26o 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



damsel flies are emerging, — when we can let the nymphs 

 crawl up on our hands and see them transfigured in the 

 bright sunshine, — will give us glimpses of nature that 

 cannot be forgotten, and will make nature lovers of 

 us all. 



Butterflies and Moths. — In advocating the possession of 

 insect nets by the children I have had in mind chiefly the 

 collection of injurious insects, not the extermination of our 

 butterflies. As with roadside flowers, our nature-study les- 

 sons with butterflies may 

 well be protective rather 

 than destructive. Even in 

 connection with the col- 

 lection of cocoons and 

 chrysalids, I prefer to 

 store them in a cold out- 

 building and bring them 

 into the schoolroom only 

 after furnace fires are ex- 

 tinguished in the spring, 

 so that they may emerge 

 in their normal season ; 

 and then, after we have seen them emerge and, perhaps, 

 fed them a few times with honey, let them go, to keep the 

 world as full of butterflies as possible. Mrs. Brightwen ^ 

 in this way tamed the butterflies about her home so that 

 they would follow her about and alight upon her hands to 

 be fed. Is not this a better ideal, especially for young 

 children, than the collection of dead specimens .-* And, 

 furthermore, if we follow it, we shall be able to study 



1 Wild Nature won by Kindness, 



Fig. iio. Cecropia Larva Asleep 

 (Length 3 inches. Photograph from life) 



