Behaviour of Birds 



possible (Charles Dixon in The Manchester 

 Guardian, 2Q.xi.i7). On more than one 

 occasion the coming attack of poisonous gas 

 was foretold to our soldiers by the birds, who 

 were the first to detect the noxious fumes 

 (Bird Notes and News, vol. vi. p. 102), and 

 they do not appear to have suffered from this 

 vile weapon of destruction which was one of 

 the hideous novelties of the War. 



"It was the birds/' writes an eye-witness 

 who was at Ypres in the summer of 1918, 

 "that gave one the greatest surprise. Pro- 

 bably Ypres has been more shelled than any 

 other place, particularly as regards gas-shells. 

 It was inconceivable that any animal capable 

 of leaving such an apparently inhospitable 

 and dangerous neighbourhood should remain, 

 especially as the night was worse than the 

 day, for then our own guns added to the 

 tremendous racket" (Observer, 5.1.19). The 

 roar of the guns was, to the birds, presumably 

 no more than thunder, and when a shell fell 

 near them it was only some new, if startling, 

 natural phenomenon (Bird Notes and News, 

 vol. vii. p. 14). Possibly they became callous 



106 



