88 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
and Blue Jays in the trees near our school 
house and also the little Brown Creeper 
winding up the tree-trunks in search of 
food. 
Besides the individual record which 1 
each child keeps, we keep, what we call 
“A Life Chart of the Birds.” This gives 
the date of the arrival and departure of 
the bird, when the bird begins to nest ? 
number of broods raised, number of days 
before the young birds hatch, and the 
length of time they remain in the nest, 
also the location, height and material of 
the nest; and number and color of the 
eggs. The children are interested in this 
work and each records his own obser¬ 
vations. * ■' 
In connection with our bird-study we 
organize a society and elect a president 
vice-president and secretary. This so¬ 
ciety meets every two weeks on Friday 
afternoon. The members tell interesting 
facts they have observed during the inter¬ 
val between meetings, and then a short 
program is given. 
Teachers who have never tried this 
method would find it an excellent way of 
interesting the pupils in bird,.study. , 
Sincerelv vours, 
Nellie Bushnell. 
Bowen School, Bowen, Ill. 
Dear Wayside: 
•/ 
I read Miss Drummond’s request that 
we teachers send a report of our bird- 
work. As I am a member of the Audu¬ 
bon Societv I will tell vou what we have 
been doing. 
I began in January the study of birds 
and why we should protect them, then I 
used stories of foreign birds to get the 
children interested, then I began on our 
home birds. We watched for the Robin 
and a boy saw one February fifteenth- 
I read U 0ur Birds and their Nestlings” 
by Margaret Conslon Walker. It is 
excellent and the children enjoyed it. 
Then I would take the topic of one bird 
and let the children tell what they learned 
* 
from the storv. I took their own sen- 
tenees and reproduced them on the type¬ 
writer in story form and used them for 
reading lessons. 
After the story hour they painted birds 
and wrote a story of birds as sample of 
writing. We tie theee together with 
ribbon, using mounted leaves of paper 
cutting, and make a booklet of over 
twelve leaves, to be given to mothers on 
Bird Day. The Friday proceeding Bird 
Day we send out our program, written on 
paper cut in the shape of a bird. 
Hoping I shall hear about the reports 
of other teachers, I remain, 
Yours truly, 
Jessie Robertson. 
A Correction . 
In rav letter, published in April, there 
was a mistake I am sure. The brownish 
birds which sang and rose, trilling de¬ 
liriously in the air, were Prairie Horned 
Larks, and not Song Sparrows, as I wrote. 
I am told that our Lark resembles its 
European cousin, the Skylark, in singing 
as it mounts higher and higher. Asa 
rule, however, the Larks in our field sing 
from a mound of earth. 
•Yours truly, 
Rachel P. Crouch. 
, Arbor and Bird Day. 
May 10th has been appointed by the 
Governor for the observation of Arbor 
and Bird Day by all the state and I hope 
that our children will plant trees or vines 
or even flowers that day about their 
school houses so as to make them more 
beautiful and to attract the birds, and I 
also hope they will write and tell the 
Wavside about it. 
