SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by A. A. ALLEN, Ph.D. 



Address all communications relative to the work of this 

 department to the Editor, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



CHRISTMAS WITH THE BIRDS 



This is the season when kind thoughts aboiind and everyone is endeavoring 

 to express his friendship and good-will to his fellowman. It is not only because 

 the stores are in gala dress and are advising us to shop early; it is not only 

 because of the holly and mistletoe for sale on the street corners, nor yet because 

 of the merry Santa Clauses with their red cardboard chimneys soliciting funds 

 that we know the holiday season is approaching. The spirit of joyous giving 

 is in the air and we wish to do our part. But let us not confine our Christmas 

 thoughts to man alone. Why is not this the season of the year to bring all 

 nature into the family to share our abundance? It is a most appropriate 

 time to inculcate into the minds of the children a love of birds and all animals, 

 and a desire to befriend them. It is now that birds are quick to respond to help, 

 for they need it when most of their food is covered with snow and ice. Now is 

 the time to feed them and to attract them about the windows, for Christmas 

 is not complete without them. We have borrowed from our European cousins 

 the holly and the mistletoe, Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. Let us add 

 the Chickadee, the Nuthatch, and the Snowbird as emblems of our American 

 Christmas. 



Those who have been following the pages of Bird-Lore during the past 

 few years have become aware of the extent of the movement for feeding the 

 winter birds. Only those who have been actively engaged in the work, however, 

 appreciate the pleasure and profit to be gained by so doing. It seems that noth- 

 ing new could be said on the subject, and that repetition of what has been 

 written might be useless, but a subject so fundamental to the whole conserva- 

 tion movement can scarcely be overemphasized. In our teaching of children, 

 and adults as well, for that matter, we know that our words are of little avail 

 until our listeners put into actual practice the principles we have endeavored 

 to inculcate. When the principles are dry and uninteresting or difficult to 

 grasp, they usually go in one ear and out the other, but when they are applicable 

 to daily life and can be put into immediate practice, they usually bring quick 

 results. When anyone has done by himself one bit of service for the conserva- 

 tion of wild life, one little act of kindness for birds or animals, and by so doing 

 has drawn a response from the animal befriended, his interest is fixed for the rest 

 of his life. When a teacher stimulates a child to perform some such act, he 

 has accomplished more for the conservation movement than he could by any 



(379) 



