WITH CHILDREN IN BIRDLAND 73 



of the child in the beautiful outdoor things of its 

 birthright. "It is not necessary," wrote he, "that 

 everybody should know everything. Is it not much 

 more to the purpose for every man, when his turn 

 comes, to be able to do something? And I say that, 

 other things being equal, a boy who teaches himself 

 natural history, observing everything with a keen- 

 ness, an intensity, an exactness, is not only a hap- 

 pier boy, but is abler in mind and body for entering 

 upon the great game of life than the pale, nervous 

 bright-eyed, 'interesting' boy who is the miracle of 

 the school, dux for his brief year or two of glory, 

 and, possibly, booby for life." 



Then Dr. Brown goes on to refer to a pamphlet 

 on "Ornithology as a Branch of Liberal Education," 

 and speaks of its author, Dr. Adams, as "a man 

 . . . who, at the end of a long life of toil and 

 thought, gave it as his conviction that one of the 

 best helps to true education was to be found in get- 

 ting the young to teach themselves some one of the 

 natural sciences, of which he singled out ornithology 

 as one of the readiest and most delightful." 



Figures relating to children's organisations can- 

 not be made very definite, but it is fair to suggest 

 that at least 200,000 boys and girls have enrolled in 

 the Nature leagues of Victoria, New South Wales, 

 South Australia, arid Queensland within the last ten 

 years. Two of these States specialise in Bird Clubs, 

 on lines successfully followed in the United States. 



"Ten years ago," writes the director of Nature 

 Study in South Australia, in sending some general 

 observations for the purpose of this sketch, "the 

 shanghai was as much a part of the schoolboy's out- 



