Birds on the Western Front 



few yards of the nest (Times, i6.vi.i7). On 

 Whit Sunday, 1918, the trenches round about 

 a willow, in which a BLACKBIRD had its nest, 

 were smartly shelled with 5*9 for an hour or 

 more. The cock-bird's evensong was, how- 

 ever, unimpaired, and seemed, if anything, 

 more melodious (Observer, 5.1.19). 



A ROBIN was observed to perch persis- 

 tently upon the bayonet of a French soldier 

 (Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 24.V.I5), 

 and another ROBIN chose a dug-out for its 

 nesting-place, where it reared its brood of 

 five without disturbance (Bird Notes and 

 News, vol. vi. p. 87). A ROBIN'S nest was 

 discovered in an old shell-case half concealed 

 among the ivy covering a ruined shed (Scots- 

 man, 20.iv.i8). 



NIGHTINGALES were frequently heard dur- 

 ing the intervals of a night's bombardment 

 (Times, n.vi.i6), and sang while monster 

 shells were bursting in a town eight miles 

 from the firing-line (Scotsman, 9.vii.i6). A 

 brood of young NIGHTINGALES was hatched, 

 on the day of the heaviest Hooge bombard- 

 ment, on the lip of the first-line trench (Times, 



in 



