JFor Ceacl)ers^ anti ^tulientg 



The Study of Birds — Another Way 



BY OLIVE THORNE MILLER 



HERE are, of course, as many different ways of studying 

 birds as there are objects to be gained by the study. 

 The systematic ornithologist, the economic ornithologist, 

 the sportsman, the cultivator, has each his own purpose 

 and his own way of becoming familiar with our little 

 The modern bird-lover, who studies neither for scientific 

 nor economic purposes, but solely to make acquaintance with the 

 tribes of the air, adopts the manner of none of these, but has, within 

 the last few years, evolved a way of his own. It is most commonly 

 by what are called Field Classes, admirably described in the June 

 number of Bird-Lore by Florence Merriam Bailey, who is herself 

 a successful conductor of them. 



The way I have evolved from my own experience in acquiring 

 some knowledge of the birds (which I did by myself, without a 

 guide or the help of even a color-key to identification), and later in 

 helping others in the same delightful study, is somewhat different. 



To begin with, I regard it as one of the most important uses of 

 the study to lead the student to Nature herself ; to acquaint him 

 with the delights to be found in woods and fields, and the benefit to 

 mind and heart, as well as to body, of close friendship with the 

 great Mother. This can be accomplished only by each person alone. 

 In a crowd, even with one companion, however congenial, it is im- 

 possible to get into a state of harmony with Nature that shall enable 

 him to feel, with Whittier, 



"With mine your solemn spirit blends, 

 And life no more hath separate ends ; " 



or, as Aldrich puts it : 



"A sudden tremor goes 

 Into my veins, and makes me kith and kin 

 To every wild-born thing that thrills and blooms." 



Therefore I insist upon each person who is not satisfied with 

 merely knowing birds by sight and song, but wants really to learn 

 something of their natural lives, and their habits when not disturbed, 

 making his studies in the field entirely alone. I prepare him for the 

 work by an introductory course of instruction in house classes. My 



(151) 



