ighest.

It is for these reasons that the _Girl Scout_ should learn as much as
possible of the Wonders of Nature. This study may begin wherever you
are, but rapid progress will be made by rambles afield and by visits to
the great Natural History Museums. For example, a visit to the
exhibition halls of the American Museum of Natural History in New York
will answer many of your questions about animals you have seen and will
enable you to answer many others for yourself, when you go out into the
country.

Nature Study in its broadest application includes all of the natural
sciences, such as zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, and astronomy.
So, there are many fascinating fields for study and enjoyment, and it
does not matter much where we begin, whether it be Wild Flowers, Trees,
Birds, Butterflies, or Stars.

[Illustration: THE BULLFROG IN ITS NATURAL SURROUNDINGS

See Snake, Turtle and Dragonfly and notice the tongue of the frog.
Habitat Group in Museum of Natural History]

Of the more practical subjects especially suited to the activities of
the Girl Scout are those civic problems which can only be solved by
team-play; that is, by working together. Among these may be mentioned:
The preservation of birds, wild flowers, and forests; control of
mosquitoes, house-flies, rats, weeds; diseases of plants and animals,
including man.

The civic nature of these problems is appreciated when we realize that
it would do little good, for example, for one person to destroy the
breeding-places of mosquitoes on his premises, if his neighbors did not
do likewise about their homes; or for one orchardist to cut out the
blight from his pear-trees or the black-knot from his plum-trees, if his
neighbors did not co-operate with him by ridding their orchards of these
diseases.

These practical questions are so well presented, together with plans for
their solution, in _Civic Biology_, by Clifton F. Hodge and Jean Dawson
(Ginn & Co.), that instead of going into details here, both the _Girl
Scouts_ and their Leaders are referred to this most useful work.

All objects of Nature are either living (organic) or non-living
(inorganic). The non-living bodies include the minerals and rocks. The
living bodies are either plants or animals. Plants may be divided into
two great groups, the flowerless plants and flowering plants. In general
the flowerless plants reproduce by means of spores, like the mushroom
and the ferns, while the flowering p