by G. S. Ripley
Nature Study
While on a hike the Scoutmaster announces that he will give points for the identification of trees; fens, flowers, birds and animals. Only the first time counts for a given variety, however. Thus red maple might count one when first identified, but could not be used again during that game. Most identifications count one point, but some of a rarer nature might count three or four.
This depends upon the judgment of the leader. At the end of a certain time, say 15 minutes, the boy with the most points wins. This game has several good points. It shows up the boys to whom God's out-of-doors is a closed book, it encourages those who know nature to tell about it, it really teaches the group the names of things, it develops observation and it makes the hike interesting.
Variation. On the hike each boy collects all the specimens he can, and does not tell the others what he has. These are brought together and spread out at the resting place. Each boy gets one point for specimens which no other fellow can match, and each boy failing to match gets one point off. Start with score of 100. In scoring start with the commonest things and discard one by one.
