S.O.S. BIRDS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1211, 10 December 1919, Page 7

S.O.S. BIRDS.

Many lives were saved in the receut war by the heroism of pigeons. In a recent 'case a bird attached to the K.A.F. was liberated from ono of two British seaplanes in the North Sea. Flying through an aerial battle, it was wounded in the eye by a ballet, but arrived at its destination—a certain aerodrome—in an exhausted condition, its feathers stained with blood. The message it carried was the word "Attack, od," According, to a report subsequently received, tho. two British machines were opposed by sis Germans. The latter, however, made off before there was any chancef of a more equal fight. The pigeon, which has recovered from its wounds, is now the pot of the station, and has been " pensioned off.'* In another case a carrier pigeon, at the cost of its own life, saved tho lives of six British airmen adrift in the North Sea. The bird after delivering its message of appeal for assistance, fell dead from exhaustion whilst the wrecked airmen, when succourod from their perilous position, were on the point of meeting a similar fate, having no food and little water.