Three Weeks in the Boat-Bhnd 



By GUY A. BAILEY, Geneseo, N. Y. 



With Photographs by the Author 



THE latter part of August and the most of September is a dull time for 

 the average bird photographer. Most birds are through nesting and 

 few birds are attracted to feeding-places so early in the year. 

 For some time I had been planning a boat-blind that would enable me to 

 get near the shore-birds and be portable in case my first site was unfavorable. 

 In August, 191 7, in company with Mr. Joseph Taylor, a camp was set up on 

 Sandy Point and we moved our boat-blind to the Point. The camp was pitched 

 a few rods from the Point, and, as it was in a pasture lot, we decided to put a 



THE BOAT-BLTND 



light fence around the camp to keep out the inquisitive cattle. The device 

 was hardly successful for they broke it down and disturbed the peace and quiet 

 of the camp. 



The boat-blind was a better blind than a boat, as we discovered when we 

 tried to float it to the Point. However, Mr. Taylor, with much dexterity and 

 good balancing, succeeded in keeping it right side up until it was towed to the 

 end of Sandy Point. Once landed we had little trouble in digging a canal and 

 moving it inland to what we thought was safe anchorage. 



The next move was to get some little pools of water on the level plain 

 near the blind so that the water would filter out and leave its load of small 

 organisms that seemed to be the food of the Sandpipers that we found to be 



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