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With an ordinary magnifying glass and this book as your guide, 50 adventures in close observation await you. These entertaining nature studies take you on field trips in and around your home, calling attention to interesting features of dozens of familiar or overlooked plants, insects, and other animals, and common materials like cloth, quartz, and the paper on which this book is printed.A great deal of basic natural-science theory and detail is presented in this delightful narrative. Flowers and grasses, fish scales, moth and insect wings, egg cases, buds, feathers, seeds, leaf scars, moss, molds, ferns, and common crystals are among the many structures examined, often comparatively. Many natural processes and behavior patterns are observed — seed dispersal and other methods of reproduction, protective coloration, rusting symbiosis, fertilization of the soil, breathing and case building of insects, and many others, all with only an inexpensive hand lens as equipment and with'specimens'you probably pass by going for a walk. More than 200 labeled illustrations accompany the text.The author is a former teacher and associate curator of the New England Museum of Natural History. No previous science background is assumed of readers, and curious readers of almost any age will find this book an interesting introduction to numerous facets of nature study.

'The book shows lots of tracks in drawings to help you. Birds, insects and mammals are included in this highly informative book. Get a copy today.'— Texas Kitchen and Garden and MoreYou can find them almost anywhere: crisscrossing a snowy meadow, etched in the mud of a stream bank or the wet sand of the sea breach, traced in the dust of a country road. Animal tracks are the signatures of the animals themselves and a fascinating part of nature study.Prints and tracks not only identify the animals that made them, but reveal much about animal anatomy, relationship to the environment, habits, and behavior. Animal tracks tell fascinating stories to those with the skills to decipher them.This book will give you those skills. It is a comprehensive guide to the prints and tracks of over 100 species of mammals, birds, frogs, toads, salamanders, snakes, lizards, turtles, insects, and other invertebrates — all common to the eastern United States. A special finding key will help you quickly identify the tracks of dozens of common birds and mammals. This key includes information on size of prints, type of gait, habitat, geographical range, and other distinguishing characteristics. In addition, the author has include dozens of his own drawings to aid in identification, and suggestions for making your own drawings, photographs and plaster casts of the tracks you find.For naturalists, campers, hikers, biologists, scouts — and nature lovers, this book is an ideal introduction to a relaxing, enjoyable pastime, and an opportunity to gain greater knowledge and understanding of the natural world.

With a simple microscope and this book, you can embark on 59 wonderful adventures in the natural world — make discoveries about the structures of numerous microscopic animals; find out what everyday objects and foods really look like at the cellular level; gain an understanding of how to prepare specimens and slides; and learn about many scientific phenomena such as how a fly can walk upside down on the ceiling. It's all here in simple-to-understand language and 142 clear line drawings.The author first examines under the microscope such everyday objects as a human hair, air bubble, scale of a herring, poppy seed and sugar crystal, and then offers through-the-microscope views of such creatures and objects as the water flea, hydra, house fly, amoeba, euglena, volvox, diatoms, desmids, algae, blood corpuscles, honey bee, rotifer, water-mites, potato starch, and other food substances, lichen, paramecium, coffee, sponge, chalk, yeast, bacteria, mustard, pepper, bryozoan, moss, mushroom, molds, cotton, and other textile fibers, ferns, dragon-flies, flea, spider, roots, and other plant structures, paper, aphid, fingerprints, nervous system of the grasshopper, and more.Richard Headstrom, formerly associated with the New England Museum of Natural History and an experienced teacher and writer on natural science for young people, has made this book simple enough for any beginner at home as well as interesting for more experienced students and lay readers. Enjoyable and instructive, these adventures with a microscope will appeal to all who are curious about what there is to see beyond the range of the naked eye.