Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-01-30
Practicable Suggestion in the
Line Of Nature Study.
An Attractive and Useful Work for School
Children Outlined by Or. Hodge of
Clark University,
To the Editor Of the Spy:


man value, of kind readily apprecia-
ted by the child, to arouse his enthusi-
asm and it should call forth the best
efforts of which the child is capable
For some time a plan 6f bird study
has been taking shape in my mind,
which shall possess the above desired
able features, the plan being, in a word,
to get the child population so thorough
~ interested in she living birds, their
beauties graces, charms and fascinat-
ing ways, their songs ana calls, their
wonderful housekeeping as seen in the
ways they build their nests and take
care Of their young, the great work they
90 IN cleaning insect pests from our
ItulL and shade trees our gardens,
farms and lawns; to make the children
so alive to these things that they could
not POSSIBLY harm or even frighten
away a valuable bird. Birds are strong
~ attracted to the abodes of men, as
has often been noted by travellers in the
forest, the first sign of human habita-
ton being perhaps robin or a warb-
Ter They bring their nests as near to
our doors as they dare, many of them
hnding in man the natural protector
from their enemies, and doing him an
lnestimable service in return.
| would like TO see the children, and
grown people as well, so flied with no
mere passive, but witt so active a love
of our song birds that each one would
look or a bird as a town pet, and would
consider the birds that nest on the lot
as members of the household. And let
every action be such as viii tend to
bring the birds closer TO us. rather
than drive them farther away If the
children, especially, could be saturated
with this spirit by practical, common
sense lessons in actual bird life, we
might have in two or three years time
. ten or twenty birds of a species, where
We have one now, and what a melodious
city we would have. An early step in
the process. as we get clear ideas about
the kinds Of places birds choose for their
nests, would naturally be to give them
some reasonable share of consideration
IN the planting and pruning of trees
and shrubbery. Inviting crotches. shell
ters and hooks, might be left now and
Lhen, and even an old hollow limb to
furnish a home for a downy or hairy
Wooopecker. Both Of these remain with
us summer and winter. and the num-
per OF grubs and insect pupae which
they collect from the bark Of our trees
mas never been estimated, so far as |
am aWare.A pair OF either species might
easily be worth $50 a year to a neigh
oOrho0d or an orchard in the insects
they would destroy
one of the things I always felt the
need Of in such a scheme of bird study
Is some way of ascertaining how many
plfds we have, some way Of making a
census, al least of certain familiar spe-
eles. Inen. as the years go by, the CEN
sus each year would tell us whether
me means and efforts we were putting
forth to increase our bird population,
We're effective or not
just the best way to make such a
census was not clear. To count the
plfas would be difficult, and they fly
ABOUT from block to block so much that
tne same bird might be counted dozen
times. But in talking the matter over
with l'fefessor Chapman, in New York,
lAe otnsr day, he gave me just the idea
needed to make the subject a practica Bile
lesson in the right sort of nature study.
we are already under pleasant obliga-
tlpns 10 Professor Chapman for the most
helptut handbook of birds of eastern
North America, and also for the admir-
able lecture given recently in the
teachers course. 1 am happy to add
the Following suggestion to our growing
list OF such obligations
Professor Chapnan's suggestion was
to have the nests counted for a given
area after the leaves fall in autumn,
he said that he would not trust the
children to take too much interest in
oirds nests while the birds We're using
them, fearing lest, even if the nests
We're not robbed, the occupants might
ne too often disturbed and possibly
1IlsHlened away. / hope we may come
70 know enough about how the
birds like to be treated, so that
/ the children can be trusted ia
study birds nests without ANNOYING
the birds. At any rate it would NOT be
possible to count the nests easily until
the leaves fall. AS we nave had sno
severe storms this winter it would still
| be possible, he thought, to make the
census 1t would be desirable to keen
separate count of as many kinds Of
| birds as possible, the nests of which are
readily distinguishable. For each area
we snail thus know how many robins.
orioles blue birds, cat birds, brown
thrashers, mocking birds. vireos, rose
/ breasted erosbeaks, woodpeckers, pos
sihly some Others, have their homes
within a given area In order to identi-
~ these nests, the collection at the
! Natural History Museum may be utt-
lied, and ii would be well for each
/ school to have a complete set of the de-
/ serted nests q would be strongly op-
posed to their having the nests with
egss) of our commoner birds.
I from which the children can
I learn to distinguish the different
4 species. All the nests Of birds which
4 anybody who undertakes to make a CEN
4 sus does not happen to know or which
4 ne may not think advisable to keep Sc
! parate, can be Jumped together into a
/ group miscellaneous" But ii would be
well to have as much uniformity as pos
sible in this matter.
1t is immaterial how the work is car
: MI q 49,
4 1t would be well TO have as many as
possible take a hand in it. each in his owr
way. BY another year those who wish
might put their heads together and
adopt some uniform plan In taking
the matter over little, several people
have expressed their intention of begin.
ming census of their own grounds on
block IL all such results could be sent
in TO some central Office, the Natural
History Museum, they might be com
bined into a statement of very general
interest.
The only way to practically reach all
children OF the city with such a plan is
to work through the schools j have
discussed the subject with number of
principals, and they all seemed to think
the idea feasible and expressed them
selves as favorable to having the work
taken UP by their schools. | sincerely
hope that every school in the city can,
at least, do enough to get the children
actively interested in the practical
problem Of increasing our bird popula-
ton 1t may not be necessary to have
very large area covered by each
school to do this.
An easy and inexpensive way to keep
distinct the ground covered by each
room or school, would be to have an old
directory map in each room. Let the
children who live on each block count all
the nests in that block They can then