120 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [5:5— may, 1909 



the cat and preserve the robin. Also when emphasizing the 

 domain of man we may deal with the killing of creatures which 

 are more or less injurious to his interests. Nature-study may be 

 tributary to this, in a measure, but it is surely not nature-study; 

 for example, the child studies the cabbage butterfly in all its 

 stages, the exquisitely sculptured yellow egg, the velvety green 

 caterpillar, the chrysalis with its protecting colors, the white- 

 winged butterfly, and becomes interested in the life of the insect. 

 Not under any consideration when the attention of the child is 

 focused on the insect should we suggest a remedy for this insect as 

 a pest. Let the life-story of the butterfly stand as a fascinating 

 page of nature's book. But later when the child enters on his 

 career as a gardener, when he sets out his row of cabbage plants 

 and waters them and cultivates the soil and does his best to bring 

 them to maturity, along comes the butterfly, now an arch enemy, 

 and begins to rear her progeny on the product of his toil. Now 

 the child's interest is focused on the cabbage and the question 

 is not one of killing insects so much as of saving the plants. In 

 fact, there is nothing in spraying the plants with Paris green 

 which suggests cruelty to innocent caterpillars nor will the 

 process harden the child's sensibilities. 



The matter of museum specimens is another question for the 

 nature-study teacher to solve and has a direct bearing on the 

 subject of life. There are many who honestly believe the 

 stuffed bird or the case of pinned insects have no place in nature- 

 study, and certainly these should not be the chief means of study. 

 But again, let us use our common sense; the boy sees a bird in 

 the wood or field and does not know its name ; he seeks the bird 

 in the museum and thus is able to place it and read about it and 

 is stimulated to make further observations concerning it. Wher- 

 ever the museum is a help to the study of life in the field then it is 

 well and good. Again, there is no question but that making a 

 collection of insects is a most efficient way of developing the 

 child's powers of close observation as well as giving him a manual 

 dexterity in handling fragile things. Also it is a false sentiment 

 that attributes to an insect the same suffering at being impaled 

 on a pin that we might suffer at being thrust through by a 

 stake. The insect nervous system is far more conveniently 

 arranged for such an ordeal than ours, and, moreover, the 

 cyanide bottle brings immediate and painless death to the 



