TEACHING BIRD STUDY
A little after six o'clock one July morning on the campus of the
University of Tennessee, I stood near the centre of a semi-circle of
twenty-five school teachers whose expressions indicated a high state of
excitement, and whose fifty eyes were riveted on a scene of slaughter
but a few feet from them. For five minutes we had scarcely moved.
During this time the lives of thirty-two specimens of animal life had
been blotted out. The perpetrator of this holocaust was a creature
known to scientists as _Spizella socialis_--called by ordinary people
Chipping Sparrow. Its victims were small insects which but a moment
before were disporting themselves on the grass.
_Preparation of Teachers._--One teacher expressed {240} surprise that a
bird could find so many of these choice morsels in so short a time.
She had never imagined that so many insects inhabited so small an area
as that to which the bird had confined its operations. "Very well,"
said the instructor, "suppose all of you get down and see how many
insects you can find in five minutes." So while he held the watch all
proceeded to take part in a bug-hunting contest. In this novel
undertaking even the women of the class displayed great zeal. When
time was called it was found that one student had a credit of fourteen,
another sixteen, a third nineteen, and one tall young woman with
glasses exhibited twenty-one insects in the folds of her handkerchief.
A stranger watching the actions of this band of eager, early-rising
teachers might have been puzzled to determine what induced them to
assemble at this hour of the day for the evident purpose of watching
the habits and activities of small birds that the ordinary person
passes without notice. They were, nevertheless, occupied in one of the
most valuable {241} studies that could have claimed their attention.
[Illustration: Preparing for the coming of the birds. A Junior Audubon
class on Prince Edward Island]
For many years the United States Department of Agriculture has been
employing trained naturalists to give their time to the investigation
of the damage done to growing crops by the insect hosts that infest
fields and forests. These and other experts have come forward with
astounding statements regarding the destructiveness of birds to
insects. We are told, too, that each bird is virtually a living dynamo
of energy; that its heart beats twice as fast as the human heart; and
that the normal temperature of its blood registers over a hundred
degrees. It is a simple fact of biology, therefore, that a tremendous
amount of nourishing food is necessary for the bird's existence. Vast
quantities of insects are needed for this purpose.
Some time ago a New England gentleman became so impressed by the
frequency with which a pair of Robins visited their nest with food for
the young that he determined to learn more about the food-consuming
{242} possibilities of the four nestlings. The day the offspring left
their cradle he temporarily took possession of them. With the aid of
some friends, who kindly undertook to dig fishworms for him, he
proceeded to give the baby Robins all they cared to eat between
daylight and dark. He found to his very great surprise that these
small birds consumed in one day food to the amount of their own weight
and 56 per cent. additional. If an average-sized man were to eat at
this rate he would require seventy pounds of beef and several gallons
of water daily. Upon reaching maturity the Robins probably do not eat
so greedily, but the incident serves to illustrate their capacity in
the days of youth.
The school teachers at the Knoxville Summer School who watched the
Chipping Sparrow that morning were members of a group of earnest men
and women whose lives were dedicated to the training of children. For
nine months they had been in the classroom, meeting heroically the
petty trials and annoyances incident to their life work. Now, {243}
instead of spending their brief vacation in idleness, they were seeking
additional knowledge to prepare them for more valuable future service.
They were learning that morning the important lesson that birds are
placed on earth for a useful purpose. When they returned to the
schoolroom they would teach the boys that the bird is a friend to the
farmer and should not be killed nor its nest destroyed. They would
teach girls that there is something far more exquisite about the living
bird than is to be found in the faded lustre of its feathers when sewed
on a hat, and they would cultivate in the heart of the girls a feeling
of sympathy for the home life of the birds about them.
The greatest problem to be solved by those actively engaged in measures
which make for civic righteousness is how to preserve the children of
the country from evil influences, and to direct their curiosity and
restless energy into safe and productive channels. The teacher
occupies a strategic position in this matter, and one of her problems
is how to {244} engage the interest of the child in subjects that are
both entertaining and beneficial. Simple lessons in nature study are
an excellent method by which to accomplish this end, and a study of
out-of-door life should begin with birds.
_Bird Study Class._--The systematic instruction of school children in
bird study on a careful scientific basis in a large way really had its
origin in May, 1910, when Mrs. Russell Sage sent to the National
Association of Audubon Societies a cheque for five thousand five
hundred dollars with which to inaugurate a plan of bird study in the
Southern schools that the writer had outlined to her. She desired that
a special effort should be made to arouse interest in the protection of
the Robin, which in the Southern States was at that time almost
universally regarded as a game bird whose natural destiny was
considered to be a potpie. Bird study, it is true, was at that time
taught in many city schools, but usually the subject was given slight
space in the curriculum, and for the children and {245} teachers there
was available only a limited literature, and it was of an inadequate
character. A working plan was at once developed whereby literature,
coloured pictures of birds, and the Audubon button should be supplied
to all the pupils in a school who enrolled themselves as members of an
Audubon Class. Each member was required to pay a nominal fee, which,
however, was much less than the cost of producing the material received
in return.
During the school year that followed the matter was brought to the
attention of many of the Southern teachers, and over five hundred
Junior Audubon societies resulted, with an enrollment of more than ten
thousand children. Following the course of instruction outlined in the
literature furnished to the teachers, these children were taught the
correct names of many of the common birds, and on field walks they
learned to know them by sight. The dates when certain birds were last
seen in autumn and first arrived in spring were noted and carefully
recorded. Food was given to the birds in winter and {246} bird boxes
of various patterns were constructed and placed in parks, orchards, or
woods where they would most likely be of service to birds looking for
suitable nesting hollows. Bird study was correlated with reading,
English composition, history, geography, and even arithmetic.
_A Nation-wide Movement._--So successful did this experiment prove that
the Audubon workers agreed upon extending this same system into the
schools of all the other States in the Union, and the various Provinces
of Canada. The fall of 1911, therefore, saw plans well under way for a
greatly enlarged scope of work. During the school year, which closed
the last of June, 1912, the Association, at a cost of thirteen thousand
dollars, enrolled 29,369 school children under the standard bearing the
inscription "Protect the Birds."
The movement has continued to grow, and up to June 1, 1916, there had
been formed 27,873 classes with a total membership of 559,840 children.
The Association is annually expending on this work {247} $25,000 more
than the children's fees amount to. Of this amount Mrs. Sage continues
to contribute one-fifth, the remaining four-fifths being given by an
anonymous friend of children and birds. In supplying these pupils and
their teachers with the necessary pictures, leaflets, and outline
drawings of birds for colouring, over thirty-one million pages of
printed information have been distributed. Pupils have taken hold of
this bird study with great zest. Many a dull or inattentive boy, who
had been a despair to his teacher and parents, responded to this real
nature teaching which took him from his ordinarily uninteresting
studies into the wide out of doors. Thousands of teachers have written
letters filled with expressions of thankfulness for this opportunity
which has come to them and reciting details of the variety of ways in
which they have been able to make use of this plan and material for
bird study.
_What One Teacher Did._--Here, for example, is one from Miss Beth
Merritt, who teaches in a little school at Fountain City, Tennessee: "I
am very glad to {248} write to you about the Junior Audubon Class we
had at school this year. We all enjoyed it exceedingly, and I am sure
it did good in the hearts and lives of the little people who were
members and in the bird world, too. A year ago I invited the children
of some of the other grades to join our Audubon Class and we had over
forty members. We had our meetings on Friday afternoons after school.
The class was quite successful and we saw some direct results of its
success. Several nest-robbing boys gave up that 'sport' altogether.
One boy was instrumental in bringing about the arrest of some men who
had been shooting song birds. This year I had the class only in my own
grade--the second. Almost every child in the room joined, making
twenty members. I had daily periods for nature study and language, and
every other Friday we used these two periods for the Audubon Class.
The children were always anxious for the Audubon Fridays to come. They
used often to ask, 'Is to-morrow Bird Day, Miss Beth?' and if I
answered in the affirmative, I heard 'Oh, goody,' [248] and 'I won't
forget to wear my button,' and 'I wonder what bird it will be,' from
every side. Rarely ever did we have an absent mark on Bird Day.
"After we had used all ten of the leaflets you sent us, we had lessons
on some of the other birds, or, instead of a regular lesson, we went
for a bird walk. I divided the class for these walks, taking ten
children at a time. How excited they would get over the birds they
saw! Nearly always they could identify the birds themselves, sometimes
I helped them, sometimes my bird book helped me, and sometimes we had
to write in the notebooks, 'unknown.' I will not try to tell you about
all the good results of our Audubon Class that I have noticed. The
most important thing I think is that a few more children have a keen
interest and a true love for their little brothers of the air. Last
year a favourite pastime of a neighbour was shooting birds for his cat,
and I think he was no more particular than his cat as to the kind of
birds he destroyed. His little daughter was a member of the Audubon
Class and this spring I notice our {250} neighbour's cat has to catch
its own birds. Perhaps, if the little girl can be an Audubon member
another year, there will be no more cat!
"A mother of another little member of the class used to delight in
birds' plumes, breasts, or feathers of some kind on her hat. Her
spring hat this year was trimmed in ribbon. I have heard several bird
lovers say that they have noticed more of our common wild birds about
this place than there were last year, and they believe the Junior
Audubon societies in the schools have brought about this happy state.
When school closed many of the mothers came to me and said that they
wished to thank me for what I had done for their children along the
line of nature study, especially of birds. They said that they thought
the Junior Audubon Class a splendid thing for their children. And I
think it is equally good for the teachers."
Another Junior Club leader, Miss Edna Stafford, a teacher in the public
schools of Albany, Indiana, writes: "One day last summer a
twelve-year-old boy {251} was out in our street with an airgun shooting
at every bird he could see. Recently this same boy came to me with a
bird that was hurt, and in a most sympathetic tone said: 'Who do you
suppose could have been mean enough to hurt this dear little bird?' Our
study of birds in the Junior Audubon Class brought about this change in
the boy."
_Junior Game Protectors._--Another leader reported from Nashville that
the one thousand junior members in the schools there had turned into
voluntary bird wardens, and spied upon every man or boy who went afield
with a gun. In a number of places the juniors have built and sold bird
boxes by hundreds and used the proceeds for advancing the work. In one
town the juniors had a most successful tag day, and collected funds
that were used to buy grain with which to feed birds in winter. In
Connecticut a most helpful and stimulating communication has been
established between many of the classes. A junior class in the Logan
School, Minneapolis, has even started the publication of a magazine
called {252} _Owaissa_, after the Indian name for Bluebird, as given in
Longfellow's "Hiawatha."
_Sending Birds' Nests to City Children._--Mrs. Anthony W. Dimock, of
Peekamose, New York, makes the following interesting report:
"The Robin Junior Audubon Circle is composed of the boys and girls of
three district schools in a Catskill Mountain valley. No one school
has enough pupils of required age to form a circle, and the distances
between them are so great that frequent meetings cannot be held, but
good work is being done.
"The most interesting feature of our work the past year was the
collection of abandoned birds' nests in the autumn. One school of five
pupils collected over 100 nests. From these collections two selections
of ten nests each were made, to be sent to New York City. One
collection went to the Jacob Riis Settlement, and one passed through
the hands of three kindergartens, interesting 100 children. To each
nest was attached a coloured picture of the bird {253} which had made
the nest, and a description of its habits. Letters from the Settlement
children and the kindergartners brought to the Circle expressions of
delightful appreciation."
The National Association of Audubon Societies, with headquarters at
1974 Broadway, New York City, makes the following offer of assistance
to those teachers and others who are interested in giving instruction
to children on the subject of birds and their usefulness.
To form a Junior Audubon Class for bird study, a teacher should explain
to the pupils of her grade (and others if desired) that their object
will be to learn all they can about the wild birds, and that every one
who becomes a member will be expected to be kind to the birds and
protect them. Every member will be required to pay a fee of ten cents
each year. When ten or more have paid their fees, the teacher will
send their money to the National Association, and give the name of the
Audubon Class and her own name and address. The {254} Association will
then forward to the teacher for each member whose fee has been paid,
the beautiful Audubon button, and a set of ten coloured pictures,
together with the outline drawings and descriptive leaflets assigned to
class study for that year. The teacher will also receive, free of
cost, for one year, the splendid magazine _Bird-Lore_, which contains
many valuable suggestions for teachers. It is expected that the
teacher shall give at least one lesson a month on the subject of birds,
for which purpose she will find the leaflets of great value as a basis
for the lessons.
_Rules for a Bird Study Class._--If the teacher wishes, the Audubon
Class may have a regular organization, and a pupil may preside upon the
occasions when the class is discussing a lesson. For this purpose the
following simple constitution is suggested:
Article 1. The organization shall be known as the (give name) Junior
Audubon Class.
Article 2. The object of its members shall be to learn all they can
about wild birds, and to try to save any from being wantonly killed.
{255}
Article 3. The officers shall consist of a President, Secretary, and
Treasurer.
Article 4. The annual fees of the class shall be 10 cents for each
member; and the money shall be sent to the National Association of
Audubon Societies in exchange for Educational Leaflets and Audubon
Buttons.
Article 5. The Junior Audubon Class shall have at least one meeting
every month.
Although most of these classes have been and will be formed among
pupils in schools, any one may form a class of children anywhere, and
receive the privileges offered.
_Subjects for Study._--Besides the study of the particular birds in the
leaflets, the following subjects may be studied with profit:
_Birds' Nests._--In the fall, after all the birds have left their
nests, the nests may be collected and brought to the schoolroom. Study
them and learn that the Chipping Sparrow's nest is made of fine
rootlets and grasses, and is lined with horsehair; {256} examine the
mud cup of the Robin's nest, the soft lining of the Loggerhead Shrike's
nest, etc.
_Feeding Birds._--In winter arrange "bird tables" in the trees and by
the windows, and place crumbs and seeds on them; in summer put out
bathing and drinking pans, note what birds come to them and how
frequently, and report what you observe to the class.
_Nesting Boxes._--In early spring put up nesting boxes for Bluebirds,
Wrens, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Martins, and other birds. The leaflets
sent will be found to contain many suggestions about bird feeding and
nesting boxes, and the proper way to make and place the latter.
_Colouring Outlines._--The children, using crayons or water-colour
paint, may place the natural colours of the birds upon the outline
drawings provided, using the coloured plates for comparison. This is
one of the best ways to fasten in the memory the appearance of the
birds, and thus quickly learn to recognize them in the field. Many
teachers have utilized this as an exercise for the regular drawing hour.
[Illustration: Colouring of Birds upon Outline Drawings]
{257}
_Teaching Children Approved by the Government._--Considering the
importance of the subject and the success that the plan has met, it is
little wonder that the Hon. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner
of Education, early gave it his unqualified endorsement. In one letter
he wrote:
"I consider the work of the Junior Audubon {258} Classes very important
for both educational and economic results, and I congratulate you upon
the opportunity of extending it. The bird clause in the Mosaic Law
ends with the words: 'That it may be well with thee, and that thou
mayest prolong thy days.' The principle still holds. I hope that
through your efforts the American people may soon be better informed in
regard to our wild birds and their value."
In America we have neglected the subject of protecting our bird life,
and as a result in many sections we are suffering to-day from scourges
of insects. Too long the careless and thoughtless have been allowed to
wander aimlessly afield and shoot the birds that caused the winds of
prosperity to blow. We must teach the children to avoid the errors
that we have made. It is our duty to the child to give him of our
best, and teach him with all his getting to get understanding.