Evening star., 1945-08-18
This and That
By Charles Z. TraceUeu

Dear Sir:
An incident I've never seen except
the once, I found so interesting that
I thought you might like to hear of it.
Il saw a female chewink feeding
a baby cardinal.
Il saw this same thing a number of
times during the next five DAYS. Sew
eral times the baby was near a pair of
older cardinals who were evidently the
parents.
1T chittered to be fed, but they paid
no attention. The little fraud was per-
fecely able to feed itself and there was
plenty of food at hand.
1T would approach the chewink and
fiutter its wings and beg to be fed, fol-
lowing the chewink just as it did its
mother
If the chewink was scratching under
the hedge she would find something
and give it to the baby cardinal. If
they were at the feeding place-where
1 provided food the year round-she
would pick up food and give it to the
baby. Is this an uncommon occur
ence for bird to feed one of another
species?
Another thing, happened to notice
number of purple finches in a tree
l counted more than so in each of
several trees. I actually counted more
than 400 and there were great many
more. They were still here the next
morning but most of them left by
shortly after 7 o'clock.
Your column in The Star Is ALWAYS
interesting and I look forward to read
ing it every day.
Sincerely, E. D. Y"
Some young birds specialize in trying
to get other birds to feed them.
Usually they are able to induce their
own parents to continue long after
there is any need.
Starring babies are perhaps the worse
offenders. Just why these large capable
birds should be such babies is some-
thing of small mystery. If there is
any species which is able to take care
Of itself early it is this one. But it
is common observation to see several
large ones pestering their parents to
S feed them long after they are able
to do it themselves.
Perhaps no parent bird weans baby
sooner than necessary, and none ever
stops feeding before the young is able
to feed itself.
Nature ,instructs the parents in this,
and also the babies. But Just as there
is such a thing as human nature, so
there is bird nature, including such
quirks as that of the young bird who
wants to be fed as long as possible
Usually parent birds realize the situ-
alton, and meet it much as humanity
would, simply by ignoring the clamor-
ing youngster.
1t is not often that, in such a case,
the baby turns to the mother and
father of some other species. Usually
in such cases the parents are feeding
some Of their own f1edglings If such
is the case, they may stop and help out
the baby of another species.
There can be little question that
birds have character, as we say, much
as humans have, and that some of
them are more kindly than others.
Who can doubt this? While love and
affection are different, among the wild
creatures, they have enough of such
sentiments to motivate them to actions
which at times seem surprisingly
human.
yancing at the rate it has during the
past 10 years, we may have to change
the meaning of such words as "animal"
and human" so that kindly senti-
ments and deeds will be called animal
and cruel, treacherous thoughts and
deeds human.
The classic instance, of course, of
one species being fed by another species
is that of the cowbird baby. The cow
bird mother puts her egg in another
nest, sometimes Of warbler, and the
foster mother does not know the diff
erence. Nor does she detect the fraud
after the cowbird is Matched out, but
goes right ahead feeding it. to the
detriment Of her own young. It is
estimated that for every cowbird raised
In this fashion, five smaller birds are
lost. Certainly this is large price to
pay for cowbirds.