24 THE AUDUBON BULLE TAR 
A Suggestion 
(A business man from DeKalb offers a very practical sug- 
gestion. We trust this will be an effective appeal to many of 
our readers and that reports of resultant experiences will be 
furnished the Bulletin. ) 
A few years ago I was a school teacher in the district school | 
and from that experience, I would like to offer a suggestion. 
The future of our song birds lies to a great extent in the 
hands of the boys and girls of the farm and any plan that is 
aimed to protect them must start with creating a love for the 
birds in the hearts of the coming generation. The school is the 
logical place to teach this love for our feathered friends but the 
teacher is limited in time and often poorly equipped as to knowl- 
edge. 
My method when teaching was to give bird talks once in a 
while telling some facts concerning some common bird, and 
then asking the children to use their eyes and ears during the 
week. A few days later I would ask for any new information 
that had been picked up by the pupils about the bird subject. 
Beginning the first of the year, I would make an offer of a copy 
of Bird Guide to the one who kept the best record of birds seen. 
I did not say the most as that sometimes led to the habit of see- 
ing things that were not. 
The suggestion in brief would be like this. Any bird lover 
who feels that he or she is not doing all that should be done to 
protect the birds, let me appoint as a committee of one to do 
the following, filling in your own methods as to details: 
First: Find some country school that has not had the benefit 
of a bird enthusiast as a teacher. (The County Superintendent 
of Schools in any county will gladly give you such information 
for the asking.) 
Second: Form a cooperation with the teacher. If you can 
not do this personally, the mails will aid you. 
Third: Plan your own form of campaign to win some of the 
boys and girls to a new love for the birds. 
Suppose that you use an hour a week for this purpose. I 
will venture to say that you will find more pleasure for the time 
and money spent than for any equal amounts that you have spent 
in some time. Individuality is the thing that makes one person 
so much more valuable than another. In making the above out- 
line I left plenty of room for each one’s individuality; its value 
and success depend on the effort, and the raw material in the 
shape of the boys and girls that receive it. 
The big idea as I see it at present is to awaken the interest 
of the children of the rural districts to the value of birds and 
the necessity for their protection. Your work may not show re- 
sults at first but flowers do not grow until the seed is sown. 
H. A. MAXWELL. 
