Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-15

In the midst of the general prepara-
tions for the inauguration there are
Some residents of the District of Co
lun1bia who are looking forward to
the Inauguration of Spring, too.
These are the home gardeners, flower
loving men and women, who nave been
stirring around reStlessly ever since they
read about some man somewhere seeing
a robin.
Ali that local gardeners have had an
opportunity of seeing In the bird line
are the starlings, ubiquitous feathered
fellows which seem to have taken par
ticrlar fancy for the National Capital.
When one thinks of the nuisance
these birds have become IN compar-
atively short time he is likely. TO tecl
that he owes profuse apologies to the
humble English sparroWs.
For many years the sparroWs were
the target of scorn of every righteous
citizen. No one ever had a good word
to say for them, They were pesky
little critters which couldn't sing, and
hadn't pretty coats, and only made
harsh chirpings.
Somehow we always felt that these
TRADES against the English sparrow
were misplaced It is not bad look
ing bird, by any means, and always
showed an inclination to stick around,
no matter what the weather.
Your sparrow is no uppity bird to go
off to Florida when the weather gets
cold, but a plain citizen who toughs 1t
out along with the rest OF us less
favored mortals.
You could never look out window
without seeing one of them hopping
around Many persons had a sneaking
fondness for the sparrow Perhaps they
we're the same men and women VINO
like the common dandelion and the
bright buttercups.
X X X X
And now the startling comes on the
scene proving that when nUiSanceS are
being discussed the English sparrow is
a back-number, as it were. The starting
is four times as large and at least four
times as unattractiVe. He is, however, a
most interesting bird.
One rainy afternoon recently We
watched a flock of them in the back
yard, where they have made themselves
at home since the day when we un-
warily put out bread for the Sparrows.
The sight of the sparrows feasting at
their ease was too much for the star
lings, so they descended in numbers and
have never failed to come back every
afternoon since.
Between feasts they spend their time
trying to peck holes in our tin roof with
their large beaks. We have heard them
up there, and their big bills sound essen
TALLY destructive.
Rain had collected in several depreS
sions in the grass, forming splendid
little pools for bird bathing. A sparrow
had taken advantage of the fact and
was Topping its wings in the water in
the rather silly way birds have of doing
A startling few down, eyed the sparrow
with malice, and then proceeded to GUST
it from its nice pool.
Flop, flop, flop! the startling tapped
it's wings in the grassy shallow pond,
getting the water we'll up under them.
He seem ID to enjoy himself immense
ly. He would squat down, in order to
get into the water, then would flap
those stubby black wings up and down
spraying water in all directions.
Soon more starlings appeared. The
water was fire, and they were all going
to try 1t. Pretty soon the pool was so
crowded with fat starlings that there
was no room for more.
The curious thing was that there were
several other pools available, but does
any one suppose for an instant that the