The training of the eye to correct seeing is one of the great advantages
of bird study to the average child, quite aside from the value of the
information gained, for this accurate gauge of the eye will always be a
benefit in whatever calling may be followed, adding alike to the
pleasure and profit of life.
In every town or country village there is some one who takes more than
passing interest in the life outdoors, who has a keener eye and more
responsive ear than his neighbour, coupled with a heart that has a bit
of Eden still lodged in it, so that it keeps tender and yearning toward
the simple, direct affections of life, as expressed in childhood and the
lives of the timid wild brotherhood, whether of foot or wing. Are you
one of these? If so, do you not realize that from your very make-up you
draw more freely from nature’s bounty than do your neighbours, and are
you not bound to share your pleasure with them? Not alone because it is
pleasure, but that through the knowledge that comes with all real joy,
the wild bird or beast may be more fully understood, and therefore
protected. All the more is this just and right, because we ourselves in
our advancement are the main cause of their need of this protection, for
as man increases, possesses, builds, and overflows the earth, so do
these “kindred of the wild” dwindle and silently disappear.
The lesser beasts keep more aloof than do the birds. These still gather
freely in our gardens, fields, and woods if we permit, and if we offer
food and shelter, many quickly become responsive.
Will not you who enjoy this friendship share it with others to whom it
is perhaps entirely unknown and unguessed, and to whom even the names of
birds, beyond a familiar few such as Hawk, Owl, Robin, and Sparrow, are
an unknown language?
The bird lectures are many, but there are those who cannot reach them.
The bird protective societies are tireless, but the ground must be
prepared for the message they send forth, and there is no better way for
doing this than by the influence of a personality working quietly and
unconsciously that infects all with whom it comes in contact with its
wholesome enthusiasm.
If you are a parent or teacher, well and good; your field is ready at
hand. If not, you may still become the equivalent of both in your
community even though you lack some of Gray Lady’s attributes and
resources.
If you have the right faculty and books at hand, you do not need my aid;
but if the work of holding youth is as yet an untried experiment, tuck
this little volume into the corner of your school desk, the magazine
rack, or your work-basket at home, for rainy days or the between times
when lack of occupation breeds mischief.
Much that is told in the following pages was thought out, in another
form, especially for the use of teachers of the rural schools of
Connecticut, but it is applicable to the needs of children in any of the
eastern states, and whether the knowledge passes from the school to the
home or the home to the school, the process is the same. The walk
between the rural school and home along bushy lanes and tree-bordered
highways, however, is an important link in the chain.
For children so placed the birds and every possible motive for wanting
to know them lie at hand, but for this very reason the public library
wherein the books to answer questions may be found is perhaps many miles
away and it is not possible for every school or home to own the
necessary bird books or charts.
It must not for a moment be thought that any attempt is made to say
anything new or add to the information given in the many excellent and
complete books now in circulation, but merely to condense in a simple
form things that have been said. Not detailed descriptions and tabulated
facts—for these repel the beginner and seem but the spelling-book or
multiplication table in a new form—but to record the doings of some
children who were eager to know; together with a few hints upon the
migrations, winter feeding, and protection of some of our common birds,
and the stories of their lives, that may lead both teacher and pupil to
more detailed study when opportunity offers.
When a strange child comes to school, the first desire of his mates is
to know his name and nationality, from whence he came, where he lives,
whether he is merely a visitor or to be a permanent resident in the
community. All this must be weighed and well considered before the
newcomer is admitted to the friendship of his mates, and it may be that
there will be some prejudices against him that the teacher must either
remove by explanation or overcome by reason and example.
It is very much the same with a bird. After being attracted to him and
fixing upon his name as an individual his identity should be still
further established by finding to what family he belongs and then later
on placing this family in one of the great orders of the bird world.
These two last should not be dwelt upon, however, until the identity as
an individual is established, but in the end it will help to keep the
name in the memory to know the kinship of families as well.
There are many little points of comparison, of scientific but not
general value that cannot be seen unless the dead bird is held in the
hand, and then only a wise man, perhaps, would be able to point them
out. It is with the living bird, on the wing or in its nest in the
bushes, that we are concerned; not with the poor little dead thing with
its limp neck and bloody, rumpled feathers.
We should not learn enough from such a bird to in any way make up for
taking its life; it would be both wasteful and against the law. So we
must be content to believe what the Wise Men say, who must study the
dead birds in order to preserve the scientific knowledge of their
structure and keep them in public museums, that they may teach the world
how wonderful a thing bird-life is, and show us that we must do all we
can to protect it. For the Wise Men know very well that—
You cannot with a scalpel find the poet’s soul,
Nor yet the wild bird’s song!