ghoct] METHODS OF TEACHING NATURE-STUDY 239 



observation of their home- life will serve to establish a permanent bond 

 of sympathy with the friends in feathers. The boy who has seen a 

 robin taking injurious insects from his garden to feed its young will 

 hardly shy a rock at it on the sly even if it does eat a few berries in 

 berry time. Also, when he finds his pet cat with a bird friend in its 

 mouth he may begin to suspect that puss is really an enemy in disguise. 

 Let us hope that after a little education of this sort for the rising 

 generation we may not always have the same difficulty in getting rid 

 of the cat nuisance, whose assistance in scattering disease is more 

 objectionable even than its destruction of birds. 



Often some of the most interesting lessons are on material brought 

 in by the members of the class or on observations made outside the 

 school by some of the pupils, or on something that occurs near the 

 school. One progressive teacher in the suburbs of Boston stops her 

 recitations occasionally to listen to the bird songs outside. One of 

 the best bird lessons for small people that I have ever seen was given 

 to a class in gardening when it happened to be visited by a vireo. a 

 humming bird, and a warbler all at once. The method of systematiz- 

 ing these observations has been previously discussed. 



To learn the names of plants, and of insects and other animals eas- 

 ily caught, is easy, but with birds it is more difficult. Bird skins can 

 be used, but good colored pictures are preferable for ordinary use for 

 reasons both sentimental and practical. After learning the appear- 

 ance of the bird it is quite easy to learn to recognize it in the field. 



Bird study out-of-doors is best begun in winter or early spring when 

 species are few and all can easily be learned, both notes and plumage. 

 When the migration sets in in the spring, the new arrivals are read- 

 ily recognized as new and many can be learned the first season, by the 

 teacher at least, by the aid of a good bird calendar like that in Chap- 

 man's "Handbook." 



The directions usually given in bird books to take a note-book and 

 make careful notes of every bird seen may be good practice for the 

 teacher, but if carried very far with her pupils is guaranteed to kill 

 their interest in birds. Notes on a rare or difficult stranger are at 

 times necessary, but to write out a full description of every bird you 

 wish to identify is like analyzing your dessert before you eat it. If one 

 guesses wrong the first time, subsequent observations will correct the 

 error. Indeed the whole secret of knowing the birds is repeated careful 

 observations and a comparison with specimens or descriptions until 

 certainty results. The pupil should be taught to look for the most 



