l62 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



A few from that interesting collection 

 accompany this article. 



* $ * * * * 



The peacocks, strange to say, were 

 the most difficult to photograph. In 

 the first place, it was not easy to get 

 near three of them and, secondly, they 

 kept mostly in the dense shadows. The 

 third manifested a queer combination of 

 wildness, tameness and ugly curiosity. 

 He reminded me of the patience and 

 task work needed in photographing 

 school children. Seat them on the 

 ground and all are so anxious to get in 

 the front row, there is so much "hitch- 

 ing up," that they get so near as to be 

 out of focus. So I would set up m\ 

 camera at about tweritv feet. I would 

 open the lens and put up the dark cloth. 

 There he is now. Xo, he isn't. Where 

 has he gone? Off with the cloth — hold 

 on, hold on. There goes my camera. 

 He has come up to inspect it and the 

 camerist and has struck the tripod. 1 

 could not make him keep at proper dis- 

 tance. He was altogether too familiar. 

 I was told that he followed certain 

 ladies of the household in their walks 

 and had even carried his curiosity to 

 such an extent that he flew to their 

 heads and made close inspection of the 

 millinery. I did succeed once in shoo- 

 in°-" him to the twenty feet distance and 

 in securing a fairly good photograph as 

 he walked to the edge of the water. 

 The others I could secure only bv tele- 



photo in the early morning when thc_y 

 sat statue-like on the fence. I wished, 

 however, that the statue-like character- 

 istic would have applied a little more 

 to their heads, especially on a five sec- 

 ond exposure. 



I have wandered around these beauti- 

 ful premises, utilizing with much advan- 

 tage and pleasure the privileges of the 

 life studies and indulging in many ob- 

 servations of the delightful mingling of 

 the natural with the artificial. The 

 fact that the two can be mingled, in a 

 magnificent and luxurious manner, is a 

 lesson that should be learned by many 

 wealthy people. One needs but to turn 

 over some of the sumptuous pages of 

 magazines devoted to the description 

 of country life and of beautiful houses 

 and gardens to feel that location and 

 dollars alone cannot make a country nor 

 beaut ,r nor even a home. 



Envy no one. The naturalist is the 

 wealthiest of all. He alone owns the 

 whole world and has myriads to take 

 care of it for him. He assumes posses- 

 sion of whatever portion of the oroperty 

 on which he may happen to be. Again, 

 the naturalist learns the lesson of in- 

 dividual freedom. The scarlet tanager 

 has the same right to gaudily see the 

 topmost things of the tree that the earth- 

 worm has to bore subterranean tunnels 

 And who shall say which is the higher; 

 What right has the zenith to claim more 



A FAIRLY GOOD PHOTOGRAPH AS HE WALKED TO THE EDGE OF THE WATER." 



