98 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
bought for the child. The flowers bloom most beau- 
tifully where they grow, and birds are most beautiful 
and sing most sweetly when they perch on the free 
swaying branches. I know of more than one bird and 
egg collection that serve no other purposes except to 
be in safe cases and accumulate the dust of ages. 
Bird Day in the Schools. — Our teachers have so 
much experience in arranging all kinds of exercises 
that special directions for the observance of Bird Day 
seem not necessary. Songs, declamations, reports of 
observations, illustrated talks, and easy dramatic repre- 
sentations are in order. Reports about individual 
birds will always be much appreciated, and the younger 
the pupils are, the more anything with action in it will 
appeal to them. Bird magazines and educational 
papers furnish an abundance of material, and much 
excellent matter can be found in the works of our clas- 
sical poets and writers. Nor is it necessary that all the 
exercises be about birds. From a pedagogical point of 
view, it would be better to observe a Nature Day than to 
limit ourselves strictly to trees and birds. Bird study, 
like every other good thing, can be overdone, so that 
the public and the children will become surfeited. 
A little Bird Day material is here offered, with the 
hope that it may prove useful in some schools and 
homes. It will probably be best to select from it, as 
to give all of it might unduly lengthen the programme. 
It is much better that the children should wish they 
could have had a little more than that they should be 
wearied by exercises that are too long. 
