BIRDS AND VERSES.
On the same day that these bird lists appeared, I received a little pamphlet—" the first of a series on nature "—containing verses on birds and flowers, with accompanying- description of the rhythmic measures, the beats and the lilt. It is issued by the Educational Supply Association, 171 High Holborn, at is. Some of the verses were shown to me in MS. some years ago when first written by Mr. Stephens, then a school- master at Cairo. Now children—as a primary schoolmaster in Oxfordshire proved to the hilt—have a natural talent for rhyme and rhythm which is easily evoked ; and it is a good idea to associate this gift with their native interest in birds and flowers. Take such a verse as the following, one from a poem on the Shearwater " How did you burrow the sand
High in the cliff for your nest,
Robber and gale to withstand,
Smoothed with Soft grass for your.breast, And ens white guest 1"
Could natural history be more succinctly taught / And the verse tempts to imitation. How very many delightful poems on birds have been written of late. Mr. Eric Parker's " Robin " is one. I should put at the very top Mr. Ralph Hodgson's address to the Sedge Warbler. Its Onomatopoeic skill is unrivalled.
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