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FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1921 
FOREST andSTREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New XorE, 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, I I. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS. Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3d, Washington, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New YorK. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
THE AMERICAN CANOE ASSOCIATION 
F ORTY years ago a number of canoeists gathered 
at Crosbyside Point, Lake George, and founded 
the American Canoe Association, an organization 
that today is referred to as the finest example of 
purely amateur sport in the world of outdoor 
activities 
To commemorate the founding of the Association 
and honor the founders, a special meeting of the 
club will be held at Huddle Bay, Lake George, on 
June 26th, to dedicate a suitable monument. 
All canoeists are invited to attend the meeting 
and there will be a committee to meet them at Lake 
George Village, N. Y. It is an event that will un- 
doubtedly appeal to canoeists old and young. 
SUMMER SHORE BIRD SHOOTING 
T HE charm of shore bird shooting lies in the 
fact that it opens up to the sportsman natural- 
ist a wide field for observation and sport of no mean 
order at a time of the year when he is longing for 
activity and other game fields are closed to him. 
In the sultry days of the latter half of August 
if he is ambitious and longs for exercise, he can 
explore the marshes and the reed fields or traverse 
the hot sandhills and both will yield a world of bird 
life that he can identify readily. If he wishes to 
loaf and rest he can do so quite at ease in a boat, 
an easily constructed blind or the shelter of some 
old wreck half hidden in the sand. From this 
point of vantage he can watch the circling flocks, 
study their habits, warm the barrels of his gun 
and have a bag at the end of a lazy, restful dav 
that will be remembered quite as pleasantly as more 
strenuous experiences. 
In this issue, Mr. Nichols, one of our editors, 
takes his readers to the haunts of the shore birds. 
No sportsman or naturalist has given these deni- 
zens of the beaches closer study, and his article 
will appeal to all sportsmen who combine a love of 
sport to a deep love for nature. 
BLUE JAY HUNT IN CALIFORNIA 
S EVERAL years ago blue jay hunts were in 
vogue, but more recently little attention has 
been paid to the bird accused by the sportsmen of 
destroying quails’ eggs. Of late, however, a well 
organized blue jay hunt was held at Hollister, Cali- 
fornia. Sixty sportsmen were divided into two 
rival teams and a week chosen for the hunt. When 
the final count of birds was made at the end of the 
week the total showed 1,531 blue jays. One team 
outdistanced the other by 210 birds and this win- 
ning team were the guests at a big barbecue held 
by the other team. One hunter bagged 233, and 
the second best was 139. 
The California game commissioner has made the 
following comment on this hunt. It is well worthy 
of careful consideration: 
Whether such organized blue jay hunts are bene- 
ficial to the interests of game and other birds is 
still doubtful. That the blue jay deserves to be 
placed on the blacklist few will deny, but that blue 
jays good and bad, and there are good blue jays, 
should be killed off in large numbers is a question. 
Whether blue jays are actually as destructive to 
quail as to tree nesting birds is also something that 
still has to be proved. Doubtless, many arguments 
can be given on both sides, and the thing which is 
needed is more evidence. When those engaged in 
such a hunt spend as much energy in trying to de- 
termine the food of the blue jay as they do in mak- 
ing a large kill of birds a solution of the problem 
will be forthcoming. 
THE ELUSIVE WOODCOCK 
T HE woodcock is at once the most elusive and 
fascinating of game birds and at one time or 
another has been the subject of more unusual re- 
ports and observations than any bird followed by 
sportsmen. 
The song or love note of the woodcock, the carry- 
ing of their young for considerable distances, the 
tramping over the boring grounds so as to entice 
worms to the surface, have all been thrashed over 
many times. Nevertheless, there is always some- 
thing new being turned up about them. The latest 
relates to a peculiarity of their flesh which makes 
it repulsive to cats, dogs, hawks and ground ver- 
min, consequently exempting them from attacks 
of these enemies. 
It is stated that hawks will not strike them and 
that dogs and cats will not eat them and that even 
the bodies of these birds when found occasionally 
in the coverts never show signs of having been 
nibbled at by ground vermin. 
There is, to be sure, a peculiar odor about the 
bird, but it is not particularly stronger than that 
of the prairie chicken or the plover. Most dogs 
are fond of the flesh of the prairie chicken and other 
game birds, but just what is the trend of their appe- 
tites toward the woodcock we do not know. 
Young dogs will usually point woodcock before 
they will another game bird and old dogs are gen- 
erally much stauncher on them than they are on 
the partridge or the quail. 
The fact that hawks are never seen striking 
woodcock mav be accounted for largely by the fact 
that a woodcock cover is not a particularly ad- 
vantageous field of operation for the hawk. That 
their flesh is repulsive to ground vermin and other 
enemies is a new one. What is the experience of 
our reader? 
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