Evening star., 1936-02-07

OF nature, not its bad or sac sloe. we
know they become Ill, that they die, but
We see but little of this side OF their
lives. And 1t is just as well, Is 1t not,
to have one creature, one group OF crea-
lures, which seems, at least, to be i'm
mune to the natural happenings?
Every morning we look out into the
garden, and there they are, hopping so
cheerily beneath the feeders, and flying
into them; and every evening, just as
twilight descends, they begin to fly away,
and soon are gone to their sleeping places.
We forget about them then, happily,
cheerily, trusting them to the universe,
sure that tomorrow morning, storm or
shine, they will be back again. Our trust
is large for them; may it be SO for our
selves.
Another letter on the joys Of bird
feeding:
Dear sir: I wish I could properly ex-
press to you the pleasure your articles
have given me over a number Of years.
I have scrapbook of This and That, di-
vided into subjects-fiowers, grass, books,
fish, music, ETC., and now the birds. I
am sometimes homesick for 'Estey alley
since you apparently have left the COM
pany of row dwellers. You seem to me
as a dear and valued friend-in fact, I
have only one actual friend who has as
many kindred interests.
Your recent articles on feeding the
birds have been of especial interest and
help. I have been feeding the birds for
some years by the trial and error method.
I am fortunate in having fiat roof out
side of my upstairs sitting room win
dows. I also have made long, narrow
shelf under the windows, where I put
the choicer tidbits, scattering the larger
pieces of bread, cornbread, ETC., on the
roof itself.
II am very grateful for the suggestions
about dampened cornmeal-I tried it i'm
mediately. and my birds like it very
much. This morning I was very much
surprised to see my squirrels crouched
on the shelf. apparently eating the corn
meal. So 1t seems to be turn about, as
the birds are equally fond of the raw
peanuts I put out for the squirrels.
'I wish I could feel as you say we
should about the Starlings but they are
so quarrelsome and greedy and bad man.
nered I cannot. Today I succeeded in
diverting their attention with a half
apple, which they devoured, leaving the
skin intact They do the same with the
pears on my pear tree in the Fall.
IF it were not for the starlings I feel
+ could have more varieties of birds.
Last year I had pair of red birds and
one bird we thought We identified as
a tufted titmouse, both very fond of nuts,
but I cannot afford to put out such ex-
penSive food for the StarlingS TO gobble
before any others have chance.
by my trial and error method have
found they all like stale biscuit, pie
crust cornbread (Which we sometimes
make especially for them), also raw rice.
raw hominy grits, nuts of all kinds and
even shredded coconut Gn fact, they
like it very much. Sincerely, E. D. B."
We do not believe that the starlings
really drive away or keep other birds
from coming. The point about them is
that if they arrive in too great numbers
they so usurp the ground that the smaller
birds are scarcely noticed.
Close observation shows that the star
lings are mostly quarrelsome with each
other, and seldom bother the smaller
species. The best way to keep starlingS
from arriving in numbers is to fail to
put out the foods they particularly like
II meats, fish, breadstuffs and apples are
left out of the birds breakfast, lunch
and dinner, the starlings will mostly
stay away. Our correspondent is using
! the very foods to attract them.