WITH CHILDREN IN BIRDLAND 75 



no fewer than 25 nests were found within the school 

 ground, which is a protected area. 



"I wish to join the league for protecting birds," 

 writes a small girl, "as I love these little animals. 

 I have come from the north of Queensland, and I 

 have seen millions of birds. It is a shame to see 

 these cruel town boys, the way they trap and shoot 

 poor, harmless little birds. This is the way I look: 

 Suppose a pair of birds have two young ones to pro- 

 vide for. Some cruel boys come along and shoot the 

 parents. What will the young ones do? Perish, of 

 course. I have no more to say." 



Full of matter is this note, signed by five girls of 

 a town primary school: "Yesterday one of us, 

 Eileen Rivers, saw a boy after a nest; so she took 

 his bag of books and threw it over a fence. He was 

 bigger than she was, so she thought that was the 

 best thing to do. He was afraid of losing his bag, 

 so got down quickly and went after it, then went 

 home." Resourceful Eileen! One is led to wonder 

 how that misguided boy would have fared had he 

 not been bigger than the sympathetic small girl. 



From a bush school there is this slightly am- 

 biguous note: "While reading my School Paper I 

 saw that pupils can become members of the Gould 

 League of Bird-lovers, and as I love the little birdies 

 I wish to become one." 



Some children claim to have clean sheets in 

 respect of the birds. "I have never caged birds," 

 writes one girl, "and I never will." "I am ten years 

 old," says a bush boy, "and I have not injured a bird 

 yet." 'Twas not always thus. The present writer 

 once confessed, at a meeting of the Melbourne Bird 



