254 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



are at the present time introducing it. Without 

 doubt it will soon become universal, and to the next 

 generation it will seem amazing that children were 

 ever allowed to grow up ignorant of the world in 

 which they live. How far the movement has at 

 present gone can be suggested by the response to a 

 circular letter recently sent out, for another pur- 

 pose, to supervising principals by Mr. E. C. Stiles, su- 

 pervisor of schools, West Haven, Connecticut. Out 

 of twenty-three answers at present available, thirteen 

 reported nature-study in the curriculum, and of these 

 eleven included bird-study in that course. These 

 schools were of the better class. 



Along this line, as a sign of the times showing that 

 the public are beginning to realize the necessity of 

 conserving the great national asset of bird-life in 

 order to save our harvests and trees from insect pests, 

 it is interesting to note that at the last session of the 

 legislature of Illinois a bill was passed making it 

 mandatory that every teacher shall give at least half 

 an hour each week to instruction in kindness to ani- 

 mals and in bird study. It is also provided that in 

 case of failure to do this there shall be a forfeit of 

 part of the salary. It certainly looks as though the 

 coming generations in that State would have intel- 

 ligent ideas as to the value of bird-life, and we are 

 not rash in believing that the same thing will be true 

 of other States than Illinois, through similar methods. 



This movement is so new that it is still in the form- 

 ative and tentative stage, and no one approved and 



