118 ORNITHOLOGY IN OUR COMMON SCHOOLS. 
Still there remains much to be done. ‘Thousands of school- 
children, especially those living in our largest cities, do not 
know the Robin from other Thrushes. The screech of that 
filthy scavenger, the House Sparrow, and the carol of the 
Wood Thrush, are all the same to them. In consequence 
of this ignorance, the boy turned loose from school commits 
indiscriminate slaughter. A few wholesome lessons on 
bird-life would result not only in the protection of song- 
birds, but in the development of nobler and more intelligent 
young men. This instruction should be given by every 
teacher in our common schools: at first in popular language 
readily understood by children in the primary grades, but 
in the more advanced grades some of the technicalities 
should be introduced. 
Allow me here to name some of the phases of the subject 
most worthy of the attention of our teachers. 
1. The value of the music of our song-birds, What joy, 
romance and beauty is brought into our lives on the wings 
of bird-songs ! 
2. Their value as insect-destroyers. Some naturalists 
contend that were it not for birds—especially song-birds— 
our orchards and fields would become almost entirely 
unproductive. 
3. Their forms, colors, motions, habits, and migrations— 
in a word, their life-histories. 
4. Their place in poetry, romance, and folk-lore; legends 
of the Stork, Dove, Phoenix, and many other birds, in the 
traditions of ancient and modern nations ; the origin and 
meaning of these legends. 
5. The chief enemies of song-birds, namely: Crows, Jays, 
Hawks, Owls, Shrikes, House Sparrows, rats, snakes, 
weasels, air-guns, shot-guns, egg-collectors, specimen-hunters, 
(not the college professor who obtains a special license to 
gather eggs and collect birds), stupid pot-hunters, and last 
but not least women with barbarous tastes who wear birds 
on their hats. 
