Rural School Leaflet 1045 



LETTERS FROM GIRLS AND BOYS 



District 9, Town of Johnsburg, Warren County 



Wevertown, New York, March 26, 19 14 

 Dear Mr. Tuttle: 



The pictures you sent came to our teacher and she gave them to us, 

 and I thank you very much for mine. I think they were very pretty. 

 The cow looked very natural. The man must be kind to his atiimals, and 

 what a cunning httlc girl! 



In this letter I am going to tell you about our chickadees. At first we 

 hung some meat in the windows and they would come and eat. But one 

 day Miss Armstrong went to the door and one of the chickadees flew in, 

 and we were surprised, for we did not think they would get any tamer 

 than coming to the windows. After a while we opened a window a little 

 at the bottom and top, and they would come in the bottom opening and 

 get a mouthful and go out at the top. At noon we would pick up all the 

 crumbs and put them in a dish and set it out on the window sill, and in 

 the morning when we came to the schoolhouse the chickadees would seem 

 to be so glad to get in where it was warm. When it was cold nights we 

 would Ijring in what the birds did not eat and thaw it out so they could 

 have a warm breal<fast. They soon got so tame that they would come 

 in and cat from our hands and they would fly all around the room and did 

 not seem the least bit frightened. One thing we noticed was that two 

 chickadees never eat together. If one should come while another was 

 eating, no matter how hmigry he was he would always wait; and if he 

 offered to eat, the other one would make a noise which sounds like this, 

 chur up, chur up. When they are singing they say chick-a-dcc-dcc-dce 

 anrl pJiochr, and when they are startled they go tivcci twcct. When they 

 first began to come into the schoolroom, they would forget to go back 

 through the same window and then they would fly around the room so 

 we would have to catch them and they would make a queer noise which 

 sounded like this, duck, cluck. The prettiest I think is when they sing 

 tweeiy-hvcet-twcci-hvcct as they fly through the air. I did not know they 

 sang so many different songs until this winter. 



We have seen five different blue jays around the schoolhouse at one 

 time, but they were very wild. They would not come up to the window 

 the way the chickadees would, so we threw pieces of bread out a little 

 ways, then we would keep still and pretty soon they would fly down and 

 get a piece. They are very pretty. They are bright blue with some 

 black on their necks. Their tail feathers are very pretty. They are 

 darker blue with black stripes. The queerest thing about them is that 

 they have to straighten up when they say jay and another different noise. 

 They act lots different than the chickadees do. The blue jays act as 

 though they were nervous. Looking for your next leaflet. 



Sincerely your friend, 



MYRTLE MA LONE Y 



Editors' note. — Myrtle's letter is full of interest. This school did some 

 real bird-study work last winter. Not only were many new things learned, 



