SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Address all communications to the Editor of the School Department, National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, 141 Broadway, New York City 



IN JUNE 



What may one say of June ? So much is to be said that silence perhaps 

 is best, — silence that we may pause and listen, listen intently and open the 

 eyes wide, that nothing escape us. Why attempt to catalogue the pictures 

 that are daily hung against the wall of the sky or set upon lichen -covered 

 granite easels against hangings of deepest green, or those elusive ones that, 

 being painted by the mist of sunrise, vanish in full day? 



Why attempt to reduce the soloists and chorus of the great natural 

 oratorio to a programme of names and titled performances. Suffice it to say 

 that all the birds will be there, at least all that have escaped the dangers of win - 

 ter, of long travel and the guns of unfriendly lands held by barbarous hands. 



But one thing let us beg of June, daughter of Juno, and that is 

 that her temper may be even and that she distribute her rain and sunshine 

 with impartiality; for upon the disposition of June does much of the weal 

 and woe of the season's bird-life depend. If long rains flood the meadows 

 and marshlands, and weigh down the tree branches making the foliage 

 heavy and sodden, death and destruction visit many bird homes. The young 

 of the ground builders are either drowned or die of cold and damp; while 

 the tree -nests, especially those of the Thrush tribe in whose composition 

 mud is used, melt and give way, and oftentimes a little sodden heap under 

 a branch is all that is left to tell what has been. 



On the other hand, if June is ' unco' hot and dry, and the tender foliage 

 withers, many song-birds of open nests are sufferers, holding up open, gap- 

 ing beaks to their distressed parents. In such a June as this the bird -bath 

 and the water-trough are blessings, and every bird -lover living in regions 

 without brooks or ponds should keep one filled; and even if there is water 

 near by, each orchard and garden should have its own supply close to the 

 nesting trees. 



With the poet, we would praise God for June, — but let us not forget 

 that as it is the season of bird song, it is also the month of their greatest 

 anxiety; and, while we are listening to the music and enjoying the grace 

 of their every motion, let us endeavor to lessen their cares as much as pos- 

 sible by supplying nesting shelter for those who crave it and ensuring pri- 

 vacy for those birds who gather near our homes with pretty confidence 

 that we will help them to escape the preying habits of their wilder neigh- 

 bors of remote woods and fields. — M. O. W. 



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