Behaviour of Birds 



(Bird Notes and New$, vol. vi. p. 87). A 

 BLACKBIRD reared its brood in a nest which 

 was built in a hedge only twenty yards from 

 two 9* 2-inch guns. The birds, old and young, 

 never seemed to mind the firing of the guns, 

 which shattered glass in windows and tore the 

 tiles off houses fifty yards away (Scotsman, 

 25.vii.i7). A BLACKBIRD'S nest with three 

 young birds in it was found in a captured 

 village which had been right in the old Ger- 

 man front line. The mother-bird must have 

 sat on its nest during the whole of the pre- 

 liminary bombardment and the subsequent 

 terrific fighting ; everything around the nest 

 was smashed to atoms(Z>^7y Mail, 28.vii.i6). 

 The day after the Wytschaete Ridge had 

 been taken, June 7th, 1917, a BLACKBIRD 

 was found sitting on a nest containing five 

 eggs, built about 3 feet from the ground, in 

 a communication trench leading to, and 

 about 15 yards from, the original German line. 

 A big mine had been exploded within 120 

 yards of the spot, making a crater large 

 enough to accommodate a good-sized house, 

 and there were also shell-holes within but a 



no 



