THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 

 gage the interest of the child in subjects that are both 

 entertaining and beneficial. Simple lessons in nature 

 study are an excellent method by which to accomplish 

 this end, and a study of out-of-door life should begin 

 with birds. 



Bird Study Class. — The systematic instruction of 

 school children in bird study on a careful scientific 

 basis in a large way really had its origin in May. 

 1910, when Mrs. Russell Sage sent to the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies a cheque for five 

 thousand five hundred dollars with which to in- 

 augurate a plan of bird study in the Southern 

 schools that the writer had outlined to her. She 

 desired that a special effort should be made to 

 arouse interest in the protection of the Robin, 

 which in the Southern States was at that time al- 

 most universally regarded as a game bird whose 

 natural destiny was considered to be a potpie. Bird 

 study, it is true, was at that time taught in many 

 city schools, but usually the subject was given slight 

 space in the curriculum, and for the children and 

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