Nature Lore

1. After personal investigation, select for study one typical wildlife community, approved the Counselor (forest, field, marsh, pond, mountaintop, ocean, shore, etc.) near home or at favorite campsite. Take at least two hikes within that area and do the following:
   1. Submit a list of the most commonly found plants (trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, etc.), and animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, mollusks).
   2. Report on kinds of soils and most commonly found rocks.
   3. Describe springs, streams, lakes, and other bodies of water found.

2. From readings or talks with your Counselor tell how temperature, wind, rainfall, altitude, geology, tide, wild or domestic animals, or man help make the selected area what it is. Tell what is meant by the term "plant succession". Tell briefly what successions have occurred in the selected area in the last fifty years and what would probably happen in the next fifty years if the area is left undisturbed by man.

3. Complete all the requirements in two of the following fields:

   Birds

   1. Identify in the field 15 species of birds.
   2. Recognize 10 species of birds by calls or songs, or determine their presence by nests or other signs.
   3. Make and set out three birdhouses or two feeding stations and tell what birds used them; or photograph nests of four species of birds.

   Mammals

   1. Identify in the field six species of wild mammals.
   2. Recognize in the field the signs of six species of wild mammals.
   3. Make plaster casts of the tracks of three wild mammals; or photograph two species of wild mammals.

   Reptiles and Amphibians

   1. Recognize the poisonous snakes in your area and identify in the field six species of reptiles or amphibians (e.g., snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, toads, salamanders).
   2. Recognize two species of toads or frogs by their voices; or identify three reptiles or amphibians by their eggs, dens, burrows, or other signs.
   3. Raise tadpoles from the eggs of some amphibians; or raise adults from tadpoles; or keep an adult reptile or amphibian under conditions that keep it healthy for 1 month.

   Insects and Spiders

   1. Catch and identify thirty (30) species.
   2. Collect and mount thirty (30) species.
   3. Raise an insect from the pupa or cocoon or raise adults from nymphs or keep larvae until they for pupae or cocoons; or keep a colony of ants or bees for three months.

   Fish

   1. Catch and identify four (4) species of fish.
   2. Collect four kinds of natural animal food eaten by fish; or make lure and catch fish with it.
   3. Develop a simple aquarium containing fish and plant life and keep it successfully balanced for 1 month.

   Mollusks

   1. Identify five species of mollusks and crustaceans (e.g., clams, mussels, snails, shrimps, crags, crayfish).
   2. Mount at least six shells.
   3. Make an aquarium and keep in it two species of mollusks or crustaceans under such conditions that they stay healthy for 1 month.

   Plants

   1. Identify in the field 15 species of wild plants (trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses, mosses, etc.)
   2. Collect and label correctly seeds of 6 plants; or collect, mount, and label leaves of 12 plants.
   3. Build a terrarium of at least three species of plants and keep it successfully for 1 month.

   Soils and Rocks

   1. Collect and identify soils found in three soil profiles; or 10 rocks representative of the area.
   2. Find at least six species of animals that live in soil.
   3. Grow seeds for 1 month in two kinds of soil, and describe the difference in rate of growth.

4. Select one species of plant, mammal, bird, fish, reptile, or amphibian and, from personal observation and reading, write a simple life history (how and where and when it originated; how it grows; what it eats; what eats it; migratory habits if any; its natural home, etc.)