202 Bird - Lore
the lower classes an oral review is made. starfishes. sea urchins, sponges and corals."
She has lectured on crustacea.
The birds and insects are in great demand, as the study of them is re~ quired in several grades. There are forty collections of the former, con- sisting of five birds each and representing twenty species of our more common birds.
The entire expense of providing the collections and of delivering them at the schools. as well as that of transferring them from one school to another, is borne by the Museum.
Ur: of the callertian: in II]? vamtian “hauls—The usefulness of our cir- culating collections is shown by the demand for them in the vacation schools during the summer. In the latter part of July requests were received from a number of the nature-study teachers in the vacation schools. asking if we could loan them material for their work. Thirty—three schools were supplied with collections of birds, and ten schools with col- lections of insects. The collections of birds. in the four weeks which they were retained at the schools, were studied by 15,224 children: the collec» tions of insects by 7,000 children, making a total of 22,224 Thus more than tworthirds of the vacation schools in the city were using our collections.
The total number of children that studied the collections from De- celnher 1. 1903. to September 1. 1904, was 190,197.
Bird-Lore’s Fifth Christmas Bird Census
HE plan of reporting one‘s observations afield on Christmas Day
has met with such cordial and practical endorsement by bird students
throughout the country that BIRD-LORE'S Christmas Bird Census may now be considered a fixed event, which increases in interest as the accumulating records give additional material for comparison.
One of BIRD-Lou’s readers, Mr. Harold E. Porter, has very kindly compiled the appended summary of the data contained in the four preceding censuSes. Reference to the February, 1901, 1902. 1903, or 1904. num- ber of HIRDeLORE will acquaint one with the nature of the report of the day's hunt which we desire: but to those to whom none of these issues is available we may explain that such reports should be headed bya brief state- ment of the character of the weather, whether clear. cloudy, rainy, etc.. whether the ground is bare or snow-covered, the direction and force of the wind. the temperature at the time of starting, the hour of starting and of returning. Then should be given. in the order of the A. ()1 U. 'Checlt-
