Birds on the Western Front 
less than two miles of Péronne (Daily Ex- 
press, 27 .1%.18). 
That birds were indifferent to the noise of 
battle is, as I have already said, the unani- 
mous opinion of all observers. There can be 
no question that a considerable portion of 
the European avi-fauna had an experience of 
noise quite without precedent. There has 
been nothing like the gunfire in the world’s 
history, not only for volume but for dura- 
tion. It is difficult to visualise a modern 
battlefield; the very ground quakes from 
the detonation of the monster guns, there are 
bursting shells, rolling screens of smoke, rifle 
bullets flying around as thick as clouds of 
locusts on the veldt, machine guns r-r-r-r-r- 
ripping in all directions, while great multi- 
tudes of soldiers are at deadly grips in a 
battle-line scores of miles long and many 
miles deep. Yet the effect on bird life, so 
far as can be judged, was singularly small, 
and birds in areas where the gunfire was 
hottest displayed remarkable ability in adapt- 
ing themselves to conditions which in pre- 
war days would have been regarded as im- 
105 
