234 



Nature-Study Agriculture 



A house that one bird 

 would like might not be 

 entered by another (Fig. 

 188). 



The best way to ob- 

 serve birds is to go 

 where they like to stay 

 and keep very quiet so 

 that they will come near. 

 Opera glasses will be 

 found very useful in bird 

 study. The writings of 

 such men as Thoreau ; 

 Fabre, the great French 

 student of insect life; 

 G. ciyde Fisher and John Burroughs, are 

 of the first importance 

 as aids to nature study, 

 and they make pleasant reading. 



FIG. 189. John Burroughs, friend of birds 

 He is America's best-known naturalist. 



Experiments and Observations v 



1. Keep a calendar of birds of your locality, giving date when 

 each is first seen and noting where it nests. 



2. Watch the birds to see what food each eats. 



3. From a concealed place, watch a nest of young birds and 

 see how often the parent birds bring food to them. 



4. Following the directions in Farmers' Bulletin 609, make 

 bird houses suitable for some of the birds of your own neighbor- 

 hood. 



5. Find out what you can about John Burroughs, John James 

 Audubon, and Henri Fabre. i 



6. What do you think is the meaning of the following poem, 



