CHAPTER XXVII.. A Splendid Collection.

A SPLENDID COLLECTION.

We could never finish a book if we told all there is to know about birds. So we shall have to close our story about these people, hoping that children who read it will love the birds better than they ever did before.

The birds will stay with you wherever you live, even if it is on a lonely island or a western prairie. There will be garden parties, and morning concerts, and evening serenades, and visiting birds will drop into your yards and stop awhile. Birds are just like other people; they like to take a meal with a neighbor now and then. It makes good feeling on both sides.

Any one can have a fine collection of beautiful birds without going to the museums. Not dead, stuffed, songless creatures, who cannot say "Thank you" for a crumb, or warble you a melody in return for a home in your yard. You can have this splendid collection flying from tree to tree, and making cradles among the flowers, and giving a garden party every day in the year, even though the snow lies on the ground.

There are wise people who study birds all their lives, never killing the little things to put away in a drawer with camphor balls. Such people come to love the birds very much, and to know their sweet, wise doings in a way that a person with a gun can never know them. Sick people can sit in the sunshine or in the shade and study the birds, and grow stronger as well as wiser.

There are some strange collections of birds to be found in milliners' shops. The milliners are not to blame for these, for if good and kind people did not want any out of their collection, they would not keep so many.

Sometime on your way home from school, if your mother is not wanting to see you early, look in at these show windows and see the collections we are speaking of. These birds are sold to foolish women and girls, and worn to church and everywhere else on hats and bonnets.

See how distressed the poor dead creatures seem to be,--how they are twisted all out of shape. They are made to squat or perch in positions that make them look as if they were in agony. Not one of them all has a natural, happy look, because the people who put them up to sell have never loved the birds nor studied their ways. All they care about is the money they can get for them.

You will notice that some of the birds in ladies' bonnets have been cut in two. Sometimes just the head and wings are to be seen. If these ladies stopped to see what they were doing, and to think of how ridiculous they look, they would never wear these ornaments, just like savages.

Many of the birds that are very rare and beautiful have been nearly or quite all killed for this fashion. Some of the most delicate plumes you see have been taken from the egret, or white heron, at nesting time. The mothers are shot or stoned to death very easily, because they will not leave their young. It is said that many are left wounded and yet alive after the plumes have been stripped off. There is no one to care for the young which are left in their nests, and so they die of cold and hunger. All this suffering is just to satisfy the cruel pride of women and girls who must wear birds in their bonnets.

If boys would resolve never to kill a bird, even though they could get money by doing it; and if girls would resolve never to wear a bird or a bird's wing on their hats, our country would be more beautiful with song and color than it has ever been.

We sat in church the other day, and in front of us was a lady with nine bird's wings on her bonnet. She was a tender-hearted lady, and probably would not hurt a fly herself. Yet her pride had really caused the death and suffering of five birds, and possibly of fifteen or twenty birdlings. She did not stop to think. Will you, kind reader, stop to think?

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READING.

=Badlam's Suggestive Lessons in Language and Reading.= A manual for primary teachers. Plain and practical; being a transcript of work actually done in the school-room. $1.50.

=Badlam's Stepping-Stones to Reading.--A Primer.= Supplements the 283-page book above. Boards. 30 cts.

=Badlam's First Reader.= New and valuable word-building exercises, designed to follow the above. Boards. 35 cts.

=Bass's Nature Stories for Young Readers: Plant Life.= Intended to supplement the first and second reading-books. Boards. 30 cts.

=Bass's Nature Stories for Young Readers: Animal Life.= Gives lessons on animals and their habits. To follow second reader. Boards. 40 cts.

=Firth's Stories of Old Greece.= Contains 17 Greek myths adapted for reading in intermediate grades. Illustrated. Boards. 35 cts.

=Fuller's Illustrated Primer.= Presents the word-method in a very attractive form to the youngest readers. Boards. 30 cts.

=Hall's How to Teach Reading.= Treats the important question: what children should and should not read. Paper, 25 cts.

=Miller's My Saturday Bird Class.= Designed for use as a supplementary reader in lower grades or as a text-book of elementary ornithology. Boards. 30 cts.

=Norton's Heart of Oak Books.= This series is of material from the standard imaginative literature of the English language. It draws freely upon the treasury of favorite stories, poems, and songs with which every child should become familiar, and which have done most to stimulate the fancy and direct the sentiment of the best men and women of the English-speaking race. Book I, 100 pages, 25 cts.; Book II, 142 pages, 35 cts.; Book III, 265 pages, 45 cts.; Book IV, 303 pages, 55 cts.; Book V, 359 pages, 65 cts.; Book VI, 367 pages, 75 cts.

=Penniman's School Poetry Book.= Gives 73 of the best short poems in the English language. Boards. 35 cts.

=Smith's Reading and Speaking.= Familiar Talks to those who would speak well in public, so cts.

=Spear's Leaves and Flowers.= Designed for supplementary reading in lower grades or as a text-book of elementary botany. Boards. 30015.

=Ventura's Mantegazza's Testa.= A book to help boys toward a complete self-development. $1.00.

=Wright's Nature Reader, No. I.= Describes crabs, wasps, spiders, bees, and some univalve mollusks. Boards. 30 cts.

=Wright's Nature Reader, No. II.= Describes ants, flies, earth-worms, beetles, barnacles and star-fish. Boards. 40 cts.

=Wright's Nature Reader, No. III.= Has lessons in plant-life, grasshoppers, butter flies, and birds. Boards. 60 cts.

=Wright's Nature Reader, No. IV.= Has lessons in geology, astronomy, world-life, etc. Boards. 70 cts.

For advanced supplementary reading see our list of books in English Literature.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS,

BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO.

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Number.

=Atwood's Complete Graded Arithmetic.= Present a carefully graded course in arithmetic, to begin with the fourth year and continue through the eighth year. Part I. 200 pages. Cloth. 40 cts. Part II. 382 pages. Half leather. 75 cts.

=Walsh's Mathematics for Common Schools.= Special features of this work are its division into half-yearly chapters instead of the arrangement by topics; the omission, as far as possible, of rules and definitions; the great number and variety of the problems: the use of the equation in solution of arithmetical problems; and the introduction of the elements of algebra and geometry. Three Book Series--Elementary, 218 pages. 35 cts. Intermediate, 252 pages. 40 cts. Higher, 387 pages. Half leather. 75 cts. Two Book Series--Primary, 198 pages, 35 cts. Grammar School, 433 pages. Half leather. 75 cts.

=Sutton and Kimbrough's Pupils' Series of Arithmetics.= Primary Book. Embraces the four fundamental operations in all their simple relations. 80 pages. Cloth. 25 cts. Intermediate Book. Embraces practical work through percentage and simple interest. 145 pages. Cloth. 30 cts. Lower Book. Primary and Intermediate Books bound together. Cloth. 45 cts. Higher Book. A compact volume for efficient work which makes clear all necessary theory. 275 pages. Half leather. 75 cts.

=Safford's Mathematical Teaching.= Presents the best methods of teaching, from primary arithmetic to the calculus. Paper. 25 cts.

=Badlam's Aids to Number.= For Teachers. First Series. Consists of 25 cards for sight-work with objects from one to ten. 40 cts.

=Badlam's Aids to Number.= For Pupils. First Series. Supplements the above with material for slate work. Leatherette. 30 cts.

=Badlam's Aids to Number.= For Teachers. Second Series. Teachers' sight-work with objects above ten. 40 cts.

=Badlam's Aids to Number.= For Pupils. Second Series. Supplements above with material for slate work from 10 to 20. Leatherette. 30 cts.

=Badlam's Number Chart.= 11 × 14 inches. Designed to aid in teaching the four fundamental rules in lowest primary grades. 5 cts. each; per hundred $4.00.

=Sloane's Practical Lessons in Fractions.= For elementary grades. Boards 30 cts. Set of six fraction cards for children to cut. 12 cts.

=White's Two Years with Numbers.= Number Lessons for second and third year pupils. 40 cts.

=White's Junior Arithmetic.= For fourth and fifth year pupils. Cloth. 50 cts.

=White's Senior Arithmetic.= In press.

For advanced work see our list of books in Mathematics.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS,

BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

=Hyde's Lessons in English, Book I.= For the lower grades. Contains exercises for reproduction, picture lessons, letter writing, uses of parts of speech, etc. 40 cts.

=Hyde's Lessons in English, Book II.= For Grammar schools. Has enough technical grammar for correct use of language. Co cts.

=Hyde's Lessons in English, Book II with Supplement.= Has, in addition to the above, 118 pages of technical grammar. 70 cts. Supplement bound alone, 35 cts.

=Hyde's Practical English Grammar.= For advanced classes in grammar schools and for high schools. 60 cts.

=Hyde's Lessons in English, Book II with Practical Grammar.= The Practical Grammar and Book II bound together. 80 cts.

=Hyde's Derivation of Words.= 15 cts.

=Penniman's Common Words Difficult to Spell.= Graded lists of common words often misspelled. Boards. 25 cts.

=Penniman's Prose Dictation Exercises.= Short extracts from the best authors. Boards. 30 cts.

=Spalding's Problem of Elementary Composition.= Suggestions for its solution. Cloth. 45 cts.

=Mathews's Outline of English Grammar, with Selections for Practice.= The application of principles is made through composition of original sentences. 80 cts.

=Buckbee's Primary Word Book.= Embraces thorough drills in articulation and in the primary difficulties of spelling and sound. 30 cts.

=Sever's Progressive Speller.= For use in advanced primary, intermediate, and grammar grades. Gives spelling, pronunciation, definition, and use of words. 30 cts.

=Badlam's Suggestive Lessons in Language.= Being Part I and Appendix of Suggestive Lessons in Language and Reading. 50 cts.

=Smith's Studies in Nature, and Language Lessons.= A combination of object lessons with language work. 50 cts. Part I bound separately, 25 cts.

=Meiklejohn's English Language.= Treats salient features with a master's skill and with the utmost clearness and simplicity. $1.30.

=Meiklejohn's English Grammar.= Also composition, versification, paraphrasing, etc For high schools and colleges, go cts.

=Meiklejohn's History of the English Language.= 78 pages. Part III of English Language above, 35 cts.

=Williams's Composition and Rhetoric by Practice.= For high school and college. Combines the smallest amount of theory with an abundance of practice. Revised edition. $1.00.

=Strang's Exercises in English.= Examples in Syntax, Accidence, and Style for criticism and correction. 50 cts.

=Huffcutt's English in the Preparatory School.= Presents advanced methods of teaching English grammar and composition in the secondary schools. 25 cts.

=Woodward's Study of English.= From primary school to college. 25 cts.

=Genung's Study of Rhetoric.= Shows the most practical discipline. 25 cts.

See also our list of books for the study of English Literature.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS,

BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO.

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Transcriber's Note

Text was relocated to prevent illustrations from splitting paragraphs. Minor typos were corrected. The final footnote on Page 144 was missing and the anchor was deleted. Several cases of a possible "æ" ligature were printed as individual characters and were left that way.