NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS 123 



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diameters : the unit of measure in the " field " or the lens of the 

 microscope, equivalent to " times." 



white-footed wood mouse : Text should read or wood mouse. There 

 are other wood mice, but Whitefoot is known as the wood mouse. 

 gives at the touch : an idiom, meaning moves back, gives way. 

 red-backed salamander : very common under stones ; his scientific 

 name is Plethodon erythronotus. 



His "red" salamander: Read chapter v in "Pepacton," by Bur- 

 roughs. His salamander is the red triton, Spelerpes ruber. 



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dull ears : Our ears are dulled by the loud and ceaseless noises of 



our city life, so that we cannot hear the small voices of nature 



that doubtless many of the wild creatures are capable of hearing. 



tiny tree-frog, Pickering's hyla : the one who peeps so shrill from 



the meadows in spring. 



" skirl " : a Scotch term ; see " Tam O'Shanter," by Burns : " He 



screwed the pipes and gart them skirl." 



bunches of Christmas fern : Gathered all through the winter here 



in the ledges about Mullein Hill by the florists for floral pieces. 



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yellow-jacket's nest : one of the Vespa Wasps, Vespa Germanica. 

 Read the first chapter of " Wasps Social and Solitary," by G. W. 

 and E. G. Peckham. 



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long-tusked boar of the forest : The wild boar, the ancestor of our 

 domestic pigs is still to be found in the great game preserves in 

 European forests ; in this country only in zoological gardens. 

 live in a pen . How might one, though living in a big modern 

 house, well furnished and ordered, still make a " pen " of it only. 



CHAPTER XII 



TO THE TEACHER 



Notice again that in the three chapters on things to see and do 

 and hear a few of the characteristic sights and sounds and doings have 

 been mentioned. Let the whole teaching of these three chapters be 

 to quicken the pupil to look for and listen for the dominant, charac- 



