BIRDS OF EUROPE-A MYSTERY.

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13488, 19 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

BIRDS OF EUROPE-A MYSTERY.

There are queer changes in the birdlife of Europe. Ihe birds seem to be all upset; especially i„ the last four month strange, tilings have hapened Is it the awful racket of the war which frightens them? If SOf or if not wattle phenomena of the last four months, particularly with the crows? There are inexplicable facts on a large scale. On the firing-line' it had been observed that the birds in mass were habituated to trench-war early in 1915. Eor two years they fluttered nonchalantly in the no-man s land between the' hostile trenches. They built nests beside great batteries and chirped in blasted trees between shells.

The contradictions are extraordinary; and they began almost with the war.

. In the autumn of 1914, around Dijon m Burgundy, far from the war, the' regular passage! of migrating birds became different from what it had been from time immemorial. The immense flocks of migrators, wild geese and ducks, thrushes, larks, finches etc. were visibly less numerous than usual and more in a hurry, because not a single flock was seen to r stop, so to speak, more than a few days in all Burgundy. The diminution of the flocks and their evident hurry was more remarkable still in 1915; and in 1916. except for water fowl, which seem to have increased, the migrators practically disappeared! Not a single flock of larks; and in an entire afternoon across the fields, one could not scare up half a dozr'n solitary or in couples. Not a thrush," in this land of vineyards, where, habitually, when the grapes are ripe, the children have to be mobilised to fight off the flocks of thrushes. \ In the vintage of 1915, they came one by one; but in autumn of 1916. Jehan Voguet, who is a character of the Cote d'Or, saw exactly three thrushes in his vines, where ho had habitually shot them by hundreds. As little birds," the same. Where they used to pass in serried columns, long streams following each other closely through an entire day, there have been miserable squadrons of dozens or twenties! The Ardennes finches, notably, which used to migrate south in veritable legions, a million of them flying over the Burgundy valleys, have scarcely been seen, perhaps a few hundreds.

Same phenomenon for the birds of prey. No more buzzards, no more spar-row-hawks, and so few hawks, that only two have been brought into Dijon, got by old Jehan with the aid of a tamo horned-owl. Of courso it may be argu-e-d that the birds of prey have quit the land because there are no little birds, nothing but mice, for them to prey on; but, why, then have the crows aetcel in the samei manner —crows, which never attack a living bird, which oat anything and yet never tackle mouse, rat, rabbit or man unless wounded or dead —the crows have equally quit the fields and the woods of all the land! Why have they gone? Why have all the. birds continued disappearing more and more? Intelligent farmers, hunter*, learned men, even, who have studied the war on all sides, declare they do not know. It is a mystery. The peasants, who have always a reason for everything, say that it is the war. "It frightens the birds." they say. "It's natural."

But wait. Why should the war make birds quit a land so far from the war as Burgundy? Why have they not, even, been seen flying high over the land, in habitual migration? Therei is no war in Holland, or in Norway, or in the fatNorth. As a fact, it is notorious that in the zone of the armies, where the cannonade never ceases, the birds were not frightened away. For two years of war they remained' as numerous as normal and' seemed to pay no attention to the smashing and the carnage. Some pretend that there are zones of noxious gas which rise and spread in the high atmosphere as a barrier to frighten or sicken flocks in migration, which, once getting through them, will not tempt them again. But the migrations began to dwindle notably as early as the autumn of 1914, when no such permanent layers of noxious gas had' been established, either by big guns in permanence: of German poison gases. And what about young bird's, who have no such experience of noxious barriers in the high atmosphere, and who constitute vast flocks —which do not come. Above all, why the complete disappearance of all crows in the last four months ' J Where have the crows .gone ? Why ? It is a painful subject, but it was common knowledge, in all 1915 and the summer of 1916 that immense flocks of crows flourished, sleek and awful, in the French zone of battle. Thev reveiled in two years of plenty, and nothing has changed in that horrid plemty. In the last four months quit." No one saw them pass. Where have they "Why did they quit so suddenly'the battle-group—those frightful crows of battle? Is some awful thing preparing which terrifies even those black undertakers? The whole thing is inexplicable and ominous. And now the latest thing, this very month of December.

The mystery continues. In Paris, since the above linos were written, there has been a sudden and astonishing arrival, out of all migrating season, of what the people call "refuge birds." Tboy arrive in great flocks, from nobodv 'knows where. They are chiefly of the varieties called finches, linnets, and big country sparrows twice the size of the sparrows- of Paris. All the parks are -full of them ; hut the Tnileries Gardens form the "re. furrce birds" show-place, where hundreds of good folk, without the slightest preliminary practice, play the "bird man," because hunger has driven fear from the little fellows, and they will perch on the head, shoulders, and hands of anybody who has bread-crumbs to offer! , j Why did they not migrate south long