The Times, August 29, 2017
It astonishes me that a supposedly intelligent person can put her name to this silly drivel. Of course a bird can’t be brave. Courage, or bravery, is being afraid to do something, but doing it anyway, often for the good of another. Does the writer really think this applies to a pigeon, wounded or otherwise? If it had anything in its head, it would have been about getting home to its food. It certainly was not thinking, ‘I must deliver this message to save 500 men.’ Using the word in this way debases it.