PREFACE ix 



have sought to obviate this difficulty in arrangement by 

 a somewhat detailed grade plan in which topics are sug- 

 gested for the grade best adapted for their pursuit. A 

 full cross-reference index will also assist in a similar way. 



The illustrations have been selected to express the 

 relation of man, especially the relation of the child, to 

 nature ; and since spontaneous activity is fundamental 

 to my plan of nature study, the majority of them are 

 intended to suggest ways and means of doing something. 

 To those who have contributed pictures, notably Charles 

 Irving Rice, J. Chauncey Lyford, Myron W. Stickney, 

 Charles L. Goodrich, The National Cash Register Com- 

 pany, Henry Lincoln Clapp, M. V. Slingerland, Miss 

 Katherine E. Dolbear, and Miss Jessie G. Whiting, I wish 

 to express my sincere thanks. Acknowledgment usually 

 accompanies the illustration, but the picture of a deer in 

 the velvet (p. 15) should be accredited to Mr. Rice. The 

 photograph of the mosquitoes (p. 89) and the portrait of 

 a young wood thrush (p. 345) are by Mr. Stickney. 

 Figs. 121, 123, 125, 131, and 135, together with most 

 of the data from which the bird-food chart (p. 323) 

 was constructed, are contributed by Miss Helen A. Ball. 

 The other line drawings, with exception of 20 d, 22, 25, 

 35 b, 71, 160, 161, 178, 193, 194, 195, were made under 

 my direction by Mrs. Helen Davis Burgess. The photo- 

 graphs not otherwise accredited are by the author. 



This book could never have been written, in anything 

 like its present form at least, until its various suggestions 

 had been given the test of actual school work. Miss 

 Mary C. Henry, principal of the Upsala Street School of 

 Worcester, Mass., has not only done this, but in addition 



