Bird Notes and News 



OWLS IN THE TRENCHES. 



The following extract from the letter of 

 an officer at the front, communicated to the 

 Times by Captain Tailby, is of exceptional 

 interest in connexion with the rat-plague 

 in the trenches : — 



" When I was up in the trenches recently 

 I saw numerous Owls ; they used to flap 

 about among the trenches at night, quite 

 regardless of shells and snipers, getting a 

 fine harvest of rats and mice, with which 

 the trenches literally swarm. They were 

 the big bro\\Ti Owls. They always dis- 

 appeared two hours before dawn ; I never 

 could make out where to, but I suppose to 

 woods behind the lines." 



One more proof, adds Captain Tailby, 

 that any game-preservers who allow Owls 

 to be destroyed are simply injuring their 

 own interests, as well as the interests of 

 agriculture. 



BIRDS OF GALLIPOLI. 



Sergt. Bernard W. Gill, R.A.M.C, who 

 writes to the Observer (Jan. 2, 1916), from 

 Gallipoli, is one of many nature-students 

 in khaki who find " a habit of observation, 

 acquired and cultivated among peaceful 

 fields and hedgerows, a real blessing in time 

 of war, a true relaxation from wounds and 

 weariness, and the dull monotony of a long- 

 protracted campaign." He writes : — 



" By far the commonest bird out here is a 

 Skylark, larger in size, but with a less varied 

 range of notes than the caroller of English 

 skies. Yet he gives out a sweet, wild warble 

 at dawn, standing on a hillock with crest 

 erect in the j amity, Lark-like way. One 

 morning a Lark, as I drew near, instead of 

 rising, ran under the lee of a small bush. I 

 had no difficulty in catching the bird, and 

 found a slight wound on the left wing, 

 which made ffight impossible. The ground 

 thereabouts is exposed to shrapnel fire, and 

 possibly the wing had been grazed by a 

 bullet. More than once I have seen a 



shrapnel-shell burst among a flock of birds, 

 and a casualty now and then seems 

 inevitable. Although unable to fly, the 

 woimded bird was well fed, and lay in my 

 hand unresisting. When I put it down it 

 made off at a great pace towards the cover 

 of some scrub-oak. 



" Two days later my duties led me to 

 visit an orderly's dug-out, and my attention 

 was drawn to a biscuit-tin in a corner ; the 

 lid was pierced with holes, and from within 

 came an impatient tapping. My Lark a 

 prisoner ! It had taken kindly to Army 

 rations, and fed heartily on biscuit crumbs 

 made moist with water. In a few days the 

 wing was healed, and the bird released. 



" With few exceptions the bird life around 

 here is such as you may meet with on any 

 English country-side. Magpies fly from tree 

 to tree in flocks of five or six ; Whinchats 

 scold from the tops of juniper-bushes ; Pied 

 Wagtails run lightly at the margins of the 

 creeks, and the Redbreast flits across your 

 path as you walk among the low scrub. It 

 seemed like home yesterday, when, just after 

 seeing a Robin, I lighted upon a daisy. It 

 flowered alone, gold-eyed, crimson-tipped, 

 in a little clearing among the alien growths 

 of prickly-leaved dwarfed oak and juniper. 



" One bird we often see — a bird that is not 

 to be met with in England. It is long, brown 

 and slender, with the build of a Warbler — 

 much like a Whitethroat, in fact ; and 

 when it flies its tail-feathers glow out bright 

 orange. We call them ' Firetails.' " 



The " Firetail " is, of course, the Red- 

 start. 



A subject for home observation is sug- 

 gested by letters in Country Life on the effect 

 of searchlights on Gulls. One correspondent 

 relates that the light has a soporific effect 

 on them. In this case it would seem they 

 rest in the steady beam much as migrating 

 birds rest in the light of the lantern on 

 lighthouse bird-rests. But another A\Titer 

 states that the moving searchlights in the 

 Firth of Forth and in Weymouth Bay rouse 

 the Gulls to active flight and the hunt for 

 food, as though the short hours of winter 

 daylight were insufficient to satisfy their 

 needs and they were glad of the artificial 

 light to enable them to obtain more provender. 



