52 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



gourd shape, but open, as a Phoebe's. All were crowded, the 

 soft-eyed younglings looking down at us with unconcern. I was 

 greatly astonished and touched, and expressed my feelings. 

 The principal, a young woman in the early twenties, took the 

 domestication of the swallows as a matter of course. "Why, 

 the swallows have been here for years," she said. "They were 

 here, just the same when I was a child and attended this school. 

 They know they are safe here, and return every spring. The 

 children like to have them." 



In the course of my address to the pupils at that school, I 

 related the legend of the cliff swallows by which the origin of 

 these birds is accounted for by the Eskimo of Labrador. They 

 tell that the swallows were once their own children who played 

 at making mud houses on the sandy cliffs, and one windy morning 

 were blown into the air and changed into birds. They have 

 never forgotten their play, and still make mud houses. 



Many charming instances of the confidence of the robins in 

 man's protection have been related to me in my work. On the 

 fire escape of the large Public School in Dundas one of these 

 birds built her nest and brooded while the children played around 

 her. The young were ready to leave when all were destroyed by 

 a cat. This ancient town, I may add, is famed for its colony 

 of purple martins which for seventy years have built in a cornice 

 of a store on the main street, which is musical from their rich 

 notes and beautiful by their gleaming plumage. 



(Then followed details of junior club formation at many points 

 in Ontario, of more local interest.) 



vSome years ago Prof. Bigelow threw a bomb into the midst 

 of the enthusiasts in nature-study with an article in the Nature- 

 Study Review frankly skeptical as to the native interest of chil- 

 dren in natural objects. He seems to have been supported in 

 his theory by several experts. He had perceived no innate 

 sympathetic interest, later to develop into the naturalist's 

 outlook, in the average small boy, he wrote. 



My experience, both as editor of "The Circle of Young Canada," 

 a department I created in the Globe, and as Secretary of this 

 Society, has been the reverse. 



It is in the period of childhood, before education has closed 

 the door of spontaneity, they I look for the native sympathy with 

 bird life from children. 



