Rural Schooi, Leaflet " iiii 



lo. The winter birds will give the best opportunity to prepare for the 

 spring migration. The birds' Christmas tree or a feeding station near 



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Wm geese migrating 



the school will attract many birds, and the children will enjoy watching 

 them. When winter birds appear that you do not know have the boys 

 and girls help 3'ou to describe them so that the authorities here at the 

 College can identify them for you. The description should give the 

 following: (a) size, w^hether larger or smaller than an English sparrow, 

 robin, orcrow^; (b) general color above and below; (c) specific color mark- 

 ings; (d) kind of bill and feet, if possible; (e) any peciiliarity as to note or 

 flight; (f) when and where seen. 



1 1 . In the spring as the birds return, the preparation of a bird calendar 

 is interesting and instructive. The calendar may be prepared by the pupils 

 and should show the name of the bird, the date on w^hich it was seen, the 

 place where it was seen, and, if desirable, the name of the person who saw 

 it. If bird calendars are kept accurately and preserved from year to year, 

 they will serve as a valuable record of the migrations for the locality. Most 

 persons are familiar with but few of the commonest birds, and a bird cal- 

 endar will stimulate observation, which will lead to the identification of 

 the shyer birds that are more rarely seen, and of those that are not resi- 

 dent but pass through in migration. When one stops to consider that over 

 one hundred and fifty different species of birds may be observed in any 

 part of New York State during the course of a year, it is apparent that 

 the average person is familiar with a ver}^ small proportion of them. 

 The boys and girls will be interested to increase their knowledge and 

 to add to the bird calendar in order to make it more complete each year. 

 The following migration table will help in the work. It represents the 

 average date of spring arrival of birds at Ithaca, New York, for the past 

 ten years, and will be fairly accurate for almost oil parts of the 

 State. 



