Evening star., 1944-05-20
This and That
By Charles Z. Trace,oeH
CHEVY CHASE CLUB.

Dear Sir:
Some 10 or IL years ago I was
sitting on the veranda of the Bradley
House at the club with some friends.
when we happened to notice something
that looked like a white rag in the
branches OF nearby tree.
Getting ladder, we found to our
surprise that it was birds nest and a
most unusual one at that. You may re-
call that years ago it was the custom to
cover the StraWs for soft drinks with
close fitting white paper envelope.
Now the birds nest was made almost
entirely of these covers. The birds
proved to be thrushes.
But the remarkable thing about this
story is that the next year there was q
similar nest in the same place and the
birds were thrushes. The question is
whether these were the same birds or
not If they were the same, then thew
must have stayed together all the time
OF their migration, whatever NAV have
oeen their destination, would thev notp
Inc third year they did not turn up,
but strange to say q pair of catbirds
mace similar nest in some shrubbery
near the main building of the club, but
that was the last time we saw any of
this type of nest
Years ago as a boy at school in New
England We used to find the nests of
some kind Of woodpecker CD in the hol-
low branches of apple trees which were
made almost entirely of cast-off snake
SKINS. Sincerely, w. D. W."
Our correspondents "Woodpecker"
probably was a crested f1ycatcher which
likes to nest in a tree cavity or wood
pecker hole. Such a nest may be from
10 to so feet in the air.
This fycatcher is sometimes called the
snakeskin bird, on account of it's habit
OF including a cast Snakeskin in the
construction of it's nest
OrnlthologlstS do not agree on the
reason Tor this. Some declare the skin
Is used for the purpose of frightening
away its enemies
Others ask who are the enemies and
instance the hawks and owls, red squr-
relS, snakes and perhaps jays, crows,
cuckoos and catbirds.
None of these, they assert, would be
scared away by snake skin. They
want TO know why this bird and this
one alone, would know that other birds
are afraid of a snakeskin?
Most persons who have seen such
nests point out that the skin is inter-
woven with the remaining fabric of the
nest, anG is none too visible in the dim
light of the hole
1t will do to believe, one NAV feel, that
it is just fancy which causes the crested
HyCatcher to so adorn its nest This is
fairly large bird, about 81 inches
long, with upper parts olive, and under
parts gray and yellow. Perhaps it fan
cleS that an average snakeSkin goes"
with its CWn coloration
DR.. T. Gilbert Pearson, in The Book
of Birds" published by the National
Geographic Society, says that he once
saw a photograph of a wood thr,lsh's
nest from which plainly protruded the
end of SIS bank note.
Scraps of paper are often used in the
construction of the wood thrush nest.
Large leaves often play an important
part. We once watched a wood thrush
struggle for many minutes with a sheet
of letter paper.
1t tred four times to take it to a
| branch OF tree, but each time dropped
1t before il got to the limb.
Thinking that we could be of service,
we went out and tore the paper into four
pieces, and placed them at the same
! place from which the bird had carried
| them
The thrush watched the performance,
out when we went into the house, it re-
fused to touch the piece of paper which
| 1t now might have transported easily
| and successfully.