Birds on the Western Front 



25.iii.i6). They hovered about all day in 

 the hottest part of the line, not in the least 

 disconcerted apparently when a promising 

 mouse-area suddenly rose in the air in a 

 cascade of black or yellow earth (Weekly 

 Westminster, I4.x.i6). One pair of KES- 

 TRELS had a nest in a " crack " on the side of 

 a slag-heap which was frequently shelled by 

 the Germans. Whenever a shell exploded 

 near their domicile the birds would fly down 

 to some wire entanglements in the vicinity, 

 but they returned as soon as things quieted 

 down, and never deserted their nest (Star, 

 3.vii.i6). 



STORKS returned unusually early to Alsace 

 in 1916, but the draining of the marshes round 

 Strasbourg drove them nearly all away from 

 that city. They proved as indifferent to the 

 thunder of the guns as any other bird (Even- 

 ing News, n.iii.i6), and returned to old 

 nesting-places on ruined buildings (Man- 

 chester Guardian, 2g.xi.i7). 



SNIPE and WATERFOWL of all sorts congre- 

 gated on the flooded craters and the vast 

 expanse of mud and desolation between the 



125 



