BIRD LIFE IN THE BATTLE ZONE. pro nut EDITOR or
rao ni3racraroo."3
Sts,—Perhaps the following extracts from a letter from "somewhere in France" and within sound of the guns will be of interest to your readers :—
"I saw a flycatcher here this afternoon, pretty little chap.... I have only seen one bullfinch but heard several. This place is full of nightingales. I have got one nest within four or five yards, but it is in a blackthorn thicket. My searches have so far disclosed a magpie's nest with nine eggs. One I tried to blow, but it was too far advanced and smashed, so I have hopes of a tame one in about ten days' time. I have found heaps of blackbirds' and thrashes' nests. One lovely little nest roofed in blue feathers but not yet working. I think a tit's of come kind. I saw swallows here last Monday. Thursday afternoon I saw two cuckoos for the first time this year: also a pair of ravens. I think they are not nesting here but farther afield. Would you look up 'Morrie' for any likely spots for yellowhammers' nests P I have tramped through lots of gorse and crawled in banks and can't find one at alL I was so surprised the other day sitting in my room reading to bear a noise like a cat having its tail trodden on. I got my glasses (guessing it was a bird) and hunted the tree-tops outside the window care- fully and finally spotted a big bird nearly the size of a jackdaw, certainly as big as a jay, almost completely yellow, with long beak and some black on the wings and tail. I have heard it since but not seen it, and must put it down as a yellow oriole. The bird was right on top of a tall beech tree and remained about three minutes and flew off. I revisited the small closed-in neat made of moss I found ten days ago in a furze patch, and it is now feather, lined and contains eight eggs, white, with at the large end rust red spots fairly sprinkled and but a few towards the other end. It may be a tit of some kind; not a long-tailed tit as there is no lichen on the nest."
Previous page
