Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-06-09
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TrdcetDell

Your column in The Star is my first stop
ping place each evening and has been for
more years than can tell.
Recently we found at the foot OF the
steps dead bird. What beautiful thing 1t
was and what pity its death!
THE bird to us was complete stranger.
It's body was still slightly warm and no mark
OF violence could be found on 1t.
1T was about 1012 inches long. its wings
inches, its beak inch long. the upper part
black. the lower yellow and slightly hooked.
Its whole upper body was. I might say.
olive drab. shading to brown CLINT Of the
feathers on the shoulders. but the under
feathers of the wings were bronze or "copper"
The whole underbody was white. The
tail feathers were the same color as the top
or upper body, with white tips about "a
inch long.
What beauty 1t was and what glorious
sight it must have been in flight. Such a
wonder bird must have had song as thrill
ingly beautiful as its body.
How 1t ever came TO be where it was
found still confounds us. Our house is two
stories high. tree hangs over a terrace.
reaching the porch roof. and all wires are
over the tree, certainly not high enough to
catch bird of that size in flight.
1T seems it must have fallen there from
on high, but we cannot solve either how it
came to be there or even what kind of
bird it was.
mo extraordinary birds come to our feed
ers; however, We still love our sparrows,
starlings, a pair of cardinals. robins, red
winged blackbirds. grackles. a stranger now
and then, and not the least. our three blue
jay comedians.
They give us plenty of enjoyment. all OF
them. The jays are really comical in their
onfice Va hovo rnfhird a1so a raarkar at
times, and I hear a wren around with O
beautiful song.
II am a hearing-aid user. so you may I'M
derstand what it means to me to hear the
birds. ION afterthought. I don't believe
any one with normal hearing can UNDER
stand.) Sincerely, M. M. W."
This bird probably was a yellow-billed
cuckoo.
the black billed cuckoos but the former Is
the most prevalent fereabout.
The cuckoo probably ran head-on into the
house
Various birds. including partridges, do this
now and then.
It is evidently miscalculation. or lack of
care Of some sort, or perhaps might be
brought about by an illness or even blind
spot" for q moment
we nave OIben watched cardinals Skin
around the corner of the house. so close that
1t appeared for q second that they would
strike 1t.
Our cuckoos are in no sense relatives OF
the English cuckoos which lay their eggs in
other birds nests. That nefarious practice.
In this country. Is reserved solely for the
cowbird.
Our cuckoos are good citizens. often known
as rain crows, from the peculiar honking
sort of noise they make. supposed to herald
the approach Of rain.
They are more often heard than seen and
certainly are not crows. The black-billed is
regarded as O nest robber. and the yellow
billed lis believed to do the same, upon oc-
caSion.
It has been charged that the yeliow-billed
cuckoo eats the eggs Of other birds.
Both cuckoos eat large quantities Of cater
pillars. the hairier the better. Other birds
tend TO leave the hairy caterpillars alone.
but the yellow-bil and black-bilied
cuckoos eat them SO greedily that invesu-
gators have discovered that their stomachs
are sometimes lined with hairs that have
become imbedded They are probably the
only birds In the world that may be said 20
have 8 fur-lined stomach.
As for the yellow billed cuckoos song. II
is nothing much. One authority said there
lis very little to say about 1.-THE less the
better. and another declared that nothing
can be compared with this performance I'M
less 1t be that OF loose mound
tapping from . pan OF MILK