HOMAGE TO CANARIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 July 1930, Page 8

HOMAGE TO CANARIES

“BEST FRIENDS”, TO SOLDIERS

There is a. little shop in Birmingham to which many men raise their hats in passing.

It is occupied, states a correspondent of an exchange, by a well-known firm of bird, fanciers, and the reason why sg> many ex-soldiers pay this unusual act of homage is because securely caged there are numbers of tiny feathered creatures of a kind that were widely recognised as one of the best, friends of the wartime Tommy. A huge aviary was brought to Calais in the, early days of the war. It contained canaries which were later used in the lino for detecting the presence of poisonous gases found in the chalk after mines had been exploded. There is at least one bird which can justly claim to have given its life for this country.

This was when some engineers were driving a very secret mine into the earth, and a canary escaped from its cage and flitted on to the top of a post, in No Man’s Land.

It was of Hie utmost importance that the canary should not be observed by the Germans opposite, and the services of the best available sniper were requisitioned to shoot it. The man. however, only succeeded in frightening it off the post, further into No Man’s Land, where it settled on a bush.

The trench mortars officers were requested to take the matter in hand.

With the third attempt, the canary, bush, and a. lot of No Man’s Land disappeared together and the secrecy of tho great mine was thereby secured.