Birds on the Western Front 
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morning came to life. Never, surely, did 
birds sing so—BLACKBIRD and THRUSH, LARK 
and BLack-cAP and WILLOW WARBLER. 
Most of the time their voices, of course, were 
inaudible, but now and again in the intervals 
of the shattering noise of the guns their notes 
pealed up, as if each bird were struck with 
frenzy and were striving to shout down the 
guns’ (Daily News, 8.vi.17). 
The above quotations from the observa- 
tions of eye-witnesses illustrate the indifier- 
ence of birds in general to the noise of battle ; 
the following notes testify to the behaviour 
of individual species :— 
A BLACKBIRD built her nest on a siege-gun 
daily in action on the front and laid four 
eggs in it, being, as one of the gunners said, 
‘‘as saucy as she was confident of our protec- 
tion’? (Daily Express, 5.v.16). Another 
BLACKBIRD built its nest in the body of a 
field-gun which had not been fired for four 
days, during which period the nest was made 
and three eggs were laid. Thereafter the 
gun was fired daily, but the bird laid two 
more eggs and continued to sit unconcernedly 
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