Effect of Air-raids and Air-craft 



lustily, and it was not until the aircraft were 

 right over head that they ceased, not to com- 

 mence their song again till about 2.30 a.m., 

 when the whirring of the seaplanes had faded 

 into a distant hum. The NIGHTINGALES' 

 reiterated song seemed like a choral defiance 

 to the Huns and was swelled by countless 

 other little British songsters, together with a 

 CUCKOO, who added a jeering call to the re- 

 treating enemy alien who so closely resembled 

 that parasitic avian intruder into homes not 

 his own(0bserver, 28.v.i6). Air-craft, how- 

 ever, do not seem, on the whole, to have had 

 much effect on birds, and SKYLARKS have 

 often been seen singing unconcernedly around 

 aeroplanes and airships in the sky. Mr. 

 Charles Dixon, writing of the daylight raid 

 on London on July 7th, 1917, when a fleet 

 of twenty " Taubes " appeared like magic 

 in a sun-bathed sky, states that the effect 

 on bird life was practically nil. Although 

 many German machines passed over him and 

 gun fire was incessant for nearly two hours, 

 he noticed that THRUSHES were singing on 

 and off throughout the raid period, while 



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