Evening star., 1936-05-08

He still eats seeds from the feeding
station, along with q few English spar
rows. the Carolina doves and the cow
bird.
In this column recently We spoke con-
fdently Of our pair Of cowbirds, but won-
dered why we never seemed to see but
one ut time. Since then we have delved
. bit into cowbird lore. It seems that
only one bird appears at q time, for
most Of the day the female Is spying
out nests Of other birds In which to lay
her eggs. At this, according to the
books, she is positive genius. Instead
Of selecting any old nest, she knows lust
those species whose eggs take q little
longer to hatch out than her own. 1t
Is in their nests she puts her eggs, so
that they will be Matched first and
thus get the famous carly worms. Birds
are smart, but evidently not smart
enough to know the eggs Of . stranger
from their own, even though vastly dif-
ferent In size, coloration and pattern.
Life Is funny proposition, and birds
show it better than most forms, perhaps.
Ordinarily one would not regard brown
and gray as . particularly pretty COM
bination, but in the wood thrush 1t be-
comes one Of the most beautiful.
It's back and wings are reddish brown,
almost cinnamon, while its chest Is soft
gray, not too deep, and its speckles are
quite dark.
Everything about this bird is harmoni-
GUS. Its bill is not too long, its legs
Just the right length for its body, its
eyes beautiful and its song exquisite.
When these qualities are combined
with its fearlessness, its trust In man,
It's liking fer his gardens and abodes,
even in the city, it may be seen that
we have a paragon of bird life.
But this is not all.
The wood thrush is a gentleman, and
q gentlewoman, of birdland.
1t possesses an indefinite quality which
would be called culture II 1t were human.
1t is bird, however. so what shall we
say except to point to 1t and say it Is
there, and to warn all to be sure to
watch out for It?
The little twittering birds spoken Of
by our correspondent are probably Caro-
lima warblers, or other members Of the
same family. As far as we know, the
purple dnches went north several weeks
ago. Certainly they departed from our
feeding stations some time ago. Fox and
song sparrows have lovely songs, but
probably not many Of them are around
now, either.
The common English sparrow often
has a sweeter song than it commonly
Is given credit for possessing. There Is
always . likelihood that some Of the
pleasant bird sounds we hear and can
not account for are these fellows in their
better moments.
There must be, however, many smaller
and tnconspicuous birds which visit most
| gardens entirely unknown and mostly
unseen. This Is o pleasant realization
that these little creatures are our guests
although we do not know it. The trees
| and shrubs and lawns and water are for
them, too, and food also, If we continue
to put any out. They regale us with
happy chirping and sights, now and
then, of little strange birds which 60 to
make up the happy background Of
natural things.
The trained ornithologist would be put
to it to recognize these birds. For the
rest of us, it is impossible. All we can
do Is try to see them. That Is dif1i-
cult enough, for they are small, and often
keep to the shrubbery and the rear of
gardens. All Of us have our blind spots,
and we hope it will help and encourage
some amateur bird watcher if we say
here and now that we never consciously
saw a wren until recently. These obser-
vations are voyages of discovery which
] we invite readers to share.