Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| thicker and their tails bushier, and
they spend more of their time on the
ground.
Especially In the early morning. be-
fore the bulk of vehicular and pedes-
TRAN traffic has begun. these interesting
fellows love to run along sidewalks and
lawns
Mostly they keep out Of the street
| whether by instinct or mere chance 1t
is difflcult to say. Perhaps they ha e
no particular fear Of automobiles, as
such, but merely prefer to use their
accustomed paths overhead.
In three years in a Maryland suburb
We have not seen squirrel cross a
road except on telephone wires, which
they use as bridges, with much very
fine balancing.
In this feat a squirrel makes excel
lent use of its big tail, which 1t uses as
a balancing instrument. Most of the
clutch seems to be secured with the
hind legs and paws, the forepaWs being
used. as the situation demands, as
emergency brakes.
Moles are curious little creatures, to
be found in all suburban communities
and in many city yards.
| Their life, as every one knows, Is
mostly spent underground, in the tun-
nels and runs which they build with
their strange, spoon-like feet.
They do not seem to have created, in
this section OF the country, the lawn
trouble with which they once afflicted
the dooryards OF the Middle West At
one time there mole runs simply under
mined otherwise good lawns.
Their humped-up trails disflgured
many an otherwise good plot of grass
1t was believed that they ate the roots
OF plants, and In other ways created
havoc.
| There is much doubt that moles harm
plants in any way, with the exception
OF such roots as might be Sheared of
by their tunneling operations
Happily, in this section of the coun-
try they seem to work deeper, and so
leave lawns free of the ugly raised lines
The best mole trap yet invented is the
| harmless. necessary" cat as Shakes
peare called sly puss. CAS- far as we
know this is the only reference by the
poet TO this creature, with the eXcep-
ton of several places in which gray
| maxim" is mentioned)
The house cat is anything but harmless
to moles. 1t catches them with the
| same ease it gathers in mice and thus
helps to keep entire neighborhoodS free
from them. Still too little credit is
given the domestic cat, its friends think,
IN It's good work as Vermin eXterminator.
The number of mice caught in year by
the entire feline population of a great
city, including its suburbs, no doubt
would prove staggering if it could be
put In print. We would estimate that
at least 100000 mice and moles
nf -,
Washington nearby Maryland and Vir-
ginia by cats in a years time.
x
Few butterflies are to be seen in local
gardens any more. but occasionally one
f1utterS across path, making the be-
holder wonder where it came from,
why 1t has fingered SO long, where
it will go.
The Fall and Winter homes of the
creatures all around us are matters for
speculation for the tender hearted, those
often misunderstood but most Chris
tan OF human beings. Without their
solicitude for the poor and homeless
the world would be 10 better off than it
was 5000 years ago.
AS cold weather comes on they will
wonder how the squirrels and the rab-
bits and such birds as stay behind
manage to make out. when the earth is
like iron. and the air like ice, and
there is no water anywhere
Yet Nature cares for them we say.
She thickens their coats, and no doubt
in other ways helps them to endure
what none-the-less must be their
privation and want, real physical hard
ships. Perhaps the best thing she does
for them is to deprive them of any
knowledge of anything different from
their lot. The squirrel that sits aloft
In his scanty den in snow and ice
knows nothing of any central heating"
except that which comes from his own
blood stream, and no doubt he is bet
ter off, being a squirrel.