Evening star., 1950-02-07
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH
"CARVEL ROAD.

Dear Sir:
When reading the description of the
small bird, slate-covered breast, marked
like song sparrow, touches Of yellow which
you tentatively identified as gold finches.
was reminded of small bird had trouble
trying to identify.
IT first saw it on limb few feet above
and facing the feeding station. 1t was puffed
up like little ball. and my attention was
attracted by the streak Of yellow in front
of each thigh.
1.-THE rest of it's breast was gay like junco
except for the upper part which had some
streaks of black. Its throat was whitish but
not as much so as the white -throated spar
row. 1t was very small
"It flew away before I could see its back,
and did not see it again for several weeks.
The only bird in the National Geographic
bird book that had breast markings like that
was the myrtle warbler
"The second time it came to the feeding
station for a few minutes, and I saw that
the markings of its back were also the same
as the myrtle warbler, brownish gray, slightly
streaked with yellow on each side near the
tail There was no yellow on its head, how
ever.
II am familiar with goldfinches, and II
anything it was smaller and simmer than
a goldfinch. 1t stayed very briefly and have
not seen it since.
"Other birds. new to me, which come reg
ularly to the feeding station in twos or threes
have thought must be Carolina wrens
The coloring is the same as the brown
creeper, but they do not go up tree trunks
but hop around and hold their tails at the
I angle Of wren.
sa "They seem larger than a house wren.
have only once seen brown creeper climb
ing tree trunk and did not have a chance
to compare the two birds side by side
do you think have identified these two
species correctly?
Yours truly, r. P. W."
y X
Could be!
We are forever missing on that myrtle
warbler.
OF complex. they are so numerous, so much
alike. and so far apart.
AS to the Carolina wren, there Is no mis-
taking that one,
He is "card," as the slang had it.
Wonderful to look at. the largest of the
wrens, he has the loudest voice, and one of
the sweetest.
:. He appears in late fall, and may select a
living site for the winter in bird house, or
even in awnings rolled back -
The clrcling sort of song is cheerful beyond
that the little song sparrow has a sweet
song In the cold. It is more of an intimate
song. however, and lacks the pure steam of
the wren.
The brown creeper, as one reader once
admonished us, is not as small as we had
thought
Actually, he is not too small, but only
small when compared with the larger ones.
such as robins. Knockers, etc.
Creepers like to chum around with the
Whlte-breasted nuthatch and the downy
woodpecker.
One of the best home bird pictures we
nave ever seen was on great locust about
10 feet from the front of the house..
That close is too close for any tree-but
1t gave us a fine sight of creeper and a
downy together on the trunk.
Side by side they stood, the downy using
his tail for support, the brown creeper watt
ing patiently until he had seen where the
food lay. Then he began hitching up the
tree. With his weak bill he could not dig
EN- out, as the little woodpecker did, but he
could and did find food in the crevices of
the bark. His menu contains few. If any
OF the insects called useful" to man.
Mostly the creeper takes hibernating insects
and their eggs, and spiders and spider eggs.
In clearing trees of such things the small bird
Che is smaller than the white e-breasted nut
hatch, at that does real service to our
woodlands in day when trees are fighting
for their lives against an increasing variety
Of enemies.