MARCH 191 



cases, the birds pursue the same path year after year, 

 and it is a very common observation that they even 

 return to the same tree season after season. As Weiss- 

 mann says, they have '' an inherited talent for geogra- 

 phy " ; and, in addition to this, their method of flight, 

 higli in the air, gives them a bird's-eye view of the 

 country beneath, enabling them to use as landmarks 

 what to us below are simply indistinguishable parts of 

 a mixed and complete whole. 



Three or four times as many birds leave us in the fall 

 as return to us in the spring, so that the loss of life in 

 migrations must be large. 



Method : 



In preparing the children to study the earthworm, 

 take them out with the avowed purpose of finding signs 

 of spring. These, of course, will be the buds and the 

 earthworm castings. Tell the children to bring in as 

 many different kinds of the latter as they can find. 

 They will gather all sizes and shapes, wet ones and 

 those which have dried. 



Describe what you have brought in. Why are some 

 of them moist while others are dry ? Where did they 

 come from ? 



City children are often unable to answer the last 

 question, and I have, in consequence, usually sus- 

 pended the lesson here, sometimes telling them that 

 if they wished to know, they might find out if they 

 watered the place towards dusk, and watched to see 

 what animal came out. This little experiment explains 

 to them what they have already observed — the numer- 

 ous earthworms to be seen in the spring mornings after 

 a storm. 



