CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 373 



Teaching Boys to Protect Birds. Teachers in our city and 

 country schools have an excellent opportunity to inculcate in 

 the minds of their boys a desire to study the habits of birds and 

 to discourage the maiming and killing of song birds and the 

 destruction of their nests and eggs. Usually the small boy who 

 would "make a collection" of birds' eggs wishes to do so because 

 they are attractive to him, partly by their color and partly, per- 

 haps, by the difficulties involved in securing them. No doubt he 

 is also influenced by a desire "to collect," which sometimes makes 

 imperative demands upon both young and old. The loss to agri- 

 culture by such collections is decidedly great. This loss is avoid- 

 able if the boy's ambitions can be turned into other channels. 

 Acts of this kind, egg-collecting without a license, and the killing 

 of song birds, are, for the most part, punishable by law. But if the 

 child can be led to observe these laws by having an intelligent in- 

 terest in the birds themselves, the result is better than if fear is the 

 instigating cause. We should emphasize the need upon the part 

 of both adults and young of a careful and discriminating judgment 

 of birds based upon their food habits before condemning them. 



Making Friends of the Birds. We should encourage, in every 

 way possible, their continued presence on the farm, in the garden, 

 and in the orchard. We can do this in many ways: (1) By 

 making boxes for wrens, bluebirds, and martins. (2) By expos- 

 ing material used in nest-building. (3) By winter feeding. (4) 

 By fostering a wise and humane policy toward our feathered 

 associates. (5) By providing watering places. (6) By planting 

 fruit-bearing shrubs. 



The recent enactment of laws by Congress protecting birds 

 during their migration is one of the best evidences of the growth 

 of a higher and, at the same time, a more practical sentiment in 

 this direction. 



Classification of Birds. Birds belong to the Class Aves of the 

 Vertebrate Phylum. The Class is divided by some ornithologists 

 into eleven Orders. The six of most interest, perhaps, to the 

 farmer are: 



Insessores (Passeres) or Perchers. 



Raptores (Accipitres and Striges), birds of prey. 



Picariae, woodpeckers and others. 



Gallina? grouse, partridge, quail and common fowl. 



Coccyges, cuckoos and kingfishers. 



Herodiones, herons, and bitterns. 



