1 194 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



It will be noticed that, though they gratefully accept the bounty of 

 seed or of suet, none of the winter birds ever neglect their regular business 

 of gathering the wild seeds or of searching the crannies of the tree trunks 

 for the eggs and the lar\^ag of insect pests, which if allowed to increase 



would become the 

 destroyers of the 

 forests. 



A small library of 

 bird books for the use 

 of a study club is a 

 much-needed help, 

 and when expense is a 

 consideration it should 

 be remembered that 

 Uncle Sam has care- 

 fully studied the bird 

 question from the 

 standpoint of econom- 

 ics and is willing to 

 give the result of his 

 investigations free or 

 to sell them for the 

 mere cost of the paper 

 on which they are 

 printed. A letter to 

 the Representative of 

 the Congressional Dis- 

 trict or to the Divi- 

 sion of Publications, 

 Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, 

 D. C, will obtain 

 bulletins of great 

 V a 1 u e . Circulars 2 

 and 3 of this division 

 are lists of publications for free distribution and of publications for sale. 

 Many of the latter are worth many times their cost to the nature student, 

 particularly the circulars of the Bureau of Biological Survey and of the 

 Bureau of Entomology. 



One of the most instructive bird books published is " Useful birds and 

 their protection " by Edward H. Forbush, issued by the Massachusetts 

 State Board of Agriculture. Nonresidents of that favored State must 



Fig. 65. — Nest of Wilson thrush 



