Evening star., 1946-11-30
This and That
Bu Charles e. Tracetpeu.

A beautiful plump bird Lit on the
porch railing.
He was pretty and it seemed some-
how that he knew 1t.
Electric blue, green and gold We'd
with white spots to make him marvellous
to behold.
As the sun struck him, he glistened
and cleaned.
AS he turned, the various colorS min
gled and seemed alive, almost.
~
The name of the bird?
A starting!
A young one. going into his first
winter.
The gold in the wings and tail was
particularly striking.
It took something from the sun itself
Short and squabby looking the star
ling may be, with his abbreviated tail
Abused by many he is, but we felt
sure that if his traducers had seen
this specimen, they would have agreed
that he was wonderful bird.
X X X
Birds are many things to many peo-
pie.
To some, they are living: to others,
poetry: to others, nuisance, and to
q few, beauty.
We believe the latter have the best
of the bargain.
The beauty of bird life is akin to
motion. to time and space, to other
mysteries in this, our life.
i Birds come and go, and give us beauty.
It is this picturesque quality, no
doubt. that makes them most beloved
by the plain people.
And they are right.
The ornithology, the scientific quality
of a bird, is one thing. It Is an inn
portant thing, but to the observer from
his window, it may mean little.
The economic quality Of birds bothers
the watcher not at all The good and
bad pointS-these are swallowed UP in
the picture the creature makes.
This love Of the bird as spectacle is
one most people share.
It is what makes some people get up
ir the early morning and go on bird
walks" It Is what makes people run
to a window to try and spot a bird
from whose throat Is issuing new
song. unheard before, at least by the
listener.
A bird is picture no artist can paint,
as the sold song put 1t, but many have
4 tried it and most Of them have done
very well by our feathered friends
There remains. however, something
that is never included and we say this
with all due respect for the earnest
men and women who have labored so
hard to do the best they can. Their
work is marvellous, but natures work
is even more beautiful.
This was demonstrated nicely by the
young starting. There is extant no
colored painting Of this bird which gives
half the beauty the real thing had there
in the sun. 8,
He reminded you Of jewels, but not
hard surfaced jewels with their facets
and planes.
His Jewels we're strictly living ones,
glowing from an inner depth of metabo-
lism, oxygen acting with protein to
make living thing.
Life is what the startling represented.
Every other bird represents 1t, too, IN
the same vivid way. A bird may be re-
garded as sort Of life motor. While
not like the mole, which IS said to need
food every few hours or die within q
day, q bird is also close to the border
line Of incessant starvation. He is small,
and the air Is in his bones. His feathers
are thin. He needs food all the day.
time. At night his life Is In abeyance.
He waits, not only for, daylight, but
for renewed life.
Happy Is he. starting or cardinal,
hawk or Jay, when he looks out beneath
rlmpled feathers at dawn's early light
and sees there some food carefully
placed for him the night before.