il PREFACE. 



If a spirit of inquiry be awakened in the class (as 

 it surely will be if the text-book be of the right stamp 

 and the teacher use it aright), questions will occasion- 

 ally be asked which will call for information that 

 must be gathered from larger works, or perchance 

 from the teacher's own observation. This leads me to 

 say that no text-book is rightly constructed that does 

 not excite this spirit of inquiry and observation on 

 the part of both teacher and pupil. The more it does 

 so, the more fully is the true object of teaching attain- 

 ed ; for the communication of knowledge is by no 

 means of so much importance as the imparting to the 

 mind the power and the disposition to acquire it of 

 itself. Especially is this true of such a study as 

 Zoology, which presents to the pupil abundant mate- 

 rial for observation on every hand, in the garden and 

 in the field, on the land, in the water, and in the air. 



I will mention here some of the books which the 

 teacher may use with profit for reference in teaching 

 Natural History. Carpenter's Zoology, Carpenter's 

 Animal Physiology, Agassiz and Gould's Principles 

 of Zoology, Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, Kedfield's 

 Zoological Science, Nuttal's Ornithology, Kirby and 

 Spence's Entomology, Harris on North American In- 

 sects, Jaeger's Life of North American Insects, Jones's 

 Aquarian Naturalist, Buckland's Curiosities of Natu- 

 ral History, Broderip's Note -book of a Naturalist, 

 Harvey's Sea-side Book, Eennie's Insect Architecture, 

 Brocklesby's Yiews of the Microscopic World. Any 

 of these will be of great advantage to the teacher, but 

 I would especially recommend Carpenter's Zoology, 

 which constitutes two volumes in Bohn's Scientific 

 Library. Kedfield's Chart answers a good purpose in 



