Evening star., 1947-06-19
This and That
By Charles Z. TrdceweI
"LOUE. SARTHE, France

Dear Sir:
"since the middle of May I have been here,
at my little place in France. The birds, know,
would delight you. The nightingales sing, not
only at night, but in the daytime when, as
part OF whole chorus, they are not so usually
noticed.
The merle or blackbird "a true blackhird,
not = grackle) develops different theme each
year-ur his family does. This year a very
persistent one in doing q Faust motif from
the duet in the second acD but some years
they do folk songs, or just before the war some
motifs from Schubert's March Militaire.' Tn
really not imagining things!
I'm the distance one hears the cuckoo, but
does not quite SO persistently as in England.
These birds-especially those of any size-have
had rather hard time during the war, when
a bird is, after all, a bit of meat in hungry
mans soup kettle. =.
"The skylarks still go up, in little aerial
bursts, from the fields of grain, and near at
hand the pinson (what is he In English? His
Latin name is Fringilla Coelebs, and he is very
comnlon) twitters his little rush of song every
few moments. The dictionary calls him a
chafnnch.
But this morning early my gardeners wife
came into my room with young bird she
had just captured. He was large for his age,
quite quiet, either because he was too young
to be afraid, or because he was too afraid to
struggle, u sou IdWH-COlOT WIN QiSGinCI DldCk
stripes across his tail, a long slender beak, and
a decided black -and-fawn crest.
"She said he was rare, and was called La
Huppe, but that would mean only crested
Hunters, she said killed him when they could.
His name in Latin is Upupa epops, and the
French book says he Is one of our most
beautiful birds of passage He has the faculty,
it says of lowering or raising its crest, but
usually it is raised. In the dictionary 1t Is
rather casually spoken of as a capwing
Needless to say, we released La Huppe in the
place where he, was found. But If you know
any more details about an unusual looking bird,
I'd be glad to have them.
Sincerely yours, K. w. D."
~
European birds suffered severely as a result
OF the war, but, like the people, they still 60 on.
They were better off, in a sense, since they did
not. need as much food, and what they needed,
such as weed Seeds worms and insects was
more likely to be found.
They did not suffer as much from explosives
as human beings evidently, as far as can be
ascertained What they will be able to do
with atom bombs remains to be seen.
Unusually severe winter months in England
caused heavy mortality among the insect
eating birds there. Suffering was unusually
acute among the thrush and blackbird families,
with scores of dead birds being picked up,
including the English robin, much smaller
hidii tulS, Fdituuo WiCuSs chyAdi hS aAo c1dA :
lings l.
Hawks and crows seemed to suffer little
from the. cold.
The net result will be that English crops will
suffer. according to the experts, adding still
another handicap to recovery.
Since the various phases of living things
are interrelated. in the long run an injury to
one is an i'll to all the rest.
1t is often difncult to understand this. The
results. of course, may take years. Thus half
a century elapsed after the rampant killing of
the passenger pigeons started before the end
came and there were actually no more of these
beautiful birds. Some persons still find 1t hard
to believe.
Mankind's silly error of war - from the
standpoint of intelligence it cannot be called
anything else-may lead to more terrible events
than any which the world has yet witnessed.
This might come about through the breaking
Of the golden chain Of life in which we are all
a part. This would be chain reaction pre-
+ dicted long ago. Probably In the great bust-up
nothing would be left alive except germs,
insects and birds. 1t Is comforting thought,
that the birds would escape universal destruc-
ton. Surely they would deserve it. When you
think how well, as rule. they mind their own
business taking life as God made 1t, without
trying to alter 1t by misuse of intelligence, you
understand something Of the reward that
should be theirs. The last man on earth, as
he raises despaEing eyes tor the ruins he and
his kind have made, viii see high above him
the beautiful birds, riding sereneiy on wings
Of tiame, bathed n the sunsets glow.