i6 
cedar birds and phoebes are the only birds on our food chart which are 
known to destroy the elm beetle, and it is quite possible that they have 
rendered this service, at least in Worcester, in their own quiet way. If 
this be so, it is certainly better than steam spray pumps and large 
appropriations of money could have done and the people should know 
and value their benefactors accordingly. But there were no end of 
other insects found and tested and the teacher, Miss Goddard, reported 
that the pupils “seem to think it great fun and the scheme seems to 
be working much better than I thought possible, when you suggested 
it. The little cedar bird seems well and happy and his appetite for 
flies seems to have returned again. He refused them for a day or two 
after his arrival. He looks so wise, we call him the professor.” 
After “teaching” thus in the high school the bird was sent the 
rounds of the kindergartens. Here he was often given the freedom of 
the room, flitting from child to child and feeding from their hands. The 
children took delight in bringing food and made little excursions to 
hunt berries, “so the bird could have spme dinner.” Miss Rood, the 
teacher of one of the kindergartens, has kindly noted down for me the 
children’s sayings and points of general interest. “ One little girl was 
so afraid that she would cry if the bird came near her ; but she .soon be¬ 
came so fond of him that her first question in the morning was whether 
he might not be let out of his cage. A very little girl said: ‘ He flies 
around us .so as to know us.’ A little boy said : ‘ He likes us ’cause we 
like him.’ He pecked at our hair and the children let him, saying: 
‘He must have some hair to build his house with.’ After he left us 
the children asked every day for a week for him. When I said, per¬ 
haps we could take him again, they asked me : ‘ Will you ask the man 
to-day. Ask him, please , may we take him?’ ‘Ask him, can we 
keep him a long time ; for he loves us?’ ” 
Thousands of young birds every year leave their nests a day or 
two before their wings are quite strong and fall an easy prey to cats. 
I wish every child might be taught to keep a sharp lookout for such 
unfortunates and whenever found, protect them for a few days, until 
able to fly. They may be simply placed in a cage near the nest and 
often the old birds will continue to feed them. If not, they should be 
fed and watered regularly about every hour during daylight until they 
become able to help themselves. As to retaining them in captivity 
longer than necessary for their own safety, no better rule can be fol- 
