Behaviour of Birds 
(Bird Notes and News, vol. vi. p. 87). A 
BLACKBIRD reared its brood in a nest which 
was built in a hedge only twenty yards from 
two 9'2-inch guns. The birds, old and young, 
never seemed to mind the firing of the guns, 
which shattered glass in windows and tore the 
tiles off houses fifty yards away (Scotsman, 
25.vii.I7). A BLACKBIRD’s nest with three 
young birds in it was found in a captured 
village which had been right in the old Ger- 
man front line. The mother-bird must have 
sat on its nest during the whole of the pre- 
liminary bombardment and the subsequent 
terrific fighting ; everything around the nest 
was smashed to atoms (Daily Mazl, 28 .vii.16). 
The day after the Wytschaete Ridge had 
been taken, June 7th, 1917, a BLACKBIRD 
was found sitting on a nest containing five 
eggs, built about 3 feet from the ground, in 
a communication trench leading to, and 
about 15 yards from, the original German line. 
A big mine had been exploded within 120 
yards of the spot, making a crater large 
enough to accommodate a good-sized house, 
and there were also shell-holes within but a 
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