JTor Ceacl)er0 anti ^tutients^ 



I 



Bird-Studies for Children 



BY ISABEL EATON 



T IS a simple matter enough, with the little folk who 

 happily live in the country, to excite an interest and 

 develop a familiar friendship with their bird neigh- 

 bors. The birds can easily be coaxed to the piazza or 

 the window-shelf by the judicious offer of free lunch, and 

 so a speaking acquaintance, perhaps even a life-long 

 friendship, with them may be gained. 

 fe-^\,^'^~^ But with city children, especially those of the poorer 



^^ classes, the case is very different. The question how to 



teach them to know and care for birds is by no means so easy. 



Look at their case : they have seen no birds but English Spar- 

 rows and caged Canaries and Parrots ; few of them know the Robin ; 

 they practically never go to the country, and many of them never even 

 go to the parks. How shall they be taught about birds ? Observing 

 the rule of advancing from known to unknown, would suggest Dick 

 the Canary, as the obvious point of departure from a tenement into 

 the w^orld of birds ; then, perhaps, the Summer Yellow-bird in the 

 park, commonly known as the 'Wild Canary.' and then Mr. Gold- 

 finch and his little olive-brown spouse, who would make a natural 

 transition to the brown Sparrow^ family, and so on. The difficulty 

 here is that it is so nearly impossible to get city children up to the 

 park to see the Yellow-bird. 



So another method, involving no country walks and no live birds, 

 has to be resorted to. We may use pictures. — drawn before the class 

 and colored, if possible, — and, trusting to the children's powers of 

 imagination and idealization, may connect with their experience at 

 some other point. After studying about the carpenter, in kindergarten 

 or primary school, for instance, it is easy to interest children in the 

 Woodpecker by proposing to tell them about a "little carpenter bird;" 

 after talking of the fisherman, a promise to tell them of a bird who 

 is a fisherman is sure to stir their imaginations of the doings of the 

 Kingfisher, and so with the weaver (Oriole), mason (Robin) and 

 others. 



When several birds have been learned, the best kind of review for 

 little people is probably some game like the following, w^iich has been 



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