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Bird Notes and News 



53 



clearing of woods which has gone on of late, 

 and points to the necessity for Tree-planting, 

 not only to take the place of trees carted 

 away for soldiers' huts and trenches, but 

 also to afford the huge supply of timber 

 which England now imports from abroad. 

 Tree-planting on " Arbor Day " emphasises 

 this in the children's minds. 



With regard to the economic value of 

 Birds, knowledge is much more halting, and 

 some of the most valuable insectivorous 

 species are set down as eating corn and fruit 

 or merely as " not doing so much harm " or 

 being " not such thieves " as the generahty 

 of bii'ds. On the other hand, there are many 

 schools in which a wiser spirit is carefully 

 inculcated, and in which the children watch 

 with perseverance the food taken by birds 

 and count up with interest the number of 

 times in which nestlings are fed. The 

 observing habit is here at its most practical 

 and useful development. 



Extremes have, as usual, to be guarded 

 against in Bird-and-Tree work. At one 

 «id is the nicely-rounded Httle composition 

 with conventional facts derived from book 

 or lesson. At the other the contents of a 

 note-book, sometimes setting down most 

 trivial events, transferred just as they stand 

 to the essay sheets. All observation is good, 

 and the reading of books is also good, but 

 the essay should, if possible, be a summary of 

 recollections and impressions, without re- 

 course to notes for more than a date or a 

 measurement. Some schools do excellently 

 well without use of books at all. Lancashire 

 is pre-eminent in this way. 



There are also two extreme views of the 

 Birds themselves. They may be watched 

 as a mechanical toy is watched, without 

 recognition of the little intelligence inside 

 the coat of feathers ; or they may be— and 

 often are — credited with human knowledge 



of good and evil, and described as " artful," 

 " thievish," " cheeky," " conceited," " sly," 

 and so on, as if schools and lessons and Ten 

 Commandments were as familiar to them 

 as to their youthful observers, and as though 

 they knew it their duty to eat the slugs and 

 leave the strawberries, to feast on charlock 

 and refuse to look at com ! 



The 1916 Competition is, on the whole, 

 extremely satisfactory. In some counties 

 the number of competing Teams has even 

 increased, and where the standard reached 

 is not equal to that of former years it is 

 fully explained by the compulsory absence 

 of Cadets with two or three years' experience 

 of Bird-watching, or of teachers enthusiastic 

 in the study. Double praise must be given 

 to Teams, like those of Filgrave in Bucks 

 and Atherton in Lancashire, who have 

 " bucked up " to do credit to the absent 

 master ; to boys employed at shops after 

 school hours, like those of Wickham in 

 Hants, who have utilised early closing 

 days for study ; and to others, both boys 

 and girls, who having left school for work 

 in field or house during the year, have yet 

 kept up their connexion with the Team 

 and made it possible to rejoin for the 

 Essay-writing. 



There is still a strong tendency to devote 

 wholly disproportionate space to nests and 

 eggs and too little to the general habits and 

 characteristics of birds. Winter walks, and 

 also bird-feeding in winter, such as is 

 practised notably at Bedworth, Princes 

 Risboro', and Chillington, is a good corrective 

 for this. Above all. Bird-language, songs 

 and call-notes, are neglected to an extra- 

 ordinary extent. It would appear that the 

 ear develops much later than the eye. In 

 the Tree papers the tendency is perhaps to 

 overdo detail, and lose the Tree in minute 



