74 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



fit as was his pencil-case, and, accordingly, bush-birds 

 were strangers to the city. The sight of a Cuckoo, 

 Kestrel, or Blue Wren was something to be recorded 

 in the press. To-day things are different, and we 

 find our native birds turning towards the city in in- 

 creasing numbers. Each year some fresh arrival, 

 not seen for years, is noted by members of the Orni- 

 thological Association. Wild birds are losing their 

 timidity. At some schools they come to be fed by 

 the children at lunch-time. I have seen wild birds 

 catching flies from the hats of children and eating 

 crumbs at their feet." 



Bird Day has become an institution in most of 

 the Australian States. South Australia makes it a 

 movable arrangement that is, allows each district 

 to choose the time of the year that seems best suited 

 to local conditions but Victoria, New South Wales 

 and Queensland usually fall into line on a day in 

 October, what time our Lady of the Spring has got 

 past her chuckles at the breaking of Winter's sway 

 into a broad smile of serenity, and the nesting of 

 birds is in full swing. On that day practically the 

 whole of the school hours is given up to bird-study, 

 the material for this purpose being largely provided 

 by bird-lovers in the form of articles, stories, verses 

 and pictures in the school magazines of the re- 

 spective States. In these attractive journals 

 Queensland has specialised in recent years, and the 

 result has been a marked stimulus in the fraternal 

 study of the bird-riches of the great State which 

 constitutes the north-east of Australia. Consider a 

 few gratuitous observations from the children : 



It is recorded that at Kolan South on Bird Day 



