Evening star., 1949-07-07
This and That
By Charles E. TraceDeH
"QUACKENBOS STREET

Dear Sir:
IT am glad to see you agree with me on
the baby bird raising situation. have raised
so many robins I have lost count. One
cardinal. one song bird and one catbird.
have never taken bird that wasn't helpless
with death staring him in. the face.
"Kittie the catbird was the outstanding
one. My son found her in some briars and
some boys were throwing darts at her. He
brought her home nearly starved and too
little to fly.
Il fed her and soon she was healthy
grown catbird. Before she had full flight,
got a baby robin with broken leg. put it
in a nest in Kitties cage, which was large
flight cage in sunny cellar window.
"She adopted 1t and kept its nest clean.
My daughter and saw her do nurse duty
once and we saw evidence of it many times
when she was ready to go, we put her
in the back yard and she came to the
screen door and screamed for food every
hours for days. We would go out when
we heard her NEW and would feed her and
she would perch on my arm while we fed
her.
"One day she went to neighbor's house
by mistake, and I wlistled and she flew
straight to me. After that she only came
once day for while and then quit coming.
Now when I see or hear a catbird I have
pleasant memories of Kittie and hope she
is still prospering.
''The cardinal Is one of this years crop.
"A neighbor boy gave my son a small
brown bird the size of sparrow f1edgling.
For one week thought it was sparrow
and fed it accordingly.
Then it developed small crest. called
the Zoo and described my tiny brown bird
with crest and was told it probably was
tufted titmouse.
Il started giving it hamburger, then, along
with its milk. pablum and egg.
Three days later my 'titmouse' grew
reddish brown feather in his wing, and
was surprised at my ignorance in not recog-
nizing cardinal when I saw one.
II was fooled by his small gray beak and
dainty feet and legs Now have had him
month and half, and his breast is losing
the tiny brown feathers and in their place
are coming scarlet feathers. He sings baby
bird song and chirps to me while he perches
on my shoulder while work.
He Is about ready to 60, and when he
does, I will always have pleasant memories
of my beautiful baby cardinal.
Sincerely, l. H."
X
There are two matters of unusual interest
in this letter, in addition to its nice exposi-
ton of the pleasure and good that may come
from caring for birds fallen from the nest.
The first extra point lies in the difficulty
OF even the most expert to tell exactly what
baby bird may be at first, from descrip-
ton telephoned or written in.
This column has faced this difficulty many
times, often in regard to grown birds, so
difficult it is to solve the problem posed.
After going out on limb" several times
and identifying them incorrectly-we have
adopted policy of making no statement
unless we are sure without doubt. Nuff sed!
The other point of interest is that this
correspondent seems to feel that one kind of
bird diet is good for one baby bird, but not
for another.
The fact is that all baby birds may be fed
the same, with high protein foods, including
such things as hamburger scraped beef,
liver. pablum with milk, bread and milk, yolk
of hard-boiled egg, etc.
In nature, all baby birds are fed on insects
and worms. regardless of the fact that they
may or may not grow up to be seed eaters.
Our attention has been called recently to
the fact that some persons are advocating
the addition of grit" to foods fed baby birds
rescued from fallen nests. No grit In any
form should be added.