318 Bird -Lore 



class for blind children meets. At first glance, the group of twenty or thirty 

 sightless boys and girls seems sadly disheartening; but, once their sensitive 

 fingers set to work on the birds and animals placed within their reach, the 

 air is surcharged with expectancy, each face becomes eager, a smile betokens 

 discovery, everywhere contentment and joy brighten the features, the long, 

 narrow study-table becomes a world of new ideas, and even the most casual 

 onlooker cannot help becoming inspired and quickened. 



Do not deprive this generation, or any other, of the invaluable privilege 

 of becoming acquainted with nature, if possible at first-hand, but, in any case, 

 of knowing something of the real world. — A. H. W. 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 



For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XI: Correlated Studies, Reading, Arithmetic and Botany 



WHAT THE BIRDS DO IN AUTUMN 



The season of nesting is over, and the cozy cradles of the birds are left 

 empty, to toss about in the fall winds or to be beaten and torn by storms. 

 Only a few, those which are placed in sheltered nooks or are built most securely, 

 will last throughout the winter. The firmly woven nest of the Baltimore Oriole 

 may sway back and forth from some bare limb throughout the winter, but the 

 dainty, shapely cradles of the Vireos soon become weather-beaten and shrunken, 

 if not entirely dislodged from their supports, and even the solid, bulky nests of 

 the Robins and Thrushes early have a loose, water-soaked or broken appear- 

 ance. The Phcebe and Barn Swallow which so often build in protected places, 

 on a beam or shelf under cover, will have no difficulty next spring in locating 

 the identical site where they reared their young this season, but many other 

 birds will find no trace of their nesting-site — at least no trace apparent to 

 human eyes — upon their return. 



Nevertheless, you need not be surprised to find your bird-neighbors gath- 

 ering nesting-material and constructing their cradles in nearly, if not the same 

 places where you found them this year, provided the sites they prefer have 

 not been changed or altogether done away with. It will be a pleasant 

 and instructive task to collect some of the old nests now, for study in the school- 

 room or at home; but perhaps it will be better not to disturb the nest of the 

 Phcebe, since this species seems to build over the old cradle in many instances 

 instead of making a new one from the start. Possibly you can guess the reason 

 why, when you compare such a nest with that of a Vireo or Sparrow. 



At no season of the year do the movements of birds become more myste- 

 rious and hard to follow than in the autumn, or, to be more exact, in the month 



