Evening star., 1947-11-25
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1Uell
BETHESDA, Md.

BETHESDA, Md.
Dear Sir:
Il hope sometime you can tell us what should
be done about squirrels at bird feeding stations.
L do not want to chase them away, but still
I would like TO get rid Of them.
When I think this, however. I feel ashamed
of myself and let them remain.
Let us know about this.
Sincerely E. De L."
Most persons who get excited about squirrels
at their bird feeding stations end by letting
the four-legged ones alone.
Squirrels, too, are hungry.
Cold weather makes renewed demands upon
them as upon the birds.
The need for heat in the living body is
paramount in the cold.
The only way the animals and birds have
of protecting themselves is to be well furred
and feathered and well fed.
Given these two the creatures of the open
airWays get along very well.
Their temperatures are uniformly degree
or two higher than mans. This means food
and more food, because the heat comes from
the heat in food.
Neither birds nor gray squirrels are hoarders.
few seeds have been put in crevices of bark
by few birds and some nuts have been buried
in the ground, both by squirrels and blue jays.
But it is questionable whether more than a
part of this food treasure is ever discovered.
Withered annual Seeds berries on shrubs and
trees and food put out by kind humans-these
constitute the greater proportions of the foods
eaten by birds and squirrels in winter Only
the hawks, among the birds, are eaters of flesh,
and among the small animals of the wild, at
least in city and suburb, few eat flesh All,
including squirrels and rabbits and practically
all of the 10 more species of birds that winter
here, live on starchy foods of one sort or
another These are, of course, heat making
foods.
**
1t is plain, therefore, that any one who wishes
well of the animal world will not try to draw
up q list of determinations in the cold.
II the person who starts to feed the birds
begins to grow angry every time he sees a
squirrel, wroth when he sees cat, purple In
the face over blue jays and out of his mind
because English sparrows are hungry, too, he
is in prime position to lose most of the moral
benefit of bird feeding activities.
Perhaps he has never stopped to think that
what he is doing is good deed "in a naughty
world" as Shakespeare rather quantity put 1t.
Mostly he has believed that he is entertaining
himself, and that is true but also he Is doing
good whether he is consciously shamed-faced
about it or not.
He who chases away squirrels, and feels
murder In his heart over sparrows, had better
20 back to his books, or his gun and fishing
tackle to his music to his business, to all the
other things of this teeming world that inter-
est him, because he will forever miss the inner
essence, the secret heart. of the combined in
oor-outdoor sport of feeding and watching
the birds
The best way of acting. to get all that this
sport has to give one, is to accept them as
they come.
If some of them are undesired, keep well in
mind that food is lure and that they have
been lured
1t is not their fault they are hungry, nor
are they to blame for eating what they hnd
put before them. They have no way of under
standing that some hungry things are desirable
some undesirable; they only know they smell
food and it tastes good. The human who puts
food out and then expects them not to eat Is
playing a dirty trick on them. Stop putting
out food, II you do not want hungry creatures
to eat But do not try to play at dictator behind
the window. There is enough and too much
of that spirit In the world already. The true
spirit of charity is 'Hed all or feed none"