iv PREFACE 



as well as impossible in the amount of time usually allotted 

 to the subject in our crowded curricula. Of great impor- 

 tance is the economic side of zoology, especially its bearing 

 upon the applied sciences of medicine, sanitation, house- 

 hold science, and agriculture, and this phase has received 

 special attention in this guide. 



The desirability of field work has always been recog- 

 nized, but the special conditions under which schools must 

 work are so variable as to make any set directions for 

 field work of little value, and so they have in most cases 

 been omitted in this work. Each teacher can easily give 

 such special direction for collecting material and study 

 in the field as the locality of the school and the time avail- 

 able for it shall determine. 



Since zoology will probably be the pupil's first laboratory 

 science, the authors have preceded the more formal por- 

 tion of the manual with a series of short exercises on 

 familiar and easily obtained animals in order to introduce 

 the pupil to the laboratory method and to stimulate his 

 interest, training him at the outset to be constantly on the 

 outlook for specimens and to show him how much may 

 be learned from common things right around him, if he 

 will only use his eyes. We have also begun the more 

 formal portion of the guide with insects, since in the fall 

 they are easily collected and may be studied alive. They 

 illustrate, moreover, the principles of classification and 

 method of using keys and other means of finding out the 

 names of animals. This would seem to be pedagogically 

 sound, for some recent experiments with pupils show that 

 the first question that comes into a child's mind upon 

 seeing a new or strange specimen is " What is it .'' " 



A larger portion of the guide is given to the chordates 

 than is usually the case. The authors also believe that 



