Sunday afternoon people gathered at the Ninth St. and Avenue A gate of Tompkins Square Park to gaze at quite a scene. Yes, of course, their first look was at the downed scholar tree, sadly splayed over the park’s midway. But then they looked down right behind the gate in the still-locked, people-less park where all of Tompkins’s small critters were competing for some bread scraps that had been scattered (in violation of the new “Feed a Pigeon, Breed a Rat” signs). Above, a team of rats made a charge for the crumbs. Below, a crew of tough pigeons staked out the crumbs as some big squirrels munched away. It went back and forth like this. The only thing resembling a clash was when a rat and squirrel did a midair snout bump. “They’ll interbreed and you’ll get a squigeon, or a sqaat,” some wiseacre commented.
