Introduction. ix 



The paper should be ruled on both sides, with ruled marginal 

 spaces, an inch on one edge and an inch and a half on the 

 other ; the wider margin should be perforated for binding. For 

 the drawings, good, unruled paper with the same marginal lines 

 and perforations should be used. Pads of these two kinds of 

 paper, with labeled covers, are furnished by school-supply 

 dealers. This system allows any desired arrangement of the 

 notes and drawings, irrespective of the time when they were 

 made. They may also be put together temporarily in any way 

 desired. When you hand in to your teacher any detached 

 papers, write your name and the date on the perforated margin, 

 where it will not mar the completed notes. On the cover 

 should appear the subject, your name, the name of the school, 

 and the date. Brief marginal headings are often helpful, to 

 yourself as well as to your teacher. The permanent notes are 

 usually to be derived from the temporary notes " revised and 

 enlarged." They should be in your own words, and your very 

 best language should be used. The notes should be not only 

 accurate, but they should be interesting. Avoid long-drawn 

 sentences. Brevity is the soul of wisdom as well as of wit. 



Drawings. These should first be made in pencil. Have a 

 medium hard pencil and keep it sharp. Avoid shading, but 

 make outline drawings. Make the first lines faint, and then, if 

 they suit you, that is if they conform to the thing itself, go over 

 them again and make them heavier. Make no line or mark that 

 does not correspond to something you see in your specimen. 

 Proceed slowly, and whenever you are dissatisfied erase the line, 

 using the kneaded rubber eraser. Do not abandon the drawing 

 to begin another ; keep " doctoring " the drawing with which 

 you start. Often it is desirable to make some feature more dis- 

 tinct than it appears in the specimen itself. For instance, in 

 representing the back of a bug or a beetle, the mode of over- 

 lapping of the wings is the important fact to be brought out. 

 But the line of union or of overlapping may be decidedly indis- 

 tinct, whereas some ridge that is of no significance may be 



