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Show BATTLEFIELDS Paid Little Attention ta Fire of Artillery. EXPERT GIVES OBSERVATIONS Soldier Who Was Also an Ornitholo gist Writes of His Experiences in France Bullfinches Peacefully Feed, Heedless of Fokkers Droninj Directly Overhead Robin Sings on While Big Shells Explode Nearby-Bird Nearby-Bird Hunt Interrupted. Stories of birds taking their chnncos iii (ho din and rnvupes of battle are supplemented by (he personal experiences exper-iences of Ludlow Griscom, who gave such time to his? favorite study of ornithology or-nithology as he could spare from his duties as a soldier and who records his observations in the journal of (he Museum of Natural Hisfory. He found in the zone abundance of crows, magpies, mag-pies, blue jays, rooks1, titmice, wood pigeons, swallows, martins, chaffinches, jays, larks, starlings, buntings, goldfinches gold-finches and other species. Writing of one trip as a dispatch carrier, which took him to Saint-Die, through the spruce forests of the Vosges, Mr. Gris-com Gris-com says : "Saint-Die itself was partly in ruins, und was considered an unhealthful spot due to constant bombing, shelling nnd gassing the last apparently the favorite method of annoyance. Everybody Every-body carried a gas mask at all times, nnd had picked a cellar into which lo retire rapidly when a yearning for seclusion se-clusion seized him. It was astonishing, therefore, to see the full quota of house sparrows quarreling on tiie roof fops, the swallows (lying up and down the main street. They had no gas masks, and Lt is hardly likely that they descended to cellars. Just what they did was a mystery." Did Not Mind Fokkers. "When the dusk gathered the great guns began to thunder a scant mile away. In the garden of the old chateau which was used as headquarters headquar-ters was a tree laden with fruit. Here by the light of the setting sun. three beautiful bullfinches were peacefully feeding on the crimson berries, heedless heed-less of three Fokkers which droned directly overhead. Unperturbed nnd unhurried they finished their meal, and (hen disappeared in the gathering gloom, leaving behind an impression so strong by its sharp contrast that It is graven deeply on my memory. At the end of October I was ordered to the first army sector. The hills northwest of Verdun had been selected select-ed as an excellent sending station for a certain type of balloon, and I was sent there on November 2 to start a station. As we approached Verdun the country appeared more and more wrecked until it could be described as totally ruined in the hills to the northwest. north-west. There, where the flower of young French manhood had died by the tens of thousands, there was nothing noth-ing but a succession of shell hols. The trenches were partly fallen in, the barbed wire entanglements were just as they had been left at the last tri-umphant tri-umphant advance, and here and there a few blasted tree trunks did duty for a wood. Vegetation even was scant. A kestrel hovered over the dreary-waste, dreary-waste, a flock of gold-finches twittered around a thistle, and a great gray shrike had taken up his quarters in a barbed wire entanglement. Heard a Wren Singing. "As dusk fell we descended jnto a steep little valley to the ruined village of Fremonvillo, and elected to spend th? night in one of the few houses which still boasted of a roof. That night the artillery fire at the front rose to (lie intensity of drum fire. The allied al-lied heavy guns were concealed in the hills along a line lying a mile or two south of us, These joined merrily in the chorus, so that in the early morning morn-ing the ground fairly shook. "The approach of dawn brought quiet, permitting a brief cat nap, and I was astonished to hear a wren singing sing-ing In the rafters nearby, as I woke up. A bird hunt in this ruined village and its outskirts started Immediately. Wrens were common, the smashed roois iiiiii uiin mi iii.-'iMni- in, in an abundance of hiding places among which they ducked and bobbed. Robin redbreasts were also common, singing sweetly in every bush that remained. Along the little brook flowing through the village was a solitary white wagtail, wag-tail, and a great tit kept it some sort . of company in a willow bush near by. j House sparrows were chattering ! around the chun'h. and a flock of tree j ! si arrows were feeling around the i j tvrse pond. Afld a flock of rooks fly- 1 ing part overhead and a pair of yellow ! huntings in a field jurt outside the vil- lage. and we have finite a list for stub j a lornl'ty. Later on a few shells burst on a liillsiile about a quarter of a mile ! nv. ay. to which the birds in (he village I paid not the slightest attenii n. |