small an expenditure of
time. If it is deemed unwise to establish another holiday,
or it may seem too much to devote one day in the year to the
study of birds, the exercises of Bird Day might be combined
with those of Arbor Day.

It is believed that Bird Day can be adopted with profit by
schools of all grades, and the subject is recommended to the
thoughtful attention of teachers and school superintendents
throughout the country, in the hope that they will cooeperate
with other agencies now at work to prevent the destruction
of our native birds.

T. S. PALMER,

_Acting Chief of Division_.

Approved:

CHAS. W. DABNEY, JR.,

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 2, 1896.

The results of Bird Day are noticeable in the schools in which it has
been observed. The spirit of the schools has become fresher and
brighter. There has been more marked improvement in the composition
work and in the language of the pupils. Most of the children know the
names of many of our birds and considerable of their ways of life, and
wish to know more, and are their warm friends and protectors. The old
relations between the small boy and the birds have been entirely
changed. The birds themselves have been affected. They have become
much more numerous. Many that were formerly rare visitants now nest
freely in the shade trees of the city; for example, the orioles, the
grosbeaks, the scarlet tanagers, and even the wood thrushes, and their
nests are about as safe as the other homes. The children say that the
birds know about Bird Day, and have come to help it along.

The correlation of the public library and the public schools is
assured in those towns where Bird Day has been introduced. If there
were no other result of this new day, the demand for healthful
literature would be enough. The call for Burroughs and Bradford
Torrey, Olive Thorne Miller, and the other writers of our out-of-doors
literature is so great as to attract attention in the libraries. In
fact, in one the writer knows well there is a constant and steady
demand, particularly from the boys. Frank Bolles is a great favorite
with them. The excursions to the woods have a new and aesthetic
interest. What would Emerson have thought when he wrote that matchless
bit--

Hast thou named all the birds, without a gun?
Loved the wood-rose and left it on its stalk?

if he had known that the boys of another generation would be able to
ans