Evening star., 1950-01-26
This and That
By Charles E. TyaceueH

Fourteen robins near the Sisters of Mercy
Convent in Potomac, Md, were seen January
II by S. j. H. while he was horseback riding.
His daughter, M. H. r., wants to know If
these are the first reported?
They certainly are, but whether they
really are the FIRST robins" is question.
After all, IA makes sizable number of
these favorite birds, but they possibly might
be wintering here.
Usually the few robins that stay with us
during the cold do not get together in
groups.
There is one here, one there, but seldom as
many as IA in one place.
Investigators who plodded through deep
snow one Christmastime to count the birds
found six robins, as we recall, in Rock Creek
Park.
!. The. birds are often seen there during
the cold months.
They seek shelter in one of the old sheds
still in existence, or in hooks Of some sort.
Usually robins seen in groups have flown
in from the South.
Unusual weather in all parts Of the coun-
try might have caused some small hocks to
fly North. But in most cases such flights
are not taken until the great robin congre-
cation In March.
Millions of the robins meet together, in a
sort of campmeeting. This is the closest
thing left to the great annual roosts Of the
extinct passenger pigeons.
Different sorts of weather, cold one day,
warm the next. may confuse the birds as
much as it does people.
Light, rather than heat. is supposed to be
the real cause of bird migration.
Lengthening days, rather than the ther-
mometer degree, make the birds fly North.
It may be that anything upsetting in this
matter might cause some robins to get ahead
of their normal schedule.
The days are lengthening. as we say,
already. Although the morning is about as
dark as ever when one gets up, the evenings
are noticably lighter when one eats supper.
And speaking of supper
It is nice old meal, and those persons
are fortunate, one may believe, who can eat
a real dinner in the middle of the day, SO
that they can take a real supper later.
Breakfast and supper
Many will look with more genuine affec-
ton on the morning and evening meal than
the other one, which Is a sort OF upstart,
after all
City living has left certain marks on the
soul of mealtime.
Country life led people to get up early.
Hard work made them hungry by noon, so
they ate their real dinner then
It has not been SO with city life.
There is not so much hard work, in a
physical sense, so that too often people wake
up with no appetite, and do not manage one
until late In the evening.
Then they eat enough food for two or
three persons, going to sleep at last with
their digestive systems all upset.
Country living not only was more sensible
but it was kinder to the digestive tract
People in the wide open places and In small
towns not far from them had tasted long
enough (since they had gone to bed early
to eat real breakfast, the kind that sticks
to the ribs.
BY eating the heavy meal in the middle Of
the day. and working hard afterward, they
did not want so much food for the evening
meal hence they had more leisure to enjoy
what they did eat, and went to bed without
too much protein to cause nightmares
Smart-a alec boys Of today like to throw
prongs into old-time living and the old
timers and their apologists, but it remains to
be seen If most modern innovations. as
smart as they seem to their inventors, are
really as good as what too many Americans
had and 50 carelessly threw away.