BIRD-STUDY FOR SCHOOLS 259 



science in the State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mas- 

 sachusetts, has sent me an outline of her very excel- 

 lent course in bird-study, which I quote in part. She 

 says: 



" I try in the first grade or in any grade, if the 

 children are beginners in bird-lore to have them 

 realize what wonderful little creatures birds are. 

 They never tire of talking about what birds do, 

 what they eat, how they build their nests, etc. The 

 'First Book of Birds' and 'Bird World' have 

 good material for this purpose. Some of the head- 

 ings are: Bird Cradles, Baby Birds, How Birds 

 Change Their Clothes, What Birds Eat, A Bird's 

 Education, What Birds Do in Rainy Weather, A 

 Bird's Travels, How Birds Work for Us, How We 

 Can Help the Birds. 



" I try to have each child in a certain grade be- 

 come acquainted with a specified number of birds, in- 

 creasing the number in successive grades. I tried at 

 first assigning certain species, but found it impracti- 

 cable for the reason that some species would be so 

 rare some years. 



" In teaching individual birds, I think the first im- 

 pressions ought to be obtained from the bird itself. 

 With normal students, however, I find that descrip- 

 tions beforehand are helpful. 



" After the children have been for a walk, I have 

 them find the pictures of the birds they have seen 

 and post them on the bulletin board. They thus 

 serve as reminders while we are talking about the 



