203 



After a careful examination of the structure of each type, including ac- 

 curate drawings of the principal organs of each, and the reasoning, led by 

 skillful questions put by the teacher, from structure to function, the 

 teacher himself gives for one to two days a talk upon the systematic posi- 

 tion of the common representatives of the order, illustrating the remarks 

 by fifteen or twenty examples from the fauna of the home county. Ques- 

 tions of adaptation, local distribution and the causes thereof, come up in 

 such talks and are discussed by both pupil and teacher. 



After the insects comes a study of a mussel and snail as types of mol- 

 lusks, and a crayfish as a type of crustaceans. In this way the first half 

 year is spent upon invertebrate forms of life. 



After the pupils begin to understand something of the scope of the work 

 a certain group of animals belonging to the county, such as beetles, crick- 

 ets, snails, batrachians or mammals, is assigned to each one to be worked 

 up during the year outside of school hours. As full a collection as possi- 

 sible of the group assigned is to be made by the pupil. Full notes are 

 kept on local habitat, distribution and the causes thereof, habits, food and 

 so on, these notes to be incorporated into a paper to be read before the 

 class at the end of the year, which paper, together with the collection, 

 shall be graded as part of the year's work. 



The teacher goes with the class into the field on a number of occasions 

 in fall and spring, helps each collect in his or her special line, instructs 

 them in the preparation of specimens for a permanent cabinet, cites them 

 to works of reference on their respective groups, etc. All duplicates col- 

 lected are deposited in the high school collection which thus increases 

 rapidly in size. The " all around biologist " has for hie 'school room 

 motto the following: " He is a good naturalist who knows his own parish 

 thoroughly." 



In the work proper the second half of the year is devoted to vertebrates, 

 modifying this work so that after dissecting a type of each class of verte- 

 brates the pupil is required to draw up an accurate description of each of 

 three or four members of the class and from the description determine the 

 systematic position of each by the aid of Jordan's " Manual of Verte- 

 brates." 



Following this course of instruction the average pupil, at the end of the 

 year's work in zoology, will have something of a knowledge of the rela- 

 tionship existing between animals and plants and between the diflferent 

 groups of animals themselves. 



