Evening star., 1946-03-06
This and That
By Charles E. TraceUeH.
@ Street.

g Street.
Dear Sir:
Recently you had something about
the turtle dove, and I want to thank
you, because this is my favorite bird
1T Is true, as you said, that he is no
facial beauty, but for all around grace
and interest I think there Is no bird
any better, and this goes for the favor
ite cardinal, the cocky jay and the mar
Velous bluebird.
THE dove somehow reminds me of
home, wherever I see him, and since I
like home, like to be reminded of it.
This bird visits our lawn almost
every day. Usually there is pair,
sometimes two pairs, and upon occasion
three pairs.
THE dove completes the family pic
ture, I think, much more so than any
other bird. Many of your readers rave
about birds. and I love them, too, but
SO many of them are so perfectly out
door creatures that they have no rela-
ton whatever to the house
The turtle dove is different. He en-
bodies the very idea of a house. In
my childhood days we had dove house
out in the garden, and the doves nested
there. That was long time ago, and
I have forgotten whether they were in
captivity or not but I do recall that
they were great favorites.
Il am happy to say that find moth
ing melancholy about the noise they
make. To me it seems the very en-
bodiment of home.
Il feel sorry for bird lovers who do
not have their doves. I wouldn't give
them any OF mine for anything
Yours very truly, E. D."
II
Perhaps one of the greatest charms of
our dove, commonly called turtle or
mourning dove, is that he is not seen
too often.
A certain rarity, at least in many a
yard, enhances his value, and makes
his visits take on something of an
event. We will never forget the win
ter we had six doves as regular GUS
toners at the feeding station. They
would come plowing across the grass in
their odd way, so close to the ground
that they reminded the locker of small
vessels in stream.
The way they flew into the air, with
whistling wings, at any interruption,
was a great point of distinction. We
have found, from perusing thousands of
letters, that many persons are unac-
quainted with this creature. .
Yet any one raised in country or small
town, as evidently our correspondent was.
knows the mourning dove as bird of
the everyday, to be accepted along with
the smaller and more fayorite song
birds.
y
The dove, of course, is songbird. His
throat muscles entitle him to that
classification. He has a contralto voice,
and a song pattern all his own. His
relationship to the pigeons may be sur
missed from the voice, but his is much
more musical than the notes of the
common pigeon. Many listeners cannot
stand the sound of a pigeon but they
like the notes of the dove.
Still claSsed as a game bird. the turtle
dove at times leads a miserable life but
when he and his mate and friends are
wise enough to come to suburban feed
ing stations they lead, in the main, a
very happy life.
1t would seem that the fame of bird
feeding in the East is spreading to the
birds of the West as shown by the Wis
its this winter of several hundreds of
evening grosbeaks. Maybe in the days
to come this trend will increase, so that
in time we may have the pleasure of
greeting many other species which or
dinarily do not come here.
Something over 300 species come to
the Washington area. There are. all
told, more than 1,400 species of birds of
all classiflcations in the United States.
After the bird grapevine has revealed
something of the good food waiting
hungry birds in this. locality, it may not
be too much to expect that more and
more species will come questing Why
mot? If the starlings have been able
to build up wholly new migration routes
in strange country. it is possible that
native birds can find their way to new
feed sources.