Evening star., 1945-08-03
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceUeH.
ALEXANDRIA, Va.


Dear Sir:
"On the subject of how to induce wild
birds to eat out of the hand, here Is my
story:
Last year had male robin in my
back yard who would take regularly a
raisin from my fingers.
This is how it started: 1t is nothing
unusual while spading the garden TO
see robins stand by and grab the up
rooted worm.
Il would casually flip out of my hand
a ralsin to this wise bird. He liked the
desert (after the country SAUSAGE, and
SO we struck friendship.
He grew tanner and tanner; he must
have had a great weakness for raisins. I
tried the same trick with his mate and
other robins, but they would not come
near. But it was fun with this papa
robin.
He would hop right to the raisin, or
fly up to my outstretched hand and
pick his raisin from my fingers.
AT regular times he would be waiting
at the back door and call for a raisin
"One evening at dusk, as was sitting
on the terrace, my robin friend hoped
to my side. He stood there for a long
while, as if trying to tell me something
He appeared sad and drowsy. That
was the last time I saw him. Never
since have been able to entice another
wild bird to eat out of my hand.
Sincerely yours, F. c. S."
II 4
There is always the chance, when
one runs into friendly wild bird, that
it Is one which some kind person has
raised by hand.
This is especially true if one does not
possess the knack of attracting them.
Then one may feel sure that it is the
individual bird, not ones self, which is
the key to the situation.
And the question is, why does this one
songster seem so friendly?
What has happened to him, in his
past life, to give him this lack of fear?
Most of the wild birds never have
learned to like human beings. When we
think of all the killing which has gone
on over the centuries, we cannot blame
them.
Even birds which one may feed every
day, month after month and year after
year, refuse to work up any real friend
ship. 1t is more of matter of stealing
the food we put out than accepting it as
friend from friend.
Human nature is complex, and 50
is bird nature. John Ruskin, in his The
Crown of Wild Olive" said that human
nature is a noble and beautiful thing
not foul and. base thing" He es-
teemed all the sins of men as their
disease, not their nature; as a folly
which may be prevented, not as neces-
Sity which must he accented
We wonder what the birds might think
of that, as they contemplate the Loss
| of the entire tribe of passenger pigeons
millions upon millions of them once, now
not single one left.
just why some persons are able to gel
birds to come to the hand is something
of mystery. They have way with
them, we say. Are they birdlike, and sc
accepted as fellow beings? Have they
certain smell, peculiarly acceptable tt
birds? Or is there something occult
about it?
Probably it is no more than a combi-
nation of persistence and patience, bu
we would not know. Certainly the ay.
erage person interested in birds will have
few OF them come to hand, and ever
| when one does he will feel that he /.
meeting bird which at some time in it
life was well treated by some human
being, and so has come to lose a bit O.
the ancient fear which tends to keer
the tribes of the air as free as possibly
| from close contact with man.