A PLACE FOR BIRD LOVERS

Evening Star, Issue 22032, 18 May 1935, Page 5

A PLACE FOR BIRD LOVERS

A small boy writes to ask Big Brother Bill if it is wrong to catch birds with bird-lime. The answer is quite simple. If it is wrong to smear a small boy’s body with filth, if it is wrong to do anything to endanger a small boy’s health, and if it is wrong to tie a small boy’s legs and put him in a paddock with a savage bull—then it is wrong to catch birds with bird-lime. Oh, says everybody, but that cannot be true. Suppose we see. Twigs that have been smeared by treacherous sticky stuff that, no matter how cleverly it is made, is filth to fhe small clean body of a bird. Some birds are caught and imprisoned in an aviary; many more are smeared before they escape. This sort of filth on the plumage of our tree birds is as dangerous to them as the oil cast from passing ships is to our sea birds. It is dangerous, because a bird’s feathers are as truly its protection from cold and disease as a small boy’s clothes. Did you ever see a canary sitting in the corner of its cage, its tiny feathers fluffed all about its body ? Yoq will see it this way more often on a cold winter’s night. It fluffs its feathers out from its tiny, body for the same reason that mother, insists upon her .small bairn wearing an overcoat. The warmth of its body fills the space made by fluffing out its feathers, and, in this way. protects it from the cold. All small birds do this, and large ones, too, for the same reason. Will somebody tell Brother Bill how a small bird, its feathers sticky and smeared with filth, can protect itself from cold in this way ? A small boy without an overcoat, and holes in his clothing through which the bitter winds can his body, is really better off than a bird in this Condition. But there is a worse thing still. A cat or a weasel is as much a terror to a small bird as a savage bull to a small boy. The small boy protects himself with his legs because he can keep out of the beast’s way, the small bird protects itself by flight. _ But a bird with filth on its feathers is as crippled as a small boy with his legs hobbled by a rope. The cat or weasel finds it as easy to destroy the bird in these circumstances as the bull would .a boy. So, because it would be wrong in one case, it is equally wrong in the other. What about the birds that are caught by bird-lime ? Are they not better oft in an aviary with protection and regu-lar-food ? Brother Bill wonders. People who are in prison receive protection and regular food, but there are not many in a hurry to go there. The way to have the loveliest aviary in the world is to feed the birds about, your home, and by your kindness encourage them to understand that your place is a sanctuary for them. Be sure they will come if you do this, and, having found a place where they are made welcome, they will delight you with their songs of gratitude.