260 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



birds. I sometimes make a list of arrivals after the 

 manner of a hotel register. For example : * The 

 Bluebird registered in Fitchburg this morning. How 

 long will he stay ? ' * The White-throated Sparrow 

 has registered for a short stay. He is on his way 

 to his summer home.' 



" I find that children are more interested in a bird's 

 disposition and in his character than in his personal 

 appearance. It was for that reason that I made my 

 collection of quotations. [Miss Churchill has com- 

 piled a neat volume of 186 pages with a title which 

 adequately describes it, * Birds in Literature.'] I 

 like to speak of them as testimonials that have been 

 written by people competent to judge. Children al- 

 ways like legends, and certain of the poems they en- 

 joy very much, but they like best of all the charac- 

 terization of the songs by words. 



" In the sixth year we group the birds according 

 to color. In the seventh grade, as the birds arrive, 

 we place them in guilds, using the classification used 

 by Mabel Osgood Wright in her ' Citizen Bird,' 

 namely : ' Ground Gleaners, Tree Trappers, Seed 

 Sowers, Sky Sweepers, Wise Watchers, Cannibal 

 Birds.' In our highest grammar grade we correlate 

 bird study with forestry, taking it under the heading 

 1 Friends of Trees.' The Davis Press of Worcester, 

 Massachusetts, publishes a set of outline drawings of 

 birds that are good for coloring. Bird-Lore also 

 has good ones, but any teacher can make hectograph 

 copies." 



