BY THE WAYSIDE 
83 
bon buttons are worn with great pride 
and help keep up the enthusiasm. 
One day we had a reception in room 
1 to which friends of the pupils were 
invited. One young lady told me that 
her sister did not want her to come. On 
inquiring why, I learned that it was be¬ 
cause she had a bird on her hat, and her 
younger sister had told her that she did 
not think Miss Butts would be glad to see 
her. “But,” she explained, “I bought it 
before I knew.” 
A. Ester Butts, 
Principal of the Chase School, Chicago. 
Little York, Illinois, April 24, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
You wanted to know about the bird 
work we have done in our school this 
winter. We were fortunate in having 
ten oak trees, five maple and two hickory 
trees in our yard. One large hickory 
tree was about twelve feet from a window. 
In October we saw small Woodpeckers 
on the trees. As the weather grew 
colder there seemed very little for them 
to eat. We nailed a meat bone to the 
hickory tree one day in November. 3 he 
downy woodpecker and the chickadees 
came the next day. In a week we saw 
daily two downy woodpeckers, a hairy 
and a red-bellied woodpecker, four chick¬ 
adees and two nuthatches eat bread and 
meat from our tree. The children seemed 
to think the birds were their especial 
friends, would move carefully when put¬ 
ting bread in the tin pan nailed to a tree 
and took great delight on stormy days in 
seeing the birds eat heartily at their 
lunch. Meat bones were nailed up on 
| trees in the home yards, and boxes for 
crumbs. Lately boxes and cans for 
nests have been nailed to trees and posts 
in suitable places. 
As a result of Bird Study, the children 
show a decided gain in composition 
work. In the Fall it was difficult for 
them to write an interesting account of 
any man in history or in reading work, 
or of any bird or incident. Even a forty- 
word effort was hard to write. Now 
they can write 100 or 150 words in de¬ 
scribing the bluebird or meadow lark or 
any favorite bird. Now it is not drudg¬ 
ery but pleasure to write about a bird or 
hero. They gained ease and strength in 
expressing what they saw and knew, and 
the added strength was seen in geography 
history and reading work. Our last 
Fifth grade written lesson on California 
was equal to the work of many pupils in 
the Seventh grade. The spelling of the 
children is much improved. They can 
learn easily and remember what they 
really “down in their hearts’ want to 
know. They honestly want to know 
how to spell “hermit thrush” in order 
that the name may be added to their 
growing bird list. Do you think such 
a child has to be told twice how to spell 
hermit thrush or myrtle warbler? 
Bird study is an aid in observation 
work. Children have keen eyes to see 
new objects. Who saw the hermit thrush 
and the Virginia rail first? The younger 
children. They notice the color of eyes, 
bill and feathers, length and habits of 
new birds. They gladly use the diction¬ 
ary, encyclopedia and reference book to 
decide some question of food or habitat. 
In connection with their English work 
the children have learned Robert of Lin¬ 
coln, The Cross Bill and portions of The 
Birds of Killingworth. You ought to 
see their eyes when they sing robin red- 
Continued on page 87. 
