HOW TO STUDY A BIRD. 20> 



The nest-building of the bird, its home-keeping, and other domestic 

 affairs, constitute the most interesting period of its annual round to young 

 observers. Volumes have been written about the nesting time, as at 

 that season the study of the bird presents its most fascinating side. 

 Children are usually so interested in the nests, eggs, and young that 

 the safety of the nest is imperiled. The teacher should make a collec- 

 tion of old nests in the fall, or lead the children to bring them in, study- 

 ing the sites and surroundings, and thus sustaining an interest aroused 

 when the birds were using their habitations in the earlier season. The 

 history of the young in the nest has come to be a vital part of the study 

 of the bird. If properly directed, children will be deeply fascinated in 

 oberving the events which mark the rearing of a brood of young birds in 

 their nest. 



The study of a bird implies that the bird itself should be the subject 

 of study, primarily a-field. The interest of the pupil may be stimulated 

 until many common birds, at first unknown, will be observed, identified 

 by the teacher's aid and by colored plates or descriptions, studied as a 

 part of the neighborhood's wealth of wild-life, and thus a zeal for bird 

 study aroused that will cause the observer to become a life-long friend of 

 the birds. A bird may be observed by one of the pupils, or may be 

 familiar to only one, but the knowledge of this one may serve as the 

 teacher's means to introduce the bird to the entire school. Little by- 

 little the acquaintance is extended, until all become friends of the bird. 

 Meanwhile others are brought to notice, and in a comparatively short 

 time the majority of the pupils have established friendly relations with 

 all the common birds of the locality. If any accessible literature concern- 

 ing bird-life has been brought before the children, not only has Nature's 

 door been opened to them, but they have made a step into the realm of 

 literature, from which none of them will voluntarily turn back. 



