46 Lessons in Nature Study. 



Describe the young chicks ; their shape, color, covering, 

 and manner of running. Notice how they eat and "peep." 

 See how they run to their mother whenever she gives a cer- 

 tain call. See how anxious the old hen appears when her 

 chicks venture too far from her. If young, you may still 

 find the little hard point adhering to their bills with which 

 they broke out of the shell. See how small and round their 

 little wings are. Feed them some wet meal or moist bread- 

 crumbs. How greedily they eat it. Compare the hen with 

 the canary, as regards bill, feet, legs, feathers, eyes and 

 eyelids, food, size, use, etc. Hens belong to a great family 

 of birds called scratchers, because they scratch for their 

 food. 



It is well to bring into school on some other day a 

 dressed fowl and show to the children the various parts of 

 the body. 



The Robin. 



This bird comes so early in the year that his arrival is 

 always hailed with joy. How does a robin go along on the 

 ground ? Hops. Why does he go hopping along in the 

 grass ? What does he eat ? Did you never see a robin hop- 

 ping along with a long worm in his mouth ? What else do 

 robins eat ? Did you ever find the cherries on the tree all 

 pecked full of holes ? Who did it ? What sharp sight the 

 robin must have to see worms away down on the ground. 

 Compare his bill with those of the canary and the chick. 

 Describe the robin and her eggs. When the robins sing, we 

 feel that spring is close at hand. Sometimes when they 

 sing in a peculiar way we say they are calling for rain ; but 

 when the cat gets the young robins we hear them giving 

 their piteous cry of alarm. They build their nests in trees, 

 and make them of hair, sticks, grasses, and mud. When 

 they go south in the fall, they gather in large flocks. 



The robin is a good subject for teaching patience, ten- 

 derness, jollity, and self-denial, for it exhibits all these 

 traits in the care of its young and its merry song in the 



