Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

[re what may edible]
AH>  Pigeons, or seagulls???  :-)

JB>  They eat the snails that are almost dead from poison.


         I imagine seagulls might, yes... they do eat shellfish.  They also
eat hamburgers, French fries, etc. (typically from the discarded remains of
a human meal, but occasionally from a meal still in use by an unsuspecting
individual). In other words they evidently don't care whether their
"prey" is dead or alive. Whatever Mother Nature had in mind
originally, birds who live in & around major cities often become
scavengers.  We can't rely on our distant ancestors to tell us which
species are edible in this day & age because things have changed.  :-)



JB>  A friend was setting out poison for the gopher population
JB>  on his acreage. I told him to house a rat snake. (I don't
JB>  even know if they could survive here.) Naturally, he wanted
JB>  *nothing* to do with the idea, as he was filling out the
JB>  form to buy whatever they feed the soon to die. I'm pretty
JB>  sure I mentioned the Sawheat owl I saw the year before, but
JB>  he wanted none of that action. A 70yo doesn't have that
JB>  kinda patience? ;)


         Maybe, maybe not.  Some folks become more patient as they grow
older & are thus better able to see things in context.  My parents were
into "reducing, re-using, and recycling" long before the terms
were invented... and it wasn't a big leap for me to see the wisdom of *not*
poisoning whatever doesn't happen to suit my convenience.  Others may want
simple, concrete answers & expect instant results.  That's probably
more a matter of reasoning style than of age....  :-)



JB>  Oh, and I have a bunch of frogs (No idea what to call
JB>  a "bunch".)


         Something else for me to look up.  Later....  ;-)



JB>  wintering (hopefully) in my front yard. I didn't put
JB>  them there, but imagine my surprise to hear them calling
JB>  all over the place during mating season. I then put out
JB>  a source of water for them, but I did nothing else
JB>  specifically to encourage them. They somehow found this
JB>  nut, with an overgrown wildflower collection, so I feel
JB>  compelled to put a water feature out for them next year.
JB>  It's not as if I didn't have a handful of drawings for
JB>  it, anyway. <-;


         I love it... stay as sweet as you are!  In the short term, the
geese & frogs may help get rid of whatever insects you don't want in
your yard.  In the long term, however, you'd probably think twice about
eating frogs' legs & roast goose because you couldn't be sure about the
safety of whatever they had eaten. Maybe you could kill a Canada goose
& hope you'll be well fed in jail....  :-))



[re reasoning styles]
JB>  It didn't help my studies by the disconnection here, I'm
JB>  sure. Is there a publication I might find in our library
JB>  on the subject? I'm sure you did already toss me a title,
JB>  but I expect to get to it this time.


         PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME, by David Keirsey & Marilyn Bates. 
Various other authors have expounded on the same topic... in some cases
using different names for the categories... but this system appears to be
the most widely recognized.




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+