BIRD STUDY 83 



not make a summer, still it is a sign of the times. The fall 

 migration of the birds is a warning that winter is nigh. A 

 touch of brightness is added to the winter landscape by the 

 bluejays, snowbirds, and chicadees that remain. 



Naturally, the open coimtry and the semi-rural outskirts 

 of our cities and villages are the places where birds are found 

 in greatest abundance. Yet in the heart of New York City, 

 in Central Park, Mr. Chapman found 130 species of wild 

 birds. Many stragglers may be seen in our shade trees, on 

 our streets, on the lawns, and in the backyards of our cities. 

 Even in a crowded city street the house sparrow, the dove, 

 and the martin may be seen. 



People would derive more pleasure from the birds if they 

 knew their names and something about their habits. Says 

 Neltje Blanchan, the lover and writer of birds: "Not to 

 have as much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that 

 nest in our gardens, or under the very eaves of our houses; 

 that haunt our wood-piles; keep our fruit trees free from 

 slugs; waken us with their song, and enliven our walks 

 along the roadside and through the woods, seems to be, at 

 least, a breach of etiquette toward some of our most kindly 

 disposed neighbors."^ 



One result of our modern scientific studies in the high 

 schools and colleges was till very recently to take the students 

 away from the real, living nature, and to give abstract ideas 

 of physiology, morphology, etc., instead. A laboratory 

 course in botany with the microscope may, after all, not make 

 the student familiar with the flowers and trees in the fields 

 and woods. Many a student who has had such a course 

 cannot name and give the chief characteristics of the wayside 



1 "Bird Neighbors." 



