Let them describe actions which they saw them perform, paying
particular attention to the ways of birds in eating. For example,
sparrows were observed carrying hard crusts of bread to a little pool
of water, formed in a dent in a tin roof, to soften before attempting
to eat them. Day after day crusts were put out, and the water was
renewed.
_Written descriptions of birds feeding their young._--Young birds live
entirely upon insect life. It has been computed that a bird during the
first few weeks of its life consumes nearly one and one half times its
weight of insects daily. Note the amazing amount of insect life that
will be destroyed by the birds of a neighborhood in a single season.
Give, if possible, illustrations from your own observation. A robin
was noticed feeding one of its young, which sat on a limb with its
mouth open, crying for more, except when it was stopped with food. The
parent came with her beak filled with worms twenty-seven times in less
than as many minutes, and then left her child seemingly as hungry as
ever, for he complained and hopped along the limb, keeping a sharp
lookout for several minutes. That chick must have been as full of
worms as a fisherman's bait-box. Picture the condition of our lawns,
gardens, and groves if all the birds were suddenly banished and the
insects held full sway. In this connection, the writer should study
and make quotations or abstracts from "The Birds of Killingworth," by
Longfellow.
In a recent lecture, Prof. Witmer Stone, of Philadelphia, cited many
facts to show that birds are nature's great check on the excess of
insects, and that they keep the balance between plants and insect
life. Ten thousand caterpillars, it has been estimated, could destroy
every blade of grass on an acre of cultivated ground. In thirty days
from the time it is hatched an ordinary caterpillar increases 10,000
times in bulk, and the food it lives and grows on is vegetable. The
insect population of a single cherry tree infested with aphides was
calculated by a prominent entomologist at no less than twelve million.
The bird population of cultivated country districts has been estimated
at from seven hundred to one thousand per square mile. This is small
compared with the number of insects, yet as each bird consumes
hundreds of insects every day, the latter are prevented from becoming
the scourge they would be but for their feathered enemies.
Mr. E. H. Forbush, Ornithologist of the Board of Agriculture of
Massachusetts, states that the stomachs of four chickadees contained
1,028 eggs of the cankerworm. The stomachs of four other birds of the
same species contained about 600 eggs and 105 female moths of the
cankerworm. The average number of eggs found in twenty of these moths
was 185; and as it is estimated that a chickadee may eat thirty female
cankerworm moths per day during the twenty-five days which these moths
crawl up trees, it follows that in this period each chickadee would
destroy 138,750 eggs of this noxious insect.
A pamphlet issued by the Department of Agriculture of the United
States says that the cuckoo, which is common in all the Eastern
States, has been conclusively shown to be much given to eating
caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, does not reject those that are
covered with hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so many hairy caterpillars
that the hairs pierce the inner lining of their stomach and remain
there, so that when the stomach is opened and turned inside out, it
appears to be lined with a thin coating of hair. This bird also eats
beetles, grasshoppers, sawflies, and spiders. It turns out from the
investigations of the department that the suspicion with which all
farmers look upon woodpeckers is undeserved by that bird. These birds
rarely leave an important mark upon a healthy tree, but when a tree
is affected by wood-boring larvae the insects are accurately located,
dislodged, and devoured. In case the holes from which the borers are
taken are afterward occupied and enlarged by colonies of ants, these
ants are drawn out and eaten. Woodpeckers are great conservators of
forests, and to them more than to any other agency is due the
preservation of timber from hordes of destructive insects.
The department defends the much-abused crow and states that he is not
by any means the enemy of the farmer, in which role he is generally
represented. The pamphlet shows that he is known to eat frogs, toads,
salamanders, and some small snakes, and that he devours May beetles,
June bugs, grasshoppers, and a large variety of other destructive
insects. It is admitted that he does some damage to sprouting corn,
but this can be prevented by tarring the seed, which not only saves
the corn, but forces the crow to turn his attention to insects.
_Insects injurious to vegetation._--Essays may be written describing
some of the insects injurious to fruit trees; also the birds that feed
largely upon these insects--the warblers, thrushes, orioles, wrens,
woodpeckers, vireos, and others. Tell, if possible, from your own
observation, of their curious, but effective, ways of finding their
food. Describe how the birds inspect the trees, limb by limb and bud
by bud, in their eager search for the eggs, larvae, and mature forms of
insects. Note, especially, the oriole as he runs spirally round a
branch to the very tip, then back to the trunk, treating branch after
branch in the same way, till the whole tree has been thoroughly
searched, almost every bud having been in the focus of those bright
eyes. It is hard to describe which is the more beautiful--their
brilliant, flaming colors or their bugle-like bursts of music. Is the
woodpecker's drumming, and apparent listening with the side of his
head turned to the tree, all for fun, and nothing for reward?
_Birds that feed upon the potato beetle._--The grosbeaks and the
tanagers. Describe these. Why are these and other brightly colored
birds so shy? What has been the effect of the extensive killing of
them for ornament, and the equally cruel practice of securing their
young to be kept in cages? Note how much more attractive our fields
and gardens would be if these beautiful beings were common in them,
and by their quaint ways were "teaching us manners."
_Personations of birds._--Ask the children to write "personations" of
birds, as if the writer were the bird. Give them the following
directions: Write in the first person. Describe yourself as accurately
as you are able, without telling your name. Tell of your habits and
manner of life, your summer and winter homes, your home cares--your
nest building, your parental joys and anxieties, the enemies you have
to avoid. Mention at some length the trouble you take to give your
little ones a good start in life, and to enable them to earn their own
living. Describe your songs, and try to indicate why they differ, and
what you mean by each one. Try to present a somewhat complete picture
of the bird and its life, from the bird's point of view. At the close
of your personation the hearers may vote upon the name of the bird
presented.
A family of birds may also be described, as if they were persons,--and
are they not? A very fine model of this kind of work is "Our New
Neighbors at Ponkapog," by T. B. Aldrich.
Have essays written upon the following subjects:--
Are there birds that do not sing?
What is the attitude of other birds to the owl?
Is any country too cold, or any too warm, for birds?
Have birds individuality?
What is the largest bird of North America?
The smallest?
What laws has your state made about birds?
Ought the "government to own" the birds? (That is, make laws
for their protection.)
Is the blue jay wicked?
What birds walk?
Do birds travel at night, during their migrations?
Beginning in March, note for several days the different kinds of birds
you see, which were not seen the day before. Make at least two
observations daily, one in the morning and one after school. When is
the greater number of new birds seen, in the morning or in the
afternoon? Or, if you live in a comparatively quiet neighborhood, even
in a large city, go out at night and listen for bird sounds in the
air. You need not go far to make this trial--your own back door "opens
into all outdoors."
What states have established a Bird Day by law?
Is woman cruel or only thoughtless?
Do robins raise more than one brood in a season? If so, do
they use the same nest twice? If they raise two broods, what
becomes of the first, while the mother is sitting upon the
eggs for the second?
Watch for a robin leading out his family. Notice the feeding, after
the birds are large enough to run and fly fairly well. The young birds
are placed apart, and kept apart by the parent, who visits each one in
turn, and rebukes any who tries to be piggish, sometimes rapping it
with his bill when it runs out of turn. Notice this parent teaching
the young to sing. It is a very interesting sight.
What birds have you heard sing at night?
More birds sing at night than is commonly supposed. The female robin
calls to her mate frequently during the night, and he responds with a
song. The catbird also sings at night. Last May one was heard to sing
three nights in succession from eleven o'clock until daylight in
response to little complaining calls from his mate. The song sparrow,
warblers, and many other birds sing at night. Their songs at these
times sound as if the bird were sleepy and reluctant to sing, or as if
he were startled and were hurrying through the performance. Make a
note of songs heard at night and try to determine the cause. Learn to
distinguish the call of the female from the song of the male.
_The kinds of nests._--What birds are weavers? What ones are masons or
plasterers? What ones are tailors, in the construction of their nests?
Find a pair of birds engaged in nest building; robins may generally be
found. Learn to distinguish the male from the female in appearance, as
well as voice. Notice what materials they are using. Which bird takes
the lead in building? What does the other bird do? Does he ever carry
material, or does he simply act as escort? Does he ever protect his
mate from other birds?
Write this out, carefully drawing your conclusions from your own
observations. After the young birds have left the nest and have no
further use for it, you may take the nest and examine it closely. You
will find that while there is a similarity in the nests of the same
kind of birds, they differ considerably in the materials of which they
are composed. For example, the typical robin's nest consists of straws
and hairs plastered together with mud and lined with some soft
material, but others have been found made entirely of raveled rope;
others of carpet rags. The bird evidently is not guided in this matter
by blind instinct, but uses its reason in adapting materials that are
at hand.
If you are fortunate you may find a pair of orioles building their
nest. Place some bright-colored yarn or string in pieces of convenient
length where the birds will see them. Some of them are almost sure to
be woven into the nest. The oriole's nest may be attached to a limb by
two or more cords; if it is, notice how it is prevented from swinging
by side ropes. You will find it guyed against the prevailing winds.
The oriole frequently ties several twigs together, and so uses these
to suspend his nest. Notice the nest pouch; those built near houses
are quite shallow; those near forests are much deeper. Can you tell
why?
_The wings of birds._--Describe the different kinds, as short and
round, or long and slender, and the effect of the wing-shape upon the
bird's motion in the air. Describe the flights of different birds.
_Songs of birds._--Write the syllables which seem to you to express
the different songs of birds. Notice the different songs of the same
bird. A song sparrow was observed to have twelve different songs. He
sang each one several times over, as if each song had a number of
verses. Then changing his position, he would sing another. To most
ears the robin's song is always the same, but close attention
discovers that there are variations. Many birds are genuine musicians
and compose as they sing, not having formal songs.
_Free description of birds._--Write description of some bird of your
acquaintance, noting the following:--
_Its appearance._--Color, gait, flight, size from tip of beak to end
of tail, spread of wings.
_Its common name._--Why given?
_Time of arrival and departure._
_Character._--Is it trustful, or shy and retiring?
_Song._--Season when song is most frequent, also times of day. Does it
consist of many or only a few notes? Is it cheery, like the robin's,
or tuneful, like the thrush's, or rollicking and rapturous, like the
bobolink's, or a Romanza, like the catbird's? Notice the different
emotion sounds, the notes of fear, of parental or conjugal reprimand,
of joy, of anger, of deep sorrow, made by the bird at times.
_Food._--Insects (kinds), seeds, fruit, etc.
_Nest._--Where placed, how made?
_Incidents._--From the writer's knowledge of the bird.
_This bird in literature._--What writers have described, what poets
have immortalized him? How did they characterize him?
Some of the following books are almost indispensable to one who wishes
to know the birds:--
"Wake Robin," John Burroughs; "Birds and Poets," John Burroughs; "The
Birds and Seasons of New England," Wilson Flagg; "Upland and Meadow,"
Charles C. Abbott; "Bird Ways," Olive Thorne Miller; "Birds through an
Opera Glass," Florence A. Merriam; "Birds in the Bush," Bradford
Torrey; "The Birds About Us," Charles C. Abbott; "From Blomidon to
Smoky," Frank Bolles.
Recent magazines should be searched and the current ones scrutinized
for articles by any of the above-named writers.
_Destruction of birds._--Find out how many birds are annually
slaughtered in the United States, and for what purposes.
In the report of the American Ornithologist Union published in 1886,
it was estimated that about five million birds were annually required
to fill the demand for the ornamentation of the hats of the American
women. In 1896 it was estimated that the number thus used was ten
million. "The slaughter is not confined to song-birds; everything that
wears feathers is a target for the bird butcher. The destruction of
40,000 terns in a single season on Cape Cod, a million rail and reed
birds (bobolinks) killed in a single month near Philadelphia, are
facts that may well furnish food for reflection. The swamps and
marshes of Florida are well known to have become depopulated of their
egrets and herons, while the state at large has been for years a
favorite slaughter ground of the milliners' emissaries." An article in
_Forest and Stream_, speaking of the destruction of birds on Long
Island, states that during a short period of four months 20,000 were
supplied to the New York dealers from a single village.
The Audubon Society of Massachusetts has looked up the figures and
reports that "it is proved that into England alone between 25,000,000
and 30,000,000 birds are imported yearly, and that for Europe the
number reaches 150,000,000. Hence, the fashionable craze has annually
demanded between 200,000,000 and 300,000,000 birds. From the East
Indies alone a dealer in London received 400,000 humming birds, 6,000
birds of paradise, and 400,000 miscellaneous birds. In an auction
room, also in London, within four months, over 800,000 East and West
Indian and Brazilian bird skins, besides thousands of pheasants and
birds of paradise, were put up for sale."
This demand for birds has been going on for a quarter of a century,
and billions of rich-plumaged creatures have been slaughtered to meet
it, and several of the feathered tribes have been exterminated.
Write to the following for literature upon the destruction of birds:--
Humane Education Committee, 61 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.;
George T. Angell, Boston, Mass.; Secretary of the Massachusetts
Audubon Society, Boston, Mass.; Secretary of the New York Audubon
Society at New York; Secretary of the Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.; Secretary of the Audubon Society of Pennsylvania at
Philadelphia; also write to the Department of Agriculture of your own
state.
VII
PROGRAMS FOR BIRD DAY
A Bird Day exercise, in order to have much value educationally, should
be largely the result of the pupils' previous work, and should not be
the mere repetition of a prepared program taken verbatim from some
paper or leaflet. It is, of course, better to have the pupils recite
this leaflet or list of statements than it would be to have it ground
out of a phonograph. The program should be prepared by the pupils
under direction of the teacher.
The following general suggestions are offered:--
1. For the first observance of this day by a school it would be well
to have some pupil read Senator Hoar's petition of the birds to the
Legislature of Massachusetts.
PETITION OF THE BIRDS
_Written by Senator Hoar to the Massachusetts Legislature_
The petition which was instrumental in getting the Massachusetts law
passed, prohibiting the wearing of song and insectivorous birds on
women's hats, was written by Senator Hoar. The petition read as
follows:--
To the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts: We, the song birds of Massachusetts and their
playfellows, make this our humble petition. We know more
about you than you think we do. We know how good you are. We
have hopped about the roofs and looked in at your windows of
the houses you have built for poor and sick and hungry
people, and little lame and deaf and blind children. We have
built our nests in the trees and sung many a song as we flew
about the gardens and parks you have made so beautiful for
your children, especially your poor children to play in.
Every year we fly a great way over the country, keeping all
the time where the sun is bright and warm. And we know that
whenever you do anything the other people all over this
great land between the seas and the Great Lakes find it out,
and pretty soon will try to do the same. We know. We know.
We are Americans just the same as you are. Some of us, like
you, came across the great sea. But most of the birds like
us have lived here a long while; and the birds like us
welcomed your fathers when they came here many, many years
ago. Our fathers and mothers have always done their best to
please your fathers and mothers.
Now we have a sad story to tell you. Thoughtless or bad
people are trying to destroy us. They kill us because our
feathers are beautiful. Even pretty and sweet girls, who we
should think would be our best friends, kill our brothers
and children so that they may wear our plumage on their
hats. Sometimes people kill us for mere wantonness. Cruel
boys destroy our nests and steal our eggs and our young
ones. People with guns and snares lie in wait to kill us; as
if the place for a bird were not in the sky, alive, but in a
shop window or in a glass case. If this goes on much longer
all our song birds will be gone. Already we are told in some
other countries that used to be full of birds, they are now
almost gone. Even the nightingales are being killed in
Italy.
Now we humbly pray that you will stop all this and will save
us from this sad fate. You have already made a law that no
one shall kill a harmless song bird or destroy our nests or
our eggs. Will you please make another one that no one shall
wear our feathers, so that no one shall kill us to get them?
We want them all ourselves. Your pretty girls are pretty
enough without them. We are told that it is as easy for you
to do it as for a blackbird to whistle.
If you will, we know how to pay you a hundred times over. We
will teach your children to keep themselves clean and neat.
We will show them how to live together in peace and love and
to agree as we do in our nests. We will build pretty houses
which you will like to see. We will play about your garden
and flower beds--ourselves like flowers on wings, without
any cost to you. We will destroy the wicked insects and
worms that spoil your cherries and currants and plums and
apples and roses. We will give you our best songs, and make
the spring more beautiful and the summer sweeter to you.
Every June morning when you go out into the field, oriole
and bluebird and blackbird and bobolink will fly after you
and make the day more delightful to you. And when you go
home tired after sundown, vesper sparrow will tell you how
grateful we are. When you sit down on your porch after dark,
fifebird and hermit thrush and wood thrush will sing to you;
and even whip-poor-will will cheer you up a little. We know
where we are safe. In a little while all the birds will come
to live in Massachusetts again, and everybody who loves
music will like to make a summer home with you.
The signers are:--
Brown Thrasher,
Robert o' Lincoln,
Hermit Thrush,
Vesper Sparrow,
Robin Redbreast,
Song Sparrow,
Scarlet Tanager,
Summer Redbird,
Blue Heron,
Humming Bird,
Yellowbird,
Whip-poor-will,
Water Wagtail,
Woodpecker,
Pigeon Woodpecker,
Indigo Bird,
Yellowthroat,
Wilson's Thrush,
Chickadee,
Kingbird,
Swallow,
Cedar Bird,
Cowbird,
Martin,
Veery,
Chewink,
Vireo,
Oriole,
Blackbird,
Fifebird,
Wren,
Linnet,
Pewee,
Phoebe,
Yoke Bird,
Lark,
Sandpiper.
It should be noted that the result of this petition was the passage of
a law by the Legislature of Massachusetts forbidding the wearing of
parts of wild birds. A bill forbidding the transportation of feathers
or the skins of birds from one state to another was also introduced by
Senator Hoar in the United States Senate.
2. At this first exercise it would be well to have read "Our New
Neighbors at Ponkapog," by T. B. Aldrich.
3. The best essays that have been written by the pupils during their
preliminary study may be given. If the school has not made this
preliminary study, select subjects and have essays written according
to the directions already given, allowing as much time as possible for
original observations.
4. Have recitations from the poets. These will add a peculiar charm to
the occasion. A short list of suitable poems will be given. Many
others may be found in a book called "Voices of the Speechless,"
published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
The works of John Burroughs, Bradford Torrey, Maurice Thompson, Mrs.
Olive Thorne Miller, and Dr. C. C. Abbott abound in passages which are
excellent for recitation. It is surprising how familiar the best-known
novelists have been and are with birds. In appreciation of them they
are second only to the poets. Charles Reade's description of the
lark's song in the mines of Australia, in "Never Too Late to Mend," is
an inspiring recitation.
5. Short quotations from well known authors should be given, if
possible, by every pupil in the school. We give a few taken almost at
random:--
Away over the hayfield the lark floated in the blue, making
the air quiver with his singing; the robin, perched on a
fence, looked at us saucily and piped a few notes by way of
remark; the blackbird was heard, flute-throated, down in the
hollow recesses of the wood; and the thrush, in a holly tree
by the wayside, sang out his sweet, clear song that seemed
to rise in strength as the wind awoke a sudden rustling
through the long woods of birch and oak.--WILLIAM BLACK, in
_Adventures of a Phaeton_.
We seemed to hear all the sounds within a great compass--in
the hedges and in the roadside trees, far away in woods or
hidden up in the level grayness of the clouds: twi, twi,
trrrr-weet!--droom, droom, phloee!--tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck,
feer!--that was the silvery chorus from thousands of
throats. It seemed to us that all the fields and hedges had
but one voice, and that it was clear and sweet and
piercing.--WILLIAM BLACK, _Ibid._