The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-13
WAR HAS NO TERROR FORB|RDSALONGT THE FRONTS IN EUROPE
Thousands of Feathered Songsters Remain in Area of Great Battles-SOld-
 diers Love Pets

With the British Armies in France,
 February 1.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press )-One of the distinct
 surprises to the newcomer at the war
 is to find larks singing over the front, line trenches. One would think that birds of every sort had long since been driven far from the war zone, but in- stead they turk in and about it in great numbers. Very often the sudden flight of a covey from a secluded thicket or remnant of wood has given the first signal of shrapnel attack.
 The drumming of big guns, the pat pat batter batter batter of ma chine guns, the whir and bang of plum puddings' and rum jars sent over by the enemy trench mortars seem to have lost all terror to the feathered songsters. They chirp as gaily and loudly over the muddy line" as if there was no such thing in all the world as war.
 The British Tommy is very fond of pets. When he can safely do so he throws crumbs over the parapet for the larks and if he had his way would fill up every nook and corner of the trench with some sort of animal mas cot As it Is, there. is strange mixture | of pets and pests in these deep cut | tings in the carth-the outposts Of battle-where the men themselves live sort of animal life. It is a life no l human being was ever intended to l live and yet the health of the troops l Is positively amazing.
 Of all the trench pests, the rat, of course, by reason of his size, takes precedence. He Is everywhere No amount of cleaning up has tended to wipe him out. In fact he waxes fatter and fatter as the war goes on. Of the pets the dog is by far the
 more numerous and popular. There are goats and cats and canaries and vari- ous species of mascot, but the dog be- comes more part of the life than any of the others.
 Many a subaltern or company com- mander has gone lover the top" into battle with his dog 1eaping and bark ing happily beside him. Scores of dogs have been killed beside their masters and hundreds wounded. In the fight ing about Mametz, during the great push on the Somme, a Red Cross searching party came upon a pathetic little group composed of subaltern. his dog and four private soldiers, just as they had sprawled to their death iii a burst of machine gun fire.
 The dogs in the trenches nave great fun chasing the rats. They will even leap over the parapet after them into "No Mans Land" And sometimes old Fritz" from the enemy trenches will snipe them. There is one old terrier now in the front line who has been wounded four times. If he survives the war. this old veteran is going to have collar with four gold stripes on 1t.
 The Red Cross dogs of the French hardly come under the head of pets They are a lasting tribute to the part dumb animals have played and are playing in the great world conflict The dogs. however. render a service
 scarcely more notable than the little
 French donkeys that carry ammunition
 to the front line trenches. These little
 burros are as wise as they are gray
 Their long, straight ears. always polk
 ing forward. are attuned to the sounds
 of battle and when the firing gets too
 heavy they dart for the shelter of shell
 holes and lie there with the drivers
 until danger temporarily is past.
 Some of the straH&ast animals of the
 war are the wildcats of Ypres. The
 old mother and father cats of Ypres
 were once domesticated But when the
 frightened population fled at the first
 bonn bardment the cats, true to all cat
 traditions. remained behind Now
 Ypres is wilderness of ruins and