20 COMPANION TO TROPICAL READERS 



OBSERVATION OF HABITS OF ANIMALS 



Children should be led to observe and record such 

 details as the following: 



1. The seasons at which birds, butterflies, ticks, &c. 

 are most plentiful. 



2. The flowers that certain birds, butterflies, moths, 

 &c, visit for food. 



3. The insects eaten by birds, frogs, lizards, &c. 



4. The weeds eaten by domestic and other animals, 

 e.g. Spanish needle by rabbits. 



5. The fruits eaten by bats, e.g. duppy cherry, nase- 

 berry, guava, &c. 



6. Different insects and other pests attacking crops. 



7. The adaptation of organs of animals for functions 

 they have to perform, e.g. teeth of a horse, the fringe on 

 the bill of a duck, the tongue of the humming bird, &c. 



8. Powers of self-defence and self-preservation, e.g. 

 horns of cow, evil smell of green-bug, sting of scorpion 

 and wasp, colouring of lizards, structure of stick-insects. 



PRACTICAL WORK AND EXPERIMENTS 



As the teacher reads through the lessons on animal 

 life he will readily see that most of them can be illus- 

 trated with objects brought in by the children, e.g.: 



1. Bees: Pollen, honey, wax, flowers with nectar. 



2. The Coii)\ Milk, leather, bone, candles. 



In some cases interesting experiments may be under- 

 taken. 



1. Milk may be separated into its constituents. 

 Allow to stand, and the/?/ will rise; add limejuice, and 

 proteids will coagulate; if the remaining whey is evapo- 

 rated sugar will be left; and ash will be produced by 

 burning the residue. 



