ed
quietly down the garden path and got close to the cherry tree from
which the trills and lilts continued to pour, but could see nothing.
Mlle. C---- said it was a chantresse (songster) but that did not give
us much idea of what it was like.

Every morning and evening after that, this indefatigable songster
made music for us (or rather for his mate, probably sitting on her
eggs) in the cherry tree on the other side of the wall. How we enjoyed
listening to it! Many a time we tried to locate the singer in his
leafy home, but in vain; the nearest we ever came to it was once when
we saw a branch shake as the bird hopped to another limb.

One morning the brilliant bursts of song were lacking, and we missed
them. Just before we left for the laboratory Mademoiselle C----
brought in a rat trap to show us, and there caught in it, was our
little shy singer with grey dappled breast, its head crushed by the
cruel steel spring. Evidently in search of food in the early morning
it had hopped on the trigger of the trap and met its fate. It was one
of the little tragedies continually occurring in nature; to the little
bird-wife waiting in the cherry tree it was just as great a tragedy as
would be the death of her husband to the woman waiting at home.

This was an eventful period in the history of the war for Canadians. A
heavy bombardment all along the line from La Bassee to Ypres
forecasted something unusual. My diary, unusually voluminous for the
day of June 3rd, shows that I was greatly impressed by the occurrences
of that day and had taken the trouble to write down my impressions at
length. The following extract is a word for word copy from my diary:

June 3rd.--Awakened at 2.15 a.m. by agitated firing of anti-aircraft
guns. Heard planes overhead and big guns going. Listened for a while
and got partly dressed and went down into garden. Two British planes
going up--no Bosches visible. Quite clear at 2.30 a.m. with low summer
clouds. Slept till 8. Asked Rankin and Ellis at breakfast about
bombardment; they hadn't heard it. Rad said 18 British ships sunk and
Canadians had lost trenches--laughed at him.

Sanitary officer 24th Division called re beer used at Dranoutre taken
from becque 3/4 mile below Locre sewage outfall. Also discussed lime
treatment of sewage effluent, grease traps, etc., etc.

French paper at noon said British and German fleets had been engaged.

After dinner went with Ellis to Abeele, called on paymaster for