LL LSS 
Birds on the Western Front 
eee 
mans it was carefully searched to see the 
effects on wild life,and only a dead PARTRIDGE, 
a Dove, two Rats, and a severely wounded 
MoLE were found. Rats, Mice, BAts, 
BEETLES, CATERPILLARS, and BUTTERFLIES, 
even WorMs many inches below the ground, 
could be found dead by the dozen, after a 
gas attack, but no adult birds; although any 
nestlings must, of course, have been suffo- 
cated. On one occasion, when the gas at- 
tack was particularly severe and before 
the great white cloud drifted to our lines, the 
birds were chirping and twittering gaily, 
the RoBIn trilling his autumn song, and the 
STARLINGS singing in full chorus in a shattered 
tree, Then, except for the awful crash of 
the guns, nature was silent. Yet, when the 
gas cloud dispersed, all the birds were sing- 
ing just as gaily as ever, chirping and hunting 
food as if nothing had happened. Possibly 
the birds flee before the gas cloud, just as 
they flee before a bush fire, and return when 
it is over (H. Thoburn Clarke, in Land and 
Water, 14.ix.16). One observer writes of 
having seen several SPARROWS suffering from 
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