Sufferings of Birds 
a gn 
strutting about with the one feather sticking 
out, none the worse for its adventure (Globe, 
25.1x.16), and possibly feeling extra cock-a- 
hoop in the knowledge that two of the Zeppe- 
lins had been brought down. 
Our intrepid airmen at times were tempted 
to vie with birds in their own element. In 
the very early days of aviation naval aviators 
are credited with having shot Ducks over 
the marshes, and I know of one case where 
an airman, out on a trial trip one day from 
Ramsgate, came across some MALLARD; he 
gave chase, opened fire at them with his 
machine-gun, and killed three, which were 
picked up by a fisherman and brought to the 
R.N.A. mess, where they formed a welcome 
addition to Government rations. There is a 
story, so far back as 1911, of the French 
aviator Garros having shot with his revolver 
at an EAGLE which attacked him while 
flying over the mountains in Spain, when on 
his way from Paris to Madrid. Louis Noél, 
of the French Air Service, shot two EAGLES 
in the air, from his machine, with a shot- 
gun on the Salonika front (Ibis, 1919, p. 324). 
Q2 
