Diary of Pvt. Henry Grossman - Part 2
Swallows and martins are numerous in the war zone, in spite of four years of war. In most French villages the peasants are very superstitious about the swallows and house martins, and consider that ill luck will follow the destruction of a nest. At present these birds’ nests are everywhere. Several occupied a shed in which the gunners were billeted during a “rest.” The shed was ’strafed’ and a shell broke a large hole in the roof, but failed to explode. The swallows had previously used the doorways as an entrance, but promptly saw the convenience of the shell hole in the roof and almost before the dust of the broken roof had subsided they were calmly flying in and out with food for their young ones. Possibly young swallows and martins require more food than other nestlings, for the parent birds were feeding them from the earliest dawn until it was almost too dark to see the birds. Yet the baby birds never ceased squealing for more. Shells might burst and shatter the adjoining sheds, even a “dud” pierce the roof that sheltered them, but still they cired insistently. Perhaps that explains why the visiting mothers of the battle fields take matters so placidly. They have no time to waste, but must feed their young in spite of war’s wild alarms, and, after all, it is the quantity of food that matters and with the sod being constantly torn up by shells they appear to have food in plenty. At any rate, the swallows are entitled to be classed as brave birds.
— Pvt. Henry Grossman
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