Evening star., 1946-09-03
This and That
By CHuTIeS Z. TT0Ce1UeLE.
WESTERN AVENUE.

Dear Sir:
"On my porch today sat baby bird,
sadly cheeping for its parent. 1t was
very young, no tail feathers yet. 1t
looked like young thrush-olive back,
spotted breast.
My coming out of the door scared it
out under the lilac bush. I threw it
food, which it made no attempt to eat
so I sat down to see who would come
to its aid.
Soon Father Cardinal few into the
lilac and in a moment came to the
ground, juggled piece Of bread around
in his bill and proceeded to feed the
baby.
"The baby bird hoped back to the
porch steps. Within five minutes a
thrush came out of the dogwood trees,
seized bug, and stuffed 1t down the
throat of the squeaking baby. She, too,
has just left and the baby bird has
followed her into the dogwoods.
Have you ever seen bird with two
foster parents?
Sincerely, v. T. D."
One OF the best of birds, our cardinal
is likely to do anything in the good line.
Here Is perfect songbird, If ever
there Is one. His only disagreeable trait
is his refusal, at times, to permit his
mate to eat with him, and since she
registers no protest, we should not.
In the spring, too, he feeds her, often
popping choice seed into her bill.
One may wonder what she thinks of
this change of heart, but that, again,
Is no particular business Of ours.
We can but accept cardinals and their
actions, and rejoice in them, since 80
per cent Of this species Is as close to
perfection as we are likely to find.
The cardinals often feed other species.
We have seen them putting food into
the mouths OF baby sparrows, both the
common sort and the song sparrows.
This Is not to be wondered at, per-
haps, since sparrows and cardinal both
belong to the same bird family. But
how about cardinal feeding a baby
cowbird? We have seen this, too.
1t Is not strange, when the young cow
bird matches out in a nest, that the
foster mother is fooled.
A yawning bill is yawning bill to
her. This has been proved many times.
Even such "smallies" as warblers do not
see any difference between the huge,
gaping cowbird throat and the smaller
throats of their own legitimate off,
spring.
Out in the open, however, on the
ground, you might think the birds would
note the difference, and refuse to feed,
but that Is not the cardinal way, at any
rate.
These are good birds, in every sense,
although the male cardinal has a
naughty look, what with his perfect
posture and that black headpiece he
wears.
Good posture is the heritage of all
birds, but particularly of some, such as
the hawks. Despite the fact that hawks
are not desirable birds in home gardens,
their presence from time to time is good
for the human watcher, so that he may
see at his ease what perfect posture
means.
They will give a good lesson to slump
ing humanity. There are some who
think that physical relaxation precedes
moral laxity.
If this is true, we may reverse the
process, and by Strengthening up, tend
to rebuild the moral factors.
In some sense this is proved in war;
the unfortunate thing Is that in thus
rebuilding certain morale features,
others are in for let-down, evidently.
At any rate, the hawks, and even our
little cardinals, show us how we must
hold ourselves, If we are to make the
most of our waning humanity in an age
when we are fast losing out to various
inimical forces.
Let us stand straight, as straight as
we can, to show we are proud of our
selves, and in this physical effort we
may draw back to the race a certain
| ger of losing.