The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-20
Dr. Handley, Naturalists, to
 Be at Camp Winataska AN
 Of This Summer With Boys
Is in Federal Service Keeping Records of Bird Migration Will Conduct Classes in Open Air Study of Orn- thology and Botany-Several Classes for
 Girls Also Will Be Formed

Listen, boys and girls. You know l told you last Sunday that real natu- ralist was coming to Birmingham on lis way to the Sunday school camp at Winnataska? We'll he did come! I went to the Sunday School Associa- tion headquarters to see MT. Charles o. Handley while he was lon the wing" like the birds he talks so in- terestingly about-just paying a fly ing visit to our city pavements en route from his home in Lewisburg, w. Va. to the cool, inviting woods and that camp where 120 boys were so eagerly awaiting his coming.
 Of course, l knew that man who had built bird houses when he was little boy and who had kept a free lunch counter all around his home to help the early birds who had so much H. c. L. scratching to do, must be Q nice, friendly kind of a person for l human being to talk with. So, all though I didn't know anything about taxidermy. and ornithology, and bi- ology, and geology and botany, I went to see this interesting visitor, whom had pictured as a mddle-aged man whose eyes were kind and brown and twinkling with laughter most of the time. His eyes were kind and brown sure enough. and full of laughter when they were not very serious and thoughtful, but he wasn't even con- sidering the comforts nor the incon- veniences of middle age.
 I found him just boy, older grown perhaps than most of you who vii. go on hikes with him this summer, in spite of the high sounding middle-aged title Uncle Sam has given him as Keeper of Bird Migration Records for the Department of Agriculture," and in spite of his prominent connection with the American Ornithologists Union. A young man, indeed, up to his eyes in love with old Mother Ma ture.
 q scarcely know when I began to love and study nature" he confided to me. "You see. I was born on big farm out in the woods of West Vir- ginia, and from the time I could walk I began to be attracted by birds.
 "As I grew older like most boys. l coveted gun, and carried one around with me over the farm most of tha time when I had the erroneous idea that I could learn more of bird life from a dead bird than from a live one. I made quite study of taxi dermy when small boy, in order to mount the specimens I killed. But I learned to love the live birds that were attracted to the houses I had built for them-the larks, and sparrows, and bluebirds, robins and peewees, spar rowhawks, and even the screech owls that found nesting places in my boxes.
 q have been so attracted by the lives the birds live that l don't believe now in killing them for the sake of study" declared MT. Handley with a thoughtful smile. 'And this is what I'm going to help the boys at Winna- taska to find out for themselves-au about the birds common to this part of the country.
 'You know" he added. ''so many boys have excellent eyes but see not, and good ears but hear not, all because they have not been trained to observe, to he quick to hear With other teachers I recog- nize that the boy is always nearer to the heart of nature than grown man. He has a passionate love for the open ar, and of the fields and woods; he is never really happy indoors Day and night teach him their lessons. And, in observ- ing nature he will absorb much that is interesting and that will give him broader outlook on life Camping gives the most aboundant opportunity for the study of nature.
 "It is astonishing. when a boy begins studying bird life, how absorbing it is, continued MT. Handley.
 ''I remember distinctly lesson Tn real community service that came to me when I was just ready to pho osreah rohiu's nest My camera was all prepared. when the mother bird who was feeding her babies, suddenly quit her job and flew to another nest just above hers. a trifle higher in the tree, that I hadn't discover ed Upon investigation. I found that she was visiting the home of a bluebird. and in the absence of the neighbor mother. she was feeding the little bluebirds with what in all probability would have been an overdose fn- the little robin
 THEN FLOWERS
 T was so interested in birds that 1 hadn't paid so much attention to rocks and flowers until I discovered Mir. A. k Brooks" said Mir. Handley. 'Or, rather, until Mir Brooks discovered me. When 1 was about 16 years old I wrote a little story from my own observation for the periodical Bird Lore After Mr. Brooks saw this story he came to my home in West Virginia and remained with me for months in search of clover found only in that section of the United States. 1t was while I was camping with him. and