Birds on the Western Front 



mans it was carefully searched to see the 

 effects on wild life, and only a dead PARTRIDGE, 

 a DOVE, two RATS, and a severely wounded 

 MOLE were found. RATS, MICE, BATS, 

 BEETLES, CATERPILLARS, and BUTTERFLIES, 

 even WORMS many inches below the ground, 

 could be found dead by the dozen, after a 

 gas attack, but no adult birds ; although any 

 nestlings must, of course, have been suffo- 

 cated. On one occasion, when the gas at- 

 tack was particularly severe and before 

 the great white cloud drifted to our lines, the 

 birds were chirping and twittering gaily, 

 the ROBIN trilling his autumn song, and the 

 STARLINGS singing in full chorus in a shattered 

 tree. Then, except for the awful crash of 

 the guns, nature was silent. Yet, when the 

 gas cloud dispersed, all the birds were sing- 

 ing just as gaily as ever, chirping and hunting 

 food as if nothing had happened. Possibly 

 the birds flee before the gas cloud, just as 

 they flee before a bush fire, and return when 

 it is over (H. Thoburn Clarke, in Land and 

 Water, I4.ix.i6). One observer writes of 

 having seen several SPARROWS suffering from 



