THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 17 February, 192 i No. 2 



The Fifteenth Meeting of the American Nature Study 



Society 



The morning of December 29, 1920 was decidedly wintry, the 

 thermometer registering three degrees below zero the night before. 

 However, the University of Chicago gave us a greeting warm 

 enough to compensate. Ten o'clock found a goodly nimiber of 

 nature devotees in Room 303, Emmons Blaine Hall which is a 

 building used by the Chicago School of Education. Room 303 

 adjoins the office and laboratory of Dr. Elliot R. Downing who 

 acted as a most cordial and delightful host to all of us who came 

 from afar. The room was well filled when the meeting was called 

 to order by President Drushel, and since the first part of the pro- 

 gram was to be given over to the Chicago Nature-Study Club, Miss 

 Sue J. Reid, vice-president of that Club, was asked to preside which 

 she did with dignity and dispatch. 



The first number on the program was a talk on Twenty-five 

 Common Spiders by Mrs. W. L. Moffatt. This was illustrated by 

 many lantern slides made from photographs taken by Mrs. 

 Moffatt. The pictures were excellent, and if any one thinks it is 

 an easy matter to make a good photographic portrait of a spider, he 

 had better try it once. Mrs. Moffatt's talk was informal and 

 especially valuable and interesting because of her many personal 

 observations upon the habits of those spiders which she had had 

 under careful observation. Many of her notes on spider habits are 

 entirely new to science and should be published. 



Mrs. W. A. Rowlee gave a talk upon the sand dunes, their flora 

 fauna and silva, illustrated by superb lantern slides made from 

 photographs taken by herself and husband and charmingly colored. 

 Many of the slides were as beautiful in composition and color as the 

 most famous landscapes in one of our art museums. It was hard 

 to tell whether they appealed most to the aesthetic or to the 

 natural history side of the audience. 



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