Evening star., 1946-05-22
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceWeU,

IoN, "a.
Dear Sir:
You have spoken many times of the
mean nature of the grackle, and you
are right
To-day I saw one of these brutes in
feathers peck a baby English sparrow
to death
He did this before I could get out
to stop him. The baby bird was eating
raiSins, which I had thrown out on
the lawn.
The young bird was minding his
own business, probably very proud be-
cause he had just learned to eat by
himself when this grackle flew into
him
He injured both legs and put one
wing in such shape that the little bird
could not fly. 1t died few hours later
L did everything I could for him, but
the grackle had injured him too
severely.
There was no reason in the world
for this attack. 1t was just a plain
piece of viciousness.
From now on I am not going to let
one of these mean birds alight in my
yard. Have you any suggestions as to
how to keep them away?
Very truly, M. H. D."
X X
AS this correspondent points out the
purple grackle is more than a worth
less bird around a feeding station he
is villain
He kills for the fun of it.
In view of the fact that certain sec
tions of humanity have given many
demonstrations of this same urge, in
recent years, perhaps We should not
be too harsh on the grackle.
Yet few birds, thank heaven, kill Just
for the sake of killing
Even the hawks catch and kill for
something to eat.
The same goes for eagles
The grackle is one of the few which
seems to kill solely for the sport of the
thing.
Again let us say that perhaps we
should not think too harshly of him
for this, in view of the fact that man
kind has exalted killing to the rank of
sport.
1t may be that the grackles have a
code of their own, and that the one
that kills the most baby birds of other
species in a given. length of time is
called king of the grackles.
He may be presented bounty of
some sort, maybe a special type of food.
Remember that the crows sometimes
hold courts of justice
In this connection is a curious fact
that many city and suburban dwellers
who see grackles for the first time speak
of them as "crows."
Purple grackles are black and shiny,
with purple undertones. They have
vicious bills and mean little yellow
eyes.
These birds are big, but not as large
as crows by any means. They have
nothing of the fun of the crows
They will come down to a feeding
station and eat peacefully with the
others-and then when no one is look
ing they will fly over to a nest and
drag the protesting babies out and
bite off their heads or yank their legs off
Surely this is no nice bird to have
around where smaller songbirds are
feeding.
Harsh measures are not needed, even
against this murderer.
1t is enough to sally forth, at inter-
walls, and chase them away. This will
cause the smaller birds to fly, too but
they will come back. They seem to
know that the intrusion is not meant
for them. The grackles, on the other
hand, act as if they knew they were
not wanted. Persistent forays into the
yard finally will convince them that
they should stay away. This does not
worry them, evidently, because the
murder they delight in is just as much
murder wherever they do it. The point
is that the bird lover does not want it
done In his yard.