Animals. 85 



desirable for younger pupils to dissect a fish. The anat- 

 omy is too complicated to do that. Older pupils may 

 dissect, but in a large school I would not recommend it.) 



I conclude this lesson with a sample of pupils' work on 

 the pike, to which I have alluded. 



The fish lived in the school-room, having the water re- 

 peatedly changed, but at length it died, owing to some hurt 

 received when captured. 



After death we studied it as above outlined, and made it 

 the theme for drill in language, punctuation, capitalization, 

 and paragraphing. The following is one of the pupil's 



compositions : 



The Pike. 



(Description by Anna Hess, 8th grade, public school, Chatham, N. J.) 



The pike is a long slender fish. This one is about seven 

 inches long. It is shaped somewhat like a cigar. Its color 

 is of a dirty greenish white changing to gray. There are 

 eleven black or dark-brown stripes across the back. 



The six fins are very delicate pink in color. They move 

 backward and forward in the water, and so balance the fish 

 not to let him tip over. 



The bright eyes are on the sides of the head. They are 

 very large and they project from the sides of the head. The 

 fish has no eyelids. He does not need any. The water 

 washes the eyes, and so saves having tears and lids. A fish 

 has no ears, but there is a round spot back of the eyes. 

 That is the ear-drum. The pike-scales are very small and 

 thin. The fishes do not like water unless it is fresh. 



The fish acts nervous when the water gets stale, just as 

 boys do when the air in the school-room is bad. 



The Clam-shell (a Special Expedient). 



Note to the Teacher. It is not well to pursue the same 

 plan with every lesson. The manner should be varied as 

 much as the matter. As one way to vary the manner of 

 giving the lesson the following is suggested : Let the thing 

 in question be a shell say a clam-shell. Let the teacher 



