Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-07-27
This and That
By Charles E. TraceDeH
SANDY SPRING, MD.

while bird lover. I don't appreciate the
way half dozen brown thrashers have been
pulling up patch of my sweet corn; just as
it peeps through the ground they yank it out
root and all for the morsel of corn at the
bottom. ..
In this day of fertile hybrid corns we only
drop two or three grains in hill, expecting
to get perfect stand without thinning.
a back breaking job that has turned many
farm boy cityward.
Not wishing to shoot or scare our bird
friends I am reverting to custom of my
boyhood days of dropping the number of
kernels as indicated by this old couplet:
"One for the blackbird two for the crow,
Two for the cutworm and two to grow
That was the number planted some 60
years ago and if the above named plunderers
did not get their allowance it entailed lot
OF thinning.
so now if the brown thrashers don't get
theirs it will mean thinning again.
Very truly, R. B. t.
CLINTON, MD.
Dear Sir:
Yesterday between showers. about !
o'clock, saw hummingbird!
"It is only the second I've ever seen.
1.-THE first was II years ago in Pennsyl-
varia This one was resting on the clothes
line.
ut soon flew down from the line to the
Towering mint
II have heard they only live in more
southerly States. so what made it come this
far? Sincerely B. d. ..
Hummingbirds are no rarity in this section
of the country.
We have but one species OF course, out IL
is a beauty and very plentiful.
If this correspondent will visit Georgetown
he will find scores of these fine little crea-
lures.
At one time in nearby Chevy Chase, Md,
we watched more than 100 hummers fit
ting over a mimosa tree. They made an I'M
forgettable sight.
But the fine thing about hummingbirds, as
about most species, indeed, is that one does
not have to have hundred Of them.
Two or three, or even just one, will do
Surely there is no prettier bird picture
than two tummers in a window box OF Rosy
Morn petunias.
Some people have the idea that this little
bird never rests. AS our correspondent has
noted, 1t often does so.
Clothes lines and telephone lines are IA
vorite perching places.
It is so much on the move, however, that
no doubt many persons have failed to see
1t any other way.
The one species of hummer that comes
to this section Of the country is one
of the best. The male has red breast; the
female is entirely green.
This ruby-throated hummingbird Is just
over 8 inches long.
Those who have watched it carefully de-
| clare that most of its time is spent on wires
preening its feathers and just looking about
The male is daring in defense of its young,
| not hesitating to dart at hawks, If necessary
While some of them winter in Florida,
most of these little things fly nonstop across
the Gulf of Mexico, 500 miles as the hummer
flies No rest, no foods it any wonder that
| many of them drop at the finish?
Care should be taken not to confuse the
ruby throated hummingbird with the sphinx
moth. 1t, too. Is green. and hovers over
| flowers, especially the phlox. in the evening
This pseudo-hummer will even allow you to
| cup it with your hand. 1t Is not bird how
ever, and cannot be mistaken for one except
| by the careless observer.
Hummingbirds may be attracted to the
| garden with bell-shaped flowers, and also
with sweetened water in small glass tubes
attached to branches Of shrubs. It is not
| however, so much the sweet they like as the
| small insects attracted by the sugar.
Baby hummingbirds are fed on tiny In
sects partly disested BY the parents and
than fegnrgttatfd.