Evening star., 1948-03-08
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Traceuell

A gentleman accuses us of being unduly
prejudiced in favor of the starlings.
Well, maybe we are.
The world is so filled with rancor hate and
plain malice, that it does one good now and
then, to stick up for under-dog birds.
There are not many of these.
Let us See
Grow, startling, English sparrow, blue jay,
grackle, yellow -bellied sapsucker-
These are the main ones, with careless OBJ
servers confusing song sparrows with common
ones. and some persons even disputing the
need of songbirds at all
"
There is no denying that the startling has
his bad points.
That the common sparrow has them, too,
must be admitted
Both species. to certain extent, do run
American birds out Of their nesting places
That the dispossessed Americans are so lack
ing in ability and vigor, however, that they
cannot find other places, is something few
bird lovers will be willing to admit.
Run out of one place-often by such beau-
ties as the fickers, too: real Americans every
one of them-the dispossessed birds 60 into
the woods and start anew.
We may not see them, but they manage,
nevertheless.
AS for the jay, we hold him blameless
More and more people are inclining to this
belief.
1t is impossible to watch this one fairly
without working up liking for him, he is
so wholly, even ruthlesSly, an American.
The jay gives one better impression of
our own bluff.
We need some of his spirit at this hour,
before we are bluffed into a corner and held
there as ready prey for the future.
Yes, the American blue jay has something
of the Indian about him, both in appearance
and actions.
One may wonder what would have happened
to our country, if the American Indians had
been better treated?
Would they not have responded, If taken into
full partnership, and have been able to help
us more in our hours of need?
***
The crow Is wise one.
That is why we like him, so thoughtful,
so saeacious, so indubitably an American.
He is wise in his ways, and his morning
cav floats through the air with something
of the spirit of benediction
A natural prayer, that sound, If one chooses
to hear 1t that way.
The crow, too, has his bad points, without
a doubt
So has the turkey vulture, or buzzard.
All birds are not mice" in the sense OF
affordine good clean fun to middle-aged per-
sons watching bird-feeding stations from be-
hind clean wtndowpanes. ....
X
We have to take the birds as they come,
and as they come is rather good on the whole.
When you throw in the bird under dogs,
you have an amazingly small proportion OF
bad ones.
Even the hawks, called by some persons very
bad, indeed, are found, on careful viewing,
to be rather decent citizens Of the wide, wide
world.
No hawk ties its victims with a Chinese
knott Just pecks his heart out in a fash.
Grackles are mean, but they manage to get
only small proportion of baby birds, after all
1t is easy to work up spleen against some
living creature. difficult to try to look at them
all with understanding.
Many humans are slow in learning kindness.
We all need more education along that line;
little learning, a wise man once said, Is a
dangerous thing.
The little learning Of our schools is only a
beginning. II we, citizens of the world, do not
60 on with our education, if We do not learn
to love more and hate less, we are going to
find ourselves clawing each other worse than
tigers ever thought of doing.