Evening star., 1945-05-17
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceDell.


Dear Sir:
II am and have been reader OF
your column for some time AS I am
lover of wildlife, it is very interesting
to me.
"The other day one of your readers
said that he did not like cats. He Is
plenty right about not liking them, too
There were, once upon q time, birds
aplenty around where live, but people
with cats and more cats have moved
just few remain.
I'm my back yard there is a nest of
baby robins. The nest Is in a bush not
more than five feet above the ground
I've caught the cats after the birds
expected to see the birds alive again,
but they are.
"The subject of squirrels often comes
up. have one squirrel tanned, and
could tame the others, if it wasn't for
the tame one. She is very jealous of
the others and always chases them away.
When lay any peanuts out for the
squirrels, in less than five minutes there
are half a dozen bluejays out there
grabbing them. 1t never fails.
"One day after a squirrel had got q
nut, bluejay came a-swooping down
on him, made him drop the nut, then
grabbed the nut and flew away with it.
What want to know is what does
the bluejay want with a peanut?
Yours sincerely, j. M. NJ"
Bluejays like peanuts as we'll as squir-
rels do, and who can blame them?
They not only eat them, but like to
hide them away for future use.
Much of what they hide comes back
to the squirrels, who are adept at find
ing hidden nuts, as we all know.
Not only squirrels, however, but many
of the smaller birds, such as nuthatches
and brown creepers, benefit from this
hiding propensity of the jay.
Much of the small bits of food the
jay puts in crevices of bark, and there
the nuthatches and creepers find it,
Chickadees and titmice, too, are bene-
ficiaries of the jays.
Thus this bold bird, for all his strident
cries, is real benefactor of the forest
creatures. He also gives the alarm for
hawks, and in this way no doubt saves
the lives of many smaller birds each
year.
The jay is not able to attack hawk,
at least he never does so, but he is
first to see one, and not at all afraid of
giving the alarm.
He also is among the first to cry
"thief" and "robber" at prowling cats,
and among the boldest in attacking
them.
It is no unusual thing for a Jay to
bomb dive cat, striking it repeatedly
on the back, both when the animal is
on the ground and in a tree.
Our correspondent will find that the
increase of people in neighborhood
does as much as cats, in our opinion
much more, to drive birds away.
There are many factors nowadays
operating to decrease the number of
our songbirds. It would be too easy to
place the blame on cats alone. Out of
every 10 cats, probably not more than
two are real bird destroyers.
1nimical weather conditions and the
use OF poisons on vegetables are but
two Of the factors which tend to de-
crease the numbers Of our singing birds.
The birds do not eat the poisons sprayed
on our Victory gardens, but they do
eat the insects which have eaten the
poisons, and thus come to their death.
Birds are such primary creatures. so
in tune with primitive conditions, that
it is not difficult to believe that they
rather resent the modern mental at
titudes of disputation and fighting
which mankind has given in to, and
tend to remove themselves from, our
society, as who can blame them. We
honestly believe that If true reign of
neighborliness and kindliness, one to
another. were to happily enguh the
world, the birds would be the first to
feel It. and would show their apprecia-
tion by coming back to us in their old
time numbers.