PART FOUR 

 CHAPTER XXXVIII 



BIRD STUDY 



Reasons for Bird Study. — There are several good reasons 

 why bird study should find a place in our public-school 

 programmes. 



The boys and girls should be taught to recognize the 

 value of birds from an economic standpoint. Few persons 

 who have not made a careful study of birds and their habits 

 have any adequate notion of what benefactors these little 

 creatures are to farmers, fruit growers, and gardeners. 



The forces of nature are so nicely balanced that we are 

 scarcely aware of their existence till something disturbs the 

 equilibrium and we feel the resulting disorder. Because 

 our crops are not destroyed every year by insect pests we 

 give little heed to the matter, and never realize that if it 

 were not for the birds that keep these pests in check many 

 of our cultivated fields, as well as our forests, would become 

 "Deserts without leaf or shade." 



According to Hornaday the fact is well established that 

 birds are less numerous in United States now than they 

 were a hundred years ago. 



One cause of the decrease is due to the changed con- 

 ditions brought about by the forward movement of civiliza- 

 tion. As the woods have been cleared, the prairies 

 broken up for cultivation, and the swamps drained, nesting 



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