98 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 



bought for the child. The flowers bloom most beau- 

 tifully where they grow, and birds are most beautiful 

 and sing most sweetly when they perch on the free 

 swaying branches. I know of more than one bird and 

 egg collection that serve no other purposes except to 

 be in safe cases and accumulate the dust of ages. 



Bird Day in the Schools. Our teachers have so 

 much experience in arranging all kinds of exercises 

 that special directions for the observance of Bird Day 

 seem not necessary. Songs, declamations, reports of 

 observations, illustrated talks, and easy dramatic repre- 

 sentations are in order. Reports about individual 

 birds will always be much appreciated, and the younger 

 the pupils are, the more anything with action in it will 

 appeal to them. Bird magazines and educational 

 papers furnish an abundance of material, and much 

 excellent matter can be found in the works of our clas- 

 sical poets and writers. Nor is it necessary that all the 

 exercises be about birds. From a pedagogical point of 

 view, it would be better to observe a Nature Day than to 

 limit ourselves strictly to trees and birds. Bird study, 

 like every other good thing, can be overdone, so that 

 the public and the children will become surfeited. 



A little Bird Day material is here offered, with the 

 hope that it may prove useful in some schools and 

 homes. It will probably be best to select from it, as 

 to give all of it might unduly lengthen the programme. 

 It is much better that the children should wish they 

 could have had a little more than that they should be 

 wearied by exercises that are too long. 



