Evening star., 1933-12-26
LONDON TRAFFIC
Misunderstanding
Anxious Crowd Tries to Save
Wandering Bird as Bus
men Cheer.

Starlings are not always the pests
Washington has grown to believe.
Here the city turns out it's fire de-
partment, it's C. w. A. workers. and
whoever else is available to make things
uncomfortable for the birds that have
made Pennsylvania avenue uncomfort-
able for the public.
In London, however, Starlings nave
friends
H. E. Luhn, 1855 Calvert street, has
recently had passed on to him the
newspaper account of a starllngS treat
ment in England's capital city. Under
the headline: THE Traffic WaitS-For
a Starling-Thats London" the follow
ing story was published:
"One of the little stories of London
that makes London London!
"A correspondent writes:
Coming up to town I found
greater than usual hold-up at Royal
Exchange; traffic had stopped.
"'And the cause? A young startling
had forsaken the safety of one of the
buildings frescoes for the unknown
dangers of the road-but the road
happened to be London's business
center!
"There was a great attempt at
rescue. All of them failed until
clerk landed it under his bowler hat.
The waiting busmen cheered and the
traffic moved On again.
I wondered whether there was any
other city in the world where, in the
cause of simple humanity, such scene
would be enacted"
Ireland, or rather Dublin, presents
another picture of the feathered visitors
in the city. Dublin is host to a large
number of city-dwelling birds, just as
Washington is, but the Irish city has
wagtails-not starlings-and the more
conslderate birds have won place of
warmth in the hearts Of the Irish
populace.
M. H. Brown, assistant freight claim
agent Of the Fruit Growers Express
Co., ran across an account in the
Christian Science Monitor of Ireland's
treatment of the city-dwelling birds Of
Dublin.
AS a matter of contrast with Wash
1ngton's starlings, the article, bearing
the heading, The Gentle Guests" is
reproduced herewith:
1T is one of the sights that a visitor
to Dublin, during the Winter months,
can never 1orget-the sunset fore
gathering Of the pied wagtails In the
small tree in one of the busiest streets
of that old city. 1t is a sight that is
almost incredible.
AT the best of times Ireland is an
uneasy place. where, on the subject of
political views, divisions are wide and
deep; yet, when october comes, differ
ences are forgotten for a little while
by those who watch the little plane
tree in the SIDE street that has suf-
fered much in the past. viii the wag-
tails come again this year?' they ask
each other.
Arrived in Autumn.
-Four years ago the wonderful visi-
tation first took place The wagtails
arrived in the Autumn dusk and chose
as their roost the branches of a tree
whose farthest leaves are brushed by
the sides Of passing electric trams-tWo
trans in every minute of time.
Just at first no one noticed the
birds for the leaves still clung to the
twigs among which they rested and the
tiny creatures seemed, in the glare of
city lights, only like other leaves. Later,
when the foliage was gone, the miracle
vice of an Irish poet-looking down in
the field where daisies grow, but look
ing high in city street where only the
sky is beautiful, T saw he said after
ward, what I thought was tree
covered with silver leaves And be-
cause the time for foliage was past, he
looked more closely and saw the birds!
Every evening, just after sunset,
they came throughout the Winter
months Of 1929, while a few people
Rugged the secret of their coming to
their hearts and scarcely dared to hope
that no small boy would interfere A
, hundred roOSting wagtailS were counted
in the trees before; for some reason
that has not been explained, the tryst
! was abandoned and the birds went
elsewhere. 1t was only what the dis
appointed watchers had expected; what
wild feathered thing would care to
stay in such an uncongenial resting
place? Yet, when Autumn came again..
people gathered there to watch for
them at the hour after sunset. Quietly
at first, the pied wagtailS came back
and settled on the branches. This
time the number of birds on the tree
was far greater than before, and they
came as if to a familiar place Every
body watched them now. In all the
rush of that home-going hour, scarcely
a person passed that small city tree
without a friendly glance at its silver
leaves Tram conductors leaned out
DNAoSNAs
paper boys interrupted'their hoarse un-
intelligible cries to stare up into the
branches; policemen on duty halted for
"a moment to see the repeated wonder
sof those sleeping BIRDS in the noise of
L city street. And, because the people
of that city had realized their great
privilege in harboring such trustful.
funaccustomed guests, no one meddled
with the wagtailS; not even the small
ragged boys lifted finger to throw
a stone.
Six Hundred Visitors.
Every evening, 20 minutes after the
setting of the sun, the first birds came
and dropped into their places without
: fuss of any kind. But a city tree, 20
feet high, does not offer unlimited
perching room for 600 birds, and the
latest comers had lot to say about it.
So had the wagtails who had settled
themselves comfortably and were being
disturbed in the general reshuffling.
This was the moment for which the
watchers waited so hopefully, for they
found it hard to believe that any gath
ering Of these quiet little birds could
produce so much noise. A noise SO
loud and so indignant that a crowd Of
men, returning from q foot ball match
and talking eXcitedly of the game they
had just seen, halted and looked about
them uncertainty. 1t is not easy to
make ones self heard in an Irish foot
ball crowd but the wagtailS did it, and
the men looked quite beWildered until
at last they located the sudden uproar.
More and more, since then, the
roost of the pied wagtailS has become
an exhibit of which Dublin is intensely
proud, for every Autumn with the first
fading of the leaves the birds come
hQCk Niciffnr ay tho cIlh-