552 
FOREST AND STREAM 
October, 1920 
NOTES ON WOODCOCK SHOOTING 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream; 
W OODCOCK shooting in the thick 
covers of early October is a real 
sport for real men. To get even a fair 
bag the sportsman must be alive and on 
the job every minute. Your gun should 
not weigh over seven pounds, although 
a lighter one would be better. Twenty- 
six inch barrels are plenty long enough, 
but if they measure twenty-two inches 
they would not be too short. Have both 
barrels true cylinder bore and use a light 
load of No. 10 shot. 
The use of your eyes and feet are very 
important. Your eyes must be kept re- 
lentlessly on the job looking for a bird to 
rise;*they must not be used to see where 
to place your feet. You must be guided 
in walking by feeling with your feet, just 
as if you were walking in the dark. Go 
slowly and keep your eyes just ahead of 
your dog and follow him continuously, 
for a bird may flush any minute. 
Of course, your dog should stop on 
-every bird, but many times, for one rea- 
,son or another, a bird will flush and un- 
less your eyes are “there” you will never 
.even see him. 
When your dog points, g;ive your eyes 
.a wide range, for many times the bird 
will jump up to one side of where the 
dog thinks he is. 
Carry your gun low down at the posi- 
tion of ready. Keep your head erect and 
don’t duck it when going through brush, 
as the very minute you do a bird may 
spring up. Avoid the brush by bending 
the knees or by the use of a hand, but 
keep your eyes forever free and ready to 
sight the bird. 
When the bird jumps start your gun to 
your shoulder, but concentrate on getting 
a clear vision of the bird. Don’t try to 
see your gun ; keep your eyes glued to the 
bird and shoot your gun off the minute it 
hits your shoulder. Don’t be too quick in 
raising the gun ; use a one, two, three 
time if possible, that is, counting one 
as the bird jumps, tw T o as you raise your 
gun and let the gun hit the shoulder at 
count three and immediately be fired. 
Shoot whether you see the bird clearly 
or not. Don’t think of following or re- 
sighting your gun. Your eyes being 
glued to the bird will guide your arms 
and hands unconsciously, so that the gun 
will be pointed right when it hits the 
shoulder. 
When hunting with a friend always let 
one man be the guide and the other follow 
behind him, just far enough to avoid the 
whip of the brush. By so doing you will 
get away from the uncertainty which 
arises when you each want to go in a 
different direction. When you get where 
the sign is warm, or when the dog is 
pointing, determine who is to have the 
first shot and let the one chosen step out 
in front and do the leading until the bird 
is put up. In the meantime, let the other 
hunter be ready for a second bird, which 
often jumps at the same time. 
Should you think that you shot a wood- 
cock and fail to find him on the ground 
don’t give up until you have searched in 
the branches of the trees and brushes 
nearby. I have seen many birds lodge in 
such places where the foliage is heavy. 
In marking wopdcock down, remember 
that many times they make a complete 
circle before alighting, so don’t give up 
looking for a flushed bird until you have 
circled the cover a couple of times. 
Flight woodcock are here today and 
gone tomorrow, so when the first flight 
starts you can expect them to come along 
any night from then on. 
Don’t go too strongly on the way the 
weather looks where you are; its how it 
is where the birds come from that counts. 
Woodcock are found on so many totally 
different kinds of ground that it pays to 
look them all over and find out what kind 
they are using, whether swamps, birch 
thickets, cut-offs, second growth thick- 
ets, cow pastures, apple orchards, cedar 
thickets, along old roads, etc. They may 
frequent a place one year and never 
touch it the next. 
Malcolm S. Mackay, New Jersey. 
WHY THE ALASKAN BALD EAGLE 
WAS OUTLAWED 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
1 NOTICED an editorial in your Sep- 
tember issue in which there was some 
discussion on the Alaskan Bald Eagle 
situation. It has occurred to me that 
you might like to know why this law 
was passed. I will, therefore, quote be- 
low the answer I received to this specific 
question when I wrote to the Secretary 
of the Alaska Fish and Game Club. His 
letter on this point reads as follows: 
“So far as I havtj been able to ascer- 
tain, no specific information or statistics 
were presented to the legislature as a 
basis for the passage of the bill, the basis 
for its enactment being upon statements 
by observers that in their belief the dep- 
redations of this bird were seriously af- 
fecting the salmon supply in the small 
streams, that they also killed a great 
many fawns of deer, and young forest 
and shore birds, as well as ducks, geese, 
etc.” 
You will note that snap judgment was 
taken on the Eagle as a result of loose 
and unscientific statements. You may 
remember that two years ago an effort 
was made by several of the Southern 
States to get the United States Food Ad- 
ministration to destroy all the Brown 
Pelicans in the Gulf. How ill-founded 
was this complaint against the Brown 
Pelican you also know. Such complaints, 
with no more basis than this, are con- 
stantly made against some birds. Every- 
body knows that Eagles eat fish, but the 
Lord certainly made enough fish for us 
and the American Eagle. Furthermore, 
the salmon largely taken by the Eagles 
in Alaska are the dead and dying fish 
that float down the river after the spawn- 
ing season. 
T. Gilbert Pearson, 
Secretary National Association of Au- 
dubon Societies. 
DEEP-ROOTED INSTINCT 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
TN December last I was strolling up the 
- 1 station platform of the Northern Paci- 
fic at Logan, Montana, when I observed, 
just a few paces distant, a young collie 
dog with a smooth, silky coat. He was 
smart-looking and bright-eyed, so I 
whistled to him and he jauntily trotted 
up abreast of me to be petted. I stopped 
for a few seconds to stroke him and then 
continued sauntering up the platform. 
The dog followed me. As I slowed down 
my pace somewhat, I noticed a man clad 
in heavy winter garments standing near 
the window of the telegraph office. The 
dog left me and trotted up to him. With 
true doggish politeness he began sniffing 
the man’s wearing apparel. The instant 
he did so he sprang back, bristled up 
and began snarling and barking vocifer- 
ously. He was greatly excited and was 
a typical picture of combined anger and 
fear. Never had I beheld such strange 
antics in a pet animal, so I said to the 
fellow: “He seems to be friendly, but in 
the name of heavens what causes him to 
act in that manner?” The man replied 
in a droll way: “I know. I’ve got wolf 
blood on my pants and he smells it.” 
’Twas true. I could see that his trou- 
sers were bespattered with blood and the 
moment the dog got the scent he recoiled, 
realizing it was that of an arch-enemy. 
Wasn’t that a good example of deep- 
roOted instinct? And that, too, in an 
animal that had been pampered and pet- 
ted and whose nature had at least been 
partially changed by intense domestica- 
tion. 
J. W. Y., Jr., Minneapolis,' Minn. 
