Evening star., 1932-03-12

One robin, two cardinals, two blue
lays. one flicker, and q dozen slate
colored juncos hoped around over the
snow in Templeton Jones back ward
Wednesday afternoon.
The robin, fat and ehesty. should
have held his attention, as the har-
binger Of Spring, but it didn't He
rather fancied the little juncos, the
snowbirds, rs they are more popularity
called.
These small American finches had
been sampling the Winter chaff In the
Jones yard for several weeks, but ii
took the advent of the snow to make
them stand out.
That is why they are called snow
birds.
Several pans of bread crumbs, scat
tered over the glittering expanse, quite
won the hearts of the little fellows.
They lost no time in arriving at the
feast. Previously they had been peck
ing away at the snow, getting heaven
knows what for their dinner
Now they had some real grub, not
long out of the oven. But long in the
oven. The way 1t came about was this ::
Templeton Jones. being notoriously
fond of hot baking powder biscuits,
had expressed a desire for plate full
The biscuits we're forthcoming. and
in the rejoicing over their delicious
quality, as augmented by good butter,
the second painful was forgotten.
Every cook knows that the second
batch is where the trouble comes in.
Either the oven is too hot, and the
biscuits brown too quickly, or they are
forgotten and permitted to get too
hard.
The happy thing is that by the time
one has eaten the first batch, literally
spread with dripping butter, and
washed down by copious draughts of
cold milk right out of the electric ice
box tsee any ADVERTISEMENT, the con-
noisseur of such things is willing to
let the juncoS have the second helping
X
So 1t came about that each little
iunco had more biscuit to eat than he
knew what to do with.
They were rather hard, but what diff
ference did that make to junco?
With its sharp little bill it drilled a
capab hole in each piece of broken
biscuit, and shortly surrounded num-
ber of fine crumbs.
Each snowbird had plenty. with
enough left to fight over. Honest jun
cos could ask no more. Mankind, in
deed could ask no more.
Enough to eat, and enough to fight
over?
There one has all history in q SEN
tence.
The snowbirds we're not as quarrel
! some as English Sparrows, which they
resemble but they did a rather good
lob of chasing after each other, espe
cially when one dropped a large chunk
of biscuit in flight.
Even the pair of cardinals, the two
jays and the big flicker found crumb
or two to their liking. But the snow
birds got most of them.
Delightful little fellows they are, and
Templeton Jones was glad that they
had some snow to make them feel at
home.
What is the use of being snowbird
II you have no snow?
After Jones got tired Of watching
the banquet Of the juncos he turned
his attention to the spectacle of the
UNEQUAL melting of the snow.
Just why snow Will melt one place
in a yard and not another must for
ever remain a mystery.
At least to the non scientific mind.
Perhaps the hard-boiled scientist un-
willing to revel in mystery. would ex-
plain the whole matter by variations
in depth hours of exposure to the
He would show to hairs breadth just
how impossible 1t was for the snow in
one portion Of a yard to melt at pre-