54 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
placed, and work diligently at the paper cover¬ 
ing, until she succeeded in making a hole large 
enough to pull the fruit through, and some¬ 
times she perched on the chair by Olive to eat 
her mouthful, keeping up a soft mewing, very 
different from the shrill cry from the trees. 
By this time Minnie left to Charlie the re¬ 
sponsibility and care of the family, and con¬ 
structed another nest near the first one. The 
second brood was growing finely, when one 
morning no Charlie came in response to Olive's 
whistle. As the three birdies were also miss¬ 
ing Olive hoped he had gone to start them in 
life somewhere, and not fallen a victim to 
either a wandering cat or careless bov. For 
several days the little mother was taxed to the 
utmost to provide food for herself and nest¬ 
lings. One morning, however, Charlie's clear 
call sang out and on the elm tree was the 
missing one. Tired Minnie flew quickly to 
him, and for some time they perched side by 
side, fluttering their wings and rubbing their 
bills together and cooing softly. Was it after 
all a family quarrel and this the grand recon¬ 
ciliation? 
The dish of water Olive kept under the elm 
tree was at first shared by all the birds; but 
Charlie evidently decided it was a private bath 
for himself and family, constituted himself 
policeman and drove the others away. It was 
amusing whenever the cat birds indulged in a 
bath to see the circle of interested bird spec¬ 
tators gathered around, not one venturing in, 
while the only trace of selfishness shown by 
Charlie toward his little mate was one day 
when she was enjoying a fine spatter, he caught 
her by the tail, pulled her out and jumped in 
himself. Minnie seemed the more trustful of 
the two; as she was known to come to a dis¬ 
tant room and perch by the window, attracting 
attention by her chuck, chuck—or alarm call, 
then after the enemy, generally a cat—was 
driven away, returning quietly to her nest. 
They all disappeared in September, although 
Olive, who still continued her morning call, 
was pleased after siome davs to hear an an- 
swering mew in the distance, and have Charlie 
appear for one more breakfast and bath. To 
Olive the summer, besides being a happy one, 
has been an instructive one, for she has re¬ 
ceived from her pets lessons in patience and 
perseverance. Moreover, she has learned not 
only the habits of the cat birds, but of other 
birds attracted there bv the food and water. 
In fact she thinks birds much like people in 
many ways and with strong likes and dislikes. 
Mow she is studying about them in books and 
waiting for next summer, when she hopes to 
see again Charlie and Minnie and teach them 
to eat from her hand or perhaps even take 
them in her hand. 
Helen P. Haskell. 
Ornithology in the Schools.* 
BY WILSON TOUT. 
The solution of the bird protection problem 
can never be reached by courts, laws, or of¬ 
ficers. The small boy is one of the chief of¬ 
fenders, and those in authority seldom at¬ 
tempt to cover or even reach his thoughtless 
acts of destruction. If all boys could be shown 
the harmful results of killing birds or destroy¬ 
ing their nests, what an army for bird protec¬ 
tion there would be within a few years. If the 
girls were taught the folly of pandering to the 
demands of fashion when it calls for the sacri¬ 
fice of countless innocent victims, the game 
wardens now needed to protect our birds would 
have to seek some other vocation if they would 
still prosper. The school is the foundation of 
reform movements in other lines—why not in 
this? 
In a former paper I gave the why and 
where; in this one I shall attempt to give the 
how and when of bird study. 
The first objection offered to a proposal for 
having bird study in the schools is that the 
course is already crowded and no room remains 
for a new study. The objection would be ra¬ 
tional if it were proposed to introduce a new 
study. Birds cannot be studied from books 
and very few schools have access to mounted 
specimens. Saturday excursions, observations 
on the road to and from school, and in country 
schools, even at recess and during school hours, 
will furnish subjects for conversation lessons 
and also much needed material for language 
and composition work. One school I know of 
organized itself into a club for the study of 
birds. The children met at four o’clock twice 
a week and compared notes for about twenty 
minutes. This did not detract from school 
work, but on the other hand increased the in¬ 
terest in the regular studies. 
Bird study should be begun as soon as the 
child begins to attend school. The seeming in- 
* Leaflet No. 2, Nat. Com. of Audubon Societies. 
