Bird Notes and News 



59 



CUMBERLAND. 



Challenge Shield. — Greystoke School. 



Cumberland is remarkable, not only for 

 distinct progress in direct natui'e study, but 

 as furnishing the yoiuigest competitor, and 

 the smallest and most plucky of Schools. 

 Wasdale Head School has only seven scholars ; 

 yet it sends up six essays, and essays that 

 are good and genuine, and imbued with a 

 spirit of sympathy and love which has been 

 kindled, it is clear, by an enthusiastic teacher 

 worthy of Wordsworth's native county. A 

 general high level of work, with well-worded 

 and intelligent papers on Dipper, Pied Wag- 

 tail, and Corncrake, determines the success 

 of Greystoke ; the writers have keenly noted 

 the characteristics of these interesting birds. 

 The girls of St. John's, Keswick (no Keswick 

 boys have ever been heard of in this con- 

 nexion) turn out more than usually good 

 work, with admirable and delicately illus- 

 trated papers on the selected Trees. Cargo 

 makes a still more notable step forward, and 

 though a small country school may invite 

 comparison with any ; a capital paper on 

 the Magpie is one of the very few written on 

 that delightful bird. Kirkoswald has to 

 support the reputation of a School whose 

 name has three times been inscribed on the 

 Shield, and maintains its character for solid 

 and painstaking work ; the Birds as good as, 

 and the Trees better than usual. Melmerby 

 deserves special credit for a paper on another 

 species little chosen, the Heron, and for close 

 and observant studies of Trees. The Team 

 won the Shield last year, and competition is 

 so close among these five schools that it is im- 

 possible to predict the winner of 1913. With 

 work of this calibre turned out by a limited 

 number of Teams, it can only be because 

 schools are small and scattered that com- 

 petition is not stronger in point of quantity. 



HAJVIPSHIRE. 



Challenge Shield. — Ridge C.E. School. 



The lead in Hampshire is still taken by 

 the Sholing Girls' School, whose papers are 

 especially noteworthy for grace of feeling and 

 composition ; but having won the Shield in 

 two successive Competitions, Sholing is this 

 year a Champion Team, eligible for the Inter- 

 County contest only. The County honours 

 go to Ridge, and all the essays here again 

 denote real sympathy and a genuine and 

 delightful love of nature. The Bird subjects 

 are Long-tailed Tit, Groldcrest, and Wagtail. 

 These Ridge essayists are boys. The Team 

 taking Second Prize is composed exclusively 

 of girls ; and the girls of St. Peter's, Bourne- 

 mouth, have studied an admirable variety of 

 Birds, while their Tree papers are full of 

 information and are prettily illustrated. It 

 is certainly the only Team which suffers 

 through choosing too rare a species, the Wax- 

 wing, if seen for a minute, obviously not 

 lending itself to any considerable amount of 

 direct observation. Next in order of merit 

 come the Holme School, Headley, with well- 

 written essays and the best paper Hants has 

 sent in on the Lapwing ; Romsey Girls' 

 School, represented by a good all-roimd 

 Team, zealous and careful in their study and 

 including that neglected species the Mistle- 

 Thrush in their subjects ; St. Joseph's R.C. 

 School, Christchurch, whose boys and girls 

 write in a fresh and pleasing way, showing 

 some graceful fancy and considerable appre- 

 ciation ; and Awbridge, notable for much 

 information, both acquired and first-hand, 

 intelligently set forth. A number of other 

 Schools merit special commendation, for 

 Hampshire is a county which has been strong 

 in Bird and Tree work ever since the scheme 

 was launched, and though several old com- 

 petitors who were wont to take high places 



