10 JUNE 1938, Page 18

Ominous Birds It is an old superstition still prevailing (especially

in my experience in South Wales) that this night tapping at the window is a precursor of calamity. There is indeed something strange and disturbing in the unwonted sound. The bird about which my opinion is asked was probably a whitethroat ; and this bird seems to have a peculiar curiosity about windows. I know one fishing-box in a western district very populous with warblers where one window had to be veiled because so many birds flew into it. The only victim that I myself; found was a whitethroat. Another bird that does not seem to understand glass is the hawfmch. It is not a very common bird, bin quite a number of examples of its charging a window pane have come within my ken.

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