TCD MS 10515 folio 44v
[April 28th 1916]
ous voice throughout the month of March, the only sign in this bleak country of an overflowing happiness expressed in a melodious song. Within the palms the desert is utterly barren but it is remarkable how the refuse of a camp attracts living creatures and soon teems with animal life. An emcampment, pitched upon the bare sand, as soon as deserted, swarms with millions of flies; hoopoes, in small flocks, come in search of grubs; chats, wagtails, swallows chase the unnumerable insects, and Kites or Hooded Crows appear in quest of refuse. Thus does the armies of man and his beasts of burden change the fauna of a land; and by his mere presence, people a barren waste with a varied throng of living creatures. And as man af-