Teachers' Leaflet. 



589 



LESSON XLIX. 

 THE NESTING HABITS OF THE DOWNY. 



Purpose. — To make the pupils familiar with the way the downy 

 houses and rears its young. 



Unless by chance a nest has been discovered and watched by some of 

 the pupils, this lesson should be an essay or an oral exercise in English, 

 giving the results of the pupils' reading. The following topics are sug- 

 gested: " How the Downy Builds its Nest." "How the Downy Rears 

 its Young." 



THE HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



Preliminary work. — If the schoolhouse be near a wood and the downies be- 

 come very tame about the suet, the hairy is pretty sure to come to feast also. 

 The hairy is naturally a much wilder bird than the downy and is always alert and 

 ready to take flight. Nevertheless, after a time it will become quite tame ; the 

 editor has often stood within three feet of one of these birds while it was eating 

 suet, and she imagined its frequent glances in her direction had in them more 

 of friendliness than of suspicion. 



LESSON L. 

 THE HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



Purpose. — To enable the 

 pupils to distinguish this species 

 from the downy, and to make 

 a comparison of the habits of 

 the two. 



This lesson may be partly 

 observation and partly reading. 

 The topics may be as follows : 

 " The Differences in Appear- 

 ance Between the Hairy and 

 Downy Woodpeckers." " The 

 Similarity in Habits Between 

 the two Species." 



Facts for teacher. — The hairy is 

 fully one-third larger than the downy, 

 measuring nine inches from tip of 

 beak to tip of tail, while the downy 

 measures only about six inches. The 

 tail feathers at the side are white in 

 the hairy and are barred in the downy 

 There is a black " parting " through 

 the middle of the red patch on the 

 back of the hairy's head. In general 

 appearance the hairy seems much 



Eggs and nest of hairy. 



