Evening star., 1949-02-10
This and. That
BIZ Charles f. Tyace,Dell

A new resident of Arlington County hopes
you will tell us about the rare birds here, as
I am not able to get out much any more and
hunt them up for myself"
That is the great beauty of watching birds
at home.
You don't have to hunt them up.
They come to you!
Just like that, flop!
Whirl. and there you are.
Wings at my window" and all that sort
of thing.
The point is, that all the birds are rare.
even the common sparrows.
1t tis this attitude, and not politics, as some
one insinuated. that keeps people watching
the songsters in the cold.
1t Is not fear of offending some one that
makes person tolerant so that he is able to
find beauty in pigeons. friendship in cats and
sermons in sparrow chatter.
1t is solely because they are all. indeed,
rare BIRDS
One does not have to be an ornithologist
to enjoy them.
One does not even have to know their
names. scientific or common, If he does not
want to.
One simply looks at the mother cardinal
in the snow, and thereby has q treasure of
beauty to keep forever.
Rare BIRDS
Yes. they are rare enough for practical
purposes.
All of us should keep this in mind as we
look through the window at the mockingbird
on the porch rail, or the snowbird on the
ground. the starlings in the tree, or the
bushy-tailed squirrel at the bird-feeding
station.
Each one is genuine, actually the real
thing in nature.
Its possessions are two little eyes, tail,
may be.
1t has need of all these, and cannot func-
ton If they are not in good condition
1t is an advocate (although it doesn't know
it, of nature-cure. Give me enough good
food" 1t says, in effect, "and can stand the
worst cold.''
Rare bird!
What rarer indeed. than the redbird?
If it were mixture of reds. greens. Colds
and blues evidently some foreign creature, 1t
would be praised as rarity.
Why not give it the same praise now? It
deserves it.
And that blue jay, bold bird of the suburbs
Why want to call 1t ''macaw." or some such
oddity, when 1t is just as good called Jay?
Blue jay screams. seizes a peanut and
carries 1t away, hiding 1t beneath leaves,
where it is discovered by some hungry
squirrel.
Old jay seizes sun1ower seed and carries
1t away to tree trunk, where 1t jams 1t into
crevice of bark, where 1t Is found by some
hungry chickadee.
These are all rare actions, if we have
enough sense to know that homely everyday
actions can be rarities in the best sense.
We always think of the man who jour-
neyed to Central America and there found a
robin. He was so struck by seeing 1t there
that he never stopped talking about it.
Well, you and do our talking about the
robins we see here, and they are just as good
robins, just as beautiful, just as rare.
They are wonders each bird, no matter
how common. An old startling in the sun
shine has possibilities for an artist.
A tom cat looking up into bush Is a
picture no artist can paint. At least. not
very we'll. Hundreds Of artists have tried 1t
and not one in thousand gets the real tom
cat look
A pigeon on the ground, turtle dove
chasing jay, nuthatch and a downy
woodpecker cumming 1t together on the
trunk of a tree
These are all rarities. rare birds OF nearby
Virginia and Maryland, equally rare and
pleasing in Washington. D. c.
You don't have to get out and hunt them
up. They have wings. they can fly to you.