540 
A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
A WORD TO THE TEACHER 
The following pages have been arranged especially for the use of 
teachers in rural districts where wood, meadow, and orchard often 
surround the schoolhouse itself and the daily walk to and from school 
is through bushy lanes and along tree-bordered highways. Every pos- 
sible chance for seeing the birds and “ wanting to know ” them lies 
close at hand, but for this very reason, the public library wherein lie 
the books that would answer the constantly arising questions may be 
many miles away, and it is as yet impossible to supply either bird charts 
or traveling libraries in sufficient numbers to furnish each school with 
a set at the same time. 
It must not for a moment be thought that any attempt is made in this 
brief pamphlet to add to the information given in the many excellent and 
complete books now in circulation, but merely to give in a form that 
may be kept in the desk corner, for rainy days and odd moments, a few 
hints upon the migrations, winter feeding, and protection of some of 
our common birds, that may lead both teacher and pupil to more de- 
tailed study when opportunity offers. 
If by having this pamphlet to keep in the desk a teacher can help a 
group of children to name even a dozen birds, they will listen more 
eagerly to the many books in the libraries that tell fascinating stories 
of them. 
No set introduction to birds as a topic of school work, or rather 
recreation, will be found necessary. If the children do not, as is com- 
mon, ask questions about the birds of the neighborhood, the teacher 
should take the initiative by asking pupils who live in widely-separated 
locations about the birds found about their yards or farm buildings, 
using the Robin, known to everyone, as a standard of size. “ Larger or 
smaller than a Robin ” is about the only gauge that children can give 
until they have begun to both train the eye to see and the tongue to 
transmit the impression accurately. 
In fact the training of the eye to correct seeing is one of the great 
advantages of bird study to the average child, quite aside from the 
value of the information gained, for this accurate gauge by the eye will 
always be a benefit in whatever calling may be followed, adding alike 
to the pleasure and profit of life. 
When a strange child comes to school the first desire of his mates 
is to know his name and nationality, from whence he came, where he 
lives, whether he is merely a visitor or to be a permanent resident in 
the community. All this must be weighed and well considered before 
the newcomer is admitted to the friendship of his mates, and it may be 
that there will be some prejudices against him that the teacher must 
either remove by explanation or overcome by reason and example. 
It is very much the same with a bird. After fixing upon his name 
as an individual his identity should be still further established by find- 
ing to what family he belongs and then placing this family in one of 
