168 NA TURE-STUD Y REVIEW [17:4r-April, 1921 



of beaver, and were often obliged to carry our canoes Dver their 

 dams. We saw large poplars which they had felled and others 

 partially gnawed through, and took delight in walking along the 

 tops of their larger dams, as strong as man-made masonry. In the 

 evenings we heard the resounding smack of the scout's broad tail 

 on the water as he warned his colony of the approach of our canoes. 

 In the early morning and at dusk the white throated sparrow and 

 the hermit thrush sang to us. 



In the northern Adirondacks we have not found traces of coon 

 or beaver, but we were welcomed to our new camp site by a family 

 of wrens which established themselves in an abandoned phoebe 

 nest on the veranda of the main house. Two broods were raised 

 during the same season the first year. Last summier they selected 

 the cam.p post-office and to insure privacy began a nest in each of 

 the eight compartments, finally completing one on the top row. 

 We had an unusual opportimity to watch the whole process of nest 

 building and then the feeding of the little ones and their first 

 attempts at flight. Cam_p life is full of such associations and 

 adventures. 



In crder to obtain tangible results from their observations the 

 cam.pers are encouraged to work for certain standards of our own 

 making, and for the "coups" of the Woodcraft League. This does 

 not m.ean that a girl m^erely learns by name ten or twenty-five or 

 fifty flowers or bir^s, but that she can identify them in the field 

 and knows som.ething of their habits. The use of books or aid 

 in identification and the m.aking of smoke — or blue-prints for the 

 preservation of a record, in the case of flowers or ferns, are en- 

 couragements to accuracy. Then, too, one girl may make her 

 knowledge surer by helping another, and they give each other 

 preliminary tests before taking the final one which entitles them to 

 credit. 



We have found the "scout reports", which are a feature of the 

 Woodcraft Council, a valuable stim.ulus to the "seeing eye". 

 The m.ost interesting observations are often saved for the weekly 

 council and there is friendly rivalry developed which does not, 

 however, tend to interfere with accuracy as any scout report may 

 be challenged in council and must be true to fact. 



It is not only on specially arranged " nature walks" that campers 

 becGm.e acquainted with nature. The chief prerequisites are eyes 

 that see and ears that hear. Every trip that goes out from camp, 



