Birds on the Western Front 



thunder of the guns. She certainly paid no 

 heed to the movements of the troops as they 

 passed to and fro, close to the nest, busy with 

 their day's work (Land and Water, I4.ix.i6). 

 An observer in the battle-zone in the valley 

 of the Ancre writes on June ist, 1918 : 

 " Whether in the front line, or in the still 

 noisier belt just in front of the field-guns, 

 the heavier the fire the more exultant the 

 flow of song ; and three nights ago, when we 

 stood-to during a barrage in gas-masks in a 

 wood reeking with mustard gas, the NIGHT- 

 INGALES still sang undismayed in the branches 

 overhead" (Manchester Guardian, io.vi.i8). 

 In May 1917 a NIGHTINGALE, in Ossus Wood, 

 our most advanced position near the St. 

 Quentin Canal, sang particularly well when 

 the machine-guns fired, as if in answer to 

 them (Ibis, 1919, p. 68). About June 1917, 

 when preparations were on foot for the great 

 " third battle of Ypres/' a party of troops 

 halted in a wood, midway between Ypres 

 Elver drighe Poperinghe, for the usual "ten 

 minutes easy." The wood was well within 

 shell-fire of the enemy and had just received 

 i 113 



