Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: :: 



Vol VII. ] 



SPRING, 1916. 



[No. 1. 



Birds in the War Area. 



IN THE NORTH OF FRANCE. 



The following interesting observations on 

 " Birds at the Front " in France are 

 contributed to the Tiines (March 2, 1916) 

 by an ofl&cer whose name it is not per- 

 mitted to give, but who is related to one 

 of the R.S.P.B. Vice-Presidents. 



" A summer and winter spent at the front, 

 and at the back of the front, have proved to 

 me that the north of France is no birdless 

 region. The noise and bustle of war do not 

 drive away the birds, even from the trenches, 

 and I can remember no nesting season which 

 introduced more birds unknown to me than 

 last summer. Sitting still is a common 

 military manoeuvre, and one can watch 

 birds common in England as well as in 

 France, and others which seldom cross the 

 Channel. 



" In March and April I was stationed at a 

 small chateau in ver}^ open coimtry with a 

 minute copse behind it. This copse about 

 the end of March was crowded for a fortnight 

 with Redwings and Fieldfares, as well as 

 scattered individuals of other species. A 

 sprinkling of Golden-crested Wrens kept 

 arriving, resting a short wliile, and passing 

 on, and one morning a single very tired- 

 looking hen Fire-crest took possession of 

 the one fir tree there. 



Summer Migrants — ^the Warblers. 



" The first summer migrants to arrive, and 

 these only in small numbers, were the 

 Chiffchaffs on March 22, and they remained 

 throughout the summer the commonest of 

 all the many warblers. 



" The only English warblers I did not see 

 were the Dartford and the Wood- Warbler, 

 but Nightingales, Blackcaps, Garden War- 

 blers, Sedge-, Reed-, Grasshopper Warblers 

 all duly came, and with them three Warblers 

 new to me — ^the Marsh-, the Icterine, and 

 the great Reed- Warbler. I first identified 

 the Icterine on the ramparts of Ypres. He 

 sang every morning from dawn till 10 a.m., 

 and at intervals in the afternoon, and he 

 did not mind an audience within a few 

 feet of his head. Just below him, on a 

 small tongue of land jutting into the moat, 

 were one pair of Blue Tits and family, two 

 pairs of Reed- Warblers, one pair of Black- 

 caps, one pair of Garden Warblers, numbers 

 of Greenfinches, and, as I suspected, the 

 Icterine' s wife. In the reeds of the moat 

 was a colony of Great Reed Warblers. I 

 became intimately acquainted with their 

 domestic affairs. The Blackcaps and Garden 

 Warblers had had their first nest blown 

 sideways by shells, and the latter never 

 tried to nest again ; but the Blackcaps 

 rebuilt within 10 ft. of their old nest, though 

 the three eggs the lady laid were as white 

 as a wood pigeon's. The cock did quite 

 his share of incubation, and neither bird 



