ri2 NATURK STUDY. 



pared to saj'. I saw on October 4th a black and white war- 

 bler on a little eminence above the bayberr}- scrub, on the 

 sea shore, hardly 30 feet away from the waves. 



Mr. Brewster records in the Auk 1891, having seen red- 

 breasted nuthatches and brown creepers feeding in the 

 Autumn among the rocks on the barren points or islands 

 on the sea coast. If these tree- trunk-loving birds could 

 descend to the earth, and to so unusual a part of it, why 

 should not my black and white warbler descend to the peak 

 of a sandy, sea-blown pasture ? 



I ncAxz&A^ for the first time^ this 5'ear that all the black 

 birds I know are walkers — the grackles, the red-winged 

 black birds, the cow bird, the crow, the rusty black-birds. 

 Certainly there is an anatomical reason for this, but to a 

 casual observer and an ignorant one like myself, the fact 

 aroused these questions. Does the garb funereal compel 

 the gait decorous? Have these birds a color sense, and a 

 knowledge of the eternal fitness of things ? On the other 

 hand, do gay feathers make gayer steps, or the conscious- 

 ness of beautiful clothes a lighter foot ? 



An Outdoor Geography Lesson. 



Through the western part of Manchester flows the Mer- 

 rimack river. The rapids with the dam built by the 

 Amoskeag Corporation furnish the water power that has 

 made the city. Here a teacher took her class just begin- 

 ning the study of land and water forms. They had learned 

 the names, had seen the pictures and had made them as 

 far as they could at the sand table. They only needed to 

 see them out of doors to fix the facts in their minds. The 

 river was visited. The water flowing over the dam illus- 

 trated falls ; the rapids below were an object lesson ; the 

 eroded rocks showed the wearing action of water ; two isl- 

 ands below were another lesson. In an edd}^ a short dis- 

 tance down the river, were found more evidences of water 



