Evening star., 1949-06-13
This and That
By Charles Z. Trdcetoeu

One defender OF StarlingS doesn't agree
with a poem about them printed recently.
whoever sent this poem to you." the
writer says. "the author Is not correct.
He never robs other birds nests. or de-
stroys their young.
He can sing. also. and he whistles beau
tiful tunes, and as far as excelling on the
wing, he cannot be beaten that way.
Furthermore. continues this enthusiast,
when he digs. he Is helping humanity.
Another thing, he has been made famous
In song and story In England. ! used to hear
stories about the starting coming to windows
with love messages when was little girl
In Canada.
He is also q nice, gentle bird. No other
birds are afraid Of him, but they are very
much afraid Of some Others including the
black grackle, who is a killer.
'The poor old starting never attacks any
birds or their young.
People call them dirty-but am willing
to bet they take more baths than they do"
The ornithology Of the poem referred to
was not good; the over all praise Of the bird
was what counted that time.
A writer likes to give his readers credit
for being as smart or smarter than he ID.
For this reason, one may print poem which
is not ornithologically correct. on the under
standing that readers will zee this easily
enough.
We are afraid that the exisencies Of rhyme
made the builder Of that verse refer to lack
of fight ability, when IS q matter OF fact
flying is one Of the starling's great abilities.
Few other birds. If any. can do better
job Of flying.
Especially In the autumn. when large
bands fly around, the starting easily demon
strates his excellencies as an aviator.
Scores of them wheel and turn as II by
invisible command, and to O split second.
Few other birds command SO much ad-
miration in this way.
There Is no more brilliant sight In the air
than these powerful fellows on the wing.
Even the grackles. sounding like ghost
riders in the sky. give no such perfect
demonstration.
It is easy to work up admiration for this
bird.
Those who dislike 1t suffer. we believe.
from one Of the primary modern faults OF
human nature.
. II is simply the desire to regard human
or an individual bird or animal as part
Of q mass, rather than Is an individual
This Is the sad fault Of thinking which
has DrOU&0t US 10 the pretty P0oo Al WAAA~A
we, as moderns. now find ourselves. Instead
of looking ut o human as q human. he is
looked at as q case" as a number In
group Of numbers.
A man at Q desk plans. and In planning
he foreets J. q. Public and thinks only Of
e 90 .S46.
This sort Of thing is running the world.
but above all 1t is bringing confusion TO
America, where the rights Of the individual
were seldom trampled On In this fashion
before.
When the same type Of thinking 10 ap-
piled to birds. It gives us those terrible
starlings"
But II An honest person watches one
starting for q time, he comes to zee IN It.
not q member of q band which. by reason
of sticking together, messes up public build
inas. but q brilliant and fine creature.
wonderful flyer In an age OF flyers. bird
rs likely to do q good deed as the next one.
Today we talk n lot about discrimination
and anti discrimination. often without real
king that al persons and all creatures are
Disseminated against by some one. and al-
ways have been. and probably always win
be- One Of the worst determinations We
feel, Ia this one Of which We have spoken.
the discrimination against the individual IN
favor Of the MAS. Unless We can do some
thing about this. the killing Of thu startinss
WIN b only the beganning.