How to Conduct Field Classes 85 



a good object lesson will be given in migration, and the excitement 

 of the new arrivals discovered at each outing will often lead to 

 individual migration work between the meetings of the class. 



If one must begin field work after the bulk of the birds have 

 come, concentrate attention upon those most in evidence, or upon 

 those which will make the most distinct impression upon the be- 

 ginner. If you have a Scarlet Tanager and a flock of Warblers to 

 choose from, let the class look at the Tanager. They will in spite 

 of you, unless forcibly removed, but it is much better that they 

 should. The wonderful color of the Tanager, his curious call, his 

 thrilling song, the marvelously protective leaf tints of his mate, if she 

 be near, will make an indelible impression upon them, and by rousing 

 interest, lead eventually to the patient study of the obscure tree-top 

 haunting Warblers. It requires no little moral effort for a class 

 leader to stand quietly and look at even a Tanager when the trees 

 are alive with Warblers she is eager to study, but, as in bringing 

 up children, the training you have to give yourself is the biggest part. 

 You must hold in abeyance all your own student instincts, and if 

 your class is at the Chipping Sparrow stage, be content to fix your 

 eyes on a Chipping Sparrow in the path when a bird you have 

 never seen before is disappearing over the tree-tops. The one vital 

 point is to keep ilie elass interested, and if the interest would be 

 killed by half an hour's chase after a bird in the underbrush, you 

 must not go. Simply devote yourself to supplying material, the 

 plainest of everyday birds, if they are the ones best fitted to the stage 

 of training reached by the observer at that time. 



The familiar rule, "Go to a good birdy place and sit down till 

 the birds come," is one of the best of all field rules — with modifica- 

 tions. You cannot expect the beginner to penetrate to the heart of 

 the woods and sit contentedly two hours gazing up at a hole in a 

 tree trunk while the owner is brooding her eggs out of sight inside, 

 and her mate roaming the forest ; but by interspersing a judicious 

 amount of tramping, even with the certain knowledge that unnoted 

 birds are flying before you in all directions, your class will be well 

 content to sit down and let the birds gather in the birdy places 

 which you have chosen for them. And 3'ou need not begrudge the 

 tramping, for to some classes whose acquaintance with afternoon teas 

 is greater than with briar patches, jumping ditches and creeping 

 under barbed-wire fences is valuable training. 



The quiz method in field work, as in the class room, is the best. 

 Stimulate thought ; don't cram your pupils with statistics. But while 

 teaching them to see for themselves, teach them to see the right 

 things and, in obedience to the pedagogical rules, by constant com- 



