2;;0 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



by the lael ilia I it jicuuially aliglils ou the twigs of trees and swings 

 liead downward and every way, while clinging with its feet, like a 

 veritable acrobat. It lives altogether upon insects, and eats an 

 immense number of them, its chief food consisting of the eggs of 

 plant lice, small chrysalids, etc. A study of its stomach contents 

 has proven beyond a doubt that it is one of the most valuable 

 birds known to the farmer and fruit grower. 



"The brown creeper also often occurs in our orchards during the 

 winter. It is a small bird, slightly larger than the chickadee, with 

 a very long, slender, curved bill, with which it extracts insects of 

 all kinds and in ail stages from their winter hiding places where 

 none but an expert entomologist w'ould think to tind them. It is 

 one of the few kinds of birds with stilf and pointed tail feathers 

 upon which it rests at times, as upon a third leg. All of these birds 

 can be aided by putting fat meat, suet, or trimming from butcher- 

 ings, in trees for them. Place bands of tin around the trees and 

 cats and squirrels will not get the food put up for the birds, which 

 are our most useful allies. 



"For quails, it is necessary, while there is prolonged snow, to 

 feed them by setting sheaves of unthreshed grain of any kind in 

 brush piles and scattering straws with grain in the head or brush 

 so the falling snow will not cover it. If this is not done most of 

 the quails in this State are likely to die of starvation soon." 



In addition to these we have written a few articles on "Making 

 Bird lioxes in Manual Training Schools," which have proven useful, 

 and also gave directions for bird study in the public schools. 



In a text-book on General Biology, prepared by us during the 

 year, we gave due prominence to the scientific and economic features 

 of ornithology, and we have advised and put into successful opera- 

 tion certain new laboratory methods of studying birds, by which the 

 knowledge of the student is derived directly from specimens and 

 living creatures instead of relying entirely upon the indirect and 

 second-hand method of text-book teaching. 



In the work of disseminating knowledge of birds by public speak- 

 ing, we have delivered twenty-eight lecttu'es, chieily at Farmers' 

 Institutes, both summer and winter, upon the subject of the '*Eco- 

 nomic Value and Protection of Our Native Birds," reaching over 

 ten thousand i)ersons, and calling attention to the alarming de- 

 crease of many kinds of our native birds, the consequently attend- 

 ing increase of insects, and tlie necessit}^ and methods of our help- 

 ing our feathered friends. 



Our personal work in obtaining new knowledge has been by experi- 

 mentation, investigation and observation. Having had such a mul- 

 titude- of other primary obligations at Iho State College, there has 



