Bird Day

Bird Day; How to prepare for it, by

Charles Almanzo Babcock This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Bird Day; How to prepare for it
Author: Charles Almanzo Babcock
Release Date: April 30, 2007 [EBook #21266]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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.
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. 17:--
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.
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 directed 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 ornamentation 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 thousands, 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. It matters little which of the two agencies is the more fatal, since neither is productive of any good. One looks to the gratification of a shallow vanity, the other to the gratification of a cruel instinct and an expenditure of boyish energy that might be profitably diverted into other channels. The evil is one