crack
the ice.--_Ibid._

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.--_Ibid._

6. One of the most interesting features of a Bird Day program will be
the personations of birds.

The following was given by a boy in the seventh grade:--

One day in February a gentleman and his wife stopped beside
the wall of old Fort Marion, in St. Augustine, to listen to
my song. The sun was shining brightly, and little white
flowers were blooming in the green turf about the old fort.
It was not time yet to build my nest, so I had nothing to do
but sing and get my food and travel a little every day
toward my Northern home.

I am about as large as a robin, and although there is
nothing brilliant in my plumage I am not a homely bird. I
like the songs of other birds and sometimes sing them. I
frequently sing like my cousins, the catbirds and robins and
thrushes. But I have my own song, which is unlike all the
others. My mate and I build a large nest of small sticks,
pieces of string, cotton, and weeds, in thick bushes or low
trees. We have five eggs that are greenish blue and spotted
with brown. We eat many beetles, larvae, and many kinds of
insects which we find feeding upon plants. The worst enemy
we have is man. He steals our children almost before we have
taught them to sing, and puts them in cages. He is a
monster.

Many poems have been written about me. One of the finest is
by Sidney Lanier, in which he calls me "yon trim Shakespeare
on the tree."

Any one who has heard my song can never forget me.

What is my name?

7. Bird facts and proverbs form a valuable part of a program and may
be given by some of the children. Let the pupils search for them and
bring some similar to these:--

Birds flock together in hard times.

A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand.

The American robin is not the same bird as the English.

The bluebird and robin may be harbingers of spring, but the
swallow is the harbinger of summer.

The dandelion tells me to look for the swallow; the
dog-toothed violet when to expect the wood thrush.--JOHN
BURROUGHS.

It is not thought that any one bird spends the year in one
locality, but that all birds migrate, if only within a
limited range.

A loon was caught, by a set line for fishing, sixty-five