Effect of War on Birds 



Charles Dixon in The Manchester Guardian, 

 2g.xi.i7). So far from thinking that the 

 birds forsook their accustomed migration 

 routes, I believe that they continued to use 

 their aerial highways, undeterred by the 

 thunder of guns, the marching of troops, 

 and the din of battles taking place many 

 hundreds of feet below them. 



Perhaps the abnormal amount of insect 

 food on the Western Front may have detained 

 a few of the migratory insectivorous birds 

 which habitually visit us, and it is possible 

 that Italy's intervention in the war may 

 have had some effect on the numbers of 

 the migratory visitants to Central Europe. 

 It has been stated that when the Aus- 

 trians invaded Italy they destroyed all the 

 "roccolos" so thickly scattered through- 

 out the compartimento of Venetia. They 

 cut down the groves of hornbeam (skilfully 

 planted and netted in such a way as to give 

 no chance of escape to any autumnal migrant 

 when once within the high green walls), 

 liberated the decoy-birds, and razed to the 

 ground the towers in which the " sportsmen " 



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