No. 123.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 105 



the age, feathers, moult, bill, claws, color, anatomy, digestion, sight, 

 hearing, smell, migrations, habits, instincts and intelligence of birds; 

 the folk-lore of birds, legends of birds; the effect on birds of spraying 

 and trimming trees, cutting underbrush, etc. 



All these questions are answered if possible, although in 

 exceptional cases it takes hours to look up the references and 

 typewrite the answers. 



Bird Day Exercises. 



For several years it has been customary for the State Board 

 of Agriculture to join with the Massachusetts State Grange and 

 the Massachusetts Audubon Society in holding bird day exer- 

 cises in different counties of the State. This year the meeting 

 was held in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, at the invitation of 

 Mr. Walter K. Putney, superintendent of schools of that town 

 and a member of the committee for the protection of birds of 

 the Massachusetts State Grange. 



There was a large gathering of people, particularly teachers, 

 academy students and public school pupils. Included in the 

 exercises was a contest in identifying fifty species of stuffed 

 birds, also a bird-house contest. Mr. Raymond J. Gregory of 

 Princeton, chairman of the State Grange bird committee, pre- 

 sided, and the speakers were Dr. S. C. Ball of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, on "How to identify Birds"; 

 Mrs. E. O. Marshall of the State Grange bird committee, on 

 "Bird Study"; the State Ornithologist, on "Value of Birds to 

 the Farm and Home"; Mr. Winthrop Packard, on "Bird 

 Welfare"; and Worthy Lady Assistant Steward of the State 

 Grange Margaret A. Sarre, who represented Mr. Leslie R. 

 Smith, Master of the State Grange, who was unable to be 

 present. The exercises of the day were closed by Edward Avis 

 with an entertainment, lesson and contest. He analyzed and 

 imitated the music of twenty species of birds. Papers were 

 passed for the contest, when he again imitated the birds and 

 Mr. Putney accompanied him with a story of a bird walk, 

 describing the habits of the birds whose notes were imitated. 

 Some of the children were able to identify every bird by its 

 note. 



