260 



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 1 

 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. no. CECROPIA LARVA ASLEEP 

 (Length 3 inches. Photograph from life) 



