The Audubon Societies 303 



A bird refuge must have a trusty warden or guardian of some sort, but if a 

 hired warden is engaged, and everything in connection with the refuge is paid 

 for in money, then it becomes merely an outdoor attraction with the personal 

 element omitted. Such an undertaking is most happily carried on when the 

 children have some part in it under the leadership of efficient Audubon 

 members. 



Another practical thing which bird-students can do, and in our Audubon 

 Societies there are many such ones, is to personally assist teachers in active 

 field-work with the scholars. The success of this plan has already been dem- 

 onstrated in the District of Columbia. Many teachers feel discouraged, 

 naturally, when confronted with the task of conducting large classes into the 

 field. With the assistance of a sympathetic bird-lover, fifteen or even twenty 

 pupils might be taken out without difiiculty. Smaller groups are desirable 

 for bird-study but large classes can make observations profitably along other 

 lines of nature-study. Let cooperation and enthusiasm be our watchwords 

 for the coming year! — A. H. W. 



FOR TEACHERS AND PUPILS 



Exercise V. The Birds' Map of America 



Correlated Studies: Spelling, Geography and Grammar 



If you have followed out carefully the summer and winter homes of the 

 birds which have been briefly described in Exercises III and IV, you will hardly 

 have failed to notice that quite different kinds of birds find congenial feeding 

 and nesting areas in about the same places. This fact is more striking when 

 one discovers that species belonging to the same family frequently differ more 

 with respect to their distribution than species belonging to widely separated 

 families. Of the Flycatchers that visit North America, for instance, the 

 Acadian or Green-crested Flycatcher is seldom found north of Long Island, 

 southern Ontario, Michigan and central Iowa, and no further west than eastern 

 Nebraska and Texas; while the Olive-sided Flycatcher ranges as far as Cape 

 Breton Island, central Quebec, southern Keewatin and Mackenzie, even into 

 central Alaska, as well as from Michigan eastward, and also, in the west, to 

 southern California, Arizona and western Texas. 



The Kingbird, which you will remember belongs to the Flycatcher family, 

 occupies in summer much more nearly the same area as the Red-eyed Vireo 

 and Cowbird than as the Acadian Flycatcher. Or, to take other examples, 

 the Blackpoll and Yellow-throated Warblers seek summer homes quite remote 

 from each other as compared with those of the Blackpoll Warbler and Barn 

 Swallow, or of the Yellow-throated Warbler and Summer Tanager. 



The distribution of birds, as well as of all animals and plants, is a great 

 puzzle at best; still, by looking about us, we may learn some things that will 



