Birds on the Western Front 



morning came to life. Never, surely, did 

 birds sing so BLACKBIRD and THRUSH, LARK 

 and BLACK-CAP and WILLOW WARBLER. 

 Most of the time their voices, of course, were 

 inaudible, but now and again in the intervals 

 of the shattering noise of the guns their notes 

 pealed up, as if each bird were struck with 

 frenzy and were striving to shout down the 

 guns " (Daily News, 8.vi.i7). 



The above quotations from the observa- 

 tions of eye-witnesses illustrate the indiffer- 

 ence of birds in general to the noise of battle ; 

 the following notes testify to the behaviour 

 of individual species : 



A BLACKBIRD built her nest on a siege-gun 

 daily in action on the front and laid four 

 eggs in it, being, as one of the gunners said, 

 " as saucy as she was confident of our protec- 

 tion" (Daily Express, 5.v.i6). Another 

 BLACKBIRD built its nest in the body of a 

 field-gun which had not been fired for four 

 days, during which period the nest was made 

 and three eggs were laid. Thereafter the 

 gun was fired daily, but the bird laid two 

 more eggs and continued to sit unconcernedly 



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