36 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



The Canoe as an Aid to Bird Study 



I wonder how many of the rank and file of Nature lovers realize what 

 a valuable aid to bird study the canoe is? 



In addition to its own peculiar charm to the lover of the out of doors, 

 it has as many or more advantages over other water craft as a saddle 

 horse has over other land conveyances. Like the horse it will go easily 

 to places where others of its own field would not even be considered. 

 One would not be able to employ the heavy skiff or power boat to explore 

 shallow, winding creeks or river bottoms (where a light portable boat is 

 needed to get around fallen timbers and through short stretches of wood- 

 land to nearby sloughs) any more than one would use an automobile, wagon 

 or bicycle to reach the summit of a steep hill in a broken and trackless 

 wilderness. 



Any student of bird life knows that in just such places as those men- 

 tioned above, are to be found the greatest number of our birds. A strong, 

 active man, who is not afraid of a little physical exertion, can, alone and 

 unaided, explore, with a canoe, every slough, bayou and creek in a certain 

 strip of river bottoms, where it would require at least two men and a team 

 of horses to portage a row boat, and a power boat would be useless. 



To get a great deal out of one's canoe, however, it is not necessary to 

 do any portaging to otherwise inaccessible places. It is especially easy 

 on small streams to glide along close to the willows, and observe the birds 

 along the edge, almost before they are aware of your presence and on 

 open water the birds may be approached very closely before they take 

 alarm, if care is exercised in paddling. If one wishes an observation 

 blind, the boat may be easily covered with suitable vegetation (where it 

 would be impossible to build a shore blind) thus giving new opportunities 

 for observation. Another great convenience is : one can carry along as 

 much, or as little, as he wishes to add to his comfort or efficiency as a 

 Naturalist. The real canoeist has solved the problem of being more com-' 

 fortable on the least amount of comforts than any of the outdoor people 

 unless it is the fellow who carries all his camping supplies on his back 

 when he takes to the wilderness. The bird student may thus carry with 

 him only his day's supplies and necessities, or he may go out for a few 

 days, or a month, camp near his chosen territory, and with his canoe, 

 camera and note book, explore every bit of river, swamp and woodland 

 within a wide radius of his base of supplies. In the spring, when the 

 rains swell the rivers until they flood the adjacent woodlands, marshes 

 and meadows, one may float on the flood among the trees where the ducks 

 are feeding, through the thickets where the chickadees and the tree spar- 

 rows are singing, as silently as our dear neighbor's cat stalks the robin 

 whose nest is just outside our bed-room window. A canoe will also 

 carry a rifle very conveniently, and will approach just as noiselessly, the 

 cat with a taste for birds as it will the birds themselves. I have found 

 that a rifle shot when used to the best advantage, will frighten a bird 

 away from an impending cat withoiit the cat ever knowing anything 

 about it. 



I doubt if there is a more slandered object in America than the canoe. 

 There is a large class of people who would like to read a funeral service 



