For the birds

Thursday evening a lady was shopping for a guitar strap. At last she found a canvas design that had an abstract painting in earth tones on the back. The only part of the picture that was quite clear was two graceful ravens, small in the distance. Evidently, it was just the right thing, for not only did the lady say decisively that she would buy it, she began to talk about ravens. She knew a good deal about them. For example, in the mythology of Southern Alaska, it was a raven that flew off to bring back the sun when it disappeared. Also, ravens in Australia (and she knew it first hand, as she had been there) have a different cry from the ravens here. (She demonstrated the difference ably, but I cannot type it as ably.) We got onto the subject of starlings and she told how some of the audacious little birds that nest around her house started to get very territorial and attacking people who were sitting in the hot tub outside. The ensuing struggle to secure a moment's peace in the hot tub was, of course, Starling Wars.