ON LABELING SPECIMENS AND TAKING NOTES. 323 



please bear in mind that I have reference merely to 

 the taking of notes for the observer's personal use ; 

 the publication of conclusions based upon hasty, first 

 impressions is not advised. Fill your note-book with 

 descriptions, but digest them carefully, sifting out 

 for publication only those that exhaustive study and 

 repeated observations prove to be valuable. In 

 making observations be sure you are right and then look 

 again. 



Write your notes in as good style as you can 

 command. It does not pay to be slovenly here, giv- 

 ing no attention to literary form. Remember, how- 

 ever, that the more simple and direct an account is, 

 the better its style. 



Descriptions of Insects.— One of the best 

 methods of training the powers of observation is by 

 writing descriptions of natural objects ; for the prep- 

 aration of a careful description will lead the describcr 

 to see many features that otherwise would not be 

 observed. 



The nature of the description will depend greatly 

 on the amount of experience the writer of it has had. 

 The young beginner of Nature study will be expected 

 to mention only the more general features of the 

 object described, while the more advanced student 

 should be able to point out its distinctive character- 

 istics. Thus in describing a butterfly the beginner 

 should note, among other things, that it has six legs, 

 four wings, a pair of horns (antennse), two large eyes, 

 a coiled tube for sucking, and that the wings are 

 clothed with a dustlike substance. But the more ad- 

 vanced student should not be expected to state any 

 of these facts, except by implication in the statement 



