44 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



may possess of their comparative merits, will furnish 

 material for valuable lessons. Homing jiigeons are espe- 

 cially interesting. 



Pets out of the common run will prove instructive. A 

 wild bird tamed by some member of the class, a tame 

 toad, frog, newt, turtle, snake, fish, or even butterfly, is not 

 only interesting because of its rarit}^ but widens human 

 relations toward nature. In the great process of animal 

 domestication, in which we have made so little advance 

 in the last four thousand years, such work may be made 

 to constitute the crest of the wave of human effort, in 

 itself the most interesting thing in the world. 



