xviii Introduction. 



in grass or foliage, and, if easily approached, are usually inaccessible to the camera. If 

 the nest is in a high bush or tree, the difficulties of the position and light are usually an 

 effectual bar to obtaining good pictures, to say nothing of seeing what takes place. 

 When the nest is on or near the ground and in a well-lighted spot, conditions which are 

 only rarely fulfilled, it has been customary to set up the camera, and attaching a long 

 rubber tube or thread to the shutter, to retire to a distance and wait for the birds to 

 appear. When one of them is seen to go to the nest, the plate is exposed by pulling the 

 thread or pressing the pneumatic bulb, and, if in luck, a picture may thus be obtained. 

 Many plates, however, are sure to be spoiled ; little can be seen, and the observer has no 

 control over the course of events. In the pages which follow, a method is described by 

 which nesting birds can, in many cases, be successfully approached and studied with ease 

 whatever the position of the nest. 



It is a comparatively easy matter to examine and photograph the nest, the eggs, or 

 the young of such species whose dwellings are accessible to all, but to portray the free 

 behavior of the adult bird of the shy land species is quite another question. 



The method is limited in its application from the necessities of the case. It is based 

 on the solid ground of animal instinct, and may confidently be expected to have a wide 

 application ; but how wide or general its use may become can only be determined by 

 well-directed experiment. 



III. 



Nearly all the illustrations of this volume are from photographs of adult land birds, 

 and the reader will observe that they are in many cases arranged in series, and portray 

 certain actions which are performed in a kind of routine. With very few exceptions all 

 were made by means of the method, that is to say, the photographs were taken deliber- 

 ately and not by chance. My plan was to watch the life at the nest very closely, hour by 

 hour, and day by day, and I often made a large number of photographs to illustrate 

 typical and unusual scenes at a nest. The observer has the advantage of being on the 

 spot, of being able to see every act performed and to seize every opportunity which 

 may arise. Many of the photographs here shown could not have been obtained by any 

 other means. 



What is offered now represents but a beginning in the attempt to portray the whole 

 life of birds at the nest. The first furrow only has been struck in an old and still fallow 

 field. These pictures will possibly seem crude when compared with those which the 

 future will yield, but there is this to be said about all really good photographs of wild 

 animals, that they possess a permanent interest and value, since within their limits they 

 represent the truth, vigor, and freshness of nature. When this method comes to be ap- 

 plied to some of the water birds, the Terns, Gulls, and their congeners along the coast, 

 which are more easily approached than the shyer land species, serial pictures will be 

 obtained of far greater perfection and beauty than anything which has yet appeared. 



For the portrayal of animals in action the camera is of supreme value, and if I have 

 emphasized its use, it is only as a means to an end. Scientific books dealing with the 

 anatomy and development of animals will always require good drawings for the illustra- 



