24 
B Y THE WA YSIDE 
graceful little leave-- These are the plant 
part. 
You will wonder that I call the little ob¬ 
long ball that you see, graceful leaves, but 
it is not the leaves of which 1 speak. They 
are inside, pressed tight between the coty¬ 
ledons or seed leaves. 
But what are the seed leaves ? you ask. 
They are the young plant’s food. Now the 
cotyledons pushed up through the ground and 
out grows the plant! 
We had now been planted in a box and had 
grown about five and a half inches high. A 
little way from the ground, one on one side 
of the stalk, and the other on the other side, 
are two little brown shriveled-up things. 
These are the cotyledons with all the food 
gone out of them. After a while these drop 
off and two little scars show where they 
have been. 
My leaves, (they are now two large ones 
at my top) are my lungs, yes, they are the 
same little yellow things you saw between 
the cotyledons. 
I suppose that I shall soon grow up and 
have babies such as I was when I was in 
the tin box. If I do, whether they are rear¬ 
ed between blotters or elsewhere, may their 
lives be as happy as my life has so far been. 
Angeline Smith Freeman. 
This little story was written for a language 
exercise after nature study lessons on the 
bean. R. M. 
THE STUDY OF BIRDS. 
The Illinois Audubon Society has issued an 
excellent outline for bird study for the use of 
schols. The Wayside is indebted to Miss 
Drummond, the state secretary, and Mrs. Alice 
Hall Walter, the author, for permission to 
print this. The outline for fall is here given 
and the rest will follow in season. 
Indoor Work. 
1. Fifteen-minute talks once a week on Mi¬ 
gration and Bird Families. 
September—A Fall Journey. Sight and 
Flight. Distance and Danger. Food and th’e 
Farmer. These talks should embrace a gener¬ 
al description of migration, the mortality 
among birds on their migratory passage and 
an introduction to the subject of their food 
and economic value. 
October—Explain the significence of the 
terms Bird Families and Order Passeres. De¬ 
scribe the general family characteristics of: 
Thrushes; Kinglets and Gnatcatchers; Nut- 
hatchers and Titmice; Creepers, Wrens and 
Thrashers; Wagtails. \ 
November—Warblers; \ ireos; Shrikes; 
Waxwings; Swallows; Tanagers. 
December—Sparrows and Finches; Black¬ 
birds and Orioles; Crows and Jays; Larks; 
Flycatchers. Add any particular points of in¬ 
terest about individual species in these fam- 
ities. 
2. Ask each pupil to bring in weekly one 
fact about the subject under discussion. De¬ 
vote 15 minutes to a verbal report of same. 
3. L T se charts and colored pictures. Trace 
on map the winter home of migrants. 
4. Begin a school record of the bird popu¬ 
lation in your vicinity, using the headings 
Permanent Residents, Fall and Spring Mi¬ 
grants, Winter Visitors, Summer Residents. 
o' 
5. Subscribe for The W ayside and Bird- 
Lore. 
Outdoor Work. 
1. Begin to observe birds; remember where 
you see them; notice their size. 
2. Where do you see the most birds? in the 
air? in the water? on the ground? on trees or 
about, bushes ? 
3. Identify the English Sparrow, Blue Jay, 
Robin, Flicker, Bronzed Grackle, Barn Swal¬ 
low, Brown Creeper. 
4. Try comparing the size of these birds. 
Remember that the Robin is 10 inches long 
and the English Sparrow 6 inches long. 
5. Do vou see birds in flocks? Do you see 
< 
the same birds every day throughout the fall? 
0. Try to learn which birds remain all the 
fall. 
7. Observe what the birds eat. Can you 
name any of the trees or shrubs on or about 
which you have seen birds feeding? What 
seeds do birds eat? 
8. Report on these questions at school. 
Which birds under heading 3 are useful and 
need protection. 
Birds found only in America: Scarlet Tan- 
ager. Humming-birds, Whippoorwill, Baltimore 
Oriole, Cardinal Bird, Snowy Egert. 
Letters are acknowledged from Mae McIn¬ 
tyre, Portage; Robert Allison, Jennie Smith, 
Hallie Allison, Ruth Brotzman, all of Durand; 
Iva McCullough, Hammond. 
