Evening star., 1936-11-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.
What to do with old automobile

What to do with old automobile
license plates?
A bright lady over in Northeast WASH
ington has solved the problem.
She suggests making window-sill bird
feeders out of them. Her letter follows:
Dear Sir: am afraid you have
wished this letter upon yourself. have
kept still for three years, for fear Of
tiring you. while all those wonderful
articles of yours on birds and the
round-eyed furry folk have been ap-
pearing in The Star, and I can't keep
still any longer.
I'VE have been feeding the song birds
out here on window-sill tables for 20
years For these feeding shelves, or
tables, we have been using discarded
automobile license tags, attaching them
straight out from the long edge Of the
window sill by driving nails through
those very convenient holes pierced in
the margain of the plateS-pierced, 1
am convinced, by some bird lover for
the purpose of affording bird tables.
While we sit inside at our breakfast
nook, our birds eat just outside the win
dow on their feeding shelves-three
times day as we do.
"You have said that the sight Of a
cardinal in fight through last Winters
snow was breath-taking. You would
enjoy sitting in sunny window some
frosty white day this Winter, and, look
ing up from your book, find two pairs OF
cardinals just outside on the feeding
shelf, so very close that you could hear
their little whispers to each other, see
the spirals of white CONCEALED breath
float out from their mouths as they
crack their suntiower seed.
"Or, if you provide for him, you
might find bright-eyed Tommy Tit
mouse swinging crafty, upside down, on
a suet feeding cage moored by cord and
hook to the upper sill. He may dash
down among the cardinals, seize sun
flower seed, hammer it to pieces on a
convenient tree limb, and, after feasting
on the kernel, dash away through the
snow, his Phi Delt whistle of thanks
trailing behind him in the frosty air.
Il have heard and seen these little
dramas many times, and always with
deep joy that I was so privileged.
Most all of the other songbirds have
eaten on our shelves, among them the
ockingbird-chibiabos to me-who re-
quires special diet of suet, ralSinS and
nutmeatS.
an your column tonight we found
another great pleasure. We have chip
munks! So we rate among those other
happy gardeners.
I'VE have a camp named Graham
Point in Northern Wisconsin,, on the
western shore of lovely lake now called
Squirrel Lake. The Chippewa, other
wise Ojibway, Indians, first mapped all
the lakes in that region and named them
from the objects the map outline most
resembled This lake of ours was prob
ably named originally Adjidaumo, but
the white settlers changed it, much to
our present regret. to Squirrel.
LAS we crossed this lake one Summer
day we found a guide with party OF
vacationiSts eating supper around camp
fire on our point.
when the meal was over the guide
carefully put out the fire and then laid
out all the strips of bacon and frag-
ments OF bread and cake on top OF the
pile, as he said: The chipmunk likes
to have all the leftover food. He keeps
TIE woods and the camping grounds
clean. A woodman always feeds and
protects the chipmunk. He Is the best
friend a guide has
Answering little squeaks, like the
whistle in a child's rubber ball, attested
to the truth of his remark.
I'm a way we could not see, BY a
means we did not know, by rustic OF
dry leaves and joyous scurry. the bacon
and bread disappeared; AdJldaumo had