Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-02-02
This and That
By Charles E. Traceueu.
ARLINGTON Va

ARLINGTON, Va.
Recently in the snow and sleet some
olroS started to looking under our back
steps, which are open between the stems
and at the sides.
went out to see what they were
looking at, and couldn't find ANYTHING
under there except some dirt, and if
they wanted that why didn't thev f1v
under? -i'
L thought and thought and at last
came TO the conclusion that they were
expecting me to do something for them
ana that in some way it had to do with
under the porch.
The only thing could think of was
70 put some food underneath. and see
that was what they were limiting for
me to do.
Evidently it was.
mo sooner had I gone inside, than the
plrds-they were juncos-few beneath
the porch and started eating. I could
see them from window in a part of
the house which juts out.
Now what l want to know. did those
olrds figure all this out in advance. and
put 1t up to me, so that they would
nave dry and sheltered place to eat
or did 1t just happen this way?
Faithfully yours. NJ K",
+
There can be little doubt that birds
nave enough intelligence for their needs.
One OF the great demands of their
life is for food.
Even more than most of us they need
food, for their temperature is higher.
Moreover, they are fragile things. in
sense, being scarcely more than air
and feathers, with bit of meat and a
lew bones, and even the latter filled
with air.
They are one, almost, with the air
itself, but do not possess the ability of
fishes to take on the same temperature
OF the water in which they swim.
No matter how cold the air, the birds
must keep up their bodily heat to better
than 100 degrees, in some cases from lO3
to LOG degrees, or perish.
The peril time for them is night.
when, with claws hooked over the
branch, and muscles frightened to hold
them on, they remain during the dark
without movement or food.
In winter on the coolest days in the
suburban sections the early morning
paSserby sometimes comes across a bird
frozen to death.
1t may be downy woodpecker, COM
plete in every feather, and seemingly in
good shape, yet frozen hard ard stiff.
Since food is their great necessity, 1t
may be understood that they miss no
bets, as the expression has it, in looking
for something to eat.
They not only find it in nature, but
they know from experience when and
where it is put out for them.
This experience also includes the per-
son who feeds them.
1t does not take most species long to
realize that human beings in the house
have something to do with the food they
find in feeding station, or sprinkled
on the ground.
And on particularly bitter days 1t is
not hard to understand that the birds,
too, seek shelter, and willingly would
have the person in the house put food
in place where they are not constantly
exposed to the elements.
It would be too much to expect all
birds to be this smart at all times, but
surely it is easy to believe that some of
them, now and then, will hit upon such
an expedient as our correspondent de-
tails. 1t is just step from the more
common method of flying up to the
house and chirping vigorously when for
some reason no food has been put out
for them. Almost every one who feeds
the birds has had this experience. So
why not the next step? In time maybe
the birds will be able to express their
preference for certain kinds OF food, and
chortle their thanks in a special way
when they get it.