Gresham's School Natural History Society

Abstract

THE twenty-seventh report of Gresham's School Natural History Society once more shows the virility of these societies in our public schools. The report contains a list of the meetings and visits arranged by the astronomy, botany, entomology, meteorology and ornithology sections as well as a record of common and rarer plant, animal and other observations made during the year. The editor points with pride to two fine photographs of the American pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos). This rare immigrant was first observed by one of the members of the Society in September 1948, and the photographs afterwards taken were the first to be obtained of this bird in the British Isles and probably in Europe. There is also a record of an attempt, in which the boys of Gresham's School have played an important part, to establish a fulmar colony at Weybourne and another of a visit paid by members of the Society to Skokholm. Abridged reports of two prize-winning efforts in an essay competition deal with the birds of the Yealm Estuary in South Devon and a biological survey of a small stagnant pool, and show that Gresham's School is admirably contributing to the future supply of our field naturalists.