112 Report of Cotnintiiee on Bird Protection. F Tan. 



^' There is a new and wide-spread interest in Nature Study as a 

 means of observation, etc., in our scliools, and in our country 

 schools at least there is every opportunity for bird work. But 

 while bird songs are coming in through the windows, the chil- 

 dren's attention is concentrated upon a crab^ which inland children 

 may know only through books. 



" Country children are pecuUarly in need of this bird work. 

 Boys need the guidance of a teacher to give names and point to 

 their own discoveries, to change their egg collecting interest to a 

 naturalisf s interest. And girls need the teaching to give them an 

 out-door interest in Nature : they are our future farmers' wives ; 

 more farmers' wives go insane than any other class — from dearth 

 of interests. Here we have an opportunity to give them some- 

 thing that will lend value and meaning to woods and fields — that 

 will widen their horizons and lighten their drudgery, 



" A man was lecturing in Albany this summer on nature work, 

 going from place to place in the State with the avowed purpose of 

 interesting country people in the life about them in order to pre- 

 vent their exodus to the cities. This is certainly a wise sociological 

 movement, and we have it in our power to help enormously. 



" In fact, this Audubon movement in the United States may be 

 an ephemeral enthusiasm, or it may do most important humani- 

 tarian work. It may mean nothing, or it may mean great things. 



" I would urge wise, broad, philanthropic work by every society 

 that is formed. Specifically, I would say : i. Let us disseminate 

 economic literature. 2. Let us establish bird work in the schools 

 on a footing with botany. 



" To make this bird work possible, we must teach the teachers, 

 and so must aim to establish bird courses in the normal and high 

 schools, have bird examinations part of the Regent's examinations ; 

 every teacher who gets a certificate should have enough knowledge 

 of the subject to teach the children the common birds ; field 

 work, of course, should be the basis in every possible case." 



Your Committee has the following recommendations to make 

 to the members of the American Ornithologists' Union : 



I. — That it is the duty of each member to instruct himself as 

 to the economic value of birds by reading all the publications on 



