THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



53 



ently from other birds, come about houses 

 and build their nests in sheds and barns." 

 He described their eggs pretty accurately, 

 and said that the family he had watched, 

 raised their young safely and flew away. 



Other children had watched various 

 birds, and before our topics were ex- 

 hausted the hour for dismissal came. 

 When the pupils had departed, I had an 

 opportunity to examine the schoolroom, 

 and found it a very attractive place. 

 There was a good array of maps and 

 charts, a painted vine with green leaves 

 and red blossoms was twined about one 

 of the blackboards, a grooved stone celt 

 served as a paper weight on the table, 

 and in the window, there was a row of 

 thrifty pot plants and a glass jar contain- 

 ing bones immersed in some liquid, 

 probably to show that an acid will make 

 bones flexible by acting upon their carbon- 

 ate of lime. The walls were hung with 

 the portraits of great men, though I tailed 

 to recognize any naturalist among them, 

 at which I was surprised, for who could 

 be more appropriately introduced to 

 children as a subject of study and a model 

 to emulate than Darwin, or Agassiz ? 



There was a well filled bookcase in one 

 corner of the room, and in the only other 

 available corner was the school"museum. " 

 A number of shelves had been nailed in 

 the corner, and the collection they held 

 had been made exclusively by the children. 

 I think that there was not an object there, 

 that had been bought, or that had been 

 given by any older person. There were 

 several boxes of stones, many of which 

 were simply water-worn pebbles collected 

 because they looked pretty, but there 

 were also crinoids, crinoidal limestone, 

 Zaphrentes, Holocystes, impressions of 

 carboniferous plants and a fair display of 

 fossil corals, mostly Favosites and Organ 

 pipes. 



The children had certainly gathered 

 enough in ^this line, to illustrate, many 



valuable lessons in Biology, and to show 

 the use of each object in studying Ge- 

 ology. 



1 noticed the skulls of a cat and of a rat, 

 also several turtle shells. Picking up 

 one of the latter I expressed regret that 

 so harmless an animal should have been 

 sacrificed, but was informed that only the 

 dry shell had been found, and that none 

 of the boys were cruel enough to kill little 

 animals. 



All the articles in the cabinet had been 

 used as texts for school talks, and every 

 one contributing a specimen was expected 

 to contribute some facts regarding it. 

 Being asked to furnish an outline for a 

 talk on some specimen I selected a small 

 olive-green turtle shell, and having been 

 informed that one of these tuttles had 

 been kept in an aquarium in the school- 

 room and that the school was interested 

 in it, wrote: 



"PAINTED TORTOISE. 

 (Chrysemys marginata) 



Upper shell called carapace. Lower 

 shell called plastron. Divisions of shell 

 called scutes. 



In life, carapace was marked with a 

 narrow red stripe along middle row of 

 scutes, and red crescents on the outer 

 scutes; which are called marginals. 

 Marks now faded. Neck and legs beauti- 

 fully marked with yellow. 



Harmless. Feeds on worms and insects. 

 Burrows in mud. Goes into water to 

 avoid rain. Fondof basking in sunshine 

 and of floating near surface of water with 

 only tip of nose exposed. 



Lays eggs i>+x?s inches in diameter. 



Buries itself in mud in middle of Oc- 

 tober, and sleeps until April." 



The teacher informed me, that she had 

 received no training in Natural Science, 

 yet I inferred from what I saw of the 

 school, that she possessed in a marked de- 

 gree, a talent for interesting her pupils in 

 the study of nature, and for prompting 



