Birds on the Western Front 



and built in the military huts constructed 

 against the battered walls (Bird Notes and 

 News, vol. vi. p. 101). SWALLOWS often 

 nested in billets, and a pair placed their nest 

 and reared their brood in a room used as a 

 field dressing-station (Scotsman, 25.vii.i7). 

 Another pair built their nest in an " Arm- 

 strong hut " only sixty or seventy yards from 

 a battery of 6-inch howitzers, which fired 

 at intervals of about three minutes or less 

 throughout the day, and on special occasions 

 all night long. With each discharge the air 

 concussion, quite apart from the crash of the 

 report, caused the hut to rock, indeed almost 

 to jump (Scotsman, so.vi.iy). SWALLOWS 

 did not desert their broods in an outhouse 

 when a shell took off the greater part of the 

 roof, and before the day was over they were 

 using the shell-holes as a convenient entrance 

 through which to pass backwards and for- 

 wards with food for their young (Bird Notes 

 and News, vol. vii. p. 44). A SWALLOW'S 

 nest with five eggs was found in a German 

 dug-out, about 6 feet from the floor. Every 

 chimney, house, and shed had been levelled 



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