202 Bird - Lore 



the lower classes an oral review is made. She has lectured on Crustacea, 

 starfishes, sea urchins, sponges and corals." 



The birds and insects are in great demand, as the study of them is re- 

 quired in several grades. There are forty collections of the former, con- 

 sisting of five birds each and representing twenty species of our more 

 common birds. 



The entire expense of providing the collections and of delivering them 

 at the schools, as well as that of transferring them from one school to 

 another, is borne by the Museum. 



Use of the collections in the vacation schools. — The usefulness of our cir- 

 culating collections is shown by the demand for them in the vacation 

 schools during the summer. In the latter part of July requests were 

 received from a number of the nature-study teachers in the vacation 

 schools, asking if we could loan them material for their work. Thirty-three 

 schools were supplied with collections of birds, and ten schools with col- 

 lections of insects. The collections of birds, in the four weeks which they 

 were retained at the schools, were studied by 15,224 children; the collec- 

 tions of insects by 7,000 children, making a total of 22,224. Thus more 

 than two -thirds of the vacation schools in the city were using our 

 collections. 



The total number of children that studied the collections from De- 

 cember I, 1903, to September i, 1904, was 190,197. 



Bird-Lore's Fifth Christmas Bird Census 



THE plan of reporting one's observations afield on Christmas Day 

 has met with such cordial and practical endorsement by bird students 

 throughout the country that Bird-Lore's Christmas Bird Census 

 may now be considered a fixed event, which increases in interest as the 

 accumulating records give additional material for comparison. 



One of Bird-Lore's readers, Mr. Harold E. Porter, has very kindly 

 compiled the appended summary of the data contained in the four preceding 

 censuses. Reference to the February, 1901, 1902, 1903, or 1904, num- 

 ber of Bird -Lore will acquaint one with the nature of the report of the 

 day's hunt which we desire; but to those to whom none of these issues is 

 available we may explain that such reports should be headed by a brief state- 

 ment of the character of the weather, whether clear, cloudy, rainy, etc., 

 whether the ground is bare or snow-covered, the direction and force of the 

 wind, the temperature at the time of starting, the hour of starting and of 

 returning. Then should be given, in the order of the A. C). U. 'Check- 



