Evening star., 1949-09-21
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH
NEW HAMPSHIRE AvEN


Dear Sir:
my bird feeding station is a third-floor
kitchen window sill and the provender, for
the most part, whole wheat bread soaked in
either water or milk. My guests run to
sparroWs and starlings, 1t is unnecessary to
state. but occasionally I have seen robin
on the sill and once, what I took to be
rose-breasted grosbeak, from the description
found in book Of bird illustrations.
Am seldom at home for luncheon but on
those rare occasions my feathered friends
see me in the kitchen and voice their demands
in no uncertain terms, for they perch in the
trees that line the street under our windows
Needless to say, they are served
I'm summer the baby sparrows are brought
to the sill and fed. This is the most inter-
esting event that takes place there. notice
that two or three of the old birds will take
turns feeding the babies who cease their
shrill little cries only when their mouths
are full
MY nephew who spent little while with
me in the summer vowed to me that the
babies would scream for food, but if none
OF the older sparroWs came to feed them
they would help themselves without any
difficulty. While I think he was having his
little pleasantly at my expense, yet are they
different from their human associates in
this respect? Very sincerely, K. G."
X
Baby sparrows are funny little fellows
They will always insist on being fed as
long as they can get away with it.
But if no older bird pays any attention
to them, they will, indeed, feed themselves!
This is trick not unknown in other
species.
Young cowbirds will accept food for weeks
after they are able to eat by themselves
This is one of the very human traits of
the birds.
We have often seen young sparrows de-
mand food for as long as two months after
they were perfectly able to feed themselves.
Just as some human mothers are more
lndulgent than others, so some mother spar
rows will succumb to the lure and seek food
and even give to their offspring what they
have found for themselves, long after there
is any need for such kindly action.
All mother sparroWS and also starting
mothers will feed the young of other spar
rows. This often happens. Not only is the
mother followed by her own brood, but other
mothers will help in the feeding.
Starlings are extremely kind at all times
to sparrow young. We once watched an old
startling haul sparrow from pool. The
bird evidently was sinking, one could not
be sure. for the last time, when the startling
leaned over the pool, seized the drowning
baby and drew it back to dry land.
The startling baby is one of the greediest
of all birds.
He, too, insists on being fed long after
he is able to rustic up his own grub.
There comes time, of course, when no
parent birds will pay any more attention
to the f1edglings.
This occurs when the young bird assumes
so much of the adult coloration and ease
of flying and conducting himself that the
older specimens no longer see any difference
in it.
This is a matter of just a few weeks.
Thereafter the father and mother birds no
longer know their own offspring (There
must be some suspicion that there is
difference between birds, in this respect,
just as there is between human beings. Some
mother birds undoubtedly know their own
longer than others)
Every bird, no matter how late born in the
summer, must be on it's own by the time the
sharp autumn winds strike. If it belongs to
migrating species, it must be able to fly
long and well and know instinctively enough
to make the southwark trek for the first
time in its life.
When we think of these tiny things, spring.
ing into life from the small egg, growing in
few days to larger size than their parents
and then achieving the ability in few weeks,
or months at the longest, to fly unerringly
to an unknown destination hundreds and
even thousands Of miles away, we must pause
in astonishment and wonder. This is one of
the best things the birds do for us, and the
sparrows and starlings can do 1t for us as
well - any.