Evening star., 1946-10-07
This and That
By Charles Z. Trdceuell.
IALSTEAD, Kans.

= @A<tAdO &d<AAi &Aa1io'
Dear Sir: -
"Iave you ever seen ten or twelve
Sparrows in q bird bath at one time?
That Is the picture want to pass on to
you.
and happineSS-no pickering, no fight
ing, simply fiuttering down-others
fiuttertng up-it was delightful affair.
"Sparrows here in this small town
are SO different from the English SPAR
rows Of the midtown block in Washing
ton, d. c.
"Our. sparrows here look so clean and
plump. and they nest in trees, so far
as I can determine. They keep in
fiocks and behave as you wrote in your
column.
Especially in the winter, or on a cool
day, flock will collect in tree on the
sunny side of the house, and have q
genuine social hour. The sparrcws Of
Halstead are climbing up the social
ladder Of bird life
Il have always enjoyed sparrows, and
always was happy when you spoke
kindly Of them.
I'VE have no wood thrushss here now.
Will you please stop, when you see the
next thrush in Washington. and tell it
there is woman out in Kansas who
loves it, and hopes to see one once more?
There were wood thrushes here in 1918,
the year I left to 90 to Washington.
Il always enjoyed your column in The
Evening Star. I had in mind 80 many
times writing you note OF appreciation.
1t is sad, how We neglect doing the
better things.
MANY thanks for all the good things
you have written.
: = Sincerely, M. M. NJ"
Common sparrows as rule do not
nest in trees, but some OF them do, as
we can well testify. One pair even
took to wren house swinging high in
an apple tree.
One way to keep these sparrows from
taking over wren or blue bird houses
Is to place the houses very low, not
more than three or four feet from the
ground.
Ordinarily, the English sparrows pre-
fer a solid base for nest. That is
why they take to cornices and over
, hangs and even to cutters, sometimes
I coming back to the same site every year,
! to be washed out again by the first
. heavy rain.~ r., ..'..
This would seem to indicate, as some
have said, that these birds at times do
not seem very intelligent. ;
But we must not forget that when
we speak of intelligence, in relation to
bird or pure animal, we. are speaking
of something different, in way, from
the intelligence of man.
: Instinct plays such a great part that
it is unfair to say a bird is not intel
ligent just because he does not look
backward and seek advice from exper-
ince. That is where the instinct comes
in This tells him to take the house
gutter site, since it is steady. 1t does
not remind him that last year he was
washed out. His instinct is his INTEL
ligence, and in the long run he finds
it pays.
F Perhaps our correspondents sparrows
were one of the scores or more OF species
which in some ways resemble the COM
mon sparrow. It is a fact that the
English sparrow Is working his way up.
In the suburbs, where he has chance
to get away from, the invisible dirt of
the cfty--but very visible on him-he
develops into a clean looking fellow, fat
and as saucy as ever, but larger than
the city specimens.
Male English sparrows lose the black
patch at their. throats In the winter.
This is mating coloration. So when
a flock of these SparroWs fly in, during
the cold months, sometimes it is diff
cult to see at first whether they are
"just English sparrows," as some so
condescendingly say, or belong to an
other species. Fortunately for the COM
mon sparrows, they are not large, and
30 their gregarious roosting habits do
not bring upon them the Ill will which
accompanies the poor starlinss wherever
they 80.