496 Home Nature-Study Course. 



probably long before. They were used by all the nations in old times and even 

 now are used in war to carry messages. The training of a homer consists in 

 taking the young bird a short distance from home, say ten or twenty miles, and 

 then liberating it ; the next time it is taken forty or fifty miles from home, and 

 thus it is trained in the geography of the home region until it will finally return 

 five hundred or even a thousand miles. It is now believed that pigeons travel 

 mostly by sight, using rivers, lakes and mountains as landmarks. 



References. — " The Mourning Dove, Birds of Village and Field," 

 Merriam. "Neighbors with Wings and Fins," Johonnot, Chapter 15. 

 "Arnaitx, Chronicle of a Homing Pigeon, Animal Heroes," Thompson 

 Seton. " Squab Raising," Bulletin United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture. Reading, " Story of Noah and the Dove." " Daddy Darwin's Dove- 

 cote," Mrs. Ewing. Journals: Tlie Squab Bulletin, 50 cents per year; 

 The American Fancier, $1.75 per year. Audubon Educational Leaflets 

 Nos. 2 and 6. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



Preliminary Work.- — These birds are so common everj'where that they may be 

 studied at almost any time. The pupils should become interested in them in 

 informal talks about the birds. The observations should at first have to do with 

 the appearance and then with the habits of the sparrow. 



LESSON LV. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW AS A SPARROW. 



Purpose. — To teach the pupils to distinguish this species from our 

 native sparrows and to interest them in sparrows in general. 



The first lesson shotild be in distinguishing between the two sexes of 

 the English sparrow. The male bird has a black spot on the breast, is 

 reddish-brown in color, and has a white bar on each wing. The female 

 is duller in color, no black on the breast and the wing bar less distinct. 

 An observation lesson on the colors of the birds should be made in detail 

 and put in the field note-book. It should give color of crown, back, tail, 

 wings, throat and breast, so as to accustom the pupils to see accurately. 

 When the season admits, this sparrow should be compared carefully in 

 color to the chipping sparrow and the song sparrow. 



LESSON LVI. 



WINTER HABITS. 



Purpose. — To get the pupil to notice how these birds manage to pick 

 up their living in winter. 



The observations should be along the following lines : What do they 

 eat and where do they find it? Do they appear in flocks? Where do they 



