COLLECTING FOR THE CITY NATURALIST

Not another eyeopener for city kids, but a mixed bag of techniques--how to make a bark rubbing, an insect killing jar, an ant house, a Riker mount, a snowflake collection, a kitchen garden, a bird list. . . how to mount an insect, a botanical specimen, a spider web. Directions on where to keep what has been collected are quite specific (""a twig collection can be stored in a shoe box or a small carton""), but the authors don't explain how and why a given chemical solution works on snowflakes to leave impressions on glass, or how to recognize a diving beetle when you see one (an important prerequisite to collecting it). An altogether desultory bunch of suggestions--too method oriented to awaken anyone's interest and yet not detailed enough to help even the beginning hobbyist.