290 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



DID THE BIRDS REASON IT OUT? 



A few years ago I did a good deal of fishing on Round 

 Lake, a sheet of water about two miles in length by from 

 half to three-quarters in width, situated four miles north 

 of Havelock, on the Quebec division of the C. P. R. The 

 lake was then surrounded by a heavy growth of timber, 

 much of which has since been cteared off, and the destruc- 

 tion of the timber has practically ruined fishing in that 

 water. The North River empties into this lake, and it 

 was on its western shore that the circumstance I am 

 relating took place. 



A pair of fish hawks of the largest variety had for 

 several years nested in a huge blasted pine standing in 

 the drowned land about fifty yards back from the river. 

 These hawks were most voracious fish destroyers and one 

 or two visits to the neighborhood of their nest revealed 

 bushels of fish bones, bearing ample testimony to their 

 destructive capacity. It was finally decided that in the 

 interest of anglers visiting the lake it would be well to 

 destroy the birds. Many were the ingenious devices 

 planned to effect this purpose, but during the two sum- 

 mers that I was acquainted with what was going on, none 

 of the attempts were successful. If a boat approached 

 that shore there was no way of reaching the tree in which 

 the nest was built, except by landing on the west bank of 

 the river. To reach it in any other way meant a long and 

 arduous struggle through the drowned land and tangled 

 briar bushes. Therefore, the various shooting parties 

 that tried to exterminate the birds used the river as their 

 nearest way to get at them. As soon, however, as a boat 

 would land, a warning note would be sounded by the mate 

 on watch and the bird in charge of the nest would imme- 

 diately take wing. Sometimes the male bird was at such 

 a height floating around in the clouds as to be nearly 



