Evening star., 1946-09-19
This and That
By Charles E. TracelUeU.
TWENTY FIFTH STREET S E.


Dear Sir:
I'VE are having trouble with spar
rows roosting on the caves over the
back porch. Some one told us that If
you place a red brick in each opening
it will keep them away. Is there any,
thing to this? If SO. is it the color that
does the trick, or the fact that there
isn't enough space for them to be COM
Portable? Very truly yours, A. H. B."
. -
The latter is the case of course, il
there were anything to the color angle,
white bricks would be better, because
sparrows do not like white
Common sparrows have their ups and
downs in life, along with the rest of
animate creation. One season they are
doing well. another not so we'll
While remarkably persistent and har-
dy, able to make the best of things to
an exceptional degree, they sometimes
do the wrong thing, such as leave a
well stocked feeding station for the life
of the woods.
We say the wrong thing because it
seems wrong to an observing human,
but still We do not know all the factors
involved
English sparrows are very human
birds. They know what they want, and
go after it. They love to eat, they like
to fight, and an observer is likely to be-
lieve that If they wore trousers they
would drink and gamble, too.
Hence, one may work up a real af-
lection for them, maybe just little
more than for some other more highly
touted species. They are at once ras-
calls and fine fellows. There is never
any telling what a sparrow will do He
may keep another from drowning, or
he may pick at it.
Common sparrows like their nests
steady. That is why a swinging nest
ordinarily does not appeal to them, and
why they take to overhangs of houses,
cornlces. caves and so on.
Usually they will not make nest
low. That is one way of keeping them
out OF bluebird house. Put the house
three or four feet from the ground. and
probably no sparrow will seek entrance.
Instead OF protesting its being hun
CRY, which is all one is doing when in
Weighing against it in the ordinary
fashion, one might watch it more close
ly, to find out why cardinals and others
like to have it around
If birds of a feather flock together.
as we have so often been told then We
must credit the English sparrows for
good traits as well as ones we NAV not
altogether like.
English sparroWs have some remark
ably nice cousins, too, not only the car
dlnal which belongs to the same fam
lily, but also many other species of SPAR
rows There are l8 other species which
come to the District of Columbia.
One of the best of these-and often
to be seen in company with the COM
mon SparroW-is the song sparrow.
There is no sight in bird watching finer
than that of song sparrow in the
winter time, perched on gate post or
fence, singing happily in the snow
Perhaps the urge behind many of the
complaints against the English SPAR
row is simply the numbers of them No
doubt many person does not realize
this. We have been told the worth of
bigger and better" for so long that
many persons who swallow the propa-
ganda nevertheless inwardly protest it,
They know in their heart of hearts that
large numbers Of anything do not make
a thing better, not necessarily. 1t might,
and then again it might not.
Common sparrows abound.
They come in large numbers to a
feeding place, and in time in the sub
urbs turn into larger, cleaner and hap
pier birds. 1t is a good thing to keep
them so, if possible, because individ-
ualy the English sparrow is good
bird. His fault of messing up every
place he goes is due to the crowd. Let
us hope that man, long given to making
a mess of things. will not altogether
and en- masse fall for the propaganda
OF bigger, therefore necessarily better.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
1t isn't any more true than that other
old popular saying, that one must eth
er 60 backwards or forwards, that one
can't stand still.