OBJECTIVE SEASONAL LESSONS. 



Identification (see Chapter YII). As a prelimi- 

 nary step to exercises in identification the student 

 should learn to name the parts of a bird's plumage 

 as they are given in Figure 25. The teacher should 

 then select a plate of a land-bird, and placing it at 

 a distance of from twenty to thirty feet from the 

 pupil, have him write a one-minute description of it. 

 This description should include the bird's approxi- 

 mate length,* color of crown, back, tail, wings, 

 throat, breast, and abdomen. It is well to have 

 a blank prepared and ready to fill in with the 

 descriptions of the parts named. To this may 

 be added any particular characters of form (e. g., 

 crests, long tail, etc.) or color (e. g., face or rump 

 marks, etc.). 



With this description in hand the student should 

 then turn to the key on page 76. This is primarily 

 designed to identify birds in Nature, and its major 

 divisions are based on the most striking habits of the 

 birds. This, however, would not be appreciable in 

 the bird plate, and the teacher should, therefore, 

 designate in which of the three principal groups the 

 bird belongs. The pupil should then proceed with 



* A Robin is ten inches, an English or House Sparrow six and 

 one-quarter inches, in length. Mental comparison with either of 

 these familiar birds will enable one to readily estimate the length 

 of any of our Passeres. 



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