46 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



In the Children's Hour for July, 1910, Mr. A. G. 



Edquist, of the High School, Adelaide, gives an 

 account of the School Bu'd Protection Clubs in the 

 State. Teachers are asked to call a meeting of all 

 children in the school who wish to protect birds 

 to appoint a smart boy as secretary. The promise 

 is, ''I will observe our native birds and do all 

 that J can to jirotect them from destruction." Mr. 

 Edquist writes : — • 



" I am sure there is not an Australian boy jjroud 

 of his native land and its wonderful birds, who 

 would ever be guilty, or even allow another to be 

 guilty, of wiKully miu'dering his feathered com- 

 panions of the Bush. Would an AustraUan boy 

 allow a stranger from some foreign country to trap 

 and kill our lovely bird-songsters ? I think not. 

 The heart of such a boy would swell with indigna- 

 tion, and his one desii-e would be to open the cages, 

 set the birds free, and ijunish the bu'd-destroyer. 

 Can we not do something to prevent the wholesale 

 and useless destruction of the feathered tribe ? 

 Single-handed we can do little, but if we remember 

 the motto " Unity is strength " and band our- 

 selves together into one great Bird-protecting Club 

 we can do a great deal." 



Bu-d and Tree Cadets will like to know that they 

 have thvis a strong body of fellow workers in the 

 great Commonwealth of Australia. In Victoria, 

 moreover. Bird Day is to be annually celebrated 

 in the State Schools. This year the date selected 

 was October 29th, wlien birds formed the subject 

 of all lessons and readings and songs, and the 

 children were invited to jom the Gould League of 

 Bii'd Lovers. 



A BIRD AND TREE DAY FOR FRANCE. 



The Bulletin of the Societe Nationale d'Acclima- 

 tation de France, for September, 1910, contains a 

 paper by Monsieur P. Amadee Pichot on the 

 Encouragement of the Study of Natural History in 



the Primary Schools, a subject which has been 

 unanimously aj^proved by the Society, who are now 

 seeking the best means for carrying out the recom- 

 mendation. M. Pichot explains fully the working of 

 the Bird and Tree scheme by the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds, adding : — 



' Les instituteurs se louent beaucoup des 

 resultants de ces concours ; les enfants s'y interes- 

 sent et s'y appliquent, leurs facultes intellectuelles 

 s'y develoiDpent et s'y affinent, et tout les branches 

 de leiu" instruction s'en ressentent. lis apprenent 

 surtout a aimer les choses de la Nature et prennent 

 Oiseaux et Plantes sous levir protection." 



Reviewing the work done in a similar direction 

 in France by School Forestry Societies instituted 

 by the Toixring Club, with their Arbor Day, and by 

 the Societe Nationale d' Aviculture, M. Pichot 

 urges that the Societe d'Acclimatation should give 

 a still stronger impulse to the study of natural 

 history. A circular-letter has accordingly been 

 addressed to the teachers of primary schools, 

 proposing the award of prizes and medals for essays 

 on the animals and plants of the locality, written 

 from personal observation and not from books or 

 manuals. The children are to study an animal, 

 a bird, or a plant, and the six best essays from each 

 school, with the note-books, are to be sent to the 

 Society, who will adjudge the awards. It is proposed 

 also to start a spacial fund to meet expenses, and 

 to provide honorariums for the teachers and savings- 

 bank books for the reward of pre-eminently good 

 work. 



It is a gratifying compliment to the R.S.P.B. 

 that its Bird a,nd Tree scheme should thus servo 

 as a model for so important a project among Bird- 

 Protectors across the Channel. 



LANTERN ENTERTAINMENTS. 



What may be called the social side of work for 

 the birds is very apt to be overlooked. Strenuous 

 workers are so deeply concerned in the crusade 

 against the brutality and illegality which characterize 

 alike the war of cupidity on rare species and the 

 war of stupidity on the commoner ones, that there 

 is danger of losmg sight of the necessity for educating 

 and appealing to the public by persuasive methods. 

 No cause lends itself more readily than that of 

 Bird Protection to the winning of jjopular sympathy, 

 and one of the best means to this end is the use of 

 lantern and slides. Everything nowadays is made 



plain to the mind of the public by lantern lectures ; 

 public amusement is centred in the lantern picture. 

 It is of the first imjiortance that neither lecture nor 

 picture should be neglected by bird-lovers. The 

 lecture can be either popular or scientific, can deal 

 with very varied branches of the subject, can suit 

 either the audience of naturalists or the audience 

 of schoolchildren. Examples of several varieties 

 are lent by the R.S.P.B., and several others are in 

 preparation. Local Secretaries and other ectm-ers 

 have done excellent work, but many niore friends 

 of the cause might make the winter season of 



