Evening star., 1937-02-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES &. TRACEWELL.

There seems to be bluebird belt
running across Northwest Washington.
Recently we printed q letter from a
gentleman living in the $500 block Of
Twenty-eight street recounting his ad-
ventures with bluebirds this Winter.
Now comes a missive from lady nv-
ing in the 6100 block of Twenty-ninth
street telling about the bluebirds.
This is one of the good results Of an
open Winter in this vicinity.
Bluebirds have remained with us, but
not with all Of us, by any means.
There are certain sections, evidently,
which they prefer at this time Of year.
The latest bluebird letter follows:
Dear Sir: It does seem, as I read
all your articles and with particular
pleasure when they concern birds, that
birds in different gardens have different
habits.
Our house was new, and with the
heavy snow Of the Winter Of 1885, we
started throwing out bread, as we
thought, to the sparrows, SO what was
our delight one Sunday afternoon to be
attracted by the sight Of sparrows. many
starlings and beautiful cardinal.
I'VE tiptoed and crept around, but In
time we learned that If we did nothing
startling they never minded us going
about as usual, they still remained on
for the feast.
"One Winter evening my husband said,
Here, you like to read about birds and
how to feed them-read this
And so I was introduced to your
articles telling what food to give them
and how to go about 1t.
* 4
"Also about that time (for in the be-
ginning I did not save all of your bird
articles, as I now have for a year or
more) you made suggestions about put
ting out bird houses in order to become
seasoned. The master Of the house made
two houses and painted them with bit
Of yellow paint left from a recent little
interior job.
ut seemed to be scarcely a week or
50 before we saw bluebirds looking over
the boxes, and their exquisite blue
against the pretty yellow made us ex-
claim over and over, What fortunate
selection Of color-weU always remem-
Der. to use that
Two different families occupied one
house-but sparrows pre-empted the
other and fought of the blues in their
every attempt.
Our experiences with our bluebird
families ended both in disaster, both
of which made at least one member Of
the family cry on each occasion, there
being no bird we love so much as the
bluebird.
THE first family, as we used to say.
to whom we'd rent a house. started the
nest at once, but he would remain away
fOr 10nc intervals and Uhon rOy,oinO
out after long sit on the eggs, little
mamma would fly away to join him. We
used to look anXiouSly at the box and
wonder If the eggs would be too long
neglected. Just about this time, when
presumably the babies were about due,
we saw a busy little wren-and were
very pleased-as we had also at that
time an unrented wren house.
I'VE were quite amused on one Of
these moments of absence of the blue
birds to see the wren hopping in and
out of their house, when suddenly I
seemed to discern something being
dropped
Rushing to that end Of the garden
saw four broken bluebird eggs, tiny
forms all exposed. We never learned to
adore the noisy little wren after that.
Though they did finally rear family
in the wren house. and were faithful
parents. Meanwhile, however, the blue
birds returned, and looked most sad and
detected for day or so, and then took
of.
"Within a very few days several pairs
looked the yellow boxes over, the spar
rows triumphing with one, and pair Of