248 Educational Review [ March 
struction shall we follow in bringing them into the class- 
room? é 
The classification which seems to me the best suited for 
elementary instruction is seasonal. This is not only simple, 
but natural, and it has the additional advantage of so asso- 
ciating the bird with the seasons, that we learn to think of it, 
not as a specimen, but as a part of nature. Hence, in giving 
courses of lectures on our native birds, I begin with the 
“permanent residents,’ or the species which are with us 
thruout the year. To these are added the winter birds, and 
then follow the migratory species which come in March, 
April, and May. This brings us to summer birds, birds’ 
nests, and a study of the home-life of birds, and the course is 
concluded with a study of autumn birds and the retreat of 
the birds to their winter homes. 
These purely objective talks may be followed by sub- 
jective lectures on the economic value of birds, structure and 
habit, the colors of birds, bird migration, etc. 
It is not supposed that such instruction would result in 
acquainting the child with our entire avifauna. It is simply 
designed to direct his inborn interest in animals in the right 
channel; to teach him that birds were not intended to be only 
marks for stones, sling-shots, and guns. It is, in fact, an 
invitation to a study which he may pursue all his life with 
ever-increasing interest. 
In conclusion I may summarize the whole matter by 
appending 
TEN REASONS FOR THE STUDY OF BIRDS 
First—Because birds are sensitively organized creatures, 
and respond so readily to the influences of their surroundings 
that in their distribution, structure, and habits they furnish 
naturalists with invaluable evidences of the workings of 
natural laws. 
Second—Because birds, in preventing the undue increase 
of insects, in devouring small rodents, in destroying the seeds 
of harmful plants, and in acting as scavengers, are man’s best 
