5 
When that Bill became law, as he was sure it must now, they 
would be able to rid themselves of a grea/t cloud of agony which 
hung over all the moors and wild places of the country. 
He considered that one of the most useful and important 
functions of the Society was their attempt to educate the children 
in the elementary schools to a love and to a knowledge of bird and 
tree life. Bird and Tree Challenge Shields, as they knew, had been 
offered last year to four different counties, and it was his great 
good fortune to be able to read carefully and examine the essays 
that were sent in by Westmoreland, the county neighbour to the 
one in which he lived. He could assure them that the work showed 
an intelligent and appreciative interest in, and careful observation 
of, bird and tree life around the little village of Warcop. Hot 
only did these children show that they had observed with their 
eyes and minds wide awake the extraordinary felicity of the changes 
of tree life through the year, and the extraordinary beauty and 
constant variety of the bird nature, but they had also used their 
hands as illustrators, and had made really beautiful drawings. 
He urged very strongly upon the attention of all present the 
educational value of this Bird and Arbor Hay, as it was called. 
Those who lived in the country knew that unless country life could 
be made full of interest, it was quite impossible to induce the farm 
lads and lassies to stay there; and everything they could do to 
make more attractive the ordinary life of the toiler in the fields 
was a distinct gain to the nation’s being. Nor was it only a question 
of the training of elementary scholars to 1 care for bird and tree life. 
It did not stop there, for it must be acknowledged that the 
indirect training it gave in quick and safe and sure observation was 
of the utmost value. We had learned in the last Boer war the 
need of trained eyes and swift observation for our soldiers, and in 
domestic service it was seen to-day how great was the need of swift 
eyes and habits of observation. The Society deserved the thanks of 
all who believed that Britain without eyes would not hold its place in 
the great first rank of nations, and that Britain with eyes could do 
so, and he specially urged upon those present to back up the Society, 
to push this educational scheme forward so that all the girls and 
the boys of the elementary schools from early days should have that 
trauing to the eye which the habit of observation and the love of 
nature would certainly bring. Throughout all the country, 
wherever he had gone and made inquiry about this work, he had 
found that the immense interest, outside the school hours, of the 
Bird and Tree Hay had so added to the intelligence of the child, 
that the master and the mistress had said that instead of losing it 
seemed to be giving the children time—they were able to be more 
swift in their lessons, and more able to do their w T ork in school 
because this habit of observation had been trained out of school. 
And when they saw how a little elementary knowledge of natural 
history gained early went with increasing power and preservative 
