Birds as Messengers 



back-handed compliment: " Field Battery 

 No. 36. Our telephone is out of order. 

 Send us at once reinforcements. These ac- 

 cursed Englishmen keep us busy. Muller, 

 ist Lieutenant " (Daily Mail, 5.iv.i6). By 

 observation plus instinct most of our birds 

 rapidly learned their route from the trenches ; 

 though shy at first, the PIGEONS got " wise " 

 to shell fire and old birds made away 

 from the dug-outs with knowing swiftness. 

 PIGEONS proved hardy and recovered from 

 exposure to gas. They were rarely shot dead 

 while flying, and birds with shrapnel in the 

 breast or with broken beaks gamely tried 

 to carry their missives home. In the action 

 which was fought in the region of the Menin 

 Road on October 3rd, 1917, a PIGEON, No. 

 2,709, was despatched with a message from 

 the front line to divisional headquarters at 

 1.30 p.m. During its passage it was struck 

 by a German bullet which broke one of its 

 legs, denuding the bone (the tibia) of all 

 flesh, and drove the metal cylinder contain- 

 ing the message into the side of its body, 

 the bullet passing out of its back. In spite 

 C 17 



