Evening star., 1945-02-15
This and That
By Charles Z. Trdceuell.
sN0Rru ARI1NGroN ,

NORTH ARLINGTON, Va.
Dear Sir:
with your unlimited knowledge of
birds, I'm wondering If you can en-
tighten me on the following incident
which happened last June.
II saw from my wind0w two yparroWS
on the ground, fighting like nobody's
business. They clutched, rolled over and
over, dragged each other back and forth,
and pecked each other on the. head. --
They fought like two men on the
ground, over \ space of 6 to 10 feet for
Is or 20. minutes. Finally, one of them
flew up and perched under the caves of
the porch, the other following In swift
pursuit.
Then another sparrow appeared,
which looked like younger bird. Every
time this younger bird tried to get near
the first bird perched under the caves,
the other bird of the ground fight would
fly between them and peck them on the
heads.
Then the two fighters would fly back
to the ground and have it out all over
again. This performance continued from
the ground to the porch roof for over
an hour
IAN amusing human feature of this
incident took place when several spar
rows and robin few near the scene,
then blue jay flew down and looked on
with an amusing, quizzical expression as
much as to say, What is going on here?'
"As it often happens, there were plenty
of spectators, but nobody did anything
about 1t.
This incident did not impress rs q
lovers quarrel. Could 1t have been Just
good old family quarrel, or was It just
bird Of fight7
Sincerely, w. H. B."
~ X +
Our correspondents guess Is as good
a. anybody else's.
There is tendency on many peoples
part to attribute all such fights to the
mating instinct, as if birds could not be
individuals, too, rugged individuals, If
you will
These persons believe that all cats
catch birds, that all sparrows are quar-
relsome. that all dogs fight, and that all
Jays kill baby BIRDS
None Of these propositions is true.
Many cats do not catch birds.
Many sparrows are as amicable Is
they can be-.
Many dogs are as sweet tempered as
angels In fur.
Many jays-in fact most Of them
never tech baby birds, or even the
eggs of other birds.
It is very easy to Jump to . general
conclusion from a single experience.
Marcel Proust, oldest Of men and writer's.
warns us against this in his ''Remem-
brance of Things Past"
Why birds fight each other must re-
main mystery, in many cases. Why do
human beings fight each other? OF
course, there are hundreds of reasons.
but when they are all given, it Just
gets down to a case of general c,lssed-
ness, after all
1t Is In animal life to fight.
Every year the observer of birds win
see, several cases of sheer malicious
ness on the part of some otherwise
good natured species.
1t is not to be expected that birds.
more than men, will be free from some
rogues. And then, too birds suffer from
. diseases, and we should be willing to
believe that the bird with q head
ache win find something to quarrel
about with another of his species, or
even with some member of another
group.
When We think Of the freedom Of
the air, and the millions Of winged
things In it, We may feel that the
wonder is not that now and then two
birds quarrel for no apparent reason
but that they do not quarrel more
often.
The beasts OF forests and fields and
the birds OF the air wage no formal
wars against each other, with little
groups at the top fomenting the strug-
giles which millions .of others must
wage.
In fact, individual struggles between
birds are 20 few that when one Is
witnessed it invariably causes wonder.
Maybe mankind will progress to the
bird level some day,