Behaviour of Birds 
‘““stand-to ”’ just Gatore dawn, in August 1918, 
in the reoccupied trenches of the old devas- 
tated area of the first Somme offensive (Ibis, 
IQIQ, Pp. 77). 
CORN-CRAKES ‘‘craked’’ regularly, in spite 
of the fact that ‘‘ back areas’’ were being 
shelled with great persistence (Scotsman, 
16.vi.17), and were reported as plentiful in 
the long hay-grass growing round the front- 
line trenches on the Somme (Jd7s, 1919, p. 57). 
In the farmyards, HENS went on clucking 
and laying eggs, while huge shells burst all 
round them (The Field, 27.vii.18). 
The foregoing extracts from observations 
by eye-witnesses are but samples of a host 
of notes on the behaviour of individual birds 
on our Western Front. One would have ex- 
pected that the casualties amongst birds 
would have been very heavy and that hun- 
dreds must have been wounded and killed 
by bursting shrapnel, but their bodies were 
seldom seen; possibly they were immedi- 
ately eaten by the numberless armies of 
vermin which swarmed about the country. 
After a wood had been shelled by the Ger- 
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