CHAPTER XII 



TEACHING BIRD STUDY 



A LITTLE after six o'clock one July morning 

 on the campus of the University of Tennes- 

 see, I stood near the centre of a semi-circle 

 of twenty-five school teachers whose expressions in- 

 dicated a high state of excitement, and whose fifty 

 eyes were riveted on a scene of slaughter but a few 

 feet from them. For five minutes we had scarcely 

 moved. During this time the lives of thirty-two 

 specimens of animal life had been blotted out. The 

 perpetrator of this holocaust was a creature known to 

 scientists as Spi^ella socialis — called by ordinary 

 people Chipping Sparrow. Its victims were small 

 insects which but a moment before were disporting 

 themselves on the grass. 



Preparation of Teachers. — One teacher expressed 

 [239] 



