102 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



high place for personal study, and the papers from 

 St. John's-in-the-Vale show attentive individual 

 work, though they are too short and slight as yet. 

 The girls of St. John's, Keswick, always careful and 

 painstaking, write well on trees, but might give 

 more consideration to the characteristic traits of 

 birds selected. Three newcomers make a promising 

 start. The Melmerby and Scaleby teams both write 

 carefully, and show that they have been well taught ; 

 with fuller reliance on their own study and notes 

 they should soon be in the running for the Shield ; 

 and the Skelton essays, though short, are fresh and 

 genuine, and quite on the right line. With regard 

 to the two leading schools, it may be said that the 

 Kirkoswald papers are rendered more interesting 

 than the writing of most children by the introduc- 

 tion of incidents noticed by the writers and simply 

 described. The Greystoke essays, better written 

 as to both style and penmanship, and pleasant to 

 read, do not this year go much beyond the obvious 

 in their observations. Generally speaking, the 

 essays on trees sent from Cumberland are better 

 than those on birds. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Challenge Shield : Sholing Girls' School. 

 Second Prize : The Holme School, Headley. Third 

 Prize : Sandown Boys' National. Certificates of 

 Excellence : Havant Council School ; Sandown 

 Girls ; Ridge, Romsey ; Bitterne Park (Girls). 

 Highly Commended : Awbridge ; Boldre ; Bram- 

 shaw ; Copythorne ; Laverstoke ; Pennington ; 

 Romsey (Girls and Boys). Commended : Barton 

 Stacey ; Hayling ; Hinton Ampner ; Meonstoke ; 

 New Milton ; Wickham. 



Hampshire keeps up its reputation. There is not, 

 as in some counties, a strong probability that certain 

 schools which had led before will lead again, for the 

 work is so uniformly good that it is impossible to 

 predict results. A school commended one year may 

 leap to the very front next year. On this occasion 

 examination and re-examination was required to 

 determine the position of the first dozen teams ; 

 but the painstaking and intimate observation which 

 appears in all the essays from Sholing thoroughly 

 merits the honour won. The essays also are written 

 with much grace of style. The Holme School sends 

 in excellent and well-written essays ; and the 

 Sandown boys, who regularly secure one of the 

 highest places on the list, again distinguish them- 

 selves by good sound work, especially noticeable 

 being the essays on the Rock Pipit (a bird that has 

 not been discovered by any competitor before) and 

 the oak. Of the remaining schools in the first 

 class, Havant, which carried off the Shield last year, 

 sends in admirable work, accurate, thorough, and 



artistic ; beautiful handwriting and careful observa- 

 tion characterize the compositions of the Sandown 

 Girls ; the Bitterne Girls write especially well about 

 trees ; and there is something particularly attractive 

 about the frank and simple style and quick in- 

 telligence displayed by the Ridge team. The schools 

 in the second division all contribute highly meri- 

 torious work. Had all the papers from Copythorne 

 been equal to that on the Nightjar this school would 

 have taken a high rank ; and the Boldre and 

 Awbridge teams describe their trees at first hand, 

 and do it very well. There is again a narrow line 

 between these essays and some of those in the next 

 group, such as Barton Stacey, which has improved 

 conspicuously since last year, and Hayling, which 

 has chosen good but difficult bird subjects. 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



Challenge Shield : Alfred Street Boys' School, 

 Rushden. Second Prize : Northend School, Rush- 

 den. Third Prize : Victoria Council School, 

 Wellingborough. Certificates of Excellence : Badby ; 

 Great Doddington ; Croughton C.E. (Girls) ; 

 Braunston C.E. ; Rockingham C.E. ; Weedon 

 (Girls). Commended : Welton C.E. ; Charwelton 

 C.E. ; Daventry Abbey ; Rushden (Alfred Street 

 Girls) ; Cottingham-cum-Middleton ; Bugbrooke ; 

 Yelvertoft. 



After some experimental work last year on the 

 part of selected schools, Northants comes fully into 

 the competition for 1909, the Shield being in this 

 case presented by Mr. Allebone, Chairman of the 

 Education Sub-Committee, and the prizes by the 

 County Education Authority. Thirty-six teams 

 compete, and the essays reach a standard remark- 

 ably high for first year's work. The essays which 

 take, and well earn, the Shield would be impossible 

 under the Society's rules, for want of a time-limit 

 for writing papers. Of extraordinary length to be 

 the work of boys under any conditions whatever, 

 they contain an amount of accurate and original 

 information and denote a keen and persevering 

 devotion to the study, which are worthy of all 

 praise. Few boys or girls, however, could stand 

 such a strain as this ; moreover, general effect is 

 apt to be lost in the mass of detail. The papers 

 from Northend are of much the same character ; 

 and while both sets of essays must take leading 

 places, time-limit or word-limit is most desirable, if 

 not essential. The Wellingborough papers afford 

 excellent descriptions, neatly written and with many 

 graphic touches, and with good drawings. They 

 represent the class of work which the Society desires 

 to foster. Badby's well-written papers show a 

 good deal of original observation ; Great Dodding- 

 ton sends clever little papers, largely derivative 



