lauJom |lote0 on ilatural Ibtortj 



MARCH 1., 

 Vol. 1. PROVIDENCE, iri^RUAftY 2, 1884. 



Entered at the Providence Post-Offiee as Seeond-Class Matter. 



No. III. 



]|anbom !f oios on "f atiinil f istori|. 



A Monthly Devoted to the Distkibution of Use- 

 ful Knowledge Concerning the Various De- 

 partments of Zoology, Mineralogy, and 

 Botany. 50 Cents a Year. 

 Address all communications to 



SOUTHWICK & JENCKS, 

 358 Westminster St., Providence, K. I., U.S. A. 



SPECIAL NOTICE. 



Subscriptions hereafter will begin with 

 the current number, or the March number 

 if desired. 



We laid by what we supposed a liberal 

 quantit}' of January- and P'ebruary numbers, 

 but the rapid increase of our subscription 

 list has nearly exhausted our surplus of 

 those numbers. 



We will pay ten cents each for the return 

 of either January or February numbers in 

 good condition, and those desiring them 

 will be supplied at the same price. 



Beginning with the March issue, we shall 

 la}' by a sufficient number to prevent the 

 above occurrence in future. 



The teacher, then, needs only to en- 

 courage the child in the exercise of this 

 natural impulse,- taking care to so direct the 

 effort that the results shall hot be dis- 

 sipated into vague and shadowy " notions." 



It is a matter of marvel that teachers 

 have not more generally recognized the im- 

 mense value of nature-study as a basis for 

 language-work. The abundance and va- 

 riety of material for study, and the interest 

 the children take in the work, should be 

 unanswerable arguments ; yet hundreds of 

 teachers, at the mere mention of the beau- 

 tiful study of insects, exclaim with a shud- 

 der, "Ugh! I wouldn't have the nasty 

 things around." — Chas. H. Ford, Journal 

 of Education. 



That children have eyes, and use them ; 

 that they have tongues, and use them ; and 

 that they think, is unquestionable, the limit, 

 in each case being the natural powers of the 

 child. What more sensible plan can be 

 adopted, than to take these powers when 

 they are in natural and active operation, 

 and train them easily and naturally, but 

 surely, in the proper direction? 



The awakening of mental activity being 

 taken as the foremost aim of zoological study 

 for children, it follows that there must first 

 be an interest awakened, — no, not awak- 

 ened, but encouraged. It will be hard to 

 find a child of five or six years, whose mind 

 gives evidence of ordinary power, who has 

 not already an interest in the study of 

 animals. Cats, dogs, horses, cows, flies, 

 butterflies, etc, are just as surely, and just 

 as naturally, matters of interest to a child 

 as a pool of water is to a young duck, — 

 not necessaiT to its existence., but essential 

 to its happiness and fullest development. 



We have to report three more cases of 

 death among animals from curious causes. 



A Biddcford gentleman, having occa- 

 sion to go into his wood-shed, found a 

 weasel lying dead on the block, with his 

 tongue frozen to an axe blade. The axe 

 had been used in cutting beef in the morn- 

 ing, and the animal in attempting to secure 

 a piece of the meat which adhered to the 

 blade, had singularly met his death. — Cot' 

 toil. Wool and Iron. 



Some time since, a specimen of the Little 

 Black-head Duck {Fulix affinis) was brought 

 to us with an edible muscle {Mytillus edu- 

 lis) firmly fastened to its tongue. The 

 duck must have closed its beak on the open 

 bivalve, which in turn closed upon the 

 tongue. The duck in distress flew at least 

 four miles, and was seen to fall, nearly 

 choked to death, completel}- exhausted, and 

 an eas3' capture. 



An esteemed correspondent from Penn- 

 sylvania writes that a gentleman riding 

 through a rough piece of country, saw a 

 fox run out in front of him. Trotting a 

 little way, Reynard sprang up a slight 

 elevation, and crouching under a shelving 

 rock, turned and watched the carriage. 

 The gentleman, alighting, threw a stone 

 with such precision that it struck him 

 squarely in the head and killed him at once. 



