Birds on the Western Front 
few yards of the nest (Times, 16.vi.17). On 
Whit Sunday, 1918, the trenches round about 
a willow, in which a BLACKBIRD had its nest, 
were smartly shelled with 5‘9 for an hour or 
more. The cock-bird’s evensong was, how- 
ever, unimpaired, and seemed, if anything, 
more melodious (Observer, 5.1.19). 
A RoBIN was observed to perch persis- 
tently upon the bayonet of a French soldier 
(Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 24.v.15), 
and another Rosin chose a dug-out for its 
nesting-place, where it reared its brood of 
five without disturbance (Bird Notes and 
News, vol. vi. p. 87). A ROBIN’s nest was 
discovered in an old shell-case half concealed 
among the ivy covering a ruined shed (Scots- 
man, 20.1v.18). 
NIGHTINGALES were frequently heard dur- 
ing the intervals of a night’s bombardment 
(Limes, I1.vi.16), and sang while monster 
shells were bursting in a town eight miles 
from the firing-line (Scotsman, 9.viil.16). A 
brood of young NIGHTINGALES was hatched, 
on the day of the heaviest Hooge bombard- 
ment, on the lip of the first-line trench (Times, 
III 
