The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-02-06
How IL Was Done.

The campaign worked out by Mr..
Nichols has been systematic and
thorough.
The prizes offered to pupils OF the
schools for the best made bird
houses and for the first birds Of var
lous kinds nesting in their home
premises gave the first real stimulus
to the campaign. The school chill
dren promptly turned the Easements
of their schoolhouses into carpenter
shops and sawed and planed and
wrought into cunning shapes pretty
little cottages to be erected on poles
or fastened to summer houses or
woodsheds. They tried to keep Sc
cret the style of architecture they
chose. and worked long at the parts
of the house before putting them in
to telltale form. They filled the
backs of their Biographies with de-
signs and sketched outlines on the
margins of their arithmetics. For a
time it was necessary to put nearly
all lessons into terms OF old birds
and young ones in order to get nee
essary classwork done. But, at the
close of the competition, life had
been materially broadened for sew
eral hundred youngsters and made
altogether more delightful for sew
eral thousand birds. A slingshot
would occasion surprised disapproval
in the district today and If two boys
or two girls are seen in close, whis-
pering confab. you may be sure 1t is
all about the dreadful appetites dis
played by the oriole family and
whether the grubs will hold out long
enough to launch the cuckoos, of
which there are five, upon the world.
Rival merits of bird houses are holly
contested among the youth of the
district and enthusiasm for birds is
spreading all over town.
AT Swope park bird boxes have
lately been erected, much like those
used at the Country club. Hardly a
section Of Kansas City but has been
impregnated with the new idea of
making the birds happy and of be-
ing made happy in return. The
Country club people published a fold
er giving directions for making bird
boxes and distributed 10000 copies
free. Manual high school pupils fol-
lowed the directions with excellent
results.
A thousand copies of the govern
ment bulletin entitled Fifty Com
mon Birds of Farm and Orchard
were purchased and distributed to
owners of places in the district.
The bird census was taken by
means of the distribution of cards to
be filled out and a house to house
canvass of the district by the school
children under the leadership of An
sci Miehaels. a pupil of the Country
Club day school.
Some Rare Bird Photographs.
The census cards give the name,
address, number of school children In
family, number of bird houses occu-
pied, kinds of birds in houses and
the kinds of birds nesting on prem
Uses, not in houses. Mrs. George III.
Collins, 81 East Fifty-fourth street,
for instance, reported eight bird
houses erected and eight occupied by
wrens, blue birds and robins.
Thrushes. orioles, fiickers, wood
peckers, humming birds, nuthatches,
lily tdlCHclSs Cdt I'D iACotCu Oh hpi
place, and a pair of cardinals came
for food. On another place thirty
two kinds of birds had been seer in
or near the premises.
4. C. Buckley, a dwelier in the
district. secured some highly inter
esting bird photographs by a novel
device which he originated. He at
tached the old electric magnet of an
old electric bell to the shutter of his
camera instead of the clapper of the
bell. He put in as many feet of wire
as he wished to stand from the cam
era. Then he placed the camera in
such a position that birds entering
or emerging from a bird house must
be in range, sat himself down to
watch and pressed the bell button at
the right moment. The device was