104 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



so that improvement may be hopefully looked for. 

 Yatton, the first winner of the Somerset Shield, 

 sends an admirable set of essays, written mainly 

 from observation and manifesting keen interest in 

 the subjects. All are good, though that on the 

 Coot may be especially commended, because the 

 bird is not easy to watch ; and the drawings and 

 impressions of leaves and flowers are wonderfully 

 good. The proxime accessit is Clutton, which has 

 struck out a line for itself by writing essays in the 

 form of letters addressed to friends overseas who 

 might be supposed to be unacquainted with British 

 birds and trees. The idea is well carried out. If 

 the birds had been as good as the trees in the 

 papers of the Frome (British school) girls, the 

 second place would have been theirs, two of the 

 tree essays especially affording a capital example 

 of natural description in place of the dry botanical 

 details so often furnished. The Donyatt team, on 

 the other hand, write best about birds, and there 

 are some very pretty and quaint touches in their 

 essays. Special commendation must also be given 

 to Castle Cary, mainly on account of the two 

 singularly good essays by one member of it — a 

 little lass of eleven — and to Yeovil, whose essays 

 are all intelligent and careful. Catcott, with some 

 good and original bits, and Exford, who date their 

 notes with solemn precision, will do better next 

 time ; so, too, will the Frome (British) boys and 

 Exford if they will not try so hard to remember 

 what the book says. 



It is hoped in the next number of Bird Notes 

 and News to give an account of some of the 

 festivals. The Speaker of the House of Commons 

 has kindly consented to perform the ceremony of 

 presenting the Society's Cumberland Challenge 

 Shield to Kirkoswald School on December 12th, 

 and Sir Edward Fry presented the Society's 

 Somerset Shield at the festival at Yatton on 

 November 24th. 



Thousands of swallows returning southward were 

 overtaken by severe cold in Switzerland. Many 

 were frozen to death ; others, which fell exhausted, 

 were cared for by the inhabitants and sent on by 

 train to Italy, where they were liberated. 



Complaint is being made in Glasgow of the 

 slaughter of birds by Italians in the outlying suburb 

 of Carmyle. One man was seen to fire at a king- 

 fisher from a Clyde-side footpath, and another said 

 he had shot six the previous season for stuffing. A 

 third of these gentry is stated to come from Airdrie 

 to shoot blackbirds and thrushes for eating, having 

 a special all-round pocket in his coat in which to 

 cram his " game." 



"OBSERVATION" AND " NATURE 

 STUDY." 



The Board ot Education has recently (1905) issued 

 a blue-book of " Suggestions for the Consideration 

 of Teachers and others concerned in the work of 

 Public Elementary Schools," which contains a 

 chapter devoted to " Observation Lessons and 

 Nature Study." 



In the first place the distinction between the 

 two, rather arbitrary in character, is explained : 



'• In the lower classes teaching about common 

 things will be directed mainly to cultivating exact 

 observation. Lessons with this special intention 

 are most accurately described as observation les- 

 sons, but are more commonly called object lessons. 

 In the higher classes the power of exact observa- 

 tion is presupposed, and the main purpose of the 

 lessons is to exercise the scholars in reflecting and 

 reasoning upon the results of their own direct 

 observation. Lessons of this kind are now com- 

 monly described as nature study." 



The power of exact observation is supposed to 

 be mastered, it is interesting to note, at the age of 

 ten, when Nature Study proper is to begin ; but 

 the general comments of the chapter go to show 

 that the two things have one aim and idea, and 

 that the young may cultivate observation by ob- 

 serving living things as well as by the suggested 

 study of the grocer's window, and the uniform of 

 postman and telegraph boy " to the last button." 



"The first and most important aim of observa- 

 tion lessons is to teach the scholars to observe, 

 compare, and contrast ; the second is to add to 

 their knowledge of common things . . . But good 

 object teaching has other results which, though 

 indirect, are as important as these. It opens up a 

 readily accessible field for the exercise of brain, 

 hand, and eye, and thus makes the lives of children 

 more happy and interesting ; it directs the atten- 

 tion of the scholars to real things, makes them 

 acquainted with simple natural facts, and will 

 develop a love of nature . . . Class excursions in 

 or out of school hours will enable teachers to 

 obtain suitable objects for the lessons, and will also 

 encourage the study of plants and animals in their 

 usual surroundings as living things." 



Equally admirable are the generalizations with 

 regard to Nature Study, and, it may be said, equally 

 are they in accord with the aims and rules of our 

 Society's Bird and Tree Competitions. 



" The main factor which marks off Nature Study 

 from other school subjects should be that in it the 

 instruction proceeds solely from the actual object, 

 and never from description or reading . . . The 

 teacher should then be very jealous not to waste 

 this unique opportunity, it is his one chance of 

 teaching from the real ; as soon as Nature Study 

 is taught from the book and the blackboard it be- 



