14 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



ever before. Bird-books for reading are found in 

 nearly all our schools in America. People are 

 beginning to understand that birds were made 

 for something better than to kill for sport, or to 

 eat, or to wear in horrible shapes on bonnets. 



Everybody is wanting to find out something 

 new about our birds. Professors from our uni- 

 versities are going to the far-off corners of the 

 world, to the islands, to the polar and the torrid 

 regions, to study birds. They want to find out 

 all there is to know about their ways, their nest- 

 ing habits, their plumage. The school children 

 of the West could be a great help to the scientific 

 world by learning new things about our common 

 birds. Take the linnets, for instance. How many 

 sorts of weed-seeds do they eat? It would give 

 the boys and girls many a long tramp to find this 

 out, and they should make notes of what they see, 

 in a little note-book carried in the pocket. They 

 could bring home specimens of all the seeds, and 

 the botany teacher could name them. And by 

 and by even the farmers would change their 

 minds about the linnets, all on account of what 

 the children have found out. And the linnets 

 will be loved, instead of hated, as certain spar- 

 rows in the New England States are now loved 

 for what they are doing for man, where, years 

 ago, they were despised and driven away. 



