Evening star., 1936-02-20

the nut and eats to his hearts content,
"All day this goes on until o'clock
just this time and no later The cardinal
also loves peanuts, roasted, but some
one must shell them for him, which I do.
These birds are so well fed they are
perfectly beautiful, so large and such
fine plumage. I've several tanagers,
another beauty, very red body with black
wings. They, too, love peanuts and SUM-
flower seed.
i've counted as many as 20 Sunflower
seeds taken and hidden somewhere in
the jays throat at one time, carried
away for safekeeping or feeding some
other bird. This to me is a remarkable
stunt, and how it's done cannot under
stand.
"I've seen monkeys store banana In
their lower jaw and eat it later. Could
this be what the jay does?
I'VE had battle cry the other morn
all birds, particularly the cardinals and
jays, in a tree near their feeding
grounds.
II located the place by jays call,
went to their help and found in a large
1Ao&C A4A Vic t1CC q NCouGA40 lCoOloll
screech owl He had discovered their
home and knew where his food would
be in the night search for small birds
This was all taken care of nicely.
I took the owl to the ZOO; a nice home
provided for him by keepers, and my
birds happy after three mornings of
careful searching that same tree to be
sure no danger lay in store for any of
their family.
Il love taking care of such things and
hope you continue your fine work by
telling people how to make Gods crea-
lures happy It's splendid, indeed, and
never fail to read such. Yours truly,
wv. e. c."
The fine thing about the many letters
on birds printed here during the past
two months, from readers living in all
sections of the District of Columbia and
nearby Maryland and Virginia, is that
each one of them has contained one or
more points of genuine help to all inter-
ested in the indoor outdoor sport of
feeding the wild birds which Winter
with us.
Today's contributions, as usual, are
interesting as well as instructive. We
see that in Turing the birds to our gar
dens we must not be impatient, but must
study their habits and try to give them
what they want in the way they want it.
There can be little. question that the
earth is, after all, with most birds, the
favorite feeding place, but this does not
mean that feeding devices are not nee
essary. They are helpful in many ways
and the birds like them, which, perhaps,
is most important.
The roosting habits of birds is great
subject, about which we hope to have
more.
The owl as a bird enemy has been
mentioned several times in these letters.
1t is necessary when birds suddenly
depart from feeding ground and do
not come back, to look around carefully
and see if the reason cannot be dis
covered.
Small hawks will send every bird fly
ing and keep them all away for long
periods.
The need for evergreens, shrubs and
trees is stressed by one correspondent.
This is correct, although we wonder
about those scarlet tanagers. We did
not know they Wintered here. But per-
haps that explains one particularly vivid
fellow We have.
Trees, especially evergreens, and
shrubs make wild birds feel at home as
nothing else can. One of the most pic
turesque sights in this sport is huge
flock of sparrows rising from the good
earth . take temporary refuge in the
bushes, where they chirp and chatter
as if discussing the intruder and what
to do about him.