Evening star., 1946-09-02
This and That
By Charles E. Trdcewell.
adams MILL ROAD,

Dear Sir:
I'm in dire desperation and I don't
know what to do, but hope that you
can help me, that is why come to you.
Il was kind and gentle with a heart
filled with good will, but now I'm fierce
and cruel and have a yen to kill. For
they're exasperating, their numbers
multiply, feed them everything the
best, but cannot satisfy.
I've fed them every kind Of bread
that is made of meal or -four, and be-
fore get ten steps away that bread
they will devour. I've given them all
cereals from grapenuts down to oats;
they do not act at all like birds-they
act much more like goats
I've given them peanuts, roasted,
salted and in the shell, but no matter
in what condition, they gulp them down
as well. I've given them grains Of corn,
oats and grains of wheat, raisins I
have given, too; but they've never had
enough to eat.
They sit around like vultures, they
never 60 away; they wait for every
crumb Of food, and keep the other birds
away.
''The lovely redheaded woodpecker
came often for a bite, but now he is
disguised and has vanished from my
sight. And the little robin red-breast
that love to see has almost ceased his
visits; they're beneath his dignity.
And my beautiful blackbirds, their
name I'd like to know; graceful, slender,
with long tails, no more they stop and
away they go.
THE bluejays with their chatter, that
I SO proudly fed, will not mingle with
the sparrows, so crude and so ill-bred.
The mocking birds come around each
day and look on with disdain and
watch the little gluttons gobble up the
grain.
1.-THE starlings come, they have no
pride and give no thought to culture;
they'll take their food wherever found,
though even with a vulture.
Il suppose you think that I am bad
and my mind is very narrow, but If you
have never lived in town., mister, you
don't know the sparrow.
They have really got me down, and
I've often stopped and wondered, for
they used to come by fives and tens,
now they come by.the hundreds.
Il had hoped to fill some lonely hours
by doing a good deed. yet find but
little pleasure now when the birds I
try to feed.
Please, mister, is there anything that
will really fill the sparrow? And I
mean fill him, from the outside right
down to the marrow.
UNLESS I get them satisfied, so they
will go away. I cannot feed my lovely
birds, for they decline to stay.
Respectfully yours, M. NJ"
NJ
Our correspondents ode to the appe-
tite OF the common sparrow is filled
| with sympathy for the little fellows.
And who in this day and age would
not envy the way sparrow can 60
| through his dinner?
He is, indeed never filled, and no
| wonder, because he is hardy and full
| of fight, and his entire alimentary tract
| is only few inches long.
He is always on the go, hustling to
bring up some five broods a year, often
making the first nest in February
Five or six eggs to nest means that
| in five broods each mother sparrow
| will bring into the world some twenty
| five to thirty babies
This means lot of food.
Most of the food fed the babies is
| from natures larder of worms and
small insects. Even seed-eating birds
find nothing SO good as worms and
insects for baby food.
| But for themselves the parent SPAR
rows prefer breadstuffs and seeds and
raisins and little meat or even salmon
and almost anything in the food line.
You cannot fill up the sparrow but
you can change your own attitude of
mind
He or she who puts out free lunch
must not quarrel with the hungry crea-
lures who come to 1t.
SparroWs seem to drive other birds
away, but the fact is that these latter
dart in ana out from time to time.
To kill sparrows is unthinkable, in a
world where there already is too much
killing. To trap them gets little real
/ results.
Accept them and make the best OF
them, just as the cardinals do If you
cannot, give up bird-feeding and 60
back to goldfish.
As for the sleek, black birds, they
are grackles and are much worse than
sparrows.