Birds on the Western Front 
25.11.16). They hovered about all day in 
the hottest part of the line, not in the least 
disconcerted apparently when a promising 
mouse-area suddenly rose in the air in a 
cascade of black or yellow earth (Weekly 
Westminster, 14.X.16). One pair of KEs- 
TRELS had a nest in a “‘crack’”’ on the side of 
a slag-heap which was frequently shelled by 
the Germans. Whenever a shell exploded 
near their domicile the birds would fly down 
to some wire entanglements in the vicinity, 
but they returned as soon as things quieted 
down, and never deserted their nest (Stary, 
3.Vi1.16). 
STORKS returned unusually early to Alsace 
in 1916, but the draining of the marshes round 
Strasbourg drove them nearly all away from 
that city. They proved as indifferent to the 
thunder of the guns as any other bird (Even- 
ing News, I1.ii1.16), and returned to old 
nesting-places on ruined buildings (Man- 
chester Guardian, 29.xXi.17). 
SNIPE and WATERFOWL of all sorts congre- 
gated on the flooded craters and the vast 
expanse of mud and desolation between the 
125 
