Evening star., 1945-04-16
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweN.
BETHESDA, Md.

BETHESDA. Md.
Dear Sir:
L want to thank YOU for the Quiet
and efficient way in which YOU took
the wind out of the sails of Your cor
respondent who wrote in protesting
English sparrows.
Few birds have interested me more
As YOU have pointed out in your column
many times over the years, the English
sparrow usually wins the affection and
admiration of those who will take the
time to study it.
1T Is notable. toO-and this is some
thing else you have always pointed out
that many of the more modern
writer's on bird life have paid tribute
TO this species.
For a long time I did not under
stand the bird Probably I had been
swayed by the mass of testimony against
1t in some of the older bird books But
after I got to reading your work. and
looked up the quotations you gave.
and above all started to really looking
at the English sparrow on my own.
l soon came to join you and the others
in your admiration.
Il want to thank You for your honest
thinking and unprejudiced and tolerant
viewpoint. I am sure thousands of
your readers join me.
With best wishes, I remain.
yours truly, NJ. o. D."
We thank this reader and others
who have written in similar vein.
The English sparrow. the blue Jay,
and that other bird of the suburban
garden, the gray squirrel, have long
been favorites.
1t is impossible, we believe, to watch
these for very long without appre-
ciating their many good qualities.
The English sparrow is such
human sort of bird, in many ways
1t has its good points. and bad points.
even as you and I; it does the best it
can, with what it has to work with,
and battles against odds, in a hostile
world. Surely the person interested
in nature must, if he watches fairly,
come in time to admire this little
specimen of old Mother Natures handi-
work.
The English sparrow. given half
chance. is a much cleaner bird than
many city dwellers ever suspect. The
dust and CRIME of the crowded metrop-
oils spoil the feathers. and since there
are few bathing places, the bird does
not have the chance to take enough
baths.
Out in the suburbs, the English
sparrow becomes an altogether different
bird. We have group of them which,
for sheer beauty. need not apologize
70 Hf rn
have the red of the redbird, nor the
blue of the bluebird. but their browns
and grays have an intensity and beauty
utterly different and brighter than the
color tones of their city cousins.
x *
No bird likes to bathe any more
than the English sparrow. 1t will bathe
many times day. if it gets the op-
portunity At any suburban place where
bird feeding is carried on regularly.
these birds become sleek and fat, and
get along very we'll with other species
What battling they do is usually among
themselves.
That these birds have done some
thing to drive away native species is
unquestioned. But. as we have pointed
out here before, they did not ask to
be brought here; and, moreover. the
native species are not as helpless as
some suppose. If sparroWs drive them
away from a nesting box in your yard,
you may feel pretty sure that they
have gone some place else, even to
the woods, and do not suffer at all
1t is possible, in watching birds, to
become too worried, not realizing that
what one sees personally is only one
one-millionth of what goes on. The
proper attitude, one may believe, is
to accept nature as it comes, and not
be intolerant. Toleration is new
slogan, but it is an old thing. The
tolerant person will not work up spleen
against any creature or person without
just cause, because he knows that such
i'll will, no matter who is right" works
against both parties. The modern at
titude against intolerance in the main
is good one, being based on the
brotherhood of man and the Father
hood of God. When it is extended to
take in the creatures of the earth and
air and sea, it must please the Almighty
in heaven, and make Him think. amid
the welter OF battle, that there is, after
all, some hope for humanity.