Show 1 WHO 7 S 1 NEWS THIS WEEK by LEMUEL F PARTON consolidated features service etain EW YORK we are quite i tain that there is a chipping sparrow out our way which stand still long enough to be count ed but at any stuffed c a JR bird jf cuts cut rate roger petersons count tory peter to sons national atonal bird count of receives respectful even admiring attention and no challenges or quibbles about it concurrently the national audubon society of which mr peterson is educational director begins a drive for the protection of birds and other wild life in defense areas at the age of 26 mr peterson proved that bird lore can be made to yield a lot more than mere bird seed that was in 1934 when he published his book field guide to the birds As bird books go it was a bestseller best bet seller warmly praised not only by the somewhat esoteric cult of bird fanciers but by a much wider public which appreciated its clarity and simplicity city there came other editions and then his field guide to birds of the west and his junior book of birds of 1939 all in all mr petersons books and magazine articles were so successful that he has had plenty of time to count birds even five billions of them he not only writes but illustrates his books having emerged from the new york art students league as a highly qualified decorative artist he is known as the best american authority on field identification of birds mr peterson had an adventure at the convention of the society at cape may last year which so far as becan we can learn was not picked up by the news hawks at the time it seems a group of ornithologists peterson included got up at to clock a scheduled hawk migration it come off and all were downhearted until a rumor got around that a black necked stilt had been seen near the lighthouse pond there had been no stilt in this section since 1870 the party set out for the spot finally far across the pond inaccessible to any dry land approach the bird was sighted mr peterson said it would be necessary to approach as near as possible disturb the bird and then observe its flight carefully he and william fish volunteered ered to brave the mud and cold they waded in and at times were up to their armpits in slimy mud finally peterson waved his arms at the stilt it move approaching nearer they discovered it was as stiff as a plank the convention finally ran down the story the national academy of sciences at philadelphia had had a housecleaning house cleaning and heaved out a lot of stuffed birds some rival bird fans of the delaware valley had retrieved the stilt and set it up across the pond T UP TP IN maine on last summers holiday this writer talked with an old roadside road side philosopher who was concerned with problems aris ing S from the r r prof perry boldly lengthening trumpets an old life span in age movements Movement 9 new eng S land they dont do much ayin up here he said down at west newton they had to shoot an old feller just to start a graveyard professor ralph barton perry of the faculty of philosophy of harvard university is similarly concerned about old age but for a different reason in a brilliant essay in a recent issue of the princeton alumni weekly he rallies the oldsters against being hustled bustled around by their juniors in politics he be notes the capitulation of wise old age to bumptious youth and challenges rabbi ben ezra by insisting that theres no use growing old with him or anybody else if old age is to be mere merely ay a tolerated short ender in the life sweepstakes the most striking evidence of the down tall fail of the aged writes professor perry is to be found in the domestic circle |