H 
eat it; to find how well they like it. And when a child finds that any 
bird will eat something which it is not shown to eat in the chart, he may 
have discovered something which no one else in the world knows. 1 If 
it be some destructive insect, his observation may be very valuable, 
and if he tells everybody about it he may lead people to protect the 
bird more carefully,*and so help to make the world better} 
As years go by and great numbers of our birds become so tame 
that they will come to us and eat from our hands and allow us to 
observe them as they hunt their natural foods and feed their young, 
we may be able to really discover more in this important field, in possi¬ 
bly the next ten years, than man has learned in the 10,000 years pre¬ 
ceding. The method of studying living birds in the schoolroom can 
be made to greatly assist in this work. 
BIRD STUDY IN THE SCHOOLROOM. 
Natural history is taugh-t in infant schools by pictures stuck up 
against walls, and such like mummery. A moment’s notice of a red¬ 
breast pecking at a winter’s hearth is worth it all.— Wm. Wordsworth , 
letter to J. H. Rose. 
Wordsworth would have had 
even less patience with the stuffed 
caricatures of bird life that we now 
have in the schools, and he possibly 
would not have had such contempt 
for our modern pictures of birds, 
photographs from life, and repro¬ 
ductions in color. Of the two I 
certainly feel that the picture in 
most respects is preferable; and this 
opinion has been strengthened by 
the testimony of a number of teach¬ 
ers who say that they do not think 
the effect of stuffy deadness on the 
children is wholesome, and that in some cases, even little children 
1 If any such observations are made, it is specially requested that they be 
sent in to Miss Helen A. Ball, Worcester, Mass., No. 43 Laurel Street. It is 
hoped to greatly improve aud enlarge the food chart from year to year, as we 
learn more and more about the food of birds, and it is safe to say that a new 
copy will be sent to all who contribute information. In this way we may also 
gather information as to the food of a species in different parts of the country 
as it has never been done. 
Bird Houses. 
Designed and made, at suggestion of Prin¬ 
cipal J. Chauncy Hyford, by ninth grade 
manual training pupils, Winslow Street 
School, Worcester, Mass. The bird house 
is now adopted as one of the regular 
models in the ninth grade manual training 
course throughout the city. 
