comstock] TOPICS FOR DECEMBER NATURE-STUDY 405 



study may well begin with the pigeon. *Use obs. i, p. 47 to 

 stimulate the pupils to notice the appearance of the pigeon. 

 For further lessons use obs. 3, 4, 5, 6. Obs. 2 and 11 suggest the 

 points on which this Christmas study should hinge, for the pupils 

 may thus understand that because we feed the pigeons and give 

 them comfortable houses in which to live, they do not need to go 

 south in winter. The mourning dove which is wild cousin of the 

 pigeon is obliged to go south to find food and is only a summer 

 resident of the northern states. Obs. 7, 8, 9, 10, p. 48 suggest 

 topics for stories which further illustrate the habits of pigeons. 



After the study of pigeons, give the story of the winter migration 

 of robins and bluebirds. They spend their Christmas in our 

 Southern States which border on the Gulf of Mexico, and wonderful 

 to relate, their chief food consists of the berries of holly and mistle- 

 toe, although of course they find other wild berries as well. If 

 only holly and mistletoe grew in the North in great quantities, 

 probably our robins and bluebirds would be able to live with us 

 during the winter months. The point to impress upon the 

 children's minds is the necessity for the birds to go where they can 

 find food. 



The animals and insects in their Christmas quarters. — In taking 

 up this topic we should select animals with contrasting habits 

 like the sheep, the squirrel, and the woodchuck. The sheep we 

 protect in barns, and feed with hay and grain. The squirrel stores 

 part of its food, and comes out on sunny days of winter and hunts 

 for seeds and other food. See p. 235-236. But the woodchuck 

 eats prodigiously during the late summer and fall and retires to 

 its burrow and goes to sleep for the entire winter. See bottom of 

 p. 229. The toad spends the winter as does the woodchuck, in a 

 burrow deep in the ground, and sleeps unconscious of the cold. 

 The mourning-cloak butterfly finds a cozy nook under the bark 

 of some tree, protected from the storm, and it too sleeps as long 

 as the cold lasts. The Cecropia moth in its pupa stage sleeps in 

 its cradle cocoon under the twig of some tree. Read: — Mother 

 Nature's Children by Gould— Chap. XXIII, XXIV, XXVI, 

 XXXI. 



The trees and plants at Christmas. — Trees and plants also have 

 their ways of spending the winter when cold weather makes it 

 impossible for them to do anything but sleep. A tree, bare of its 



*References to Handbook of Nature-Study. 



