FINDING INFORMATION

[Music] the world is full of wonderful things to find out about finding out what you want to know can be an adventure that sounds like a baby bird it must have fallen from its nest Ricky knew that you should put a baby bird back in its nest much chance of finding a nest up there he couldn't leave it to starve so he decided to take it with him at school Ricky's friends asked all sorts of questions what kind of bird is it how are you going to take care of it nobody seemed to know Jimmy said how about asking Mr Miller at the pet shop he takes care of all kinds of birds Ricky was worried because the bird hadn't had anything to eat all day Mr Miller showed him that when you touch the bird on its beak it will open its mouth for food there didn't seem to be anything wrong with its appetite Ricky wouldn't have used the word authority to describe Mr Miller but that was what he was an authority is a fine source of information Mr Miller showed Ricky how to make a nest for the bird and how to keep it warm one of the good things about talking to an authority is that he can answer many of your questions right away that hole that's the opening to its ear Mr Miller answered other questions about birds about how to keep them and how to keep them healthy he talked about the different types of birds Ricky especially wanted to know what kind of bird bird he had found Mr Miller couldn't answer that he explained that it's hard to tell because this bird's feathers haven't grown when it has markings on its feathers Ricky can find books and pictures that will identify it followed Mr Miller's suggestion of using a shoe box to make a home he named the bird peep for obvious reasons a week later Ricky noticed some remarkable changes in Peep's appearance he was astonished by how fast a bird's feathers grow he began to watch for the changes in the markings on the feathers then he noticed that the feathers on the edge of of the wing were different from the others he began to realize how much you can see when you observe closely in another week peep looked like an adult bird but what kind not a robin a sparrow maybe Ricky decided to take Peep and go to the library to find out the ref reference section is a good place to begin for an overall view encyclopedias are arranged alphabetically by subject when Ricky found the chapter on birds he got a quick idea of what was in the article by looking at the section headings and then at the pictures peep didn't seem to look like any of those birds perhaps there were some other pictures another source of information is pamphlets if there are pamphlets on the subject they may contain a great deal of concentrated information just as an encyclopedia does often there is a pict picture file too a librarian can suggest ideas if you need help magazines are another good source to know about and of course there are books at the card catalog Ricky didn't know any titles or authors so he looked in the file under his subject Birds every card shows the call number title and author which Ricky noted down for the books he wanted then it was easy to match the notes to the books that night surrounded by all his research material Ricky found his answer peep was a housefinch sometimes called a linit at first rickia just wanted to know what kind of bird peep was but one subject led to another bird migration how they're able to fly he found he wanted to know all about birds peep looked and acted like an adult all right but before a bird can take care of itself it has to learn to eat Adult food Ricky got some from the pet shop and set out to teach peep to eat for himself he laid out the different kinds of food that lenit eat and wondered which one peep would choose first H he didn't seem to want any of them Ricky realized he had a problem let's see since peep was used to the eye dropper for baby food maybe he would take adult food from the end of it that idea didn't work either solving problems often isn't easy there he ate a seed now if he would just Peck for himself come on success it gave Ricky a good feeling to discover for himself what he needed to know the time had come to decide about Peep's future Peep had become a real pet but after all he was a wild bird and ought to go free the boys exchanged different ideas Larry remembered hearing about the aabon center where there was a kind of bird refuge maybe that would be the best home for peep they looked up the number and made arrangements to go it's always exciting to go to special places and have new experiences in new surroundings at the aabon center a man showed the boys around explaining that wildbirds were protected there he showed them some of the feeding stations many different kinds of wild birds lived there because they had learned that there was food and safety other friendly animals too a good guide can point out many interesting things about new surroundings the boys saw some of the Natural Foods lenets eat they saw a nest such as peep might build someday Peep and Ricky had both learned a great deal since they had met but now the time had come for peep to learn about the world on his own after Ricky's adventure with peep he would always be interested in Birds but every day can bring a new adventure something new and interesting to learn about finding information is easy when you know how and the world is full of wonderful things to learn [Music] a [Music]