5. (a) What are these (b) (c)
How bright these glorious spirits shine Antiphon (from 5 Mystical Songs)
... Alan Gray (1855-1935) Francis Jackson R. Vaughan-Williams (1872)
P.J.R.M.
THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY President: D. K. CREWS, Esq., M.A. Hon. Secretary: R. J. GIBSON.
The first meeting was an informal one and was held on 13th May, in the Rise Garden, when the Committee was elected and the programme suggested for the term. On Mr. Crews' suggestion it was decided to have official meetings once a fortnight, and on alternate Saturdays to hold informal meetings, when members would set themselves some task to perform, and this programme was more or less adhered to. Only the formal meetings will be described here. On the alternate Saturdays members did such tasks as : organising the school egg collection, attending to the aquaria and animals, looking for a bumble bees' nest to set up an observational bee-hive, etc. A membership fee of 3d. was decided upon, membership cards being given out later. On 20th May a visit was made to the gulleries at Skipwith Common, permission kindly being given by Mr. Claude Thompson. They are situated south of the village, and a distance of over ten miles from the School. Over forty members went. The majority went by bicycle, and set off from School at 4-45 p.m., but even so, many were late back. The journey took about an hour. On arrival bicycles were left in some derelict R.A.F. huts, and the party split into groups. The gulleries consisted of two fairly large marshy ponds. It had rained hard the two previous nights and the going was very wet. Besides the black-headed gulls and their nests, there were seen also a teal's nest with eggs, a whitethroat's nest and egg, wood-pigeons' nests and a jay. Mallards were seen and a young teal was caught. Many rabbits were seen in the drier parts of the common. Other objects of interest were also found. On 27th May a small exhibition was held of the various things obtained from Skipwith Common at the previous meeting in conjunction with some of the exhibits in the lab. Members afterwards split into sections to dissect frogs, etc. On 3rd June an excursion was made to Askham Bog. We started at 5-15 p.m., so we had about one and a half hours there. Having arrived, we split up into parties. Mr. Crews described how Askham 44
