17 NATURE STUDY 



pigeons at home. If in a city, have a live fowl or pigeon in a 

 cage in the schoolroom. Have them see how the bird uses its 

 bill and feet. Let them find out how the structure of the bird 

 fits it for its special kind of life. 



To study birds further it will be well to have a small set or 

 collection of prepared skins of some of the common birds of var- 

 ious families. In order to see how the general structure and the 

 special character of the wings, tail, bill, legs and feet of various 

 birds vary in correlation with the various habits and living con- 

 ditions of the birds it will be necessary to be able to examine, in 

 hand, different birds. "Bird-skins" which can be bought for about 

 twenty-five cents each (the common birds) are better than mounted 

 or stuffed birds which are expensive and are very rarely true to 

 life in shape and attitude. The skins can be got, perhaps, from 

 some boy collector of the neighborhood. These skins can be con- 

 veniently kept, can be handled readily without harming them, 

 and do not pretend to imitate the bird's shape or attitude. But 

 they do allow us to see the exact character of the various exter- 

 nal parts. 



Make the pupils acquainted by out-of-door lessons with the 

 common birds of the school yard and neighborhood. Try to get 

 acquainted with birds representing some of the different orders 

 and families so that various kinds of food habits and physiologi- 

 cal characters will be represented. Try to have prepared skins 

 of most of the birds selected for study. Good birds to begin with 

 are the robin, some swallow, the English sparrow, a blackbird, a 

 jay, the bee-martin, a humming bird, a common woodpecker, a 

 hawk, an owl, a mourning dove, a quail, a sandpiper or snipe a 

 mud-hen or rail, a duck and a gull. The prepared sking of 

 twenty different kinds of birds selected so as to represent differ- 

 ent large groups present an extremely varied and interesting lot 

 of bills and feet and colors and patterns, and these same birds 

 observed alive out-of-doors will make the pupils acquainted with 



