diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 7d49b309b..bedb6c0cf 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -275,6 +275,12 @@ Other changes:
 
  * Initial support for OpenJDK7 has been added.
 
+ * Ant now uses java.net.CookieStore rather than
+   java.util.ServiceLocator to detect whether the environment is a
+   Java 1.6 system.  This means releases of gcj/gij at the time of
+   this release of Ant are detected as Java 1.5 and not 1.6.
+   Bugzilla Report 50256.
+
 Changes from Ant 1.8.0 TO Ant 1.8.1 
 ===================================
 
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index d81db3041..b6586fe62 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@
     </condition>
     <property name="ignoresystemclasses" value="false"/>
     <available property="jdk1.5+" classname="java.net.Proxy"/>
-    <available property="jdk1.6+" classname="java.util.ServiceLoader"/>
+    <available property="jdk1.6+" classname="java.net.CookieStore"/>
     <available property="jdk1.7+" classname="java.nio.file.FileSystem"/>
     <available property="kaffe" classname="kaffe.util.NotImplemented"/>
     <available property="harmony"
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/JavaEnvUtils.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/JavaEnvUtils.java
index f002fb96e..eb7662996 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/JavaEnvUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/JavaEnvUtils.java
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ public final class JavaEnvUtils {
             Class.forName("java.net.Proxy");
             javaVersion = JAVA_1_5;
             javaVersionNumber++;
-            Class.forName("java.util.ServiceLoader");
+            Class.forName("java.net.CookieStore");
             javaVersion = JAVA_1_6;
             javaVersionNumber++;
             Class.forName("java.nio.file.FileSystem");