Nov. 2—This morning was one of those mornings when you walk up and down a bit because you feel you will not be so easy to hit like that, An unknown warrior in charge of some heavy artillery had decided to give his little pets a run across the French Concession, so he picked on my garden as being the best.route: my gardener was quite annoyed about it and came to me to complain that if this gunner shot a bit too low he would spoil all his chrysanthemums. But the most amazing thing was the effect his bombardment had on the bird population: I have never seen anything quite like it, nor did I ever realize there were so many birds in the neighbourhood. The rooks which have taken to feeding in the field behind my house were the first to get the wind up, and when they came "weaving" over the garden, not knowing quite which way to fly, that started the Magpies off: there are only two of them but they can make enough noise for twenty: the Blackbirds went quite crazy and the number which managed to fly sideways over the garden, screaming their heads off, startled me. This activity among the larger birds brought all the smaller fry into action and everything from Bulbuls to Sparrows began to fly aimlessly about, chirping and squeaking, The food on the bird-tables was entirely neglected and I was beginning to wonder just what would happen next. I forgot to mention that a large flock of Night Herons which roost in Avenue Haig during the day, left their resting place and circled round overhead. making harsh noises. Then a funny thing happened: a little Mynah (whom I call Dan) came rolling across the lawn, with his hands in his pockets as usual, and began to feed: this aroused the jealousy of the Bulbuls and Sparrows who promptly joined him: the larger birds followed suit and within a few minutes all was peace. Which just shows what can be done by force of example,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.