Behaviour of Birds 



under fire. The tree in which one of the 

 birds was making a nest was entirely swept 

 away by a shell, but a bird in a neighbouring 

 tree went right on building " (New York 

 World, 7.xii.i6). There is a story of a tree, 

 in front of a dug-out, having been uprooted 

 by a shell and replanted in a shell-hole ; a 

 little terrified, trembling, but uninjured bird 

 was discovered on its nest in the replanted 

 tree (Bristol Times and Mirror, 5.viii.i6). 

 The long-continued bombardment of Nieu- 

 port seemed to an eye-witness only an induce- 

 ment and an incentive to the feathered choirs 

 (Manchester Guardian, io.v.i6). The fol- 

 lowing is part of Mr. H. Perry Robinson's 

 description of the terrific artillery prelude of 

 the British assault on the Ypres salient in 

 June 1917: "The sun as it rose was in- 

 visible behind the bank of smoke, but it 

 flushed the sky above with red. It was a 

 truly terrible dawn, most beautiful in its 

 terror, and, if ever dawn did indeed come 

 up like thunder, it was this. Then came 

 the greatest miracle of all, for with the rose- 

 flush in the sky the whole bird-chorus of 



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