Birds on the Western Front 



less than two miles of Peronne (Daily Ex- 

 press, 27.ix.i8). 



That birds were indifferent to the noise of 

 battle is, as I have already said, the unani- 

 mous opinion of all observers. There can be 

 no question that a considerable portion of 

 the European avi-fauna had an experience of 

 noise quite without precedent. There has 

 been nothing like the gunfire in the world's 

 history, not only for volume but for dura- 

 tion. It is difficult to visualise a modern 

 battlefield; the very ground quakes from 

 the detonation of the monster guns, there are 

 bursting shells, rolling screens of smoke, rifle 

 bullets flying around as thick as clouds of 

 locusts on the veldt, machine guns r-r-r-r-r- 

 ripping in all directions, while great multi- 

 tudes of soldiers are at deadly grips in a 

 battle-line scores of miles long and many 

 miles deep. Yet the effect on bird life, so 

 far as can be judged, was singularly small, 

 and birds in areas where the gunfire was 

 hottest displayed remarkable ability in adapt- 

 ing themselves to conditions which in pre- 

 war days would have been regarded as im- 



105 



