For Teachers and Students
The Study of Birds—Another Way
THERE are, of course, as many different ways of studying birds as there are objects to be gained by the study. The systematic ornithologist, the economic ornithologist, the sportsman, the cultivator, has each his own purpose and his own way of becoming familiar with our little The modern bird-lover, who studies neither for scientific nor economic purposes, but solely to make acquaintance with the tribes of the air, adopts the manner of none of these, but has, within the last few years, evolved a way of his own. It is most commonly by what are called Field Classes, admirably described in the June number of Bird-Lore by Florence Merriam Bailey, who is herself a successful conductor of them. The way I have evolved from my own experience in acquiring some knowledge of the birds (which I did by myself, without a guide or the help of even a color-key to identification), and later in helping others in the same delightful study, is somewhat different. To begin with, I regard it as one of the most important uses of the study to lead the student to Nature herself ; to acquaint him with the delights to be found in woods and fields, and the benefit to mind and heart, as well as to body, of close friendship with the great Mother. This can be accomplished only by each person alone. In a crowd, even with one companion, however congenial, it is im- possible to get into a state of harmony with Nature that shall enable him to feel, with Whittier, "With mine your solemn spirit blends, And life no more hath separate ends ; " or, as Aldrich puts it : "A sudden tremor goes Into my veins, and makes me kith and kin To every wild-born thing that thrills and blooms." Therefore I insist upon each person who is not satisfied with merely knowing birds by sight and song, but wants really to learn something of their natural lives, and their habits when not disturbed, making his studies in the field entirely alone. I prepare him for the
work by an introductory course of instruction in house classes. My
(151)
