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AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



BIRD CHATS WITH OUR YOUNG FRIENDS. 



Address communications to Meg Merrythought, 156 Waterville St., 

 Waterbury, Ct. 



My Dear Young Folks: 



There is a plump robin looking in at my window. He seems to say. 

 ""Quick! quick! quick! Please write for me a message to the lads and 

 lasses who read your magazine. Tell them that a host of ray relatives 

 have come to spend the summer here and we hope to make the world 

 brighter and happier for them, and ask very little in return. If they 

 will let us alone, we ask nothing more. We wish to protest against 

 those boys who are studying about us, that is what they call it, and 

 some of the mothers are so pleased that their boys are interested in 

 Nature Study. 



Let me tell you how they do it. They gather for their collections, 

 our eggs, our feathers, our nests, and even our bodies, besides nearly 

 frightening us out of our wits. You may be surprised that this so 

 called study is going on today, but only yesterday three boys passed 

 me, one had a camera, but each boy also had some kind of weapon to 

 ■destroy life. 



Will not the boys who are gaining bird lore in the right way do their 

 l)est to interest these young folks in a better way of becoming familiar 

 with the birds?" 



Here Mr. Robin bowed a farewell, and with a chirped "Thanks! 

 Thanks!" flew down upon the lawn, where he now hops about, busily 

 destroying the one hundred and one angle worms which have come to 

 the surface for a drink of fresh rain drops. 



