BY THE WAYSIDE. 
7 
work out in their own minds the adaptation 
of structure to function. For in all our na¬ 
ture study our chief privilege is to lead the 
children to see and to see why. The import¬ 
ance of a bit of truth is greatly increased 
wnen we are able to see its relations to other 
bits of truth. 
HELPS TO THE STUDY OF BIRDS. 
Books about birds are very numerous, al¬ 
though there is none yet published which deals 
specifically with their economic relations. 
Every teacher who attempts to do anything 
with bird study for her pupils should have 
upon her desk some illustrated guide to our 
common birds. The one that is likely to be 
most useful is Chapman’s “Bird Life’,” with 
colored plates, published by D. Appleton & 
Co. at $2.00. School authorities should pro¬ 
vide one of these books for each desk where 
nature study is to be taught. Herrick’s “Home 
Life of Wild Birds” (Putnams, $2.50), will 
also be especially helpful in leading to the ob¬ 
servations of the nesting habits. 
THE LESSON IN IT ALL. 
The study thus outlined of the Mission of 
the Birds will have failed to accomplish its 
most important results if the pupils do not 
get from it a greater respect for the world of 
birds, a deeper interest in their welfare, and 
a larger sense of the unity of that world of liv¬ 
ing things of which man is the highest ex¬ 
ample. A discussion of the methods of encour- 
aging useful birds should follow as a natural 
consequence of the study,—and this should 
lead to the erection of bird houses, the planting 
of Russian mulberry or other trees to furnish 
food for the birds, and especially to checking 
the wanton destruction of bird life. 
“Heard the News?” 
A little bird sat on a telegraph wire, 
And said to his mates, “I declare, 
If wireless telegraphy comes into vogue 
We’ll all have to sit on the air.” 
— Selected. 
The King of Birds. 
In the garden in front of my window is 
a little house nearly covered by a Wistaria 
vine. It is old, weather worn, without win¬ 
dows, leans over to one side, and one end of 
its porch has broken away from its fastenings, 
while the one doorway is without a door. 
It is a shabby, queer-looking house, and at 
the first glance seems to be two-storied; but 
a second shows it has two roofs, with a space 
of a few inches left between them, in the 
manner that houses are sometimes built on 
the hot plains, to cause a current of air, that 
lessens in some measure the heat of the burn¬ 
ing sun. 
When this funny little house was new, it 
only had one roof; but we noticed that during 
a heated period its occupants were obliged to 
shove their babies out of doors to save them 
from being roasted, so we put on a second 
rocf which prevented further discomfort. In 
this same wee home has for many summers 
lived a large, wide-a-wake busy family, chat¬ 
tering, bubbling - over with cheery song—and 
sometimes scolding with noisy bluster all day 
long. With the cold days of autumn the whole 
household leaves for a warmer clime. The 
house that is always left open and full of fur¬ 
niture is occupied during the winter by a 
noisy English family; but when spring comes 
the other one returns from its southern tour, 
and after much forcible argument—sometimes 
the battle rages for two days—the stubborn 
English sparrows are driven away by the per¬ 
sistent little house wrens. It is said this spar¬ 
row is generally victorious in his disputes with 
other birds, excepting the red-headed wood¬ 
peckers. We have, however, watched this same 
conflict year after year, and it always ends 
by the sparrows flying away, leaving the wrens 
in undisputed possession. 
In some parts of England the wren is known 
as king of birds. Whether it is this tiny 
house wren who every spring will even tight to 
regain the loved home and lives so happily as 
our neighbor, a constant source of delight to us 
all, I do not know, but it is a member of the 
wren family. 
This pretty legend that is told in Dartmoor* 
may account for the title, for according to it, 
the birds wishing to elect a king, gathered to¬ 
gether and agreed that the bird who could 
fly the highest should be crowned king. One 
after another tried, until at last the eagle in 
*S. Baring Gould’s Book of Dartmoor. 
