Effect of War on Birds 
clutch was the resulf0f the fright which the 
female had sustained. 
It was noticed that SWALLows and MAr- 
TINS on the Western Front habitually circled 
more closely than usual to human beings, 
doubtless attracted in search of the insects 
disturbed from the tangle of weeds (Scotsman, 
I5.ix.17), and this habit was also noticed 
in Palestine (Field, 30.11.18, p. 447). 
Eye-witnesses in France were impressed by 
the fact that all live creatures who had ex- 
perienced the blast from a gun appeared to 
avoid passing in front of one; birds proved 
no exception to this rule (Land and Waiter, 
14 ix.20); 
The powers of mimicry of the STARLING 
found scope, writes an artillery officer on the 
Western Front, in the imitation of the three 
shrill blasts on a whistle used to denote the 
approach of enemy aeroplanes. “It was 
great fun,’ he writes, “‘to see everyone 
diving for cover, and I was nearly deceived 
myself one day’ (Bird Notes and News, 
vol. vii. p. 115). A similar story is told of an 
OwL in the vicinity of the London “ Outer 
156 
