358 WITH NATURE AND A GAMEEA. 



Last s})ring- we were trying to photograph a 

 Wikl Diu'k sitting on her nest in a steep bank 

 leading down to a pond eight feet deep. She 

 could only he approached from tlie front, so we 

 procured a cou})le of w<x)den trestles and a long- 

 ladder, and interlocking tlie former, pushed them 

 out beneath the latter. My Ijrotlier then walked 

 along the ladder, and with the assistance of sundry 

 sticks managed to tix up his camera. Just as he 

 was about to make a picture, the trestles slipped, and 

 photographer and camera fell with a tremendous 

 splash into the pond, and the startled Duck flew 

 away in a hurry. 



One of the great difficulties connected with 

 natural history photography is the recharging of 

 dark slides, and we have more than once had a 

 valuable batch of plates fogged in doing so by 

 means of a changing bag. At the outset of my 

 brother's photographic career, he one day, whilst 

 on the moors in North Yorkshire, conceived 

 the idea of crawling far enough up a disused lead- 

 mine to meet with darkness sufficiently dense for 

 his purpose, as he had forgotten his changing 

 bag. Just as he was congratulating himself upon 

 having reached a point suitable for his pur^^ose, he 

 fell head over heels into an old shaft full of icy 

 cold water. 



AVe have essayed the portrayal of winged 

 insects at work and play, but found it an even 

 more difficult and tedious task tlian that of making 

 pliot(jgra})liic studies of wild birds and beasts in 

 their native haunts. One sunny day, whilst out 

 hunting for subjects for the camera on a friend's 

 farm, we discovered a couple of large Dragon-Hies 

 rioatinii' Ijackwards and forwards across a cattle 

 pond. We watclicd tlicir airy swingings to and 



