PRACTICUMS 
1. OBSERVATION oF ANIMALS.—(a) Each student is to select five 
kinds of wild animals with which he is partially acquainted, and, 
from his observation and experience, enumerate the points at which 
they touch human welfare. Are they, in each instance, to be classed 
as helpful, as harmful, or merely as indifferent? Is their influence 
upon man’s interest direct or indirect? 
The student will also select five animals that appeal most to his 
interest. What quality, considering structure, habits, instinct and 
powers, is of most interest? As you study any one quality do you 
not find that it takes you at once into all others? Develop these 
facts into a story or composition paper. 
(b) Are there any domesticated animals whose species is repre- 
sented in the wild state? Compare the habits and general structure 
of some domesticated animal with that of the nearest kin among 
wild species. How many kinds of domestic animals can you enumer- 
ate? Have you ever seen a wild boar or a picture of him? Is it 
true that all our modern breeds have come from this ancestral 
stock? Can you explain how such great changes have been effected? 
What effect have food, care and use on a race or breed? 
2. ANIMAL CHARACTERISTICS.—(a@) What farm animals have 
front teeth on both jaws? One jaw only? 
(b) In what respects (enumerate) and to what degree have you 
ever noticed variation in farm animals? 
(c) Does use or disuse produce changes in the organs of an in- 
dividual? In what way has speed in the race horse and the milk- 
giving function in cows been developed? 
(d) Enumerate some facts of your own observation which illus- 
trate heredity. Are all blackbirds black? Why? Have you ever 
seen a white blackbird? Can you explain? Compare any offspring 
with its parents and note if there are any characters peculiarly 
marked in one of the parents. 
(e) Do animals change in shades of color with the seasons? Is 
color a protection in nature in the wild? 
3. Insect CoLLections.—To collect and preserve ordinary insects 
the amateur needs only net, killing bottle, phials or pill boxes (for 
living specimens) and insect pins. For butterflies and moths he will 
need a cork-lined collecting box and a phial of chloroform with a 
little brush fitted to the cork. ‘ 
(a) The best net has a 12-inch circle of No. 3 wire fitted firmly 
to a light but strong wooden handle 3% or 4 feet long. This loop is 
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