Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-08-17
This and That
Bu Charles E. TraceaUell

correspondent tells about a group of
starlngs eating in the grass, bringing up food
instantly seized by small sparrow.
At no time, he says, did the starlings show
any resentment
This is easily observed at any bird feeding
station. While starlings do not patronize them
much, only taking little food, now and then,
they tolerate all the smaller species.
The most use starlings get out of the station
is shelter on a rainy day.
There is something intriguing in watching
one of these glistening black fellows with
enough sense to come in out of the rain.
He will perch in the center of the food bed
not sc much to keep other birds out as to get
as far as possible from the rain.
In this, as in many other affairs of their
daily living, the starlings are courageous, in
telligent, and persistent.
They combine strong bills, necks and wings
with stout bodies, big appettes, and the afore-
mentioned mental qualities. They almost
might be called their spiritual qualities, except
that the term would sound slightly silly, as
applied to birds.
Despite the fact that man has given his
angels wings, plainly copied from bird life,
he does not yet tend to think of the feathered
folk as getting deserving Immortality
Enough of them, man says, to fly through
the air with the greatest of ease, go to bed
early and get up at an absurd hour.
Man alone, he claims, has the right to life
beyond this
The starlings, the sparrows, the blue jays,
the wrens and Others on many front of the
endless battle called living, know nothing of
disputation. If they could think and talk as
we do, no doubt they would agree with some
human scientists, that mankind is mistake,
biologically speaking, and that what happens
to one form of life also happens to all the rest.
1t is an old disputation, worked out long ago
in a book called "Ecclesiastes.".
The starlings are Washington guests,
whether all of us like them Or not.
Many OF them go to the North, Canada and
the far West, in summer, but enough remain
here to keep us acquainted with them.
They tend to frequent the suburbs, and
raise their young along with the more popular
wild birds Of the areas.
Often they repay with deeds of kindness the
sparrows and others who tolerate them day
by day.
We have seen sparrow young rescued from
puddles and seen mother starlings feeding
song sparrow babies.
The startling is not a pugnacious bird, except
to his own kind. He is big and violent, at
times, but mostly toward his own Sort and
these seldom are harmed in any way.
If there is any killing of starlings, it is done
by ether creatures. Protected as song bird,
the startling manages to get along quite well,
even when some persons cry out against him,
as some one constantly is doing.
The thing to do here, as elsewhere, is to
educate starting foes. Let them watch these
birds carefully for a time, and the chances
are they will come to look more tolerantly on
them, as they see what capable creatures
they are.
Americans must always admire ability. The
starting possesses several abilities, the most
apparent of which is that OF fight. No species
surpasses him when he takes to the air. He
possesses, along with some of the water birds,
the ability to fly with hundreds of his fellows
as one bird. How they do it Is unknown.
Whether the flock is six or hundred each
bird turns and dips and rises at exactly the
same moment. Radio waves have been offered
as an explanation. 1t may be nothing more
than careful eyesight and quick coordination.
1t would be possible for the birds to have their
eyes glued as we say, on the tip OF the
wings of a leader, and to make such instant
response when they see that wing begin to
Dip that to human eyesight it would look as
If all the birds had some magic means OF
keeping step with one another.
In watching life in nature, 1t is always
temptation to seek some magic explanation
for phenomena, when all the time the ex-
PLANTATION, as far as explanation Is possible.
may be no farther than common sense. The
startling Is such a plain, common sense blro,
that in considering him we should ask for no
radar waves to explain something that con-
Germs his daily actions. Maybe he Is just as
we are, at bottom, able to coordinate him.
self, especially when he wants something to
eat to the point where perfect success follows
perfect functioning.