THE CHILD AND NATURE STUDY ON THE FARM. 205 



the songs of the birds, and the children enjoyed imitating them. 

 Then it was ever their dehght to have the song interpreted into lan- 

 guage. It pleased them so much to hear in the song of the song 

 sparrow, "Maids, maids, hang up you teakettle-ettle, ettle." 



Then we watched the birds gathering the material for their nests. 

 The house-wren was busy at a pile of twigs near the house. The 

 swallows were continually sailing over the poultry yards, and now 

 and then we would detect one carrying away a feather in its mouth, 

 and we found the orioles making numerous trips to our yards and 

 carrying away pieces of string they found there. The children 



Mrs. Hoverstad and her children. 



scattered string about for them and enjoyed the story of the orioles 

 who found a lady's work basket on a veranda and carried away bits 

 of bright-colored yarn which later she found woven into their nest. 

 Then, too, we found the nests. Hanging from a high branch of 

 a box elder tree was the oriole's nest. Hidden away among some 

 evergreen shrubs was the nest of the chipping sparrows, whose 

 grasshopper song we had so often listened to. The children were 

 pleased with the horse hairs they found lining the nest. How de- 

 lighted they were with the exquisite little cradle the yellow warblers 

 had made for their babies ! 



