48 THE NATURE STUDY COURSE. 



on visits to the woods or on field excursions; cultivate the 

 sympathies of the children on behalf of the bird until every 

 one of them will feel disposed to be a protector of the feathered 

 race. This is not the grade to dwell on the naughtiness of 

 the house sparrow, the cruelty of the shrike, or the predatory 

 habits of the hawk. It is time enough to begin a debit 

 account with the birds when you have laid up a substantial 

 credit of sympathy in their favor. This principle is applicable 

 not only to the study of birds but to that of insects and all 

 other kinds of sentient beings. In addition to the desultory 

 observations of birds in the field and orchard, studies may be 

 made of caged birds borrowed for a day or two. In the case 

 of timid ones guard the pupils against alarming them. I have 

 known a canary to be frightened to death by the exuberant 

 interest of a lot of school children. 



Insect Life- — No other insect is easier to rear in the 

 school-room than the common silk-worm. A few eggs can be 

 obtained in the spring, care being taken to have a supply of 

 lettuce, osage-orange or mulberry leaves ready for the young 

 larvae. If the frass is removed and a supply of food renewed 

 daily the silk-worms will require no other care. The box in 

 which they are kept need not even be covered. If the larvee 

 are started on mulberry leaves they object to a subsequent 

 diet of lettuce ; some of them die of starvation rather than 

 change their food-plant. If started on lettuce they can be 

 transferred at any time to mulberry. Their larval habits may 

 be easily observed by the pupils but most of the later trans- 

 formations take place in the holidays. 



If you hear of any teacher who has recently raised silk- 

 worms you need hardly make any apology for enclosing a stamp 

 in a letter and requesting of him or her a score or two of eggs. 

 Every one who raises them in school is pretty sure to have 

 more than will be required for the following spring's supply. 



