Evening star., 1945-06-06
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TrQce1DeU

~ SfbOf tCo Z. i fuCSUSH.
Adventures with an oriole are re-
lated by correspondent who has come
here from Massachusetts. The other
morning about 7 o'clock" the letter
says, Il heard a terrible, frantic call of
robin. In an eye wink this robin
perched on telephone wire that runs
in front of my living room window.
L ran over to see what was wrong.
Downstairs I saw a black cat that I
had always fed, with something in her
mouth. I ran down and took it away.
1t was an oriole, badly scared, and her
throat bleeding
1 held her in my hand and brought
her upstairs. For about half an hour
I held her till the blood clotted on her
throat. Then I put her on the floor.
She was beautiful, brilliant red
orange breast with black and gray
wings her song just as beautiful as her
body. II say her because l don't know
the difference)
For few minutes she sat on the
floor while I sat on the sofa, watching.
Then she started to hop until she came
to the chair with a cross bar. She
hoped up and sat and sang, and a
thought went through my mind, She is
thanking God for her life
For food, scattered bits of cookies
and raisins and placed plate of water
near the chair. All the while, I called,
Hello
Then I went out to do my shopping
AS I went downstairs, carried with me
some fish for the cat. You couldn't
really blame the cat-she was hungry.
That was the first time have ever seen
her catch bird
She is stray wild cat who comes
to few people. When any living creature,
man or wild thing, is hungry, he eats
what he can get. In this case It was
the bird. When just few cents worth
OF fish can keep the cat from catching
birds, the money is well spent.
When I came home from shopping,
the oriole was hopping all around sing
ing. One wing she dragged a little, but
she seemed to be able to fly. One of my
neighbors came in to see her, and was
thrilled
Il kept the oriole until dark, and then
I took her to nearby clump of woods.
let CO. and she flew.
Il have been a reader of your column
since I've come to the District of Co.
lumbia. l even send it home so the
folks can enjoy it.
'At home, most every one has deep
feeling for living things. wild creatures
and domestic, trees, flowers The chill
dren as well as grown-ups feel there is
so much dying in this world that they
will do their best to keep alive some
thing beautiful"
n
OJr r0rrpSnnn6nnt,c bird uoS ~, 10
and not "she" or her
The Baltimore oriole is one of the
finest of all birds. 1t builds hanging
nest on the end of some long limb,
usually 20 or more feet in the air.
The mother bird is the construction
engineer, taking into account the stresses
and strains, and lashing the nest and
| hanging it with them in mind.
Human engineers who have examined
these nests declare that they could not
do any better themselves with all their
| mathematics.
1t is not a usual thing for bird so
/ caught to sing indoors afterward Mostly
they are too frightened by the experience
and the place.
| We believe that this reader will dis
cover that the people of the District and
nearby have deep feeling for animals
and birds, too. Many people feed the
| pigeons in the parks, and thousands
feed the birds in their gardens.
| 1t is easy to believe that the folks 'at
home" are different, but the truth seems
to be that people everywhere, at least
in our America, are more or less the
| same.
There are everywhere many fine per-
sons who love animals with a peculiar
affection which they do not understand
themselves. 1t fust is And then there
are many others who think 1t is ''the
thing to do" All in all, our country is
kind to animals and birds. And since
the District Of Columbia contains people
from all parts Of the land, 1t is repre-
sentative Of the United States to de.
gree which perhaps no other city Is.