The Audubon Societies 375 



[The "suggestive lessons" given above show admirably the possibilities of bird- 

 study in the ordinary grade school, and are the result of a trained instructor's fruitful 

 experience. The average teacher possesses very little field experience, and it is this lack 

 which a visiting nature-study instructor might help to supply in the way of outlining 

 methods of observation and presentation. Too much has been expected of teachers, and, 

 until they receive adequate assistance, nature-study will not make the progress that it 

 should. Audubon Societies in every state might well embrace the opportunity to take 

 the initial step in defining the most desirable methods for teaching bird-study as a part 

 of nature-study. — A. H. W.] 



THE DOWNY WOODPECKER 



By GARRETT NEWKIRK 



The Downy is a drummer-boy, his drum a hollow limb; 



If people listen or do not, it's all the same to him. 

 He plays a Chinese melody, and plays it with a will, 



Without another drumstick but just his little bill; 

 And he isn't playing all for fun, nor just to have a lark. 



He's after every kind of bug or worm within the bark; 

 Or, if there is a coddling-moth, he'll get him without fail. 



While holding firmly to the tree with all his toes, and tail. 

 He is fond of every insect, and every insect egg; 



He works for everything he gets, and never has to beg. 

 From weather either cold or hot he never runs away; 



So, when you find him present, you may hope that he will stay. 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 

 For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XVII : Correlated with Elementary Agriculture, 

 Botany and Entomology 



THE BIRDS IN HARVEST-TIME 



Among all northern peoples of whatever race, harvest-time is a welcome 

 season, if sun and shower have done their work and untimely frosts have not 

 occurred. The more civilized races attach great significance to the garnering 

 of grain and crops, and no festival days are more genuinely observed than 

 those that are set aside in gratitude for ample supplies against the long-con- 

 tinued need of winter and spring and early summer, in the sluggish latitudes 

 of the north temperate zone. 



Throughout the tropics, there is a more general distribution of the harvest- 

 season, for lack of frost or sudden extremes of temperature, together with a 

 periodical rainy season, combine to produce favorable conditions for wild and 

 cultivated fruits and crops during most months of the year. 



This one fact of even temperature and fairly uniform moisture explains the 

 surprising negligence of tropical races in the matter of cultivating and storing 



