THE STUDY OF THE RABBIT. 39 



of the child, not of the adult, and will follow the order 

 of study indicated at the end of the previous chapter. 

 This chapter is thus intended to illustrate, much more 

 definitely than did Chapter I, method in nature study. 



The domesticated rabbit is selected, because it is so 

 common and so many children have made a pet of it 

 and have observed its habits ; because it can be easily 

 obtained and kept and its life and habits can be readily 

 observed in the schoolroom or school-yard ; because a 

 rich literature, mainly of folk-lore, has been gathered 

 about the rabbit, and because it is an excellent type 

 animal and starting-point for the study of its many rela- 

 tives, the " gnawers " or rodents. Another good type 

 animal easily studied is the cat. 



Much of what follows is a ga the ring-up and summa- 

 rizing of work in the writer's class in nature study 

 methods in the Oswego State Normal school. The 

 work of each class begins with a careful study of some 

 common plant or animal, or both ; this forms the con- 

 crete foundation for the work of the term. One class 

 spent two weeks on the rabbit: observing (from live 

 animals at the school) and writing about its habits ; de- 

 scribing its structure and making drawings of the ani- 

 mal and of its parts ; comparing it with the squirrel, rat, 

 cat, canary-bird, and other animals, and thus classifying 

 it ; and finally searching the library to ascertain what 

 others had discovered and written about their friend, 

 and to gather all the folk-lore and other literature re- 

 lated to the rabbit. This was followed by a very hasty 

 discussion of aims in the rabbit study, and of the order 



