CHILDREN'S ROOM IN SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 555 



It was at once determined that the room to be assigned to this pur- 

 pose must We a small one; a large room would mean a large collection. 

 and this in return would result in confused and hasty examination and 

 the discouragement of the child. It must be a cozy, pleasant room. 

 with plenty of light and pretty things, as well as a collection of speci- 

 mens*, not many in number, but each object chosen just to give the 

 child pleasure. If the child received instruction, too, well and good; 

 but first of all he must be attracted and pleased, and made to wonder, 

 for in wonder lie the beginnings of knowledge. 



This was the Secretary and Honorary Curator's idea: and with the 

 gladly and heartily given help of ornithologist, zoologist, mineralo- 

 gist, of the whole staff of the Institution in fact, his plans for a chil- 

 dren's room in the Smithsonian have been, and still are being-, curried 

 to successful realization. 



Located just across from the main entrance, it is a sunny little spot. 

 with doors and windows opening to clambering vines, grass plots, and 

 happy trees, where in summer are birds that build and sing. It was 

 June when I saw it, and perhaps this is the choicest time to go; but 

 even dark days and cold will not keep us from feeling- the cheer of 

 riotous vines and singing birds. 



For they are within as well as out. The ceiling is painted to repre- 

 sent a vine-clad arbor, with sky spaces through which birds of gayest 

 plumage seem to look down on friends and relatives below. 



Indeed, a number of living relatives are just below, where four gilt 

 cages of song supply a never-ending chorus of nations, the little 

 singers having been chosen from the many far and near corners of the 

 whole earth. 



Our own redbird, or cardinal grosbeak, is there, as well as the South 

 American cardinal of Brazil; bullfinches and goldfinches from Europe; 

 the Japanese robin, who is really not Japanese and not a robin, but a 

 very nice bird from India; some weaver-birds from Africa; some 

 Javan sparrows from the East Indies, and some Australian grass-par- 

 rakeets, such as are trained and used by street seers for telling for- 

 tunes. They are a happy congress, and ii grieves me to relate how 

 two little cages contain but one bird each, a certain canary and a 

 hybrid goldfinch, whose names, for their parents' sake, I will not give, 

 but who proved to be so wicked and quarrelsome, and made the others 

 all so very unhappy, that they must now live each to himself, alone, 

 yet near enough to see the happiness of the others, who all day 

 long play, and visit, and sing in undisturbed harmony. 



Below the singing birds are the aquariums, a salt-water glass tank, 

 and a most perfect fresh-water aquarium, so simply and carefully 

 arranged that even the very little child may look and love and wonder 

 from every side, where pretty bright fishes and baby turtles wave and 

 dart and paddle amid feathery green and over the pebbly beds. 



