Evening star., 1947-03-27
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trdce1UeH.
BETHESDA, Md

"Dear Sir:
about month ago two purple finches
came. Since then we have had them
every day, increasing in numbers. until
this morning the ground was literally
carpeted with them.
II opened the door and heard their
very sweet song, somewhat like that of
a canary. What pity they were given
that name! When the sun shines on
that lovely head. 1t looks like sleek rose
colored satin, not purple.
with the purple finches always are
birds about the same size, which look
like song sparrows, except that their
stripes and spots are more pronounced.
Could these be the females? I have
seen the rosy birds feeding seeds to these
gray-striped birds. We put sunflower
seeds on the window sill, and they stay
there and feed, with me just inside the
window.
1.-TWO mornings before the big snow.
little bird came, which seemed to be
not more than half the size of chick
adee beside which it was feeding. 1t
was dark gray on top, slightly marked
stripes OH wings, and lighter gray on
the underparts, but on its head were
brilliant stripes of orange or &brlght
yellow and black.
when it faced me, its head was as
brilliantly striped as the sides OF
tiger The nearest I could find to it
was the golden crowned kinglet, but 1t,
the pictured kinglet, didn't seem to
have as many stripes on its head.
''The next morning 1t was with an
other tiny bird, not so brilliantly marked
on its head. 1t was the smallest bird
have seen outside of a hummingbird.
This morning I saw new bird feed
ing on the ground. 1t looked almost
like a song sparrow but the stripes were
more marked and the general coloring
darker. 1t was striped all over and
a little smaller than goldfnch. Gould
it have been pine siskin?
"Saw our first robin March is.
very truly yours, F. D. B."
X X X X
The name purple finch" was given
the bird by scientist.
Now scientists are odd, no doubt OF 1t.
They invent atom bombs, then feel
sorry they did 1t.
They do all sorts OF things not done
by ordinary folk.
But they hew to the line OF thought,
and that Is great deal. If disaster
comes from their thinking, they can
put the blame on thinking not on them
selves. (Which won't do them or the
rest of us much good, when we are all
blown sky-high togethero
A scientist known as an ornithologlst
named this bird the purple finch" You
see, he was a student of Latin, among
other things, and in that tongue the
word for purple" really means "rosy."
Truly, this is a rosy fellow, one OF the
most beautiful to come to any yard.
The plain sparrow-like birds with the
males are, of course, their plain mates.
In the bird world, for some obscure
reason of the Creator, the females are
usually plain. James.
The little birds smaller than chick
adees were undoubtedly golden-crowned
kinglets. These are marvellous porce-
lain-like creatures. They have a habit
of suddenly disappearing from sight in
shrubbery. They achieve this effect by
suddenly dropping down and around
a leaf.
Pine siskins are seen here in winter
irregularly.
OOUle VI tIlc puIptc llliCllco diC doe 90
rosy as others. These are the immature
males
Some one has likened the males of
this species to birds dipped in poke
berry juice and that is a pretty good
description
The beauty of this bird is that one
of him is just as good as scores.
This is because of his sheer difference
of coloring. There is no other bird
with the same tint. and it happens to
be shade which is kind to the eyes
of most lockers.
These birds are fine to have around
They leave us, OF course, but their pres
ence for an hour or day is happy
event. The song is pleasant, as our
correSpondent heard