SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 



THE Tables are not, at first, to be committed to memory, 

 but only read to give a general view of the subject, and 

 afterward learned by a constant reference to tbem as each 

 class, family, etc., is taken up in order. Thus, the large 

 table on page 13 should be in constant use during the term, 

 and the last part would not be fully understood until the 

 book is finished. The text contains nothing which the cut 

 can better exhibit ; hence the figure should be studied care- 

 fully. The teacher is advised to require his pupils to draw 

 on the board an outline of each animal, showing its size as 

 obtained from the scale under the cut, and every peculiarity 

 in the structure of its teeth, claws, hoofs, bill, etc. This 

 should be followed by a familiar description, drawn from the 

 cut, the text, the teacher's instructions, and every other 

 source of information — above all, the creature itself, where 

 it can be secured. (See note, p. 114.) 



Pupils should be encouraged to make original researches. 

 They can prepare (see page 14) the skeleton of a cat, dog, or 

 other small animal. They can secure common birds, squir- 

 rels, frogs, snakes, and insects; and a little practice will 

 often develop a taste for curing and mounting which will be 

 as instructive as delightful. They can make collections of 

 birds' eggs and nests. Even the careful study of a common 

 fowl or an oyster, a bird building its nest, an ox chewing its 



