no NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



9. A friendly letter will be written to two outside friends by the 



class inviting them to act as judges. (Let one half class 

 write to one of the friends and the other half write to 

 the other friend). 



10. Invitations will be written to the parents. 



(Instead of each child writing to his own parent it will 

 m.ake for greater interest if slips are drawn from a hat 

 and the child writes to the parent whose name appears 

 on that slip). 



11. Invitations will be written to the principal of the school 



and to the superintendent of the schools of the city. 



12. Each child will make a catalog in which he will write the 



names of the flowers and wild plants studied. 



A Robin Orphanage 



By Mary Wecka 

 Student in Harris Teachers' College, St. Louis, Missouri 



As soon as the robins occupied the old nest on the sycamore 

 tree in front of our house I fetched my spyglass and kept it at 

 hand to watch the private concerns of the robin family, as I do 

 each year. But I did not dream that this year my observation 

 would end as it did. 



On the eighteenth of April, two eggs were laid; one early in 

 the morning, and one later in the day. (Last year the first egg 

 in this same nest was laid on the twenty-third of April.) On the 

 nineteenth, the third egg was laid, and on the twentieth the fourth 

 and last. On the afternoon of the sam.e day the female began 

 to brood. We had a heavy shower that afternoon and to see 

 that bird sitting patiently on the nest while the rain was 

 pouring down, made one feel, — I don't know, — but I think if 

 many could see it, they would perhaps be the better for it. But 

 that has nothing to do with my story. 



As I knew that it ought to take about two weeks for the eggs to 

 hatch, on May the third at seven o'clock in the morning I took 

 my spyglass and hied to the attic. Lo and behold! — there were 

 four robins in the nest. They had been hatched probably during 

 the night. The most prominent part of each robin, the wide-open 

 mouth, was well above the level of the nest. The female robin was 



