Rural School Leaflet 1105 



11 There is a bird I know so well, 



It seems us if he must have sung 



Beside my crib when I was young; 

 Before I knew the way to spell 



The name of even the smallest bird, 



His gentle-joyful song I heard, 

 Now see if you can tell, my dear, 

 What bird it is that, every year, 

 Sings, ' Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer.' 



" I like the tune, I like the words; 



They seem so true, so free from art, 



So friendly, and so full of heart, 

 That if but one of all the birds 



Could be my comrade everywhere, 



My little brother of the air, 

 This is the one I'd choose, my dear, 

 Because he'd bless me, every year, 

 With ' Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer.' " 



HENRY VAN DYKE 



Questions and suggestions: 



1. How many kinds of sparrows are there? (Children will be interested 

 when they learn that twenty-five are listed by Chapman among the 

 birds of eastern North America.) 



2. How many sparrows have been seen by members of the class? 

 (Doubtless this list will include many of the following: chipping. English, 

 field, fox, grasshopper, song, tree, vesper, white-throated, white-crowned, 

 and Savannah sparrows.) 



3. What observations can the pupils make during the year on the food 

 of sparrows? (This will give opportunity to call attention to the fact 

 that the bill of a sparrow is fitted for cracking seeds.) 



4. In what way are seed-eating birds of value to the farmer? 



5. It is said that the English sparrow drives away more valuable birds. 

 What observations on this have been made by boys and girls in your 

 community? Have they seen English sparrows feeding on garden crops 

 and grain? Have they seen them feeding on any of the insect pests? 

 If so, to what extent? 



6. A large part of the food of the song sparrow is made up of noxious 

 weed seeds. How many boys and girls know what weed seeds the song 

 sparrows eat? Song sparrows eat insects also. What insects? 



7. Boys and girls all know the chipping sparrow, with its chestnut 

 crown and the black line through its eye. This bird is valuable because 

 of the insects and weed seeds that it eats. What can boys and girls 

 learn by observation of the food of this sparrow? It is so friendly that 

 an observer often has opportunity to study its ways. 



