Evening star., 1947-03-24
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1Dell.

WlNCaEol Eli, va.
Dear Sir:
rs it not true that with few excep-
tions difficult situations can be used to
advantage?
"A new family pet, beautiful Dali
matian puppy, has caused bird feeding
to be very disturbing this winter. He
takes great delight in chasing birds,
barking with each step he takes
"The recent SHOWS and cold weather
afforded the difficult situation which
turned out to be a joy. 1t brought lots
OF purple fnches to the feeding station,
and flock of horned larks to adjoin-
ing open pastures. Both are exquisite.
Until the finches arrived even gal
Ions of tenderly nourished sunfower
seeds from my last summers crops
brought nothing. The juncos chased the
bread crumbs but other than that the
arrival of an English sparrow was an
event.
will my good fortune continue or
will both of these beauties Cinch and
lark depart as do the juncos?
THANK you for the thrill received
when you answered my letter of last
summer. Your columns are high. light
of the day, since birds are my one
obsession. THANK you, L. F. R."
"P.S.-Before mailing this letter, just
this morning stark tragedy struck the
feeding station.
"A sparrow hawk, beautiful in his
clear feathers, killed junco before my
very eyes. It was not a pleasant sight,
which proves that pretty is as pretty
does Could this be accepted as one of
those difficult situations which have to
be met and endured with grace in the
cycle of Ife?"
Dogs and cats, it all depends upon
the individual animals at the feeding
station for birds.
Some dogs, as some cats, are bad
actors when it comes to songbirds.
1t often is not realized that dog can
be even worse than bad bird cat.
Custom says that cats kill birds, but
it does not say that some dogs kill
birds, too.
As a matter of fact, perhaps more
songbirds are killed by dogs than cats
in back yards where bird feeding is
carried on, because the dogs are always
there, and have many opportunities.
Also, little precaution is taken to pre-
vent dogs from catching birds, since
many persons seem not to realize that
there is any danger.
In our own neighborhood we have
seen, in the past Is years, more birds
killed by dogs than by cats.
Most persons who actually have not
made a personal investigation are will
ing to believe that all cats kill birds.
The truth only is that all cats at
times kill birds, but some OF them, very
few, in year, and few cats larger
number.
In the main, we believe, the prowess
of house cats as bird killers has been
very much overrated,
Many cats do so much stalking that
they never catch any.
Dogs catch them by sudden rush.
It may be believed, too, that birds are
not so aware OF the danger from dogs.
Cats are their eternal enemies, along
with snakes, hawks and owls. Birds are
on the watch for them, but they are
fooled by the dogs.
The Dalmatian, while beauty, is a
bad bird dog, and in his old age grows
mean even to his owners. In vigor OF
living he is scarcely surpassed, and he
Is something of a clown, as q puppy.
Unfortunately, he loses his sense OF
humor later.
If a person is really interested in
feeding the birds, he will do best to
keep dogs out OF the yard as much as
possible Especially he must protect
suet from them, for they love 1t.
Once we saw big black dog come
into the yard and drag down a suet
cage. The last we saw of him he was
going down the street, suet holder and
all. It is needless to say that there
after we kept suet high on tree trunk,
out of the way of four-legged marau-
derS