Sufferings of Birds 



SPARROWS were quite unconcernedly hopping 

 about the roads not a hundred yards from 

 where shrapnel was bursting, and PIGEONS 

 and STARLINGS were equally undisturbed. 

 As regards raids by night, the same com- 

 petent observer gave his opinion that they 

 caused no disturbance whatsoever among 

 roosting birds (Manchester Guardian, 

 2Q.xi.i7). During the air-raid of May igth, 

 1918, a NIGHTINGALE was heard, in a London 

 suburb, singing at the top of his voice when 

 the guns were most clamant and above the 

 crash of a bomb (Daily Express, 21 .v.i8). 



Other writers consider that birds were 

 much upset by night raids, and it is recorded 

 that the DUCKS on the lakes in the London 

 parks rose and flew in despair, and that for 

 hours afterwards a lighted window attracted 

 them, with dolorous cries, from their weary 

 flight in quest of the waters from which they 

 had blundered (Daily Chronicle, 26.ix.i7). 

 The only birds which I saw personally 

 during the daylight raid of July 7th, 1917, 

 were London PIGEONS, which evinced the 

 greatest excitement at the general noise, 



