186 Bird -Lore 



us to repeat the exercise for them. Our Superintendent also has taken several 

 of our best bird imitators with him, on several of his visits to neighboring 

 rural schools this month, to interest these schools in the Audubon Society. 



If any school would like to know more about our exercise which has stim- 

 ulated interest in this delightful subject, I should be pleased to tell them. — 

 Margaeet H. Wood. 



It should be said that the children taking part in the exercise described 

 above were only nine and ten years of age. The enthusiasm and care evidently 

 shown in the preparation of the class for the observance of a special day assured 

 success from the start. The spirit of cooperation is what our schools need in order 

 to overcome the monotony, neglect, or perfunctory performance of daily duties. 



A teacher in Central Falls, Rhode Island, conceived the clever idea of 

 taking classes out in squads during a part of the afternoon session, for two weeks 

 or more, during April, while the eggs of the brown-tail moth were hatching. 



These pupils worked, under an expert leader from the State Agricultural 

 College, in the most practical and thorough way. It need scarcely be added 

 that no book-knowledge concerning the damage done by destructive insects 

 could equal such a series of outdoor lessons in actual hand-to-moth encounter. 

 Here again, cooperation is the underlying principle of an enlivening and 

 awakening form of nature-study. 



There is need of practical nature-study on every hand, and of trained 

 nature-teachers. The appeal for individual instruction of children in nature- 

 study has come to this Department twice recently, from mothers who desire 

 to engage a cultivated and competent student of nature to spend several hours 

 a day with their boys and girls outdoors. It seems unfortunate indeed that, 

 with all the book-knowledge our schools and colleges give, so few students are 

 trained in a practical way to go out in the open with the seeing eye and the 

 practical ear. The time has come when a constantly increasing demand for this 

 kind of instruction and training is to be found. Some of our bright young men 

 and women ought to take advantage of this opportunity to earn a compensa- 

 tion, or even a livelihood, by giving private individual or class talks and walks 

 along the line of nature-study. If a child can once get started to observe to 

 some purpose, there is no trouble about his interest in nature at the time or 

 for all his life long. Most children see very quickly, but cannot correlate their 

 observations, or concentrate their attention upon a single object for more than 

 a few moments. They need to become familiar with many objects to touch 

 nature at many points. Later on in their education, there comes the proper 

 time to specialize in a single subject. 



Will not more teachers undertake some such work outside the school- 

 room, with a view to helping their pupils gain a first-hand knowledge of the 

 world around them, and the part which all forms of life and matter play in 

 that world?— A. H. W. 



