332 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



As an outdoor lesson ask the class to hunt the district 

 over thoroughly and report on the number of suitable 

 places for birds to drink and bathe. Previously discuss 

 with them what constitutes a suitable place. Our park 

 waters are commonly too deep and, with their rock-bound 

 borders, seldom afford a bathing place. Birds recognize 

 their helplessness when their feathers are wet, so that 



streams or pools whose 

 banks afford hiding 

 places for cats will be 

 avoided. Then the 

 water must be whole- 

 some, clean, and con- 

 stant, not likely to fail 

 on hot days. If there 

 is a lack of proper bird 

 fountains, call for vol- 

 unteers among the 

 children who will see 

 to it that the birds of 

 the district are well 

 provided for. 



Leaving the matter of food, as most important, to the 

 last we may next inquire what the children can do to 

 supply bird homes. The idea of building a bird house 

 and of having birds live in it has a great fascination for 

 children. The bare suggestion is sufficient, and off they 

 go, perhaps carrying the house and running after every 

 bird they see, calling '* Come, birdie," and great will be 

 the disappointment at first that every imaginable bird 

 does not come forthwith and take up its abode. 



Fig. 129. Bird Houses 



Designed and made, at suggestion of Principal 

 J. Chauncey Lyford, by ninth grade manual 

 training pupils, Winslow Street Scliool, 

 Worcester, Mass. The iMrd house is now- 

 adopted as one of the regular models in tlie 

 nintli grade manual training course tlirough- 

 out the city 



