52 



THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



NATURAL HISTORY IN A PRIMARY 

 SCHOOL. 



Wishing to ascertain whetiner or not 

 Natural History liad penetrated tlie public 

 schools, I visited a primary school lately 

 to investigate. The teacher was a lady 

 well known as a writer of juveniles and 

 of historical sketches, and who under the 

 name of "A. Hoosier," assisted in com- 

 piling the Life of Lincoln, now running in 

 McClure's Magazine. 



She informed me that no instruction in 

 any branch of science was included in the 

 curriculum, but that she was allowed con- 

 siderable freedom of choice, and could 

 impart information and direct studies in 

 lines not directly included in the school 

 work as she saw fit. 



To my disappointment, I was not 

 allowed to hear a recitation, but was re- 

 quested to talk to the school. 



Almost all the boys, and most of the 

 girls, informed me that they had been fish- 

 ing, and they knew the names and 

 peculiarities of many kinds of fishes, 

 something about their food, and how little 

 catfishes, burrowed in the mud, or hid 

 themselves in mussel shells. They had 

 no acquaintance however, with with the 

 habits of nest building fishes, and did not 

 know that certain species took care of 

 their young. The habits of the Stickle- 

 backs, were new to them, and when I told 

 how I had once "seen a father Stickleback, 

 whip his wife, for eating up her own 

 babies, the children were delighted, but 

 the teacher gravely remonstrated with me. 



The children were of an enquiring turn, 

 and I learned that they had been keeping 

 horse hairs in bottles of water in the 

 school room, to ascertain whether or not 

 their teacher was right when she told 

 them that horse hairs would not turn to 

 worms or snakes. 



I spoke of the rarity of Bluebirds, and 

 declared that the severe weather of over a 



year ago had almost exterminated them. 

 At this, several hands went up in various 

 parts of the room. One boy declared that 

 he had seen Bluebirds lately, and gave 

 me a description of them, which showed 

 at once that he was a close observer, and 

 that the bird he had seen, was not a Blue- 

 bird, S/aZ/V? s/a//'s, but a Bluejay, Cyano- 

 cittacristata. Another boy who had seen 

 Bluebirds, described the Indigo bird, 

 Passerina cyanea, which is fairly common 

 here, frequenting the edges of old fields, 

 and nesting in clumps of shrubbery, or 

 in isolated bushes, often near the ground. 



All boys know that fine feathers do not 

 make fine birds, but town boys naturally 

 think that blue feathers do make blue 

 birds, and I am afraid that my own 

 explanation, that a bird may be blue without 

 being a Bluebird, was not very luminous, 

 and I was glad to shift the subject to 

 birds' nests. 



I showed the school a series of Photo- 

 graphs of birds nests, some taken by my- 

 self and others by Mr. E. S. Cheney, well 

 known to the readers of the Oregon 

 Naturalist. 



Some pictures of Grebe nests aroused 

 their curiosity. Few of them knew the 

 Grebe by that name, though most of 

 them were acquainted with our represent- 

 ative of the Podicipidae, the "Didipper," or 

 "Dabchick," Podilymbus podiceps. 



These curious tailless birds, breed 

 farther north, but are always common 

 here in October and November, and 

 the school knew much of their habits, 

 how they refused to take flight, and could 

 dodge stones and ' bullets by diving. 

 Several boys confessed that they had 

 thrown stones at them, at which their 

 teacher was very properly horrified, though 

 I refused to be shocked, callously regard- 

 ing stoning "Didippers," as the most 

 innocent sport imaginable. 



One small boy knew the Wren, "very 

 little fellows, who hold their tails differ- 



