IS THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



alone I can sometimes outstrip them. Yet I always share the best trips with 

 some of the pupils so that frequently the group list outnumbers mine. 



Pupils of the various- grades take real pride in joining the Junior 

 Audubon League. I can never express to Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson the far 

 reaching results in bird protection that come through this channel. The 

 button, the colored and uncolored plates, and the pamphlets make a special 

 appeal to each child. Best of all is the promise they make to protect the 

 birds and hold a meeting once a month. In the lower grades these are very 

 simple programs. The motive with the little people is of course aesthetic 

 while with the Grammer Grades it is economic. The following topics I 

 have found of special interest with older pupils : Tree Trunk Patrol, Seed 

 Eaters, Migration, Bird Sanctuaries, Value of Hawks and Owls, Work of 

 Warblers and Vireos, Nests and Nesting, Food, of Nestlings, Bird Houses, 

 Life of Audubon, etc. Various bulletins from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture are invaluable for these topics. Weed and Dearborn's "Birds and 

 Their Relation to Man" is frequently consulted. Bayne's "Wild Bird 

 Guests" we once used as a text with real profit. Burgess Bird Book is of 

 special interest to younger pupils now. I find pupils quoting from. Mrs. 

 Bailey's "Birds of Tree Top and Meadow." I saw a class using Mr. 

 Pearson's book for Juniors with profit last spring. Mr. Frank Chapman's 

 recent books "Our Winter Birds" and "Travels of Birds" are both attrac- 

 tive and helpful in this work. 



Whenever a dead bird is brought in we make it a special object of 

 study. The characteristics of different orders and families are thus learned. 

 Great profit has come from this source. In February or early March the 

 Audubon Bird Slides make a delightful diversion to the work. While a 

 well written lecture accompanies the 90 carefully selected slides in each set. 

 I always prefer to explain the pictures as they appear on the screen. The 

 society has three sets of these slides, so a different one may be obtained each 

 spring. 



I encourage pupils to visit the Academy of Science to enjoy the habitat' 

 studies. These are not so pretentious as those in the Natural History 

 Museum in New York but they are most accurately arranged. Those who 

 know the original haunts of Illinois birds are proud of these reproductions. 

 The Bird House at Lincoln Park is a profitable place for study as also the 

 exhibit of Illinois birds at Field Museum, while the lagoons and lake at 

 Lincoln and Jackson Parks abound in rare individuals in migration. Just 

 last week a Fourth Grade boy told his class of the pleasure he had recently 

 in seeing the bird plates of Audubon at the Crear Library in Chicago. 



Pupils are urged to use Reed's Bird Guide and field glasses in field 

 work. When they have learned the method of field study their real joy 

 begins. Then large groups can be taken out with profit. A swamp trip, a 

 wood trip and one all day outing, make a fine program for pupils who 

 have caught the spirit of individual study. Having first gotten acquainted 

 with the birds in the lower grades and later studying them from the light 

 of biological department at Washington, the pupils in the public schools 

 today should have a sane appreciation *of the harm or value of our bird 

 life. To protect the desirable and to eliminate harmful birds should be 

 the future program. 



Esther Craigmile. 



