NATURE -STUDY AT HOME 



By EDWARD UEHLING, JR. 

 Passaic, N. J. 



[The most effective kind of nature-study in the schools is that which so 

 thoroughly touches the life of the child that he is lead to study nature out- 

 side of school hours and school lessons, and to acquire an interest and 

 pleasure in it for its own sake. 



The following contribution is given as an example of this kind of results. 

 The author, now a boy in the high school, was in the 8th Grade at the time 

 the work referred to in this article was done. G. H. T.] 



Bird feeding in winter is exceedingly interesting and important. 

 Important, because heavy snows hinder ground feeding birds from 

 getting food, and heavy sleets prevent tree trunk birds from 

 getting their food. Therefore, it is the duty of all bird lovers 

 to aid their feathered friends by putting out food in winter. 



The interesting habits of our aerial neighbors can, with a little 

 patience, be easily studied at the feeding trough. The birds 

 can be watched more closely while feeding than with a pair of 

 glasses in the open field. 



My first stationary feeding trough was placed about fifteen 

 feet from the ground, on a sour-gum tree, on October 25, 1906. 

 The tree is about thirty feet from the back of the house. Here I 

 placed a supply of suet. 



My next step was to put up a wire, slanting from my bed-room 

 window to a tree near the stationary trough, a distance of about 

 forty feet. I then made a moving trough to run on this wire by 

 iwo pulleys. By attaching a cord to this trough, I could let it 

 run down to the tree, or pull it up any distance between the 

 stationary trough and the window. 



Each trough had several partitions, made of thick bark, and 

 the sides were covered with bark, in order to make the birds 

 think it a natural trough, rather than an artificial one. The 

 older the wood a trough is made out of, the better, but if old 

 wood cannot be obtained the wood should be stained a dark 

 brown. Bark on the sides not only makes the trough look more 

 natural, but also greatly aids the creeping birds in getting food, 

 as they can easily cling to it. After my moving trough was com- 



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