Effect of War on Birds 
Charles Dixon in The Manchester Guardian, 
29.x1.17). So far from thinking that the 
birds forsook their accustomed migration 
routes, I believe that they continued to use 
their aerial highways, undeterred by the 
thunder of guns, the marching of troops, 
and the din of battles taking place many 
hundreds of feet below them. 
Perhaps the abnormal amount of insect 
food onthe Western Front may have detained 
a few of the migratory insectivorous birds 
which habitually visit us, and it is possible 
that Italy’s intervention in the war may 
have had some effect on the numbers of 
the migratory visitants to Central Europe. 
It has been stated that when the Aus- 
trians invaded Italy they destroyed all the 
‘“‘roccolos’’ so thickly scattered through- 
out the compartimento of Venetia. They 
cut down the groves of hornbeam (skilfully 
planted and netted in such a way as to give 
no chance of escape to any autumnal migrant 
when once within the high green walls), 
liberated the decoy-birds, and razed to the 
ground the towers in which the “‘ sportsmen ” 
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