Chapter XII: To the Teacher

In this story I have tried to settle the difficult question of
debit and credit between me and the out-of-doors. Shall we
exterminate the red squirrels, the hawks, owls, etc., is a
question that is not so easily answered as one might think. The
fact is we do not want to exterminate _any_ of our native forms
of life--we need them all, and owe them more, each of them, for
the good they do us, than they owe us for the little harm they
may do us. Read this over with the children with its moral and
economic lesson in view. Send to the National Association of
Audubon Societies, New York City, for their free leaflets upon
this matter. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,
Harrisburg, Pa., has a bulletin upon this same subject which
will be sent free upon application.

FOR THE PUPIL

PAGE 115

_June-bug_: the very common brown beetle whose big white grubs
you dig up under the sod and in composts.

PAGE 118

_rose-breasted grosbeak_: one of the most beautiful of our
birds, and a lovely singer.

PAGE 120

_Chickaree_: the common name of the red squirrel. The red
squirrel does not need to be destroyed.

_tree swallows_: They build in holes in orchard trees, etc.; to
be distinguished on the wing from the barn swallows by their
white bellies and plain, only slightly forked tails.

_chippies_: the little chipping sparrow, or hair-bird.

_red-eyed vireos_: the most common of the vireos; see picture
of its nest on page 40 of “Winter.”

PAGE 121

_cowbird_: the miserable brown-headed blackbird that lays its
egg or eggs in smaller birds’ nests and leaves its young to be
fed by the unsuspecting foster-mother. As the young cowbird is
larger than the rightful young, it gets all the food and causes
them to starve.

PAGE 122

_Thorn Mountain_: one of the smaller of the White Mountains; it
overlooks the village of Jackson, N. H.