Evening star., 1932-11-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

The English sparrow Is, on the other
hand, an Interesting and pleasant little
fellow, whose quarrels with his own
kind simply add to his character In
human eyes.
As for his nuisance value. he may be
classed as negative. when compared
with that prime specimen, the starting,
whose activities along this line put
him In the Big League.
i n
There are many persons interested In
our feathered friends who still get q
great deal Of pleasure out Of the SPAR
rows, and who believe that their value
to the community is at least as large
as that Of other birds whose coloration
and songs may be more pleasing.
It might be well for their friends to
remember the sparrows, which more or
less live on concrete. Householders IN
the residential sections commonly re
member the birds" with outpourings Of
bread crumbs all Winter long. This Is
well, but the truth Is that the down.
town birds need such provisions far
more
Out In the suburban areas there are
variods sorts of berries, of which birds
are very fond. These are good bird
food. Chaff from the trees and grass
seed, together with fallen seeds from
all sorts Of flowers and shrubs, form q
second line for the suburban birds. They
never are at loss to pick up something
good under the trees.
r 4
In the city proper. however, as we
have attempted to explain, conditions
are far otherwise. Only the scantiest
living is to be picked up there, unless
there Is special windfall for our
feathered friends.
There is one way the confirmed friend
Of birds can help them. This is by
sprinkling bread crumbs around the
streets, few at q time, 30 that the
downtrodden of birdland at least can
find some real food here and there
1t is said that certain persons In the
great City of London have specialized
for many years in scattering scraps Of
paper around the streets, in the naive
belief that by doing SO they would be
providing work for the city street sweep
ers, thus insuring them their jobs. This,
to their way Of thinking, k . COM
mendable activity.
Such a practice may be Americanized
by the simple expedient of substituting
crumbs for paper. There will never be
any additional work imposed on any
one by this bit Of kindness.
1t Is safe to say that every last
crumb Of food distributed In this man
ner will be picked up by some hungry
bird. who otherwise would 60 hungry.
~
A few minutes Of observation will
convince any one that there is vast
difference between the appearance of
downtown birds and suburban birds.
Ordinarily even the bird lover fails
to see the little fellows which hop
around over the sidewalks
The demands Of traffic are heavier
on human beings than birds. The lat
ter, though scrawny, can fly down di-
rectly into traffic and remain there
until approaching wheels are foot or
two in front Of them
Then he is able to fly up and away
with absolute safety. His human ad-
mirers must pay more attention to
traffic conditions in order to escape
with their lives This does not permit
them to spend much time admiring the
street birds.
1t will require a real effort OF the
mind to direct ones attention to them,
and especially to really see their con-
dition as IT really is
Compared with the fat. healthy birds
Of the suburbs, the downtown sparrows
are miserable specimens, but they are
real birds and, in q sense, peculiarly
interesting ones.