B Y THE WA YSJDE 
67 
NATURE STUDY DEPARTMENT 
Domesticated Animals. 
[Teachers of Nature Study, pupils and 
all subscribers to the Wayside, are in¬ 
vited to write out this and following les¬ 
sons of the series and send them to the 
writer in care of the Editor.] 
This subject is well adapted for the 
winter months. There is no topic better 
fitted to bring the home and school closer 
together. It is not necessary to have 
the children’s pets brought into the 
school room. 
Did the domestication of our most 
valuable animals occur in historic times? 
How did they help man to rise from sav- 
a^erv? Is it worth while to repeat this 
race experience in the education of the 
individual? What traits of character 
will be developed in a child by the care 
of pets? 
What animal is most completely do¬ 
mesticated? Name one recently tamed. 
Make a list of the domesticated animals 
of this country. What are the possibili¬ 
ties for this w T ork? 
Did the Indians domesticate the dog? 
Of what use is the dog to savage man? 
Does it ever revert to the wild state? Is 
man preserving the most valuable traits 
of the dog by breeding? Explain what 
is meant by saying that no other aninaal 
has the same measure of the “human 
quality?” What care should a dog re¬ 
ceive, especially as to food? 
Is the horse native to America? What 
do you think was the first use man made 
of the horse? Has the horse been a great 
aid in the civilization of man? What 
can you say of man’s dependence on the 
horse at the present day? How does the 
horse rank with the dog in intelligence 
and devotion to man? What are the 
physical qualities which make this ani¬ 
mal so valuable? What care does the 
horse require? 
Are cats native to this conntrv? Do 
%/ 
they ever go wild? Do you think they 
could have been domesticated by savage 
man? What is a cat most attached to, 
man or home? Are cats more or less in¬ 
telligent than the dog? Are cats of real 
service in the home? Are thev good 
pets for children? Have you ever heard 
of their carrying disease? What have 
you observed of their destruction of 
birds? R. M. 
The Phoebe. 
The last w T eek of the month is quite 
certain to bring the first of the flycatchers, 
the phoebe. No matter how difficult it 
may be to tell the phoebe from the pewee 
in Mav or later, now there is no difficultv, 
for the phoebe has no competition from 
any members of his own family. He 
flits from fence rail to stump, always 
near the ground, snapping up the ad¬ 
vance guard of the insect host. At this 
season, he is not calling his “phoebe,” 
and seems to prefer the woods to the 
haunts of man. But he is a fly-catcher 
all of the time and his darting off into 
the air and back to his perch, to say 
nothing of that little mannerism of flip¬ 
ping the tail down every little while as 
if to keep his balance, easily betrays his 
identity. 
— Prof. 1. N. Mitchell in the Wisconsin 
Journal of Education. 
