Behaviour of Birds 
er ener a SOT 
possible (Charles Dixon in The Manchester 
Guardian, 29.Xi.17). On more than one 
occasion the coming attack of poisonous gas 
was foretold to our soldiers by the birds, who 
were the first to detect the noxious fumes 
(Bird Notes and News, vol. vi. p. 102), and 
they do not appear to have suffered from this 
vile weapon of destruction which was one of 
the hideous novelties of the War. 
“It was the birds,’’ writes an eye-witness 
who was at Ypres in the summer of 1918, 
‘‘that gave one the greatest surprise. Pro- 
bably Ypres has been more shelled than any 
other place, particularly as regards gas-shells. 
It was inconceivable that any animal capable 
of leaving such an apparently inhospitable 
and dangerous neighbourhood should remain, 
especially as the night was worse than the 
day, for then our own guns added to the 
tremendous racket”’ (Observer, 5.1.19). The 
roar of the guns was, to the birds, presumably 
no more than thunder, and when a shell fell 
near them it was onlysome new, if startling, 
natural phenomenon (Bird Notes and News, 
vol, vil. p. 14). Possibly they became callous 
106 
