rs. On the
first of April a little girl in one of our schools had identified and
described seventeen different species of birds which she had seen in
her yard. The same child fed a family of chipping sparrows; they
became so tame that they would come to meet her when she came with
crumbs, and would pick them up even when they dropped close to her
feet. The next year this family evidently came again and raised
another brood and brought them along to be fed, for seven and
sometimes eight would come when she called. The English sparrow came
also, and the little maid drove them away without the chippies being
disturbed. A boy from one of our schools was even more fortunate. In
his yard were a number of trees in which ample provision had been made
for the birds. Late in April, with other kinds a pair of scarlet
tanagers and a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks visited the trees.
These stayed and soon seemed to feel quite at home. To the great
delight of their neighbors, the house-dwellers, they built their
nests, the grosbeaks in a tree near one side of the porch, the
tanagers in one near the opposite side. They became so friendly that
sometimes when the boy came out upon the porch and played softly on a
mouth organ, the grosbeak's silvery warble and the tanager's loud,
clear voice joined him.

Brief written descriptions should be made by the pupils, similar to
the following:--

BLUEBIRD.--Length, six and a half inches; extent of wings,
about twelve inches; color, back, azure blue; throat,
breast, and sides, dull crimson; underpart, white; bill and
legs, blackish; eye, brown; arrives early in March; leaves
in late November. Song, soft and pleasing warble; sings both
in flight and at rest; nests in holes of trees or posts, or
in bird houses.

CHICKADEE.--Length, about five and a half inches; extent of
wings, about eight inches; legs, bluish gray; bill, black;
back, brownish gray; throat, chin, and top of head, black;
sides of head, white; underparts, whitish; wing and tail
feathers margined with white; nests in holes in trees and
stumps. The common name arises from their familiar note of
"chic-a-dee-dee."

CATBIRD.--Length, nine inches; extent of wings, eleven and a
half inches; bill and feet, black; eye, brown; color, slate
color, somewhat lighter beneath; top of head and tail,
black; reddish under the wings; arrives in May, leaves