Ohio Arbor Day 1913: Arbor and Bird Day Manual Part 12

5. The boy would bend his face down On his one little sound right knee, And he guessed where she was hiding, In guesses One, Two, Three!

6. "You are in the china closet!"

He would cry, and laugh with glee-- It wasn't the china closet; But he still had Two and Three.

7. "You are up in Papa's big bedroom, In the chest with the queer old key!"

And she said: "You are _warm_ and _warmer_; But you're not quite right," said she.

8. "It can't be the little cupboard Where Mamma's things used to be So it must be the clothespress, Gran'ma!"

And he found her with his Three.

9. Then she covered her face with her fingers, That were wrinkled and white and wee, And she guessed where the boy was hiding, With a One and a Two and a Three.

10. And they never had stirred from their places, Right under the maple tree-- This old, old, old, old lady, And the boy with the lame little knee-- This dear, dear, dear old lady, And the boy who was half past three.

--_From Poems of H. C. Bunner; copyrighted 1884, 1892, 1899 by Chas. Scribner's Sons._

BIRD-STUDY IN OHIO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

DR. EUGENE SWOPE.

Audubon Field Agent for Ohio, 4 W. Seventh St., Cincinnati, O.

The national movement for the study and protection of our wild birds is as well understood and supported by the teachers of Ohio as of any other State. The number of Junior Audubon Cla.s.ses formed in the schools of Ohio last year was second only to New Jersey. That little State took the lead. Ohio ought to take the lead this year. With our Commissioner F. W. Miller giving his approval and encouragement, and our Supervisors of Agriculture recommending bird study as a necessary feature of elementary agriculture, Ohio ought to be able to report a large number of Bird Cla.s.ses by the middle of May.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BIRDS AT HOME.]

It is a rare thing to find a Superintendent or princ.i.p.al actually unfriendly toward bird study, but a very large percent hesitate to admit it into their schools because it is new and untried.

The claims of bird study upon Superintendents and princ.i.p.als is one that cannot much longer be overlooked. The National desire to know the wild birds and to save the remnant now left, is yearly becoming stronger. An ever-increasing number of homes are becoming active centers and parents are looking to the public schools for help, and children everywhere are eager for bird study.

There is no risk in introducing Junior Audubon Cla.s.ses in a school.

Some of our country's foremost educators have tried it with gratifying results, for they find that there is no better subject to develope the power of _attention_ in children, there is no better subject to train children's _memories_, there is no better subject to awake _originality_ of thought in young minds, and it is unquestionably the supreme subject for composition work. Any teacher who cares to give bird study a trial may correspond with me and receive gratis, the help now offered by the Ohio Audubon Society.

THE BOY WITH THE HOE.

"Say, how do you hoe your row, young chap?

Say, how do you hoe your row?

Do you hoe it fair?

Do you hoe it square?

Do you hoe it the best you know?

Do you cut the weeds as you ought to do?

And leave what's worth while there?

The harvest you garner depends on you, Are you working it on the square?

"Are you killing the noxious weeds, young chap?

Are you making it straight and clean?

Are you going straight, At a hustling gait, Do you scatter all that's mean?

Do you laugh and sing and whistle shrill, And dance a step or two?

The road you hoe leads up a hill; The harvest is up to you."

--_Selected._

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHY DO BOYS LOVE SUCH A PLACE AS THIS?]

THE BEECH TREE'S PEt.i.tION.

O leave this barren spot to me!

Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree!

Though bush or floweret never grow My dark unwarming shade below; Nor summer bud perfume the dew Of rosy blush, or yellow hue; Nor fruits of Autumn, blossom born, My green and glossy leaves adorn; Nor murmuring tribes from me derive The ambrosial amber of the hive; Yet leave this barren spot to me; Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree!

Trice twenty summers have I seen The sky grow bright, the forest green; And many a wintry wind have stood In bloomless, fruitless solitude, Since childhood in my pleasant bower First spent its sweet and pensive hour; Since youthful lovers in my shade Their vows of truth and rapture made, And on my trunk's surviving frame Carved many a long-forgotten name.

Oh! by the sighs of gentle sound, First breather upon this sacred ground; By all that Love has whispered here, Or Beauty heard with ravished ear; As Love's own altar honor me; Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.

--_Thomas Campbell._

[Ill.u.s.tration: TURTLECREEK TOWNs.h.i.+P SCHOOL EXHIBIT AT WARREN COUNTY FAIR.]

THE CARDINAL.

BY WILLIAM DUTCHER,

President of National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies. Educational Leaflet No. 18.

The Cardinal is one of the most brilliant of American birds; the name is derived from its color, which is a deep red, somewhat less vivid than scarlet. This color is supposed to be named from the vestments of a cardinal, an ecclesiastic of high rank in the Roman Church. The female bird, while not so conspicuous as her mate, is clad in a rich brown with just enough of red to light it up. They are indeed a striking pair, and wherever they are found soon become favorites. They are known as Cardinal Grosbeaks, Red-birds, Crested Red-birds, Virginia Nightingales, and lately James Lane Allen has made familiar Kentucky Cardinal. The ill.u.s.tration shows the Cardinal's most prominent features--a very large strong bill, a conspicuous crest, which can be erected or depressed at will, short rounded wings and a long tail. The length of the Cardinal is a little over eight inches from tip of bill to end of tail.

Once seen, the Cardinal can never be mistaken for any other bird, especially as its plumage virtually never changes but remains much the same at all seasons of the year. Cardinals are resident wherever they are found, and their center of abundance is in the southern portion of the United States. The northern limit of its range is approximately a line drawn from a point in the vicinity of New York City, westward to southeastern Nebraska; thence southward to Texas, where it is found in the greater part of the state. These lines are arbitrary, but are given in order that a teacher may show scholars in a general way where Cardinals can be found. Further, they give teachers and pupils who reside outside these limits an opportunity to extend the Cardinal's known range by proving that it lives in their locality.

There have been records of the Cardinal made as far north as Nova Scotia and Southern Ontario, but it is believed that these were escaped cage birds, the Cardinal, probably owing to its beauty of plumage and richness of song, having long been a favorite cage bird. Alexander Wilson, in American Ornithology (Vol. II, page 145), which was published in 1828, says, "This is one of our most common cage birds, and is very generally known, not only in North America, but even in Europe; numbers of them having been carried over both to France and England, in which last country they are usually called Virginia Nightingales."

Dr. Russ, the great German aviculturist, says, "Beloved in its home by both Americans and Germans, it is protected and caught only for the cage bird fancy. Had been bred in Holland a century and a half ago and later in England." It is true that until recently large numbers of Cardinals were caught or taken from the nest while young, for s.h.i.+pment to foreign countries by bird dealers. Owing to the efforts of the National a.s.sociation, this traffic is a thing of the past. The Model Law, which is in force in all the States where the Cardinal is found, prohibits all traffic in these birds and forbids their being s.h.i.+pped from the State.