Bird-feeder

THE gift catalogues from the mailorder houses seem wilder this year than ever before. It’s becoming hard to tell the supposed utilities — the shrimp-shellers, egg-timers, potholders, bird-feeders, and such — from the funny stuff — the dribble-glasses, trick cigars, and fur-lined bathtubs (“. . . for milady’s jewels”).

While the miseries of the pandemic multiplied, they sent me a photograph of a one-legged starling hanging around their bird-feeders that served as their “daily inspiration.”

He added that because of the pandemic, more people in the region had set up bird-feeders or otherwise started paying attention to area wildlife — and thus, more people needed to change their bird-feeding behaviors.