played with most tumultuous enthusiasm and eager interest in a certain New York school of poor children. The teacher says:
“ Let's play ' I’m thinking of a bird.' All shut your eyes tight and think. Now. I’m thinking of a bird nearly as large as a Pigeon; he is brownish, with black barring on the back, black spots all over the breast,” etc., etc., giving a description of the Yellow Hammer, or Flicker, but leaving the characteristic marks until the end of the description. Before the teacher has gone far, a dozen hands are waving wildly and several vociferous whispers are heard, proclaiming in furious pianissimo: “ I know.” “ I know what it is.” Then the child who gets it right is allowed to describe a bird for the class to guess, and if the description fails in any point the class may offer corrections.
This appeal to the play instinct excites great interest, which is the thing chiefly to be desired.
When a number of birds have been learned in this way, a trip to the Natural History Museum would be of very great value, especially noticing the wonderful reproductions of actual scenes from bird-life there displayed. In this way city children could see in a single day more real bird-life than they could otherwise get in a year, as their few country days are generally populous picnics, from which the birds flee aghast.
The children should take their kindergarten principles of observation and conversational description to the Museum with them, and, on returning to school, should draw and color some bird they have seen. To observe and describe and, perhaps, draw each new bird whose picture is shown in the classroom is also a good thing. The writer passed a mounted Flicker through a class of fifty children of kindergarten age, let them look and carefully handle, and then asked for “ stories ” about it. One child said: “ I know—Oh—I know seven stories—no, eight—nine stories about Mr. Yellow Hammer,” and she really did know her “ nine stories.”
When they have gone as far as this, most bird stories will interest them, especially if the birds are humanized for them by the teller of the tale.
To sum up, it may be said that the best way to begin is to teach a few birds well,—a dozen or so,—by connecting with the child's experience, in some way, the information to be given, and then employing the play instinct by having bird games of various kinds, both kindergarten bird games and others; observation, description and drawing of birds may follow, and first and last, and all the time, all descriptions and stories given to children should be in terms of human nature.
