A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ op The Audubon Societies 



Vol. XIX January— February, 1917 No. 1 



Birds in the War-Zone 



By MAJOR ALLAN BROOKS 



A FEW notes on the effect of the present unnatural conditions on the bird- 

 Ufe of the war-zone in Flanders may be of interest to the readers of 



BiRD-LORE. 



These conditions may be summarized briefly as follows: 



1 . Complete cessation of all hunting. 



2. Increase of natural enemies, especially rats. 



3. Heavy gun-fire. 



4. Aeroplanes in large numbers. 



An army order, early in the war, prohibited all hunting and shooting in the 

 war- zone during the duration of the war. 



This is rigidly enforced, and violations are rare. Personally, I have only 

 once seen a bird of any kind shot here, which will indicate the immunity birds 

 enjoy in this respect. 



A large increase of birds, especially game birds, should be the result, but 

 the reverse seems to be the case. 



Whether this is due to an increase of natural enemies such as Crows, Mag- 

 pies, weasels, and rats, I cannot say. All of these seem to have increased, 

 especially the last. 



This increase is not due to the immense amount of carrion, as I have never 

 seen a Crow or Magpie indulging in a carrion diet out here. The wastage of 

 food and grain accounts for the increase of rats, and the large numbers of 

 stoats and weasels seen in the trenches may be a concomitant of this increase. 



Cats also abound, but seem to confine their hunting almost exclusively to 

 mice. 



Game birds — Pheasants and Gray Partridges — are scarce, as a rule; by 

 far the greater number can be seen in the immediate vicinity of the firing line. 

 Wood-pigeons and Turtle-doves are common everywhere. 



Small birds (including Thrushes, Blackbirds, and Larks, which are treated 



