270 THE NA TUKE-STUD Y RE VIE W U ■ 9 -dec, 1908 



to the ground, where he was picked up dead. This was a real grief 

 to the class but it helped — with the death of the father bird — to 

 show us how the balance of nature is maintained and why the 

 number of birds and other animals in a given locality does not 

 increase from year to year unless some disturbing factor enters in. 



One warm, bright morning in July when the young birds were 

 thirteen days old they hopped from the bowl when we attempted 

 to weigh them and refused to stay when replaced. When put 

 into the nest they at once tried their wings for a longer flight. 

 With the cry, "They're gone !" the whole class crowded about the 

 empty nest on the sill and watched the progress of the two little 

 adventurers across the lawn. All that day different members of 

 the class followed their course up and down the terraces and 

 among the shrubbery until the two birdlings put their heads under 

 their wings beneath a honeysuckle bush for their first night out in 

 the big, strange world. 



The birds were gone. What had they left with us beside the 

 memory of their interesting ways and a series of accurate records? 

 As we think over the work which was certainly a delight to 

 teacher and to students we can summarize our gains : 



1 . We had gained some idea of scientific methods of observa- 

 tion and a greater respect for careful, painstaking effort in all 

 lines of work. 



2. W T e had learned to make careful and accurate records, to 

 record only what we actually saw, — to tell the truth. 



3. We had learned that seemingly insignificant details may 

 be of great value in solving a problem— to tell the whole truth. 



4. We had a first-hand knowledge of bird-life in its most in- 

 teresting phase and had accumulated a number of valuable facts. 



5. We had gained these facts not in a perfunctory way but by 

 solving problems of our own which we felt to be worth while. 



6. By having the birds growing and developing before us we 

 were able to see a vital relation between structure and function 

 which is often missed in the usual laboratory study of an organ- 

 ism. (This amount of work could not be done in ten days' time 

 with one recitation a day. In the summer term our classes recite 

 twice a day in a major subject.) 



7. We had, in short, studied birds instead of studying about 

 them. We had gained a broad and intelligent sympathy with 

 bird life and with all life a — sense of kinship with our humble 



