Early Ramblers’ Bird Club
By Bessie L. Jackson
THE arrival of the spring birds led to the organization of the Early Ramblers’ Bird Club in the Rome church-school. There were only six pupils in school, but we met one Wednesday afternoon about the first of April, a half-hour before school closed, and decided on our name, our object, our time of meeting, and officers. There are two officers, a president and a secretary. They and a third person, the teacher, form an executive committee to plan the programs. Our fourteen-year-old president is certainly a success, and another girl of thirteen writes interesting reports from week to week. When it is pleasant, we have our meeting, which lasts from three to four o’clock, in a little grove in the back of a wealthy man’s lawn. It is an ideal spot, so many birds frequent the dark old balsams and tangled apple trees and shrubbery. Our aim is to know and love our bird friends. The name seemed to come from the teacher’s practise of taking one or two children at a time with her for an hour’s walk before school, just to see how many birds, and what birds, they could find. Too many little people mean noise, and Mr. Chapman says that if you would see birds, you must go with the sun at your back, and go alone. At our weekly meetings we have a program of songs, readings, and recitations, all simple ones about birds. Then each member tells what she has seen during the week. If descriptions of new birds are brought, we try to find their names in Chapman’s Hand-book, one of the treasures that we found in the public library, together with books by Wright, Long, Seton-Thompson, and Gibson. We have found by experience that six very young people can not talk to a point effectively for an hour, so our president proposes that we spend the remaining moments in drawing and coloring the bird that we have made a special study during the week. For instance, one week we count all the robins that we see, and find out as much as possible about them. That week we sketch a life-sized robin, and color it. Then, at the same time or at some other time, some one reads some interesting bird stories. The results are very manifest. The contact with nature, especially from the morning walks, has a marked influence for good on the children, and brings fresh courage to the teacher.