Sufferings of Birds 



strutting about with the one feather sticking 

 out, none the worse for its adventure (Globe, 

 25.ix.i6), and possibly feeling extra cock-a- 

 hoop in the knowledge that two of the Zeppe- 

 lins had been brought down. 



Our intrepid airmen at times were tempted 

 to vie with birds in their own element. In 

 the very early days of aviation naval aviators 

 are credited with having shot DUCKS over 

 the marshes, and I know of one case where 

 an airman, out on a trial trip one day from 

 Ramsgate, came across some MALLARD ; he 

 gave chase, opened fire at them with his 

 machine-gun, and killed three, which were 

 picked up by a fisherman and brought to the 

 R.N.A. mess, where they formed a welcome 

 addition to Government rations. There is a 

 story, so far back as 1911, of the French 

 aviator Garros having shot with his revolver 

 at an EAGLE which attacked him while 

 flying over the mountains in Spain, when on 

 his way from Paris to Madrid. Louis Noel, 

 of the French Air Service, shot two EAGLES 

 in the air, from his machine, with a shot- 

 gun on the Salonika front (Ibis, 1919, p. 324). 



92 



