48 
B Y THE WA YS1DE 
attempts to tell many things about birds 
that should be known before one can 
fully appreciate the other exhibits. It 
starts with the earliest known birds, 
shows, by diagram, the great size of some 
ancient aves; the development of the egg 
is shown by a series of anatomical models 
and the different condition of birds at 
birth by mounted young of nidifugse and 
nidicoke. The evolution of the skeleton 
of the wing and the manner in which it 
supports the flight feathers, the entire 
skeleton and its relation to the entire 
bird, the pneumaticity of certain bones, 
the development of feathers, kinds ol 
feathers, their color patterns, pigmental 
and refraction colors, moults with their 
relations to age, sex and season, types of 
bills, feet, wings, tails all are shown by 
preparations, and the series will also 
treat of eggs and nidification. 
Other exhibits will soon be prepared 
to illustrate the beneficial effects of birds 
in destroying insect pests, noxious plants, 
etc, to accentuate their economic value 
which as yetis not generally fully appre¬ 
ciated. 
It may not be out of place to mention 
that the museum also does a great deal 
in loaning birds to the city schools when 
they are used for class room study. 
The idea back of all this is to furnish 
ample information to any one who comes 
to the museum with the desire to learn 
anything about birds and to impart some, 
pleasingly, but unconsciously, to anyone 
who may come with no such desire in 
mind. Henry L. Ward. 
Continued from page 43. 
growing collection at home, before turn¬ 
ing our reluctant steps toward town,— 
and dinner! 
A small showing, perhaps, yet some¬ 
thing; and after we were fed and properly 
clothed again, it was a satisfaction to 
have something to jot down in our field 
notes, and to plan for another excursion. 
R. M. 
Continued from page 44. 
allowing a close approach, and as it was 
a male in high plumage, it was unmis¬ 
takable. 
In 1907, after a very hot week in early 
March, we had an exceedingly cold and 
late spring. The first bird I heard sing in 
the White House grounds was a white 
throated sparrow on March 1st, a song- 
sparrow speedily followed. The white- 
throats stayed with us until the middle 
of May, overlapping the arrival of the 
indigo buntings; but during the last 
week in April and first wee-kiln May 
their singing was drowned by the music 
of the purple finches, which I never be¬ 
fore saw in such numbers around the 
White House. When we sat by the 
south fountain, under an apple tree then 
blossoming, sometimes three or four 
purple finches would be singing in the 
fragaant bloom overhead. In June a pair 
of wood thrushes and a pair of black-and- 
white creepers made their homes in the 
White House grounds, in addition to our 
ordinary home-makers, the flickers, red¬ 
heads, robins, cat-birds, song sparrows, 
chippies, summer crows. A handsome 
sapsucker spent a week with us. In this 
same year five night herons spent January 
and February in a swampy tract by the 
Potomac, half a mile or so from the 
White House—From “Small Country 
Neighbors” by Theodore Roosevelt in the 
October Scribner. 
