210 NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIEW 



may construct martin or other bird houses and should do all 

 they can to encourage useful birds to lighten the labors and in- 

 crease the profits of the farmers and gardeners of the commun- 

 ity. Any laws dealing with these particular birds should be 

 known and assistance should be given the authorities in making 

 these laws effective. Any impression that the laws are imper- 

 ialistic should be dispelled by an appreciation of the common- 

 sense back of them. It will not be difficult to see the common- 

 sense side if the program outlined above has been followed. 



At the beginning of this section it was suggested that the topic 

 for study come from some child who had seen something interest- 

 ing. It may come with equal appropriateness from a child whose 

 garden is being attacked by insects. The outline shows appro- 

 priate work for the younger children while the older child is being 

 helped with his problem. 



All of this work may be taught at one time to a group of chil- 

 dren of varied ages and in different grades. Since all of the mater- 

 ial necessary to teach such a lesson is available in every rural 

 school in the State it is only natural to expect that a program of 

 this sort can be put into practice. 



So much for this type lesson on birds foimd feeding in the air. 

 Lessons on other nature-study subjects are outlined in a similar 

 manner and should be understood without great difficulty. 



The Wcrk of Diferent Years. 



It should be obvious that if we divide the children into groups 

 of two grades each and follow the system, already outlined that 

 there will be needless repetition if no effort is made to prevent 

 this. For exam_ple, a child who enters school this year and studies 

 a bam swallow this year wotdd next year be in the same group 

 and study the bam swallow again in the same manner. To 

 prevent this, the outline suggests two groups of birds found feed- 

 ing in the air and suggests that one of these groups be considered 

 one year and the other the next year. In either case, the chapter 

 in Volimie XIV, No. 4 of the Leaflet would be an appropriate 

 introduction. One year you would consider birds like bam 

 swallows and chimney swifts that are seen for the m.ost part 

 on the wing. The next year it might be well to study the other 

 group which includes birds like the phoebe and kingbird which 

 fly up from a perch to capture their food and then as a rule return 



