PREFACE. 



The following studies are the result of seven years' 

 experience in the high schools of Chicago, where the 

 experiment of applying modern laboratory methods to 

 the study of zoology and botany in secondary schools has 

 already passed through the trial stages and become in 

 some measure an acknowledged success. 



As the title indicates, the subject-mather of this book is 

 animal life and not animal forms, the authors' point of 

 view being to study living animals and to interpret their 

 activities, so far as possible, instead of compiling a series 

 of zoological obituaries. 



For the majority of high school pupils who do not go 

 to college, being early forced into the active duties of 

 life, zoology has a peculiar mission, since it awakens a 

 healthful interest in living things and aids in forming 

 habits of exact and philosophical observation. It is far 

 more important to make "naturalists" of such pupils 

 than anatomists, consequently all laboratory dissection is 

 omitted. Only advanced pupils showing a decided incli- 

 nation for such work, or those having some definite pur- 

 pose in view, should be encouraged to attempt dissection 

 so long as other more congenial avenues of discovery 

 remain unexplored. A briefer comparative study of sev- 

 eral related animals seems to lay a better foundation for 

 future additions to the pupil's knowledge than a more 

 exhaustive study of single types. 



