BOBBIE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3143, 23 July 1917, Page 8

BOBBIE

THE TIfEXCH CANAItY. (By E.C.S., in the "Daily Mail.") The General public knows little about that most useful and life-saving animtil —the trene.li canary, lie or she, whatever may happen to he its so.x, is quite, unknown to the infantry. The gunners ivoultl scorn so insignilieaiit a 'mascot. But ask the lunnellers of the Royal Engineers— those human moles, whose great-est-joy in life is "blowing the Bocho"— and -they will tell you that tlio canary has been jii invaluable ally in underground warfare. The trench canary does not' Butter in a gilded cage- or sing in the scanty sunshine of la Belle France. Vou will fy vo to climb down, a mine shaft or two and scramblo through tiny, dark galleries to make his acquaintance. Ho is usually to bo found in a small wooden cage ensconced with several others of his tribe in a cosy dug-out far beyond tlio roach of the heaviest howitzers. One does not hear much singing in. the trench canaries' dug-out. They are most; of them too busy recovering front gas attacks. "Cruelty to animals!" a reader mutters oyer his meatless breakfast. No, not cruelty. The canary is just "duing his b!f." the same as everyqno else. Bobbie is the veteran ot tlio canaries in one part of the line. If he were' a man he would have many medal ribbons "up.", lie is "some" bird, is Bobbie! lie has been gassed seven limes. "Surely the gas doesn't conic as far .underground as this?'' you question. "AYe don't mean the chlorine which they squirt out of cylinders on the surface." says an Engineer officer who is willing to explain to you. "That's a picnic in these days of gas masks! Besides, yon can see it coming Tolling along before (ho wind, and it gires you' lots oF time. Our gas, known technically .as carbon monoxide, is invisible, and has no smell. If you happen, to get into it—for a few seconds only—it's all .up." i "But if you can't smell it. and can't see it. how. do you know it's there:""That's whero (lie canary comes in." says the officer. "AYiiei't a mine is exploded, whether by Fife or ourselves, gas is given off. It may find, its way into our galleries or it/ may not. You have your anti-gas apparatus all ready, and grab Bobbie's cage or that' of any other canary in whom you have confidence. You keep the cage well in front of you and'liigh up, and push on, watching .Bobbie as you would a rival for a. lody\s affections. Bobbie knows what to do—you can truM Mm. lie sniffs like a dog on a strange scent'. If I here's gas, down goes the canary Hat on hfs "jack, toes up in the air." "1 suppose you miners gel: plenty of honour and glory:'"' vou ask. "M.C.'s galore and a few U.S.O.'s, but I don't know of a ttiuneller having got tjw Y.C. yet," replies I lift veteran with the two stars ami the ribbon, of tho Military Cross on his muddy tunic. "But. there's someone .1 know who has certainly earned the \*.C, and that's Bobbie, and all he gets is ait extra ration of bis favourite seed."