Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 93

[Ill.u.s.tration: ZOOLOGIST

SYMBOL--SEAHORSE]

I. To pa.s.s this test a Scout must be able to tell in a general way the differences between plants and animals, the different kinds of animals, Invertebrates and Vertebrates, and among the Vertebrates to distinguish between Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals.

II. She must also pa.s.s the test on Mammals and the test on at least one other group: either Invertebrates, Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles or Birds, (For this see special test under Bird Hunter).

A. MAMMALS

1. Describe and give life history of ten wild mammals personally observed and identified.

2. Name two mammals that kill fruit trees by girdling them.

3. Mention three mammals that destroy the farmer's grain.

4. State game laws of your State which apply to mammals.

5. Name and locate one great game preserve in the United States and mention five game mammals protected there.

B. REPTILES

1. Give the life history of one reptile.

2. Give names of three Turtles that you have identified in the open.

3. What is the only poisonous Lizard in the United States?

4. Name and describe the poisonous Snakes of your State.

C. AMPHIBIANS

1. Describe the life history of the frog or the toad.

2. Describe the wonderful power of changing color shown by the common Tree-frog.

3. What is the difference in the external appearance of a salamander and a lizard?

4. Give a list of five Amphibians that you have identified in the open.

D. FISHES

1. Describe the habits of feeding and egg-laying in one of our native fishes.

2. Mention a common fish that has no scales, one that has very small scales, and one that has comparatively large scales.

3. Name five much-used food fishes of the sea, and five fresh-water food-fishes.

4. What are some necessary characteristics of a game-fish? Mention a well-known salt-water game fish, and two fresh-water ones.

5. Describe the nest of some local fish, giving location, size, etc.

E. INVERTEBRATES

(EITHER of the following)

a. Insects and Spiders

1. How may mosquitoes be exterminated?

2. Collect, preserve and identify ten b.u.t.terflies, five moths, ten other insects, and three spiders.

3. Describe the habit that certain ants have of caring for plant-lice or aphids which secrete honey-dew.

4. Describe the life-history of one of our solitary wasps. (See "Wasps Social and Solitary,"

by George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham; Houghton Mifflin Co.)

5. Describe the life of a hive or colony of honey bees. (See "The Life of the Bee," by Maurice Maeterlinck, Dodd Mead Co.)

b. Sea Sh.o.r.e Life

1. Name five invertebrates used as food and state where they are found.

2. What is the food of the starfish? How are starfish destroyed?

3. Name twenty invertebrates which you have seen and give the locality where they were found.

4. Name five invertebrates that live in the water only and five that burrow in the mud or sand.

5. What invertebrate was eaten by the Indians and its sh.e.l.l used in making wampum? Where have you seen this animal?

GENERAL REFERENCES

A. MAMMALS

"Life-Histories of Northern Animals," 2 vols., Ernest Thompson Seton, Scribner.

"American Animals," Stone, Witmer and Wm. E. Cram, Doubleday Page.

"American Natural History, Vol. I, Mammals," Wm. T. Hornaday, Scribner.

"Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers," John Burroughs, Houghton, Mifflin.

"Kindred of the Wild," C.G.D. Roberts, Doubleday Page.

"Animals, Their Relation and Use to Man," C.D. Wood, Ginn and Co.

"Popular Natural History," J.G. Wood, Winston.

B. REPTILES