PREFACE ix 



minutes each are given to it. In ungraded schools the 

 teacher should form one class of all pupils, or nearly all 

 pupils, for this subject, but she should not excuse the older 

 pupils from it. As the opportunities for observations are 

 best in the country, this work is not at all specially difficult 

 in ungraded country schools. The writer believes that a 

 teacher of average ability can make this work profitable 

 for pupils between the ages of eight and eighteen. The 

 teacher who has never tried work of this kind will be 

 surprised how readily pupils take hold of it, provided 

 that they be taught directly from nature. Nor does the 

 teacher need to feel disgraced if she cannot answer every 

 question asked by the children. There are many ques- 

 tions connected with Nature Study which no mortal has 

 ever answered. 



The territory for which this book is especially designed 

 extends from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains, 

 and from the Canadian Provinces to the latitude of southern 

 Virginia and Kentucky. 



Illustrations. Their main purpose is to assist teachers 

 in the identification of the plants and animals to be studied. 

 Nos. 3 and 4 are originals, drawn by Miss Josephine E. 

 Tilden, of Minneapolis ; all the other originals were drawn 

 by Miss Henrietta G. Fox, of Minneapolis. For those which 

 are not originals, due credit is given elsewhere. 



Nomenclature. On vertebrates I have followed the fifth 

 edition of Jordan's " Manual of the Vertebrate Animals 

 of the Northern United States " ; on insects, Comstock's 

 "Manual for the Study of Insects"; and on plants, the 



