Evening star., 1937-03-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E, TRACEWELL.

creature-the passenger pigeon. This
is seen with that good eye OF memory,
based on reading. Only a few persons
alive today ever have seen a passenger
pigeon, although there was one alive
in the Cincinnati Zoo as late as 1914.
The best we can do now is to look at
the turtle dove, the Carolina dove, the
mourning dove, the wild dove, all one
and the same, and believe that in seeing
1t we come close to seeing its once-fa-
nous cousin Of the skies, whose vast
flights once made day into night. Get
some real old-timer to tell you about
these migrations, and how the birds,
rooSting at nights, were dubbed off the
trees into great hampers, and shipped
to the East for dinner guests Let no
one tell you that mishandling Of our
resources is new, or had it's inception in
the World War. It is just as old as hu-
man nature, and has it's rise therefrom.
Once we brush out Of mind the sad
history and loss of the passenger pigeons,
with their beautiful pink breasts, we are
able to look at the mourning dove with
open eyes, and see it for the beauty
it is.
How pinkish is its breast, how har-
monious its soft grays and browns, with
flecks of other tins here and there
1t may take the icy branch to bring
out the contrasts, but ever thereafter
the spectator will look at this bird with
fresh eyes, and realize that he is looking
at one Of our finest.
Almost all suburban communities pos
sess several pairs Of these birds One is
always able to hear its soft call, If not
actually see it in flight, or at its nesting
The best way to get glimpse of the
Carolina dove is to put out seeds and
grain for the birds. Some sort of ele-
vated feeding station is best. The doves
will not get into it. Of course. They are
content to eat of the ground, like their
brother pigeons.
They move close to the ground so
that they give the appearance of little
gray gunboats going along river.
They are not easily startled, but once
they have taken alarm they throw them
selves into the air with great Tapping
of wings, whence comes the Whistling
or creaking noise aforementioned.
One might think, viewing them thus,
and hearing the protesting noise their
strong wings make, that they were not
good flyers, but their ability in the air
is great
1t is said that their proWess in the
air made many hunters Of the old days
regard them as in the class with ducks,
and so many doves lost their lives, until
they were properly classed as migratory
birds and given the protection of the
class under the laws
This is proper, for the wild dove is
great eater of weed seeds and noXious
insects. Very little charge of destruction
of crops ever has been brought against
it, and this little, according to experts,
has never been proved.
Its soft, throaty call is not unpleas-
ant, or even mournful once the ear is
trained to it. Perhaps a person, here
and there, might SO regard it, but he or
she should try to get over it, for that
is human misinterpretation of a fine
natural sound. We must be careful not
to push our own reactions to sight and
sound into the natural world.
Cardinal, bluebird. bluejay, robin, cat
bird, mockingbird, fox sparrow, purple
fnch-these and many more are beau
tiful birds, but for sheer beauty, give us
a dove on an icy branch