358 REPORT—1904. 
Incidental Teaching. 
Those who are not naturalists by hobby may do much to encourage 
children by giving their moral support to the simple interests of the way- 
side. Children may be encouraged to bring curiosities with them to 
school. Many schools now have a rack of bottles to receive wild flowers 
picked on the way to school; a slate reserved for Nature notes, where 
the first scholar who sees a swallow may enter the fact. Pots of growing 
seedlings may occupy the window-sills. Aquariums are always interest- 
ing, and a caterpillar cage might be tried. 
We hesitate to say much about school museums, unless they are to be 
annually burnt. Their use is in the making, not in the keeping. The 
course of instruction should be based upon specimens which may be 
handled freely, and, if necessary, pulled to pieces. But there is great use 
in a small glass case where objects brought in by the scholars may be 
placed at once and where every one may see them. This would become 
a ‘collection of instructive labels illustrated by appropriate specimens.’ 
But not for long ; the contents must be changed more often than a shop 
window if interest is to be maintained. 
Collections. 
The collecting instinct is sufficiently strong at the ages we are 
discussing. The collector is often a naturalist in embryo ; he is therefore 
to be judiciously led into the paths of progress. In certain directions— 
notably birds’-nesting—restraint more than encouragement may seem 
necessary ; but numerous recent books illustrated by photographs of 
birds’ nests show the possibility of teaching children to watch without 
destroying. The general line is to wean a boy gently from mere collecting 
to collecting with a purpose ; to collecting and observing, and then to the 
collection of observations in a notebook kept for the purpose. Collecting 
is a great help to accuracy of observation, and the boy who brings back a 
collection of pebbles from the seashore or of grasses from a hayfield will 
know far more about what he carries in his hand than a schoolfellow who 
has never troubled to pick up anything. Children may be encouraged to 
try how many different sorts of wild roses they can find along a country 
lane, and to write notes on their differences. 
The collecting instinct is a great motive power, if rightly directed. 
It should be used to solve special problems. And if prizes are offered, 
they need not be for the largest or best collection of wild flowers, but for 
collections illustrating insect pollination, or seed dispersal, or climbing 
plants. 
Books. 
We agree in thinking that books should only play a very subordinate 
part in teaching intended to bring elementary school children into first- 
hand contact with facts. 
For boys over fourteen, attending a secondary school, ready to do 
some evening preparation and coming from homes where the cost of books 
is not too overwhelming, the answer would be different ; but the caution 
that their first introduction should be to the real thing becomes even 
more important. We do not suppose that, at the ages of twelve to four- 
