176 NEW ZEALAND NATURE-STUDY BOOK 
Note.—Probably no class of animals will interest children 
more than that of birds. They are everywhere familiar objects, 
whilst the wonderful power of flight, the gracefulness and 
symmetry of form, the beautiful voices of the song birds, the 
bright plumage and wonderful habits of many, form a com- 
bination of characters which never fails to stimulate the 
imagination and awaken interest. 
In the great majority of cases there will be no difficulty in 
getting pupils to observe the habits of fowl. Most of those 
living in the country come from homes where fowl and ducks are 
kept, whilst those in town have not to go far in order to reach a 
poultry yard. 
The Hen should be studied from living and dead specimens— 
one of the latter should be plucked in order to show the feather 
tracts and the structure of the fore-limbs, as also to allow the 
bony framework to be felt through the skin. 
There is no actual need for a skeleton. The position of most 
of the bones can be made out through the skin, and a sufficient 
number of detached typical bones for examination purposes can 
always be seeured: ¢.g., backbone shewing fused vertebre, 
ploughshare bone, breast-bone, bones of the limbs, etc. The 
same remarks, it is needless to say, apply equally to the Duck. 
Whenever it is possible, a feature of these lessons should be 
outside observation. That is, pupils should be taken out to 
learn the habits of the birds by watching them amidst their 
natural surroundings. 
XIUT.—_INTRODUCED WILD BIRDS. 
The Song-thrush. This bird has found its way over 
the greater part of the colony, so that opportunities for 
investigation are almost everywhere available. It is 
moreover amongst the best known of the introduced 
songsters, and, as the bird is not specially shy, its habits 
can be observed without much difficulty. 
The Thrush is a finely shaped bird from 8 to 9 inches 
long, with an olive brown back, grey throat, and spotted 
