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 move- ment. 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 Farmers 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 .... 9 II. THE VALUE OF BIRDS 14 III. THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS 17 IV. PLAN OF STUDY 22 V. FURTHER SUGGESTIONS . .29 VI. DIRECTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK -34 VII. PROGRAMS FOR BIRD DAY 43 VIII. THE POETS AND THE BIRDS 52 IX. OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF BIRD DAY ...... 56 X. SOME REPRESENTATIVE BIRDS 64 PAGE PART i BIRD DAY. HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT BIRD DAY HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT FOR IN the spring of 1894 the writers 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. It was thought that this work would be done with even more effectiveness if a day were appointed to be celebrated as Bird Day. With the hope of making a memorable occasion of the day for those taking part in it, several of the noted friends of birds were asked to write something to the children, and to give their opinion of the introduction of Bird Day into the schools. Secretary J. Sterling Morton, the father of Arbor Day, responded with the following earnest letter, which was at once given to the public through Washington dispatches, and later was sent out from the Department of Agriculture, in circular No. 1 7 WASHINGTON, D. C, April 23, 1894. MR. C. A. BABCOCK, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, OIL CITY, PA. Dear Sir, Your proposition to establish a Bird Day on the same general plan as Arbor Day, has my cordial approval. 9 10 BIRD DAY Such a movement can hardly fail to promote the development of a healthy public sentiment toward our native birds, favoring their preservation and increase. If di- rected toward this end, and not to the encouragement of the importation of foreign species, it is sure to meet the approval of the American people. It is a melancholy fact that among the enemies of our birds two of the most destructive and relentless are our women and our boys. The love of feather orna- mentation so heartlessly persisted in by thousands of women, and the mania for collecting eggs and killing birds so deeply rooted in our boys, are legacies of barbarism inherited from our savage ancestry. The number of beautiful and useful birds annually slaughtered for bonnet trimmings runs up into the hundreds of thou- sands, and threatens, if it has not already accomplished, the extermination of some of the rarer species. The insidious egg-hunting and pea-shooting proclivities of the small boy are hardly less widespread and destructive... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.