138 METHODS OF ATTRACTING BIRDS 



providing for himself opportunities for making 

 studies of the life around him. This principle of 

 utilizing the child's activities is one that is well 

 understood and applied in the kindergarten, but 

 too little employed in later years. It will prove 

 a most effective instrument to be used with the 

 children when circumstances allow. Bird-study 

 is specially well adapted to make use of these 

 activities in building bird-houses for winter pro- 

 tection and spring nesting, and lunch-tables for 

 feeding the winter birds, and in providing drinking 

 fountains. The very fact that the child is doing 

 something for the birds is a means of developing 

 that helpful sympathy with nature which may 

 prove such an important factor in all his subse- 

 quent hfe. And, furthermore, an excellent op- 

 portunity is offered for training the perceptive 

 powers of children by watching the birds that 

 may come in response to the attractions offered. 

 These observations will be carried on with much 

 greater ardor and thoroughness because the child 

 has himself helped to furnish the conditions 

 which make his observations possible. 



Building Nesting-houses 

 Manual Training. — The construction of 

 these houses and lunch-counters may be carried 

 on at the home, or it may naturally be correlated 



