Behaviour of Birds 



" stand-to " just before dawn, in August 1918, 

 in the reoccupied trenches of the old devas- 

 tated area of the first Somme offensive (Ibis, 

 1919, p. 77). 



CORN-CRAKES "craked" regularly, in spite 

 of the fact that "back areas'" were being 

 shelled with great persistence (Scotsman, 

 i6.vi.i7), and were reported as plentiful in 

 the long hay-grass growing round the front- 

 line trenches on the Somme (Ibis, 1919, p. 57). 



In the farmyards, HENS went on clucking 

 and laying eggs, while huge shells burst all 

 round them (The Field, 27.vii.i8). 



The foregoing extracts from observations 

 by eye-witnesses are but samples of a host 

 of notes on the behaviour of individual birds 

 on our Western Front. One would have ex- 

 pected that the casualties amongst birds 

 would have been very heavy and that hun- 

 dreds must have been wounded and killed 

 by bursting shrapnel, but their bodies were 

 seldom seen ; possibly they were immedi- 

 ately eaten by the numberless armies of 

 vermin which swarmed about the country. 

 After a wood had been shelled by the Ger- 



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