Evening star., 1946-08-27
This and That
By Charles E. TraceUell.
S>SebStt.
ARLINGTON, Va.

Dear Sir:
$50 many of your correspondents last
year wanted to know where to see Balti-
more orioles, that I resolved that this
year the first time they appeared in our
nelgnborhood I would write to you. They
nave always been with us in great num-
bers.
This year not a one has been seen
or heard!
In 1914 on single Towering branch
OF cherry tree I saw an oriole, a
cardinal and scarlet tanager. thought
this the ultimate in beauty.
But last week down in Maryland
amid a flock Of red-winged blackbirds
was a scarlet tanager-a black winged
redoird! Very truly yours, j. H. H."
This has been poor year for orioles
everywhere
Sixteen years had seen an oriole FAM
lily in our own yard every spring, but
1946 has produced not single one.
Such variations and shortages" crop
up first in one species and then an
other.
Often nothing is the matter at all
except that the birds, for unknown
reasons, do not come to certain places.
Food and feeding habits may have
something to do with it. The evening
grosbeak, for instance, were thrown
into the Eastern section Of the country
last winter for the first time in many
years.
The reason was that favorite food
In the Northwest section was lacking.
due to mans destruction of various
trees.
Whether something like this may
have happened to our orioles is difficult
to say.
Great storms in certain sections of
the country at various times have de-
stroyed some species.
The bluebirds suffered from an ice
storm about 1911
1t has taken them all this time to
come back, and some feel that these
beautiful birds have never managed to
achieve their former numbers.
The increased use of various deadly
insecticides might have something to
do with the disappearance OF the ORR
oles.
Birds do not eat the poisons, of course.
but merely insects which have eaten
them.
In this way the birds die as surely
as if they had eaten the insecticide.
One would have to know great geo.
graphical turnovers, and the precise
points of mass poisoning to know
whether any particular species has suf-
fered particularly in this way.
Often insecticides kick up a frenzy
of action in insects for half an hour or
SO before quiescence. 1t is during this
time that parent birds seize them for
food for their young
All species, no matter what foods they
eat normally, take insects and tiny
worms to the babies.
The young are more easily killed by
poisoned insects than the old birds.
In this way in time, over five or six
years, there might eyentuate a distinct
lessening In the birds of a certain
species
Baltimore orioles, with their marvel
Gus hanging nest, are fine parents. They
take the best Of care of their young,
making hundreds of trips with food
each day.
Certainly the lack of orioles, for
whatever reason, is great loss, indeed.
Not only are they beautiful, In q
peculiar sense, but their nest-making
habits, and their engineering ability,
and their loud clear whistling, all COM
bine to make them great favorites.
We can but hope that the fewer Balti-
more orioles this year will not be q
permanent thing. but that the factors
working against them will lessen with
the years, and 50 in time they will
return to their former abundance.