Evening star., 1945-07-27
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TrdcetDeH.

BETHESDA, NIL
"Dear Sir:
Here is good news straight from my
back yard.
There are going to be plenty oi
robins next spring, judging from the
young specimens in my garden.
There are from half dozen to Ia
young birds every day, some with
spotted chests. some a bit older with
most of the spots already gone.
This Is good news to me, and know
1t will be for thousands Of others, for
there is no more friendly bird, and none
which eats as manv worms.
ut seems to me that some years ago
I read a statement from a famous
scientist that if it were not for the birds
the soil would be too sour, since they
eat the excess worms.
Probably he meant robins, when he
said birds, because surely they do the
lions share of worm eating, as far as
I can see.
"It Is always a pleasure to me to
down as he hops along, suddenly
ing on worm, sometimes almost tum-
bling over backwards as it releases its
hold on earth.
"As long as we have lawns, and robins
on them, America will be all right.
Sincerely yours, M. McC."
~
This correspondents observations are
correct.
Next year will see more robins than
ever, due in part to the long hot, wet
spring and summer.
However much we may at times pro-
test too wet weather, it is good for
many things, including the birds.
Long hot, wet spells make for insects,
and insects make for more and better
birds, since they, with worms, constitute
the baby food" of all fledglings.
In seasons such as the present one,
robins have mostly two or three broods.
Worms are plentiful, although 1t
seems that when the days are too wet,
as recently, there are not quite as many
on or near the surface as days when
there is more moderate rainfall.
Every one knows how sprinkling the
lawn will bring the worms to the sur
face.
After heavy thundershower hun
dreds of fishin' worms will be seen on
the walks.
An excess of these in the soil is not
good for it. No less scientist than
Charles Darwin pointed this out. His
studies of angle worms and their effect
on the soil are classical.
Robins lay four or five eggs at time,
sometimes six, so 1t may be realized that
three broods during spring and summer
would produce from IL to IS babies.
OF such numbers, probably two or
three would be lost, through natural
causes.
The remainder. multiplied by every
nest in every neighborhood, wherever
robins are, insure the robin population
next spring, those millions of fine birds
which will first congregate in some
county In the South, in February, and
then break up into small groups to fly
North in early March.
Not only robins, however, eat the
angle worms. Wood thrushes love them.
and learn early to rustic them up for
themselves.
They are not such pullers as robins,
but depend more upon the early worm
which has crawled to the surface.
The other morning we came up to a
young thrush which was just starting
to consume worm about three inches
long.
The thrush was not bit afraid of our
approach, but stood his ground with his
worm until we were about two feet
from him.
He made beautiful natural sight, as
he stood on the large white stone with
his worm.
We thought he would fly away with
1t, 30 did not hesitate to see how close
we could come to him, but instead the
bird dropped the worm, which slithered
down the side Of the rock and disap-
peared ~ the thrush new away.