, 
1918, a NIGHTINGALE was heard, in a London 
suburb, singing at the top of his voice when 
the guns were most clamant and above the 
crash of a bomb (Daily Express, 21.v.18). 
Other writers consider that birds were 
much upset by night raids, and it is recorded 
that the Ducks on the lakes in the London 
parks rose and flew in despair, and that for 
hours afterwards a lighted window attracted 
them, with dolorous cries, from their weary 
flight in quest of the waters from which they 
had blundered (Daily Chronicle, 26.1x.17). 
The only birds which I saw personally 
during the daylight raid of July 7th, 1917, 
were London PIGEONS, which evinced the 
greatest excitement at the general noise, 
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