Bird and 
Tree Day. 
Challenge 
Shield 
Competi¬ 
tions. 
Publica¬ 
tions. 
I 2 
Bird and Tree Day (Arbor Day) is without doubt a national 
festival of the future. Since its introduction into this country 
by the Society for the Protection of Birds, the question of 
afforestation has come rapidly to the front as one of national 
importance, and Arbor Day is recognized as not merely an 
ornamental appendage but of practical value to the move¬ 
ment. Bird-lovers in the three Kingdoms should look to it that 
birds, a not less valuable asset in the country’s wealth, have a 
share assigned to them in the scheme, which becomes by this 
inclusion infinitely more interesting to children. The Society’s 
Bird and Tree County Challenge Shield Competitions have been 
held this year in five counties, and met with a most encouraging 
response from the teachers and children of elementary schools, 
especially in Hampshire and Bedfordshire, where the County 
Education Committees took an active interest in the matter, and 
in Cumberland, where Canon Rawnsley presented a beautiful 
Shield, designed by Mrs. Rawnsley, and executed in the Keswick 
School of Industrial Art. The Shield is of exquisite workman¬ 
ship, as will be gathered from the reproduction of the photograph 
on p. 15 of this Report. In Berkshire and Westmorland the 
competition was small, but some excellent papers were sent in. 
Personal observation, which the Society wishes to induce, is still 
overborne by book knowledge; but the exceptions to this rule 
increase in number, and often indicate keen watchfulness, while 
most of the essays show that the subject has been studied with 
patience, interest, and intelligence. The choice of birds selected 
for study ranged over 39 species, and 38 different trees were 
represented. Prize volumes were sent to all the competing 
schools, the Society’s Challenge Shields and chief awards 
being won as follows:—Bedfordshire—Sandy (Grirls’) School; 
Berkshire—Buckland School ; Cumberland—Burgh-by-Sands 
School ; Hampshire—Bitterne Park (Grills’) ; second prize, 
Sandown (National) Boys’. Proxime accessit ,Western (Council), 
Southampton ; Westmorland—Warcop School. 
It is much to be hoped that the celebration of Bird and 
Tree Day will be taken up by County Council Education Com¬ 
mittees in general, and also by the heads of secondary schools 
and colleges. 
The new publications issued by the Society in 1904 are: 
No. 50, “ The Biography of a Lie,” reprinted from Bird Notes 
andNeivs; No. 51, “ A Linnet for Sixpence,” by W. H. Hudson, 
with coloured illustration by J. Smit ; No. 51, “ Ospreys, Real 
and Artificial,” by W. P. Pycraft, A.L.S., F.Z.S.; No. 52, “ How 
to help in Bird Protection.” A new edition of “ Acts and 
Orders ” has also been issued. The quarterly paper, Bird Notes 
