SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 309 



earth, and watch him dig. The a leave hiin for future obser- 

 vation. 



I have described somewhat in detail this first work. The rec- 

 itations should be conducted throughout the course on quite a 

 similar plan. First, open and draw the animal for correct form 

 and relation of parts to the whole, then talk about him getting 

 the ideas of the young observers, and finally, a summing up of 

 the class observations by the teacher, and his statement of its 

 habits, the whole to be reviewed and written up by the class in 

 after-recitations. 



Next in the course is a bivalve shell, either a fresh-water clam 

 shell or an oyster shell. We will get both, if we can, and com- 

 pare them. Notice, it is the shell, and not the animal. 



Next in order is the living snail, then the snail shell, followed 

 by all the shells the pupils can bring into class, arranging them, 

 and making a simple classification. 



The next available animal comes the cray-fish ; or, as he is fre- 

 quently called, the craw-fish. Study him as minutely as the age 

 of the youngsters will permit, and group around him as a 

 memory nucleus, the crabs and lobsters. 



Next comes the locust, or a common grasshopper, the first in 

 the order of insects that we study. 



What a field of vast research here opens up, only the salient 

 points of which can be noticed by our young observers ! Insects 

 destructive to garden plants can be taken as specimens through a 

 long list, spending one or two recitations upon each, the order 

 being locust, beetle, butterfly, moth, and during the course at 

 least one, as, for instance, the common cabbage butterfly, must 

 be carried through the process of transformation from the egg to 

 the larva, the pupa and the imago. Kept through the winter in a 

 warm place, the butterfly will emerge very early in the spring. 



Never shall I forget the surprise and satisfaction with which a 

 class observed the unexpected appearance of four or five little 

 ichneuman flies coming from a little round orifice in the back of 

 a pupa of the cabbage-butterfly. We had preserved several 

 chrysalids late in the fall, and in the latter part of February the 

 butterflies had commenced to make their appearance, when the 

 class were treated to this ocular proof that insects may prey upon 

 each other. 



The study of the locust w r ould include a few of the common 

 varieties of the grasshopper and cricket. Under the beetles we 

 would include the common June beetle, potato beetle, the pea 

 and bean beetle, and the striped squash beetle. Under the head 

 of butterflies and moths, we may use in class work, besides the 

 cabbage butterfly, the codling moth and the five spotted hawk 

 moth, the progenitor of the tomato worm. Next in the course 

 comes the fly and the bee, and finally a general classification of 

 insects. 



