COUNTRY LIFE
Evidence on Birds and Raids
At the tune of writing the evidence on birds and air-raids is sea, and unconvincing. A Sussex correspondent observes that "directly the rat-tat-tat of the machine-guns begins (or even before) the birds fly hither and thither as if looking for some refuge to which they can go. They don't settle down till quite a long time after the fight is ended." It is significant, I think, that she does not say what birds. A Berkshire correspondent is more exact. " In the dead of night, before the feel of the concussion from a bomb has gone, the rooks are making a most terrific din." Even this, however, does little to convince me. Rooks frequently make a terrific din ; their agitated communal behaviour during or before wild weather is well known. Small birds similarly grow very agitated and " fiy hither and thither as if looking for some refuge " for reasons quite unconnected with gun-fire. And looking back over the columns of The Spectator I see that another correspondent is concerned over the decrease in birds' nests and bird population this summer, and is inclined to put that down to air activity. Again I think this is mistaken. Large-scale air-raids did not begin over England until the nesting season was almost finished, and in my mind there is no doubt that seven weeks of arctic winter had much more to do with the decrease in nesting, which was certainly very noticeable, than the later dog-fights.
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