_Dear Sir_,--Yours of the nineteenth is received. I am delighted to know that your school children are to have a "Bird Day." I wish I could be there to tell them something of the delight of getting acquainted with their little brothers in feathers; how much more interesting they are when alive and doing all sorts of quaint and charming things than when dead and made into "skins" or stuffed; and how much greater is the pleasure of watching them to see how they live, where they get their dinner, how they take care of themselves, than of killing them, or hurting them, or even just driving them away. If the boys and girls only try keeping still and watching birds to see what they will do, I am sure no boy will ever again want to throw a stone at one, and no girl ever to have a dead bird on her hat. Very truly yours, OLIVE THORNE MILLER. CLINTON, April 30, 1894. _My Dear Sir_,--It strikes me that your idea is a particularly happy one. Should you institute a "Bird Day," the feathered tribe ought to furnish music for the occasion. A chorus of robins and thrushes and a few other songsters would be more appropriate than an orchestra. With thanks for your cordial good wishes, I am, Yours faithfully, CLINTON SCOLLARD. From the Department of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania this encouraging letter was received:-- HARRISBURG, April 27, 1894. SUPERINTENDENT C. A. BABCOCK. _Dear Sir_,--In your plan to inaugurate a "Bird Day" you have struck a capital idea. When in the name of agriculture a scalp act can be passed resulting in a year and a half in the payment of $75,000 by the county treasuries of Pennsylvania for the destruction of birds that were subsequently proved to belong to the feathered friends of the farmer, it is high time to make our pupils acquainted with the habits and ways of the feathered tribes. Some birds remain with us the whole year, others are summer sojourners, still others are only transient visitors. How much of the beauty of our environment is lost by those who never listen to the music of the birds and never see the richness of their plumage! May success attend you in carrying out your new idea of a "Bird Day." Very truly yours, NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER, _Superintendent of Public Instruction_. Bradford Torrey gives an additional title to the day, showing his appreciation of it:-- WELLESLEY HILLS, MASS., April 21, 1894.