Evening star., 1945-02-07
This and That
Bu Charles Z. TrdcetDeu.
SILVER SPRING, Nd.


Dear Sir:
Since moving to the suburbs several
wears ago, have become interested IN
birds. and have learned much from your
column.
However, several things puzzle me.
I'VE see bird that We have called
the song sparrow. His description nts
that in my bird book, except he has a
forked tail. and my book says the song
sparrow has short rounded tail.
There is another sparrow that I
imagine is white-throat. This is what
puzzles me-is the white on a white
throated sparrow really white?
This oird is sparrow size, but his
head is black and beige striped, and his
throat is beige. His breast Is light-no
streaks.
Il thought starlings ate only soft
things, but they come to my feeder
which I fill with wildbird seed and I'm
sure it's all hard. wonder what they
eat out of the mixture.
Thanks for such an interesting and
informative column.
Yours truly. H. j."
, Chipping sparrows have forked tails,
striped backs and plain breasts.
The song sparrow has striped stom-
ach as we'll as back, and his tail in more
rounded, but is actually forked, too.
Some of the bird books are rather
confusing in their descriptions. One,
for instance says this about the song
sparrow:
wings, short and rounded; tail about
the length of wing, rounded or double
rounded, the feathers narrow and blunte
Double rounded would give the effect
of forked tail, we believe.
Certainly various illustrations of the
song sparrow show it with somewhat
forked tail.
The song of the song sparrow, true to
its name, Is q great deal more elaborate
than that of the little chippie.
In fact, few birds have as many varia-
tions as does the song sparrow. Investi-
gators have counted and differentiated
more than 1900 songs for this fine
species.
The white of the te-throated spar
row is not exactly white.
It is more beige, or pale gray, as our
correspondent has discovered.
In spring, now practically at hand, all
the colors of all birds become more in
tense.
Then the white of the white -throated
sparrow will become more truly white,
and a bit of yellow will show just above
the bill.
Watching for these intensifications is
one of the advantages of having feed
ing station close to a window. They
can be seen, in all their small glory,
whereas they are entirely lost out in
the yard. even with the aid Of glasses.
The starting Is q wise old bird who
eats what he has to; maybe that is q
good tip for all of us, in wartime.
He "dunks" his bread, and prefers soft
things, in general, but will nibble around
at the softest Of the hard seeds in a
mixture in a feeding station.
Then, too, he often merely perches
in such a place, getting out Of the
weather. At little distance he may
seem to be eating, but actually all he Is
doing is keeping out of the cold. Often
on rainy or snowy days starlings will
come to feeding stations and stay for
hours. Usually the leader takes over the
station, Of course. keeping all other
species away. In this position they are
not mean, but merely use their size to
advantage. Other and smaller birds
stay away.
It is probable that starting will
swallow whole some of the seeds gem
orally included In ''wildbird" mixtures.
But In most cases Of this sort he Is
merely resting, not eating. This, too,
can be seen clearly II the bird and sta
ton are close enough.