January, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
2D 
woodcock swung up out of the alders 
and started up stream. 
One dropped at the crack of the gun 
while the left barrel was a clean miss 
but 1 marked the bird down on a dry 
knoll thinly covered with briars and 
scrub brush. I was soon on the spot 
and the dog on a point. 
1 walked in to flush but as nothing 
started I stepped past the dog and was 
beginning to think it was a false point 
when a whistle sounded close at my 
feet and the woodcock came fluttering 
up so close that I struck him with the 
gun barrels and he went back to earth 
stunned for an instant but was soon 
on his feet. Then he crouched close to 
the ground and whistled loud and clear 
then ran a few steps and came in to 
the air and was away, still sounding his 
whistle. I fired too quickly, missing him 
clean but the left barrel doubled him 
up at about forty yards and he was 
soon in my game pocket. 
George Smith, New York. 
A S is well known, the outer feathers 
of a woodcock’s wing are peculiar- 
ly modified, narrow and stiff. This 
is supposed to be instrumental in pro - . 
ducing the peculiar twittering sound as 
it flushes. When diving earthward 
after its towering springtime crepuscu- 
lar flight, it has whistling notes which 
appear to be vocal. [Editors.] 
A SPORTSMAN’S PARADISE ] v 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
D URING the past twenty-four years I 
have devoted from two to four 
months of each year searching for good 
shooting and fishing — and my search has 
extended from Itaska, Minnesota to Key 
West, Florida. 
At last I have found the one place 
that seems to offer all I have been look- 
ing for — and I want the “other fellow” 
to know about it, for there is plenty for 
all of us. 
It is Lake County, Florida; Eustis be- 
ing my choice of towns for winter head- 
quarters. Lake County has more good 
fresh water fishing, fine quail, squirrel 
and deer hunting, with quite a few bob- 
cat, fox and black bear, and the finest 
bunch of native or local sportsmen that 
you will meet in many a year’s travelling. 
There are fourteen hundred lakes in 
the county, seven of them quite large, 
drained, by that wonderful tropical river, 
Oklawaha, and all of them simply full 
of big mouth black bass, ranging from 
one to fifteen pounds. 
I have enjoyed that country so much 
that I want other sportsmen to know 
where they can find the best there is to 
be had during a winter’s vacation and 
I will be very glad to answer any per- 
sonal letters from those who may want 
to know more about it. 
H. R. P. Miller, Johnstown, Ohio. 
OUR FUR-BEARERS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
W OULD I be considered guilty of 
“carrying coals to Newcastle” 
should I call attention to oft-repeated 
and alarming statements regarding the 
slaughter of our fur-bearers? Such 
statements are not without a founda- 
tion of fact. The present situation 
calls for careful study and appropriate 
remedial steps. The inroads made upon 
the little four-footed animals have so 
depleted their numbers that we would 
do well to halt for a little respite and 
reckoning. And why does such a situ- 
ation exist? Merely because the dic- 
tates of fashion prescribe the use of 
furs during the summer months when 
the feasible thing would be to doff every 
bit of warmth-giving raiment — to take 
off the flesh and live in the bones, if 
such a thing were possible. What 
could be more perfectly asinine and 
nonsensical than milady banking furs 
about her neck when Apollo is shooting 
his fiery darts, until she resembles a 
pickaninny in a cotton patch? 
We pick cotton but we do not kill the 
plant. Silk is obtained from the silk 
worm and while some are killed goodly 
numbers are kept for propagation pur- 
poses. Wool is procured from the sheep 
by the process of shearing, but we do 
not kill the animal, while every skin 
of a fur-bearer means possibly long 
hours of torture in the unrelenting 
steel-trap and finally the death of the 
little fellow that gives to mankind the 
soft, glossy, warmth-giving material. 
In the northern country furs are lit- 
erally indispensable in life’s daily rou- 
tine. The writer was in Montana in 
December last when the thermometer 
registered 51 degrees below zero. That 
is a cruel temperature and without the 
protection of furs surely man would 
suffer in that marrow-chilling cold. 
Under such conditions the use of furs 
is perfectly legitimate in every way, 
but can we not question the feasibility 
and good sense of using furs for trim- 
ming garments and for personal adorn- 
ment during the hot and humid sum- 
mer months? 
A long sojourn in the northwest con- 
vinces me that both Stone’s marten and 
the otter are scarce indeed, while the 
energetic and thrifty little beaver is 
none too plentiful. And with the grad- 
ual disappearance of fur-bearers in 
certain localities the prices of pelts are 
going skyward. It behooves the Amer- 
ican peode t.o practice conservation and 
protect their ever-waning resources, 
and surely it is imperative that they 
protect the animal life in every quarter. 
J. W. Yates, Jr., Texas. 
PHOTOGRAPHING EAGLES 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
M R. A. S. DOCKHAM, the govern- 
ment photographer of the Lafay- 
ette National Park, on Mount Desert 
Island, Maine, was determined to secure 
photographs of young eagles in their 
nest. Opportunity came in the spring 
of 1919, when a fine nest was discov- 
ered on the shore of Eagle Lake. But 
the prize had its price. 
Eleven days he spent in attempts be- 
fore the final success. The nest was 
about seventy feet above the ground, in 
an old dead maple. Mr. Dockham 
erected a ladder in a neighboring tree, 
as high as the nest, and lashed his 
camera safely, and waited. Wind both- 
ered, the light was not right, the eagles 
troubled him. It is one thing to pose a 
child, and quite another to pose a child 
eagle. He pelted them mildly with moss 
to make them move into position suita- 
ble for snapping. He tried every de- 
vice, and finally he had just to wait for 
the proper moment. It came and he 
obtained the photograph reproduced 
herewith. 
Mervin James Curl, Maine. 
Young eagles on their nest, Mount Desert Island, Maine 
