1899 | Lhe educational value of bird-study 245 
Let us aid the student naturalist to the full extent of our 
knowledge, but let us treat with equal care the pupils whose 
interest in nature needs encouragement. And | know of no 
better medium by which to develop this interest than by the 
study of birds, for which, as I have said, the child has an in- 
herent liking. 
I am not pleading for the study of ornithology, but for a 
simple course of lessons which would result in making chil- 
dren as familiar with our common birds as they are with our 
common wild flowers. Almost anyone living in the country 
can name at sight fifty varieties of wild flowers, but who 
knows a dozen birds? And why should we not be as familiar 
with the more abundant birds as we are with the daisy, violet, 
or buttercup? 
In by far the greater number of cases what is the practical 
result derived by the student from a course in botany? Is it 
the ability to define the parts of a flower, or the acquisition 
of a knowledge of our wild flowers and trees which gives new 
meaning and endless pleasure to walks in the fields and 
woods? 
What an admirable thing it 1s, this study of botany; how 
often it takes us out of doors when, if we had no object to 
prompt us, both body and mind would lose the wholesome, 
uplifting influences of “the lights of setting suns, and the 
round ocean, and the living air, and the blue sky.” 
I am a flower lover, but as a bird student may I not be 
pardoned for thinking that birds are infinitely more attract- 
ive than flowers? Can the flower sing? Can it build a 
home, where, with an exhibition of many traits we might well 
emulate, the bird-parents will rear their offspring? Can it 
please the eye by such an unparalleled exhibition of power 
and grace as the bird in flight displays? Can a senseless 
thing compare with a sentient one in its interest for man? 
Why is it, then, that while flowers receive a measure of the 
attention due them, birds are virtually ignored? The expla- 
nation, I believe, lies partly in the fact that in our summary 
treatment of nature-studies, we give equal or nearly equal 
attention to the two great divisions of life, the vegetable and 
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