Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-03
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

time to see Baby Suede leap and catch
ruby-throat. tore out, and she very
obligingly gave 1t to me. It, too, was
perfectly limp. but this time, OF course
I feared it was injured, though I coulc
find no mark on it.
Taking it up to the honeysucklt
high porch, l ministered to it in vari-
Gus ways, dropping water on its beak
and wishing it back to life. Presently
its feathers began to glow. 1t Is indie
scribable. really, but that best expresses
what happens when a bird comes back
to life. That is why they look so very
dead and pitiful when they are stufteo
and mounted. A photograph OF
mounted bird can never fool a biro
lover, however it may profess to be from
a living model.
He began to glow and palpitate, but
made no move to fly. He sat up ano
perched on my finger, slipping drop OF
water Then / tried something else
and was enraptured to find it successful
Reaching for a spray of honeysuckle
/ held it out to him, and what die
he do, still sitting on my left hand, but
plunge in his long beak and suck the
honey from one after another OF the
flowers?
Then his colors fairly struck fire
He was as though TRANSPORTED. Then
click! He was apparently perfectly a!
right. About a week later, when
was sitting in the same place, reading
a humming bird left the honeysuckleS
and circled several times around my
head. ] always liked to think it was
my guest paying his party call.
r
'"These rare glimpses were rather
cheapened by my mountaineering
with the ruby-throat in louisiana
There honeysuckle ran riot over all the
line fences, and during my neighbors
absence in the Summer completely COW
cred their woodpile, making fuge
banqueting table for literally dozens oil
humming birds.
possible) as many as 80 or 40 there at
one time. I have heard people assert
that the humming bird never alights
They should have seen the rows of them
that festooned my clothes line as they
rested from their gorging-and fight-
ing. For again my sweet memories OF
them were Jared by their terrible
fights. With a long shrill shrek, two
gladiators would swoop towards each
other in the air and bump with such
force together that they bounced apart,
only to lunge together again until OK
pected to see them gore each other
through and through.
However, l never saw fatallty, 10!
about that time another fight would
start and the first couple would swoop
screamingly away, leaving the jousting
field to the new pair of knights"
In the foregoing paragraphs we are
presented the humming bird at work
and play by true bird lover. The
writer here makes no pretenSe of being
a bird lover. He is interested in birds,
that is all.
1t is perhaps true that one must
have an intimate acquaintanceship with
birds from childhood to appreciate them
properly. If one simply becomes in
terested in them in later life he will
lack that f1neness OF discriminating OBJ
which marks the foregoing de-
Scriptions.
The birds occupy a peculiar place in
the scale of life. 1t is not given to
every one to love them, but most may
be interested III them. Since We have
moved to Jack Spratt Farm we have
heard many new bird songs.
There is one mysterious bird which
We have never seen which says, as plain
as plain can be, Pussy, pussy, pussy,
pusSy!" with the high note on the last
syllable 1t is not a cat bird. but We
call it the cat-calling bird. The cardi-
nal still remains our favorite. next to
the humming bird. And we confess q
sneaking liking for sparrows.