126 



Bird Notes and News 



competition is keen and close, and personal 

 observation is, as usual, marked in nearly all 

 the papers. 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

 Challenge Shield. — Victoria Council 

 School, Wellingboro'. 

 Second Prize. — Cold Higham. 

 Third Prize. — Harlestone. 

 There is no falling off in quantity in the 

 work from Northants, where 34 Teams 

 compete, and the average merit is highly 

 creditable to all concerned. The children 

 seem to be younger than usual, younger 

 indeed than the Teams of other comities ; 

 and a " War " feature is the inclusion of two 

 Belgian boys among the members of Teams ; 

 the Bird paper of one of these young refugees 

 sent in, is an account of the Chaffinch, and is 

 wonderfully well done. The list is headed 

 by the two Schools which took the same 

 places last year. The Wellingborough 

 (Victoria) Boys write extremely good papers, 

 full of sound observation, and very cleverly 

 illustrated. Their Birds are Great Crested 

 Grebe, Coot, and Yellowhammer, the Trees 

 Ash, Beech, and Horse Chestnut. The young 

 Team of Cold Higham have a bright observant 

 style, and here another nine-year-old is 

 distinguished by capital work. The diligent 

 observation of Harlestone suffers from the 

 diary form of narration ; Mears Ashby 

 comes close up to the prize-winners with 

 original and painstaking papers, pleasant to 

 read. Badby, Culworth (D'Anvers Endowed 

 School), Croughton, Middleton Cheney, and 

 Welton all show careful personal work that 

 places them in the first division. In the 

 second division are Barby, Braunston, 

 Byfield, Clopton, Elore, Sudborough, and 

 Wootton. Many of the Essays are illus- 

 trated with remarkably good drawings, two 

 or three Teams even essaying to sketch their 



Birds from life ; and a great deal of pains- 

 taking nature-study gives genuine value to 

 nearly all the papers. Radstone distin- 

 guishes itself as the smallest school competing, 

 the average attendance being only ten. 



SOMERSET. 



Challenge Shield — Frome C.E. Boys' 

 School. 



Three schools stand pre-eminent in this 

 county, all sending clever papers, with 

 merits and failings so different in character 

 that it is not easy to compare them ; but 

 none quite equal to last year's work from 

 Exford. The first place is taken once 

 again by the Erome Boys' School, with 

 painstaking and well-written essays, ex- 

 ceedingly well illustrated. Those on Trees 

 are full of admirable description. The 

 Birds, zealously watched, are Yellowhammer, 

 Peewit, and Bullfinch. The Frome Girls' 

 Council School thoroughly deserve the second 

 prize, their papers consisting almost entirely 

 of observation direct from nature, intelli- 

 gently and thoughtfully put together, and 

 again with artistic drawings. The Chilling- 

 ton papers are, as in previous years, 

 particularly pleasant to read because of 

 the natural, sympathetic, and spontaneous 

 manner in which they are written. The 

 matter itself is also very good. Two papers, 

 on Wagtail and Bird-tree, are especially 

 charming. North Perrott has a first-rate 

 list of Birds and Trees watched, and the 

 papers are well and nicely done, botanical 

 lessons have given useful help without 

 overloading the descriptions with technical 

 terms. Another notable list of Birds is 

 furnished by Wambrook, who in their first 

 year select such species as Owl, Cuckoo, 

 Nightjar, Goldfinch, and Whinchat. This 

 promises well, and so too does the delightful 

 naivete and originality displayed. Another 



