January, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
17 
BIRDS AND STORMS 
T he belief is current with a great many persons 
that the lower orders of animals are wiser than we 
respecting approaching storms; that they possess 
faculties which we lack, and seek shelter 'in time to 
escape disaster. 
In a sense there is a basis of truth in this theory. The 
birds and the men who live close to nature see and feel 
more acutely than men who live within four walls in our 
cities. Persons who dwell in tents for a season and are 
therefore in close touch with the elements become — like 
the birds — peculiarly sensitive to radical changes in at- 
mospheric and other conditions. Experience teaches 
them, as no doubt it teaches the birds. They come to 
notice little things, to feel that subtle something which 
prompts one to say that he believes a storm is coming; 
that high winds, or rain, or snow may be expected ; to 
predict a change without realizing just why he does so. 
But the birds, like these outdoor men, are caught 
unawares at times when, depending on their senses, they 
go further from shelter than usual, and the storms ap- 
proach with warning too brief to enable them to save 
themselves. 
Again, like seasoned mariners, they may take risks 
when fair weather has prevailed for some days, believing 
the gale will not materialize as soon as usual. Why may 
there not be reckless birds as well as reckless men? 
And though good fortune sometimes enables both to 
pull through tight places, we have ample evidence that 
disaster overtakes them at times. 
AMERICAN-MADE GUNS 
A mericans have the reputation of being the best 
shots in the world. This has been demonstrated 
many times, the first time when the American 
Team went over to the Olympic Games about a year 
ago, and outshot the best teams Europe and the rest of 
the world could produce. 
It has been a question as to whether American fire- 
arms were the best in the world or not. 
Once in a while a fellow believes a European-made 
gun, costing several times as much as an American gun, 
is better. It seems that when shooters, who are not 
residents of the United States, shoot in competition and 
use American firearms, the American arms generally 
win. One of the last examples of this kind was the win- 
ning of the live bird championship of Australia. Mr. 
Dubout, an Australian, used a double gun made in the 
United States. 
A year ago this same Australian won the live bird 
championship of Australia and at that time the Aus- 
tralian, who won second, shot another gun made in the 
United States. These were the only American-made 
guns used in the event: The American gun which won 
the championship twice sold for $120.00, the American 
gun which won second sold for only $45. All the other 
guns were expensive English guns which cost from $250 
to $500 each. 
MOTOR CAR HUNTERS 
P roperly handled, the motor car is the peer of all 
road vehicles. In its present form it is a splendid 
tribute to human skill. It has been the means of 
spreading the population of great cities into all the 
surrounding country, and will be largely instrumental 
in building up and beautifying our suburbs. It has car- 
ried people into far countries. Improvement in high- 
ways have followed its increased use. It has taken men 
and women into the country for recreation and they 
have returned greatly benefited by the exercise and 
pure air. 
Employed as a safe conveyance, the motor car de- 
serves all praise, but its great power, and the desire of 
many drivers to utilize that power without regard to 
consequences, have caused the motor car to l)e blamed 
as well as praised. It is what its driver makes it. Com- 
plaints are mostly concerned with high speed at the risk 
of safety to human life. 
The motor car is well adapted to the requirements of 
sportsmen, and with it their range is every year grow- 
ing wider. In its tonneau there is space for the owner, 
his friends, their dogs, guns and lunch basket, and at 
ordinary speed they can comfortably travel for many 
miles over the best hunting country, stopping here and 
there to hunt, and returning home at night. 
This method may or may not tend toward game con- 
servation. It would seem to cut down the gross amount 
of hunting done in nearby covers and it certainly widens 
the area hunted over. 
LIMIT ON HUNTING LICENSES 
D uring the hunting season last fall, more than 
5,000,000 persons, it has been estimated, went out 
with a gun into the woods and fields of America, 
Their going emphasizes the growing need of more 
adequate and uniform laws to conserve and protect the 
country’s dwindling game supply. 
It has been the practice in many States to issue hunt- 
ing licenses for the open season to all applicants, with 
too little regard for the available game supply of any 
particular area. Soon the hunters may far outnumber 
the animals hunted within a given section, and under 
such conditions the extinction of big game especially 
is inevitable. 
The Department of Agriculture advocates a limited 
license plan for big game, based on annual estimates 
of game conditions in each district. This means that 
the number of big game licenses issued for a given area 
in one season would depend upon the number of game 
animals which it has been determined in advance can 
be spared. Proper administration of this sort should 
conserve game in the greatest numbers consistent with 
the reasonable demands for local grazing and other in- 
terests and obviate the necessity for establishing peren- 
nial closed seasons, except on areas being restocked. 
WHY SOME MEN ARE HUNTERS 
T raditions have it that many men are hunters 
because they are too indolent to do anything else, 
but they, if permitted to explain their status, would 
put the matter in another light, saying they were unable 
to withstand the call of the woods and streams and the 
pursuit of wild life. It is but one of the many ways tc 
exjrress in actions, if not in words, the love of nature 
that takes men into the big and little wilds of old mother 
earth. The wealthy man and the hard-working citizen 
seek the outdoors for rest, and are praised for their fore- 
sight. Society, being an exacting, straight-laced mis- 
tress. decrees that the poor man must first provide for 
his own and his family’s wants before his shooting and 
fishing excursions shall receive her endorsement. 
It would be hard to say whether he believes in the 
ancient saying that “if your business interferes with 
your fishing, give up your business,” but the fact re- 
mains that life for him is too short for all the play he 
would like to indulge in, and all the work society would 
have him do, so he follows the line of least resistance, 
and this leads to woods and waters and peace. 
