Birds on the Western Front 



previous year, and, as the season advanced, 

 it would seem that Nature was doing her 

 utmost to heal the ugly scars of war. An 

 erstwhile Scots gardener, now a subaltern 

 and a recipient of the D.C.M., writing to me 

 on July 20th, 1916, described the cornflowers 

 and poppies as "just terrible/' 



The following letter gives a graphic de- 

 scription of the change of scenery: "Sum- 

 mer has disguised the desolation of the 

 stricken land. A few months ago all her 

 wounds were lying open ; the bare, stunted 

 tree trunks gashed and broken ; gaunt, shell- 

 scarred walls and ruined buildings and every- 

 where the face of the earth torn and dis- 

 figured. Long lines of ditches for a trench 

 is no more than a deep ditch winding tor- 

 tuously here and there, crossing and recross- 

 ing. Deep shell-holes full of muddy water, 

 shattered carts and farm implements lying 

 neglected. Everywhere stark desolation. 

 Now it is different. To go up the communi- 

 cation trenches is like a ramble down a 

 country lane ; tall grass and wild- flowers 

 have sprung up on the sides and parapets so 



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