MANNA FROM SKIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 119, 16 April 1930, Page 3

MANNA FROM SKIES.

BIRD LIFE PRESERVED. RIGOURS OF"WINTER. Tho Sunday Province of .Vancouver (February 23) has the folowihg to say with reference to the destruction of birds during the last severo winter in America (states tbe New Zealand Native Bird Society):—“There’s a flash of red in the sky those days as the first flock of spring robins wing their way to their summer habitat in British Columbia.- These harbingers of spring are fewer this year, and there are many who will not return, for the intense cold of the southland took its toll among the feathered life. “Wrens and larks died from starvation in roadways, quail flew into school houses looking for food and robins called plaintively at back doors for crumbs, a report from the South: states. Havoc was wrought in the bird life of the continent by the severe winter. “But the hospitality which the south-west extends to all visitors was offered to the bird guests. When the cold weather of Oklahoma and Texas cut off the food supply for the birds, there was undertaken an,expedition of mercy, unique in history. “Aviators loaded airplanes with tons of food and flew over woodlots, hedges and swamps, dropping their cargo to the birds. They carried not only cracked wheat for birds able to digest grain, but bits of raisins, apples and fat for the smaller friends. “If the birds are wiped out this winter what will insects do to the trees and crops this summer P” the farmers asked as they began to notice the frozen bodies of hundreds of birds in the snow. “Then came the, manna .from heaven.,,