Circular No. 17. 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
BIRD BAY IN THE SCHOOLS. 
The observance of Arbor Day by the schools has been so successful that it has- 
been suggested that a Bird Day, to be devoted to instructing the children in the 
value of our native birds and the best means of protecting them, might with 
propriety be added to the school calendar. The idea of setting apart one day in 
the year for the planting of trees was first suggested nearly twenty-five years ago 
by the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, now Secretary of Agriculture. More than a mil¬ 
lion trees were planted on the first Arbor Day, and the importance of the day has 
gradually increased until it has come to be observed in nearly every State and 
Territory in the Union. One of the greatest benefits of Arbor Day is the senti¬ 
ment and interest aroused in the subject of trees and in the broader study of 
nature. It is believed that the observance of a Bird Day would appeal to our peo¬ 
ple—particularly our youth—even more strongly. 
HISTORY OP BIRD DAY. 
Bird Day is more than a suggestion. It has been already adopted in at least 
two cities with marked success, but as yet it is still an experiment. Apparently 
the idea originated with Prof. C. A. Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil 
City, Pa., who wrote to the Department of Agriculture in 1894 urging the estab¬ 
lishment of such a day, and stating that May 4 would be observed as Bird Day 
in Oil City. In reply, the Secretary of Agriculture sent the following letter: 
Washington, D. C., April 23, 1894. 
Mr. C. A. Babcock, 
Superintendent of Schools, Oil City, Pa. 
Dear Sir : Your proposition to establish a “ Bird Day ” on the same general 
plan as “Arbor Day ” has my cordial approval. 
Such a movement can hardly fail to promote the development of a healthy 
public sentiment toward our native birds, favoring their preservation and increase. 
If directed toward this end, and not to the encouragement of the importation of 
foreign species, it is sure to meet the approval of the American people. 
It is a melancholy fact that among the enemies of our birds two of the most 
destructive and relentless are our women and our boys. The love of feather 
ornamentation so heartlessly persisted in by thousands of women, and the mania 
j for collecting eggs and killing birds so deeply rooted in our boys, are legacies of 
barbarism inherited from our savage ancestry. The number of beautiful and 
useful birds annually slaughtered for bonnet trimmings runs up into the hundreds 
of thousands and threatens, if it has not already accomplished, the extermination 
of some of the rai'er species. The insidious egg-hunting and pea-shooting pro¬ 
clivities of the small boy are hardly less widespread and destructive. It matters 
little which of the two agencies is the more fatal since neither is productive of any 
good. One looks to the gratification of a shallow vanity, the other to the gratifica¬ 
tion of a cruel instinct and an expenditure of boyish energy that might be profit¬ 
ably diverted into other channels. The evil is one against which legislation can 
be only palliative and of local efficiency. Public sentiment, on the other hand, if 
properly fostered in the schools, would gain force with the growth and develop¬ 
ment of our boys and girls and would become a hundredfold more potent than any 
law enacted by the State or Congress. I believe such a sentiment can be de- 
i veloped, so strong and so universal, that a respectable woman will be ashamed to 
! be seen with the wing of a wild bird on her bonnet, and an honest boy will be 
ashamed to own that he ever robbed a nest or wantonly took the life of a bird. 
