26 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



phology and | of 1% with legal questions. Some significance 

 ought to attach itself to the abundance of questions dealing with 

 habits. More questions of this than of any other sorts were 

 asked concerning invertebrates, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphi- 

 bia and fish. More questions concerning taxonomy were asked 

 concerning herbs and fungi, than of any sort and the greatest 

 nimiber of questions asked concerning trees dealt with plant 

 physiolog}\ A very large nimiber of the questions asked and 

 grouped under habits and physiology might with equal justice 

 be considered as being under the heading of ecology. 



A most important observation in connection with the whole 

 list of questions is, that not one of the five himdred dealt with 

 exotic plants or animals which had no every day association 

 with the lives of the children. The only question dealing with 

 phases of life not comm.on in the immediate environment was one 

 concerning silk worms, and even here it dealt not with the life 

 habits of the silk worm but rather with how the commercial 

 product was secured from the natural source. 



The most commonly asked question was "What is the differ- 

 . ence between moths and butterflies?" Other very commonly 

 asked questions were, "Are all snakes poisonous?" "Why do 

 some animals hibernate while others do not?" "How can a frog 

 buried in mud breathe?" "How does kerosene kill mosquitoes?" 

 "What are the round swellings on the ends of willow branches?" 

 "How do insects live in the winter?" and questions of a similar 

 nature. Of course there were many absurd questions which were 

 asked such as "What agitates the horse's hair in water?" "Do 

 dragon flies sew up your ears?" and questions of this sort. The 

 absurd questions were however surprisingly few and everything 

 pointed to the conclusions that the questions given were such as 

 might have arisen from inability to interpret observations which 

 had been more or less deliberately made. 



It was hoped that this article might summarize a brief survey 

 of work which was done in Chicago, New York City, and Syracuse, 

 New York, in attempt to determine what nature topics were most 

 commonly presented artificially to children through toys and books. 

 The results of the observations made last year in stores in these 

 three cities indicated that it was evidently assumed by the manu- 

 facturers of the toys that the most desirable nature topics dealt 



