Evening star., 1936-05-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLEs Z. TRAcEwELL.

Dear Sir: It may interest you 70 know
that the first thrushes appeared in
0eorgetown on Sunday morning. April
-, the next day after the frst wrens
were heard here. Every year both
thrushes and wrens nest In the back
yard and rear their young.
1T u q great pleasure to watch them
hopping about the grounds 80 fearlessly
regardless of our presence. In my early
home In the foothills Of the Catskills the
wood thrush was seen and heard only
in the woods, like the hermit thrush, 20
it has been q great surprise to f1nd
them 80 friendly In Warrington.
Last Summer heard q cardinal In
Iowanda, Pa, and was told that q pair
had nested there for several years.
had not known Of cardinals being seen
50 far north.
Every reader Of your column in The
Star has been interested, am sure, in
your bird observations. Perhaps you
can name the birds that twitter 80
sweetly every morning. I have not been
able to see them, but they sound like the
tree warblers in Central New York. A
friend thinks perhaps they are the
purple finch. / am not familiar with
the sound Of the latter. Very sincerely
yours, H. A. NJ"
The friendliness Of the thrush Is one
Of its finest points.
Cardinals, bluejays, even English SPAR
get too close.
Keep your distance" they seem to
say. I'VE are not exactly afraid of you,
but stin We do not know whether to trust
you or not"
Nor can any one blame them after the
treatment they have received over the
centuries.
A bird must not trust US, alas, too
far. His racial experience tells him
that. Thrusfes and cardinals once were
kept IS cage birds. Despite the fact that
1t is supposed TO be against the law to
vertised in special magazines. Whether
they are the same species the gardener
IL familiar with we do not know.
y
It u one of the queer facts Of Nature
that the wood thrush, found only in
the deepest woods when America was
waited garden, and Is totally without fear
there.
Its cousin, the hermit thrush, has never
been lured away from the forests. II
one wants to hear 1t, one must 60 where
it is, or else listen to phonUgraph record
containing its songs. tSeveral Of these
have been put on the market. While the
ones we have heard have been far from
perfect, they ut least give some idea Of
the hymn-Hke mlsic)
The speckled-breasted wood thrush is
50 fearless that the gardener will have
trouble moving the lawn on account Of 1t.
as it hops along right in front Of the
mower.
1t especially loves shrubbery of all
kinds, but particularly the rhododendrons
and laurels, beneath which 1t hops for
hours at time.
The evening Is the wood thrush's
beloved period, although 1t, too, along
with the entire bird assembly, Is up at
dawn, sending forth its lovely song high
above all the rest.
In the evening our speckled beauty
finds grubs and full-grown insects and
seemingly many other types Of food in
lawns. Perhaps he accounts for cut
worms and the like, and refuses to turn
UP his bill at smaller earthworms, or
even ants.
At any rate, he seems to be having q
fine time there, in the cleaning, being
among the very last birds to go to roost.
That familiar friend Of all bird lovers,
the cardinal. or redbird, Is still the first
bird In the morning and the last at night.