BIRD 



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BIRD 



scientists who have observed and collected facts 

 for years go so far as to say that successful 

 agriculture would probably be impossible with- 

 out the birds. The seeds, too, which furnish 

 so large a part of the food of many birds, are 

 most frequently weed seeds; it is estimated 

 that the sparrows alone save to the farmers of 

 the United States and Canada millions of dol- 

 lars each year by eating these seeds. Some 

 birds there are, it is true, who do help them- 

 selves occasionally to the farmer's grain, but 

 there are very few which do not more than 

 pay for such thefts. Even the crow, the owl 

 and most of the hawks, generally classed as 

 robbers, by their wholesale destruction of 

 insects and small rodents prove themselves 

 friends rather than foes to the farmer. 



The safe thing for a farmer to do is to 

 acquaint himself so far as possible with the 

 birds of his neighborhood and to find out their 

 favorite diet. Then such as do really prey 

 on the crops without making adequate return 

 may be driven away or killed, while the others, 

 far more numerous, may be attracted in every 

 possible way. Protection of such birds from 

 enemies, especially cats, providing them with 

 food at times when it is not otherwise available, 

 and of water for drinking and bathing, and the 

 supplying of artificial nest boxes or other safe 

 places for building will do much to attract the 

 useful birds to spots where they are needed. 

 Even the village or city dweller, who does not 

 need the help of the birds as does the farmer, 

 may by similar methods bring about his house 

 a colony of birds which will give him continu- 

 ous pleasure. 



Cage Birds. Certain birds have for a long 



time held a peculiar relation to man in that 

 they have lived in his home and been, in a 

 sense, domesticated. The gracefulness, beauty 

 and cheerful songs of birds have always made 

 their strong appeal, and centuries before the 

 beginning of the Christian Era the custom of 

 keeping birds in cages was common. To-day 

 the number of such pets is greater than ever 

 before; most of them have not been captured 

 and confined to a cage after having known the 

 joys of a free life, but have been bred and 

 raised in captivity. In such a case the keeping 

 of caged birds cannot be called cruel, as in 

 the case of any free, wild thing. 



Canaries are by far the best known of all 

 the birds which are kept for their song, but 

 caged nightingales, finches, thrushes and mock- 

 ing birds are by no means uncommon. Parrots 

 are the favorite talking birds, while parrakeets, 

 cockatoos and certain finches are often kept by 

 reason of their beautiful plumage. It is almost 

 always the grain-eating birds which are trained 

 as cage birds, both because it is far easier to 

 feed them and because they are not used to 

 so active a life as are the insect-eating birds. 

 No person who is not willing to take excel- 

 lent care of a bird should ever have one, for 

 one of the absolutely necessary things is that 

 the cage and all it contains should be kept 

 strictly clean, and that the bird itself should 

 have opportunity for frequent baths. 



Classification. Many systems of classifying 

 birds have been offered, no one of which seems 

 entirely to please scientists. The outline at the 

 end of this article gives perhaps as simple a 

 method of grouping as any which is now in 

 use. J.B. 



Study of Birds 



In recent years there has been a growing 

 interest in birds their appearance, their habits, 

 their value to man and many "bird books" 

 have been published to comply with the 

 demand for accurate information. Some of 

 these are simple little books which list and 

 describe the birds of a certain locality, so that 

 dwellers there may recognize them on sight, 

 while others are more elaborate publications 

 with beautifully-colored illustrations. More 

 general treatises also abound, which give 

 charming accounts of the manner of life of the 

 birds. But no one, no matter how carefully 

 he has studied such books, can really know 

 birds unless he has studied them firsthand, at 

 first in the laboratory or schoolroom and later 



in the field. The following lessons on birds 

 are designed to aid the teacher or parent in 

 interesting the boys and girls and showing 

 them how to begin the study of the most fas- 

 cinating of all their wild neighbors. 



Lessons on Birds. General Suggestions. 1. 

 Birds in their natural state are so hard to 

 approach that they must be tamed before one 

 can successfully study them. This is accom- 

 plished only by feeding them, for, as one writer 

 has said, "The way to a bird's heart is through 

 its crop." Instructions as to feeding and taming 

 birds should be given during the first lessons. 



2. It is exceedingly important that the teach- 

 er's knowledge of her subject be much broader 

 than the work actually assigned to the class. 



