Show larks sing S ing As big guns roar ro a r abundance of songsters Song where r a battles rage Is surprise to newcomer SOLDIERS ARE FOND OF PETS all of mascots abound in the trenches many also alio are the pests red cross dogs doga are valuable 1 I with tile tha british armies in france ono one of the distinct distin it surprises to the newcomer at tile the war la is to find larks lark singing over the front line trenches one would think that birds ot of every sort had long ago been driven far from the war var zone but instead they lurk in and about it in great number very often the of ota a covey from a secluded thicket or remnant of wood has given the first signal ot of a shrapnel attack the drumming of big guns gunn the pat pat patter patter patter of jua machine joachine chine guns the whirr and bang of 11 plum puddings and rum ruin jarw jars cent sen t over by the enemy trench mortars seem been to have lost all terror to the feathered songsters song they chirp as aa gayly and loudly over tile the muddy line na as if there were no such tiling thing in all the world as aawar war the british tommy Is 1 very fond of pets when lie he can safely do BO ile he throws crumbs over the for the larks and if he had lite hla way would fill up every nook end and corner of tile trench with some sort of animal mascot As it is there Is a strange mixture and pests peats in these deep cuttings in the earth the outposts of battle where the men themselves live it a sort of animal life it Is a life no human being was ever intended to live and yet the health of 0 tho the troops Is positively amazing rat the leading peat of nil all the trench pests the rat of course by reason of tits his size takes precedence lie ile Is everywhere no amount of cleaning up ha has a tended I 1 to exterminate him in tact fact he waxes tatter fatter rind fatter as the war goes on of the pets the dog Is by tar the more numerous and popular there are goats and cats and canaries und various of mascot but the dog becomes more a part of the life than any of the others many blany a subaltern or company commander comander al has gone over the top into battle with hla his dog leaping and barking happily beside him scores of dogs have been killed beside their masters and hundreds wounded in tha th ef fighting nebout blagetz Bla metz during tho the great push on an the somme bulted cross scorching party came upon a pathetic little group composed of a subaltern his dog and four private soldiers just as they had sprawled to their death in a burst of machine gun fire the dogs in the trenches have great tun fuja chasing tile the rats they wilt will even leap over the parapet after jiem into no mans land and soine sometimes times old fritz from the enemy trenches will snipe salpe them there to Is one old terrier now bow in the front una line who has been wounded four times it if he survives the war the old veteran Is going to have a collar with four gold stripes on it red cross dogs Vilu valuable the red cross dogs of the french hardly come under the lead head of pets they rhey tire a lasting tribute to tile the part dumb sini animals mals have played and are playing in tile the great world conflict tho the dogs however render a service scarcely more notable than tho the little french donkeys that carry ammunition to the front line trenches j these little burros are as wise ns as they are gray their long straight ears cars always poking forward are arc attuned to tile the sounds of battle and whet when the fl or ing 1119 gets ecta too heavy they dart for tile the shelter of shell holes and llo lie there with the drivers until danger temporarily Is past sonio some of the ho strongest strangest 8 of tile lie wor war sire lire tho the wild cats of the old allott mother ier and father cats of cypres ypres were once but whet when tho the frightened population led at the first bombardment tile the cats true to nil cat traditions remained behind now ypres cypres Is 1 a wilderness of ruins and nil all the cats born bora and living there have become like wild animals A canadian sergeant major camo came marching out of tho the allne line A few days ago with a magpie sitting ou on his shoulder A private la in the same company had a kitten buried up on the top of ills his all the overseas troops bring mascots with them the south africans started out with a grent great collection of springboks spring boks baboons babions ba boons dulk era and a variety of queer animals but the climate of northern france lu in winter mood Is fur for from friendly rl endly and the worm weather ditc itc leits ts leavo mostly tn been done in probably the roost most amazing of nil all war pets however was tl the 1 e lion itou cub adopted by tile the americans amerlia ns it in tho the fredach aviation service they rend read in a paris newspaper that a perfect dear of a cub was for sale onu and promptly sent emissaries in to buy him they said when lindgrew he lid grew up they were going to drop him in the german lines but ho be was spoiled spelled into being a pampered pet instead of a ma manester neater anti and finally because ills his playful howls at 11 t night became a nuisance he be was waa lae sent 1 it to tile the zoo |