Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-12-05


gist Writes Of His Experiences in
France e-Bullfinches Peacefully
Feed, Needless Of Fokkers Droning
Directly Overhead--Robin Sings on
While Big Shells Explode Nearby
Bird Hunt Interrupted.
Stories of birds taking their chances
in the din and ravages of battle are
supplemented by the personal exper-
fences of Ludlow Griscom, who gave
such time to his favorite study of or
anthology as he could spare from his
duties as soldier and who records
his observations in the journal Of the
Museum of Natural History. He found
in the zone abundance of crows, mag
pies, blue jays, rocks, titmice, wood
pigeons, swallows, martins, chafinches,
jays, larks, starlings, buntings, 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.. Girls
com says:
and was considered an unhealthful
spot due to constant bombing, shelling
and gassing-the last apparently the
favOrite method Of annoyance. Every
body carried a gas mask at all times,
and had picked cellar into which to
retire rapidly when a yearning for Sc
clusion seized him. 1t was astonishing,
therefore, to see the full quota of
house sparrows quarreling on the roof
tops the swallows flying up and down
the main street. They had no gas
masks. and it is hardly likely that they
descended to cellars. Just what they
did was 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 headquar-
ters was tree laden with fruit. Here
by the light of the setting sun, three
beautiful bullfnches were peacefully
feeding on the crimson berries, heed
less of three Fokkers which droned
directly overhead. Unperturbed and
unhurried they finished their meal, and
then disappeared in the gathering
gloom, leaving behind an impression
so strong by its sharp contrast that
Ii iS craven deeply on my memory.
At the end of October I was ordered
to the first army sector. The hills
northwest of Verdun had been select
ed as an excellent sending station for
certain type of balloon, and I was
sent there on November to start a
station. AS we approached Verdun
the country appeared more and more
wrecked until ii could be described as
totally ruined in the hills to the north
west There, where the flower of
young French manhood had died by
the tens Of thousands, there was moth
ing but a succession of shell holes.
The trenches were partly fallen in, the
barbed wire entanglements were just
as they had been left at the last tri-
umphant advance, and here and there
few blasted tree trunks did duty for
wood. Vegetation even was scant.
A kestrel lowered over the dreary
waste flock of gold-fnches twittered
around a thistle, and a great gray
shrike had taken up his quarters in a
barbed wire ENHANCEMENT.
Heard a Wren Singing.
"As dusk fell we descended into
steep little valley to the ruined village
of Fremonville, and elected to spend
the night in one of the few houses
which still boasted of a roof. That
night the artillery fire at the front rose
to the intensity of drum fire. The al
| lied heavy guns were concealed in the
hills along q line lying a mile or two
south of us. These joined merrily in
the chorus, so that in the early morn
ing the ground fairly shook.
"The approach of dawn brought
quiet, permitting a brief cat nap, and
/ l was astonished TO hear wren sing
ing in the rafters nearby, as / woke
up. A bird hunt in this ruined village
and it's outskirts started Immediately.
Wrens were common, the smashed
roofs and torn rafters furnishing them
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 wag-
/ tail, and a great tit kept It some sort
of company in willow bush near by.
House sparrows were chattering
around the church, and flock Of tree
sparrows were feeding around the
horse pond. Add flock of rocks fly
ing past overhead and a pair of yellow
buntings in field just outside the vii
lage, and we have quite list for such
locality. Later on few shells burst
on hillside about quarter of mile