MRS. VINA SHERWOOD-ADAMS by Vina Sherwood-Adams

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1915

MRS. VINA SHERWOOD-ADAMS

By Vina Sherwood-Adams

Bird Studies With Our Children — No. 3

MRS. VINA SHERWOOD-ADAMS

“I AM a child; O, do not tie me up— To schools, and desks, and books misunderstood, When I am yearning to run out afield, To search the quiet of the dim, sweet wood!”

“And, O! sweet mother, do not set me sums, And those stiff, staring copies of some word; Let me count meadows full of clover blooms, And learn the sweet, free singing of a bird.

“For I have found a teacher to my mind; She whispers sweet instruction when at rest I stretch brown arms, bare feet, in cool, deep grass That feels the heart throb ’neath her great warm breast.

“Then when the trees, the flowers, the sky, the birds, Have taught their true, strong lessons, I’ll come in With eager, hungry questioning, and say, ‘The books, sweet mother! quick, I must begin!’”

Before taking a group of children out to study the birds, a little preliminary introduction is needed. Birds are very shy, and it is positively necessary for a bird student to be quiet when making observations. A sudden raising of the voice, or a quick movement of the head or hand, will send the songster far out of sight. If you point your finger, or stare steadily at a bird, he will cease singing. If you form the habit of observing the birds each time in a certain part of the orchard or wood lot, observing the precautions noted above, they will lose much of their nervousness, and will sing their sweetest melodies in your presence. During the morning hours or just before twilight in the spring and autumn seasons, are the best song periods for most birds; but at any time of day we may study their habits, and jot down our observations.

Father could take the children out for an early morning stroll each Sabbath. How they would enjoy it—and to learn that father was interested in birds, too! My father had a peculiar love for wild flowers and wild animals. He used to go for long strolls each Sunday morning, his hands clasped behind him and one finger extended, so I, a wee girl, could reach up and grasp it as I followed. He would call my attention to the little wild flowers, telling me their common names, or to the bright-eyed chipmunk frisking along the fence—just a few simple words, yet those rambles are one of the sweet memories of my childhood.

Have the child try to imitate the calls of his favorite bird, and observe his position while singing. Is he found in the hedges, on the ground, or in the tree tops? Where is he building his nest? Of what is it made? What is its shape? How many eggs, and of what color, are found in it? Teach the children to peep cautiously over the nest at the tiny eggs, and not to touch either nest or eggs, as a bird will often leave the nest if disturbed in this way. Watch the bird and see of what his food consists. Though he does eat some fruit, you will find his diet consists largely of insects harmful to vegetation. “It has been found by observation and dissection,” says one writer, “that a cuckoo consumes daily from fifty to four hundred caterpillars or their equivalent, while a chickadee will eat from two hundred to five hundred insects. . . . One hundred insects a day is a conservative estimate of the quantity consumed by each insectivorous bird.” So the destruction of even one nest of eggs or one bird means a loss to our vegetation, even if we do not take into consideration the many sweet songs that will be left unsung.

As you study nature, constantly point the children back to conditions in Eden’s purity and forward to the loveliness of all things renewed in the new earth. In all our studies of nature we shall find something marred by sin. “In brier and thorn, in thistle and tare, is represented the evil that blights and mars. In singing bird and opening blossom, in rain and sunshine, in summer breeze and gentle dew, in ten thousand objects in nature, from the oak of the forest to the violet that blossoms at its root, is seen the love that restores. And nature still speaks to us of God’s goodness.”

Battle Creek, Mich.