BIRD-STUDY FOR SCHOOLS 259 



science in the State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mas- 

 sachusetts, has sent me an outline of her very excel- 

 lent course in bird-study, which I quote in part. She 

 says : 



" I try in the first grade or in any grade, if the 

 children are beginners in bird-lore to have them 

 realize what wonderful little creatures birds are. 

 They never tire of talking about what birds do, 

 what they eat, how they build their nests, etc. The 

 * First Book of Birds 1 and ' Bird World ' have 

 good material for this purpose. Some of the head- 

 ings are: Bird Cradles, Baby Birds, How Birds 

 Change Their Clothes, What Birds Eat, A Bird's 

 Education, What Birds Do in Rainy Weather, A 

 Bird's Travels, How Birds Work for Us, How We 

 Can Help the Birds. 



" I try to have each child in a certain grade be- 

 come acquainted with a specified number of birds, in- 

 creasing the number in successive grades. I tried at 

 first assigning certain species, but found it impracti- 

 cable for the reason that some species would be so 

 rare some years. 



' In teaching individual birds, I think the first im- 

 pressions ought to be obtained from the bird itself. 

 With normal students, however, I find that descrip- 

 tions beforehand are helpful. 



" After the children have been for a walk, I have 

 them find the pictures of the birds they have seen 

 and post them on the bulletin board. They thus 

 serve as reminders while we are talking about the 



