BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



57 



of additional prizes, trees for planting, teas and 

 entertainments to the children, and kindly participa- 

 tion and encouraging speeches at the meetings. 

 It is greatly to be hoped that their example will be 

 widely followed, so that eventually there shall not . 

 be a parish, in these counties at least, without its 

 merry gathering on Bird and Tree Day. With the 

 county education authorities, the local committees, 

 and the teachers, rests the more serious part of the 

 work in supporting the efforts of the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds, and on their invaluable 

 co-operation depends the future of the scheme. 



BEDFORDSHIRE. 



The Bedfordshire Challenge Shield has been 

 won in 1905 by the Sandy (Girls') School, Clophill, 

 and in 1906 by the National School of Mor- 

 hanger ; as the standard of merit has risen each 

 year Morhanger is especially to be congratulated 

 upon a well-earned success. The festival was held 

 on the afternoon of December 20th, 1906, and was 

 a very bright and happy one. The schoolroom 

 was prettily decorated for the occasion, the Shield 

 forming the centrepiece above the platform, 

 and the Team wore green and white sashes, the 

 colours of Nature and purity. The chairman 

 was the Vicar, Rev. M. A. Prickett, who has taken 

 much interest in the work and last year gave the 

 children a lantern- lecture on birds ; he read the 

 Society's report on the essays, adding some kind 

 and congratulatory words. The prizes and medals 

 were presented by the Director of Education for 

 the County, Mr. F. Spooner, whose approval and 

 furtherance of this scheme of Nature Study have 

 done much to stimulate competition in the county, 

 and whose sympathetic and encouraging remarks 

 to the young folk were greatly appreciated. Mr. 

 A. Ransom, of Bedford, a well-known local natural- 

 ist, gave an excellent address, and a capital enter- 

 tainment of songs and recitations (the subject- 

 matter chiefly taken from the Society's publication, 

 " Bird and Tree Day Celebration ") was rendered 

 by the school-children, carefully trained by Miss 

 Cartwright, the head mistress. " The books,' 

 writes Miss Cartwright, "are much appreciated, 

 as our children love books, and those in the school 

 library are in great request." [Reading has also 

 had the pleasing effect of quickening their powers 

 of personal observation, for there was nothing 

 " bookish " about the Morhanger essays.] On the 

 following day the team were photographed, and on 

 a later date a tea was given to the children by 

 Mrs. Thornton and Mrs. Mercer. The "honora- 

 rium " is to be made the nucleus of a little fund for 

 taking the young Nature students short excursions. 



BERKSHIRE. 



With the exception of the first year of the com- 

 petition, when Touchen End were the victors, 

 Buckland School has an unbroken record of 

 success in winning the Challenge Shield, Mr. and 



Mrs. Fletcher having found and worked a vein of 

 exceptionally good metal among their scholars. 

 The tree-planting took place in December, when 

 a Siberian crab-tree, Virginian creeper, Pyrus 

 japonica and jessamine were planted ; but the 

 great event came off on St. Valentine's Day, on 

 which appropriate festival the school was so fortu- 

 nate as to enjoy a lecture by Mr. Richard Kearton, 

 who was the guest for the occasion of the Rev. W. 

 Buhner. The public were invited to share in this 

 pleasure, and there was a full room. The report 

 of the Local Committee, embodying the comments 

 of the judges of the R.S.P.B. and details of the 

 Bird and Tree scheme, was read and concluded 

 with an expression of thanks to the parents for 

 their sympathy and interest, and with a hearty com- 

 mendation of the competition to other schools " as 

 work for children which is to them as delightful as 

 play." Two of the prize essays were read and 

 loudly applauded, after which Mrs. A. T. West dis- 

 tributed the prizes. Mr. Kearton prefaced his delight- 

 ful lecture with a few remarks on the valuable work 

 the Society was doing in promoting nature study in 

 schools, and the worthlessness, in comparison with 

 such study, of " dried skins and musty specimens 

 in cases." Both lecture and illustrative slides 

 were, it is hardly needful to say, thoroughly appre- 

 ciated. Earlier in the day, which was kept as a 

 half-holiday, the County Council prizes were dis- 

 tributed and reference made to the Bird and Tree 

 work. The balance from the lecture fund, includ- 

 ing a donation of 10s., from Mr. A. T. West, was 

 sent to the Society. 



BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 



St. Giles's School, Stony Stratford, has the 

 honour of being first winner of the Bucks Shield, 

 and celebrated the success of its Bird and Tree 

 Team on December 12th. The main feature of 

 the occasion, beyond the presentation of the hand- 

 some Shield and the Team prizes, was a highly 

 interesting lantern lecture on Birds and bird-life 

 and the aims and objects of the Society, kindly 

 given by Mrs. Dixon Davies, Hon. Secretary for 

 the county. It was illustrated by slides from the 

 Society's collection. The meeting was held in the 

 Parish room, and conspicuous among the platform 

 decorations was a clever blackboard enlargement 

 of " F.C.G.'s " cartoon " The Waits " (the Society's 

 Christmas card), drawn by one of the boys of the 

 Team. The Vicar presided, and expressed his 

 pleasure in the school's proud position at the head 

 of all competitors from Bucks ; he was glad to 

 know that the children's eyes and ears were being 

 so well trained in the study of nature, and heartily 

 congratulated the head teachers, Mr. Baldock and 

 Miss Fryer, upon the enterprise shown by them 

 and on the success of their scholars. On behalf 

 of the Society he handed the trophy, to the head 

 boy and girl, as representing the school. He also 

 presented the prize-books to the members of the 

 Team. A cordial vote of thanks was accorded 

 Mrs. Davies. A few days later the tree-planting 

 took place, when a promising young horse-chest- 

 nut, given by Mr. W. Pattison, of Wakefield estate, 



