128 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol ix 



LETTERS. 



BIRDS AND SHELL-FIRE. 

 To the Editors of British I^iros. 



Sirs, — May I add a few notes (based on a l)ri<>f sojourn in Flanders 

 in 1915) to Mr. Chubb's observations in your June issue ? Articles in 

 the Press have suggested that the fighting in France and Flanders would 

 cause a widespread disturbance of bird-life. Personally, I doubt this 

 very much, except along a zone at most three miles in width on each 

 side of the firing-line. 



Behind Ypres, things seemed (|uite noimal. Larks, Tree-Pipits, 

 Yellow Buntings and Common Whitethroats being the commoiie.st birds 

 observed in the fields. I .spent two days in Ypres in July, at a time 

 when it was being heavily shelled, and, except when a gun was fired very 

 near them, the Sparrows, Greenfinches and Turtle-Doves in the trees 

 on the ramparts seemed quite undistiu'bed ; many Swifts were nesting 

 in the ruined towers, and I counted sixteen used House-^Iartins' nests 

 on one side of the Cloth Hall. T noticed the same thing elsewhere in 

 the ease of Swallows and Sparrows nesting in a smashed farmhouse 

 half-a-mile behind the fire-trenches. Other birds I saw near Ypres 

 ramparts included Pied Wagtails, Spotted Flycatchers, Common 

 Sandpipers, and by the moat an Acroccplialus with an unfamiliar .song 

 which I could not identify. I saw another Acrocephalus singing in 

 some tuniips gone to seed near Hooge, but only got a glimpse of it. 

 The wet meadows in the salient always seemed full of Corncrakes at 

 night, and in one wood close to Hooge there w-as always a chorus ol 

 birds at dawn (Chiffchaffs. Willow-Wrens, Wrens, Thrushes, etc.) in 

 spite of the rifle fire on three sides, and I have hcnird Will<n\- and Sodui'- 

 Warblers singing during an artillery duel. 



Between the opposing lines birds were natiu-ally scarce except 

 Swallows, Swifts, stray Linnets, Pied and Yellow Wagtails, and Starlings 

 (the great joy of our snipers when business is .slack). I saw one pair 

 of Tree-Sparrows nesting in a shell-torn tree between the lines, and 

 once a Kingfisher appeared from nowhere and settled by a " Johnson 

 liole " within five yards of our trench. In .-Vugust at night I heard Curlew, 

 Whimbrel, Green Sandpipers and Dunlins passing over the fiiing-line, 

 and .some Owl which I took to be a Little Owl. 



Royal Free HosriT.\L, J- K. ST.\NF(iRn. 



Sept. 5th, I'.ll.i. 



To the Editors of British 1'>ikds. 

 Sirs, — In April, li)ir>, we discovered a Song-Thrush's nest built on a 

 branch of a tree which had been cut and placed against the front of 

 the steel shield of an IS pr. gun in order to conceal it from view. The 

 branch was actually touching the shield. The nest was built and 

 three eggs were laid in spite of the fact that the gun was fired 

 occasionally. But then there came a day. when the gun was fired 

 very frequently and this proved too much for the birds' nerves. 

 They moved to a presumably quieter neighbourhood. 

 Flanders, K. F. Delaforce. 



Septpmber Httli, 101."). Lt. Col., R.F..V. 



