Produced by Bryan Ness, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress) BIRD DAY HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT BY CHARLES A. BABCOCK, A.M., LL.B. _Superintendent of Schools, Oil City, Pennsylvania_ SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY * * * * * THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE LOVERS OF CHILDREN AND OF BIRDS * * * * * AUTHOR'S NOTE The aim of this book is to assist school children in the accurate study of a few birds. It is believed that if this be attained, further study of birds will take care of itself. Thanks are due the Audubon Society, ornithologists, educators, and legislators, for the generous approbation and assistance which they have given the Bird Day movement. Special thanks are due the Department of Agriculture for permission to use the illustrations in this volume. Those on pages 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 85, 87, 89, 93, and 95 are printed from electrotypes from the original illustrations appearing in "Farmer's Bulletin," No. 54. Those on pages 81 and 83 are from the Yearbook of the Department for 1899, and that on page 91 from the Yearbook for 1898. All these publications are issued by the Department. CONTENTS I. HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT FOR "BIRD DAY" II. THE VALUE OF BIRDS III. THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS IV. PLAN OF STUDY V. FURTHER SUGGESTIONS VI. DIRECTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK VII. PROGRAMS FOR BIRD DAY VIII. THE POETS AND THE BIRDS IX. OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF BIRD DAY X. SOME REPRESENTATIVE BIRDS * * * * * PART I BIRD DAY. HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT * * * * * BIRD DAY HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT I HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT FOR "BIRD DAY" In the spring of 1894 the writer's attention was attracted to the interest of the children in that part of their nature study which related to birds. Their descriptions of the appearance and habits of the birds they had observed were given with evident pleasure. They had a strong desire to tell what they had seen, not in the spirit of rivalry, but with the wish of adding to the knowledge of a subject in which all were equally interested.