10 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



his departure, the jay suddenly sprang into the 

 air and flew away. I instantly released my 

 rapid shutter upon him, and, when I came to 

 develop the plate, suffered the extreme morti- 

 fication of finding that he had just managed to 

 get his head out of the plate, and his portrait, 

 with wings beautifully stretched out and legs 

 still ungathered in, was guillotined. 



An old song thrusli next came along, and 

 after sipping at the muddy water very leisurely 

 for a while, hopped on to a flint, which formed 

 a sort of miniature island in the pond, and stood 

 with drooping wings, contemplating a bath. I 

 made a slight noise in order to induce her to 

 listen, and then exposed a plate. The result is 

 reproduced in this volume, because of the some- 

 what interesting fact that the camera has 

 caught substance, shadow, and reflection, and 

 recorded all three on the same plate. 



Small companies of greenfinches were con- 

 stantly arri\'ing, and fully upholding the character 

 of their species for unadulterated selfishness. An 

 old male would, after enjoving a good drink and 

 first-rate splash-bath, take up his stand on the 

 stone in the middle of the pool, and openly defy 

 anybody and everybody of his kind to come 

 near, although there was still enough water left 

 to drown all the greenfinches in the county. 

 When the old bully had retired to preen himself 



