Evening star., 1932-05-14

AS a weather prophet a robin is
rather good. One will be inclined to
question his ability, however, when he
discovers that he never chirpS until
the day becomes clouded over. Almost
any one can predict rain on cloudy
day!
Perhaps the robin redbreast prognos-
ticates by symptoms of hunger, rather
than by eyesight; he knows, from CEN
turies of ancestral experience, that
rainy days bring the worms to the
surface of the ground.
However he does it, he almost always
'hits it," and will be found thereafter
softly hopping around in the wet grass,
making darts now and then at the
earth. For all his size. as our song
birds go, the robin is complete gentle
man. His only rival, in this well-bred
air Of his, is the thrush. The latter is
our favorite, but next to him we place
the robin. Another good point in the
latter'S favor is his constancy. He
comes to our gardens early and leaves
late; as matter of fact, few of them
sometimes stay all Winter in excep-
tionally mild years.
Many children brought up in country
and small town seem to know the vari-
Gus song birds by sight but city chill
dren, grown to mans estate, often will
not find their Identification an easy
matter
Yet for the keenest enjoyment of
these fathered friends it is essential to
know their names A beginning may
be made by giving them names of ones
own manufacture.
Thus we called the cardinal, lovelest
of them all, the cheer bird" on &C
count Of the curious sound which it
emitS.
AS "the cheer bird it was known to
this writer for many years before he
knew what it was. That red bird" of
| course, was another handy title.
Our latest find is what we call the
| 'dandelion seed eater" He is minute,
about 2 inches long, with bright yellow
breast and black wings, forming a sort
of black ~" with his tail feathers, of
the same color.
His bill is black
These tiny birds fly in focks and are
SO light that they can land on a blade
of grass and sit there.
Surely they must be wild canaries,
but it is difficult for the amateur to
identify them from the books of plates
showing different birds in colorS. Some
one with real knowledge of birds could
tell one more about them in five min
uteS~than one could get from all the
! books ever written in a week The
trouble is that you are never quite
sure whether the bird you see in the
yard and on the plate are exactly the
same.
These small birds are doing their
best in many yard, on parkings, and
in vacant lots, to clean up the mil
lions of dandelion seeds which are
now showing in white puffs.
1t is almost a hopeless task but the
little birds are hard at it, trying to
cope with the evil to the cultivated
lawn.
A flock Of them will fly down. settle
on the swaying dandehon stems, and
shortly there will not be a seed left.
This is a feathered friend. indeed.
Mostly these little fellows just chirp.
1t canot be dignified by the name of
whistle, even, the sound they make.
1t is a thin, reedlike sound, which
would scarcely be pleasant. were it not
associated with the skimming. dipping
flight of the birds, their beneficent
work and their bright coats.
Seen from a distance, in the hours
just after dawn, these small birds look
like so many 1uttering butterflies or
Autumn leaves.
Even the croak of tree toad, or the
whir Of the katydid, is not diScordant,
in its proper setting. And the strange
thing is that monotonous repetition,
in Nature, is scarcely ever distasteful,
as human sounds, too oft repeated, tend
to become