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REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 63 
give them a first-hand acquaintance with common birds on the campus. 
The interest shown by the students is abundant evidence that these 
lectures are very much worth while and that these students will, as a 
result, teach and preach wild life as well as forest conservation. Both 
in 1917 and 1918 the lectures to prospective teachers in a course in 
advanced vertebrate zoology in the University of California have been 
continued. In 1917 several lectures were also given in a zoology course 
based largely on the bird and animal life of the bay region. A public 
lecture was given at both the University of California and Leland 
Stanford Junior University. 
We believe that no more fundamental work can be done by this bureau 
than that to be seen in the instruction of university students. Unless 
it be the teacher, no one is in a better position to stimulate interest in 
fish and game conservation than the man or woman leaving the state 
university. Sufficient knowledge of game and game conditions makes 
of them missionaries for the conservation cause. 
The vacation camps and mountain resorts of the state afford an oppor- 
tunity for educational work which has been largely neglected. The 
summer vacationist, finding himself in close touch with nature, is in a 
particularly susceptible mood so far as information on wild life is con- 
cerned. <A beginning was made in this fertile field when three lectures 
were given at camps in the Yosemite Valley during the season 1918. 
The bureau has continued to stimulate interest in nature study and 
in field trips. A reorganization of our methods of teaching nature 
study in the schools would result in added interest and a greater 
stimulation of the desire for better conservation. Descriptions and 
pictures in books, although helpful, are not to be compared with the 
first hand knowledge obtained by field excursions. Some things must 
be taught indoors, but certainly our knowledge of wild life should come 
from a first-hand acquaintance whenever that is possible. Fortunately, 
city parks offer opportunities to city children which should not be 
neglected. 
It has been our aim to furnish helpful material both in literature 
and specimens to all teachers making application. Two collections of 
bird’s eggs, properly labeled, made up from discarded collections, have 
been furnished to the San Francisco Normal School and the Fresno 
Normal School. A small collection of bird’s skins which we have 
accumulated has been loaned out several different times. We are con- 
vineed that a good working collection of study skins of common birds 
would be found very useful by the high schools in this state. This ecol- 
lection could be kept on the move with no expense to the commission. 
