Evening star., 1947-06-14
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trace1DeU.

Three weeks to the day after their Matching,
the four blue jay youngsters left the nest, and
that was the last we saw of them.
For time they were sprinkled over the neigh
borhood-one in shrub another on fence,
the third on the lawn, and the fourth in the
middle of the street.
This last one we chased across to the lawn,
as we regarded the middle of the road as unsafe
for anything three weeks old.
Birds at that age, however, are really COM
parable to humans at the age of 6, perhaps.
No one can be quite sure
These babies were as large as their parents,
with larger voices and appetites They had,
in addition. sad look which no elder jay has.
Why this doleful look of many baby birds?
Perhaps it is because they know they are
doomed. Even most of their human friends
deny them immortality.
For them there is no need OF atom bomb
for extinction.
After a few brief years, singing at dawn,
flying, nesting, comes good night to all this
1t may be that the birds know all this, and
that is why their babies look so sad
Certainly the jay baby lacks the conceted
look of so many human youngsters. helpful
egotism cannot prevail in bird, beast and fish, or
insects. These living things have not the sort
of minds which find egotism helpful in the
daily life.
These live from day to day, with no knowI-
edge that night cometh, hence where the sad
ness? 1t must be planted in them in the be-
ginning, along with their feathers It may be
that God is sad at what He sees. He cannot
blare it out, dictators do, when ordering their
following to attend public meeting, You may
not stay away SO he puts his sorrow in the
faces of his creations. May we read Alright
while there is yet time
The blue joy quartet went through no pre-
1iroin 10 vii he
Unlike the young of most other species. they
never once sat on the edge of the nest, or made
preliminary and tentative expeditions of a few
feet along the bough.
Their own nest. at the very tip of the long
curved branch, would have offered excellent
grounds for such expeditions.
They never once budged.
The largest, he who got the most food. con-
tented himself with perching mainly on the
bodies of his fellows.
How so many large birds managed to hold
together in such small nest was mystery
1t spoke well for the certain knowledge of the
mother jay who built the nest.
She made the foundation plants stick out in
all directions, and imposed on it cup able to
take her in comfortably. 1t proved large enough
for the four young until exactly three weeks old.
On the 2lst day the internal pressure, as it
were, reached the boiling point.
The watcher at the nest, from window
pcLhdpS 40 Icct away, WdS IciI1iIluSu VI
claims of population pressures in overcrowded
nations
Here in the little world of the nest things
had reached the breaking point that morning.
The mother jay got them up at dawn.
BY the time daylight fully came, the four
babies were gone.
Since that day, no sign has been seen of
neighborhood
Most beholders will not recognize them for
what they are. but we, with our prior informa-
ton, gained by a ringside seat, will recognize
in q band of six blue jays the father and
mother and triumphant brood.