If the leader is correct the next player gives the call of another bird. When a player gives a bird call which is known to be incorrect—that is, absolutely wrong—and some one else can supply the proper rendering, the first player is dropped from the game just as a person is dropped out of a spelling-match when she misspells a word. If there is no one who can give the call correctly, she retains her place. This is excellent training in woodcraft as well as a fascinating game. Your ears will be quickened to hear and to identify the bird calls by playing it; and storing bird notes in your memory for use in the next bird-call match will become a habit.
Vary the Game
You can vary this game by giving the calls of wild animals and the characteristic noises they make when frightened or angry.
Living even for a short time in the wild will develop unsuspected faculties and qualities in your make-up, and to perfect yourself in knowledge of the woods and its inhabitants will seem of the utmost importance. While learning the cries of birds and animals in sport, you will wish to retain them in earnest, and to enter the wilderness equipped with some knowledge of its languages, will open vistas to you that the more ignorant cannot penetrate.
Lighting the Fire Without a Match
Fire without matches.
A fire-lighting contest is the best of camp sports, for it requires practise and skill, and to excel in it is to acquire distinction among all outdoor people. There are girls in the Girl Pioneers Organization who are as proficient in lighting a fire without matches as any of the Boy Scouts who make much of the feat.
Bow-and-Drill Method