Rural School Leaflet. 865 



Note. — This year the boys and girls of New York State will make 

 special study of the English Sparrow. You are going to watch this 

 bird every month of the year and learn all that you can from your 

 own observations. Naturalists who have been watching the English 

 Sparrow for years are continually finding something new about it. 

 When you write us each month tell us what you have found out your- 

 selves about this bird. 



While we are studying English Sparrows we will watch all the other 

 sparrows that are about us. In this Leaflet you will learn something 

 about the Vesper Sparrow. If you come to know this bird you will add a 

 new pleasure to your life. Whenever I hear its notes I am at once in the 

 midst of sunshine in the late summer afternoon. I should like to know 

 how man}^ places in New York State the Vesper Sparrow is found in the 

 winter months. 



MONTHLY LETTER 



Dear Boys axd Girls: 



November is one of the best months in the year, at least it is for me, 

 and I want to try to have you know some of the things that make it so. 



Sometime this month ask your teacher to let you all go out of doors 

 for a half hour for your Nature-Study lesson. She need not say any- 

 thing to you while you are out there but let you try to see as many 

 things as possible and really be a. part of the still November afternoon. 



I like the quiet colors of November, all the soft yellows and grays 

 and browns. They give me even more pleasure than the brighter colors 

 of October. If you are near a wood notice what a hush is there. Per- 

 haps you will see a squirrel blink at you from one of the tree tops. You 

 will perhaps note the haze over the meadows and the distant hills. And 

 maybe thei^e will be a little snow squall, the first fall of snow! 



Look up at the sky and note the kind of blue there. You may see 

 great heavy clouds, black and gray. Face the north and perhaps you 

 will feel a strong wind in your face. Tell me if you do. Or if you see 

 much sunlight and shadow on this afternoon when you are under the 

 November sky, write me about it. As you walk along notice how many 

 belated blossoms are still growing by the wayside. One Thanksgiving 

 afternoon along a country roadside I found twent3'--eight plants still 

 in blossom. 



Listen to the sounds that come to you through the November air: 

 A distant bell perhaps; the sound of water; the rustling of the leaves; 

 the faint note of a bird. Do you hear a cricket down in the grass? I 

 wonder whether crickets can be heard as late as Thanksgiving Day. 

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