i66 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



ceipts and expenditures. We believe 

 and stand for the end the satisfaction 

 and pleasure in keeping mice or chickens 

 or in raising violets ; we believe in the 

 suburbs and in the country as an end in 

 themselves. As a resource of life, not 

 as a source of dollars. If you are a 

 specialist in raising anything exclusivelv 

 for money, then, let us be frank, I be- 

 lieve there are class papers that will 

 interest you more than will The GuipE 

 to Nature. You may make your mon- 

 ey at something else. We stand for the 

 things that are loved and for the people 

 that love them. 



( hie of my favorite recreations is to 

 go hunting in ponds and ditches for 

 microscopic forms of life. The water 

 is strained and the results of half a day's 

 work may be carried in a few bottles 

 in a three pint pail. This pail and 

 contents, my strainer and dipper are a 

 center of curiosity to the people on the 

 trolley car on which I travel to and from 

 my favorite collecting marshes. It 

 seems especially difficult to understand 

 how I can be a user of such things for 

 the common question is "Can you sell 

 "em?" To these I have a stock answer, 

 "No, sir; but I can buy them as I did 

 these by a half day's hard work." 



In other words I can be "the end." I 

 never yet could understand why so many 

 people seem to think that some one else 

 can use such objects to better advantage 

 than I can. No, I am "the end," and 

 the things in the bottle are "the end," 

 too. They are not a circulating med- 

 ium with which to purchase something 

 else. 



And The Guide to Nature stands, 

 too, for the things you fancy, for the 

 form of outdoor life that best pleases 

 you. 



Speaking of selling the contents of 

 those mysterious bottles reminds me that 

 almost every visitor to my pet-house in 

 viewing the rabbits, cavies, etc., asks, "I 

 suppose you make a lot of money in 

 raising and selling these pets?" In fact 

 I should be almost ashamed to tell how 

 much of my salary I take in order to 

 possess this little luxury. How hon- 

 ored I should feel if somebody should 

 say, "I suppose you are capable of tak- 

 ing more pleasure with these than could 



any one else to whom you could sell 

 them." 



Then, also, of all this nature in the 

 schools, I fear that too often nature is 

 desecrated as a means to something sup- 

 posedly better. Frequently real "nature 

 study" does not please me because it is 

 so correlated, so used as a form of apol- 

 ogy or as a means for something else. 

 Even that master, Professor Clifton F. 

 Hodge, says, "Nature study is learning 

 those things in nature that are best 

 worth knowing to the end of doing those 

 things that make life most worth liv- 

 ing." His classic definition is admirable 

 in many respects. It is euphonious and 

 well balanced and contains much truth. 

 But to me it seems that nature study is in 

 itself "the end" as much as any doing 

 that may arise therefrom. 



And the mice and the things in the 

 bottle or the nets in the hutches are really 

 worth while. 



And this world, good and beautiful in 

 itself, is really worth making "the end." 

 We can take our full one hundred per 

 cent, here and let whatever else of good 

 may come be above par and clear gain. 



PANAMA MOSQUITOES.* 



In order to determine the species and 

 habits of the mosquitoes of Panama, and 

 thereby to assist in the sanitary war 

 against them as disease carriers, Air. 

 August Busck of the Department of 

 Agriculture, was recently sent on a 

 collecting and investigating trip to 

 the Canal Zone. The material 

 brought back by him has been 

 studied and identified, and a full report 

 showing ninety separate species known 

 on the Isthmus is just published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution in its series of 

 "Miscellaneous Collections." 



Inasmuch as each species of mosquito, 

 besides being physically different in 

 some respect from every other, has habits 

 of its own, the necessity of knowing ac- 

 curately and completely just what sorts 

 of mosquitoes have to be coped with, is 

 apparent. Some kinds breed exclusively 

 in artificial receptacles of water such as 

 tin cans and open vessels, others only in 

 hollow places in trees, some in high 



*Compiled from material furnished by 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



