Birds on the Western Front 
thunder of the guns. She certainly paid no 
heed to the movements of the troops as they 
passed to and fro, close to the nest, busy with 
their day’s work (Land and Water, 14.ix.16). 
An observer in the battle-zone in the valley 
of the Ancre writes on June Ist, 1918: 
‘Whether in the front line, or in the still 
noisier belt just in front of the field-guns, 
the heavier the fire the more exultant the 
flow of song; and three nights ago, when we 
stood-to during a barrage in gas-masks in a 
wood reeking with mustard gas, the NIGHT- 
INGALES still sang undismayed in the branches 
overhead”’ (Manchester Guardian, 10.vi.18),. 
In May 1917 a NIGHTINGALE, in Ossus Wood, 
our most advanced position near the St. 
Quentin Canal, sang particularly well when 
the machine-guns fired, as if in answer to 
them (lb1s, 1919, p. 68). About June Ior7, 
when preparations were on foot for the great 
“third battle of Ypres,’’ a party of troops 
halted in a wood, midway between Ypres— 
Elverdrighe—Poperinghe, for the usual “‘ ten 
minutes easy.’’ The wood was well within 
shell-fire of the enemy and had just received 
I II3 
