26 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



head so as to check up her observations with the other; meantime she 

 asks us a httie question in a wheedUng, soft tone, which we understand 

 perfectly to mean "have you perchance brought me something to eat?" 

 Not only is the hen an interesting bird in herself, but she is a bird with 

 problems; and by studying her carefully we may be introduced into the 

 very heart and center of bird life. 



This lesson may be presented in two ways: First, if the pupils live in 

 the country where they have poultry at home, the whole series of lessons 

 may best be accomplished through interested talks on the part of the 

 teacher, which should be followed on the part of the children, by observa- 

 tions, which should be made at home and the results given in school in 

 oral or written lessons. Second, if the pupils are not familiar with fowls, 

 a hen and a chick, if possible, should be kept in a cage in the schoolroom 

 for a few days, and a duck or gosling should be brought in one day for 

 observation. The crates in which fowls are sent to market make very 

 good cages. One of the teachers of the Elmira, N. Y. Schools introduced 

 into the basement of the schoolhouse a hen, which there hatched her 

 brood of chicks, much to the children's delight and edification. After the 

 pupils have become thoroughly interested in the hen and are familiar with 

 her ways, after they have fed her and watched her, and have for her a 

 sense of ownership, the following lessons may be given in an informal 

 manner, as if they were naturally suggested to the teacher's mind through 

 watching the fowl. 



