"Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon."
Birds Divulge Army Secrets
During the night, before the battle of Sadowa, an Austrian division commanded by the archduke, retreating before the Prussian army, had bivouacked near a town in Bohemia, facing north, says Sir Evelyn Wood, in the London Gazette.
At midnight the archduke, when resting in a peasant's cottage, was awakened by the arrival of a gypsy, having come to report the advance of the enemy.
The archduke, who spoke Romany fluently, asked: "How do you know? Our outposts have not reported any movement."
"That, your highness, is because the enemy is some way off."
"Then how do you know?"
The gypsy, pointing to the dark sky, lighted by the moon, observed: "You see those birds flying over the woods from north to south?"
"Yes; what of them?"
"Those birds do not fly by night unless disturbed, and the direction of their flight indicates that the enemy is coming this way."