1 50 THE NA TU RE- STUD Y RE VIE W [3 : 5- may, 1907 



unravel the mysteries of nature with her pupils. She will not 

 then be under the necessity of saying "I don't know" to questions 

 asked, but may say instead, "we will seek to find out." She will 

 thus be enabled more fully to sympathize with her pupils in their 

 struggles to see and understand, and she will necessarily avoid 

 the danger of "shooting over the heads of her pupils." 



If the teacher be lacking in an appreciation and love for 

 nature she must seek to acquire these in some way. But how 

 can this be done? It is not always possible to place ourselves 

 in contact with lovers of nature who would be able to impart to 

 us such an appreciation, nevertheless there still remains a way. 

 The old saying, "Books are the best of things well used, abused 

 among the worst," is as applicable in nature-study as anywhere 

 else. Among the vast number of books about nature and 

 nature-study there are a few which though true to life are 

 capable of arousing in us the love for nature which we may lack. 

 Such are the books of William Hamilton Gibson, books redolent 

 with the odor of fields and woods, and written and illustrated 

 with a charm that will captivate all who do not set themselves 

 stubbornly to resist. I am wholly at a loss to understand how 

 any one with even the least imaginative power can read these 

 books, or some of those by John Burroughs, or the volume 

 entitled, "Insects Life" by Fabre (styled by Darwin "that 

 inimitable observer"), or "Our Social and Solitary Wasps" by 

 the Peckhams, without becoming enthusiastic over the study of 

 nature. Besides, among the great number of interesting things 

 mentioned in these books, those which interest us most can be 

 seen by the most ordinary observer, and that, too, in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of his own home, very often in his own door- 

 yard. My own interest in nature was much quickened when I 

 found by accident the stables which the ants build for the plant- 

 lice and the two-story nest of the summer yellow bird, giving 

 me at first hand the story of how she outwits the cowbird as so 

 charmingly told by Gibson. Such sights are not reserved, as I 

 at one time thought, for the favored few, but are placed within 

 full view of him who has eyes to see and uses them. 



Many teachers are hindered by prejudice from entering into a 

 full appreciation of nature. False and unfounded fear of insect 

 larvae, mice and reptiles must be overcome, or at least greatly 

 modified by the teacher who would be able to instruct her pupils as 



