146 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



dicrous on the film that cannot be detected by 

 the eye. The mighty back stroke of the wings, 

 that seem almost to meet across the shoulders, 

 the apparent standing on their tails on the water, 

 the twists and desperate wiggles, the kicking 

 legs, the twisted head peering back at the foe, 

 and other fright spasms that escape the eye, are 

 all caught in the act by the speed shutter. It 

 is this characteristic of speed pictures that 

 causes the man who knows birds but not kodaks, 

 to maintain that such and such a bird is not 

 " got " right, and that it is not natural. The 

 trouble, of course, is with himself. He never 

 sees what the lens can, as his eye is too slow. 

 Artists also have aided the illusion by drawing 

 birds in flight with shortened pinions and a re- 

 duced wing-stroke. They are both correct in 

 their way; for the artist represents what he 

 sees, and so does the kodak. 



The same sloughs, mentioned above, fur- 

 nished me with some tough-luck stalking later 

 in the season. During the last week in October 

 and the first in November, long strings of mal- 

 lards had been crossing town at earliest day- 

 dawn and at dust each evening returning to- 

 ward the distant lake. Sportsmen at the shoot- 



