76 NATURE-STUDY 



simple yet accurate comparison. Where a regular course 

 in nature-study is provided for, it is better to plan the animal 

 lessons in such a way that the animals may be studied com- 

 paratively and classified. Thus a series of lessons might be 

 given on a group of mammals, or on this division as a whole, 

 or on the insects, or the birds, etc. Beautiful and instructive 

 relations could then be seen, which could never have been 

 brought out in a promiscuous study of plants one day, birds 

 the next, insects the next, etc., without a chance for classifi- 

 cation. 



In the primary grades nature-study is chieily observation 

 of the habits and general appearances of creatures, but even 

 here a little comparison and broad classification would be 

 profitable. 



The classification need not be emphasized, and certainly 

 it should be very untechnical. Sometimes it is merely suffi- 

 cient to group the animals together and the relationships may 

 be incidentally referred to, or even left wholly unmentioned, 

 for the pupils to see for themselves from the grouping. Or tell 

 the children that they are going to study the old Tabby-Cat 

 and its Wild Relations, or Wild Dogs, or the Cow and her 

 Wild Cousins. With higher grades the classification should 

 be much more prominent and systematic. 



Courses in Mammal Study 



It is not very material with which group of mammals we 

 begin in nature-study. In general begin with the more 

 familiar as types and then study the stranger forms. 

 More will be gained if a series of lessons can be given upon 

 the mammals, so that they may be studied comparatively 

 and classified. Hence it is well to select the mammals be- 



