PHOTOGRAPHING INSECTS. 359 



fro for a while, and noticed that one of them, 

 after an angry collision with its neighbour, 

 invariably alighted u])on a favourite grass stem. 

 My brother waded into tlie pond and focussed it, 

 but the insect immediately took a fancy to another 

 a few feet away, and constantly patronised it instead 

 of the one originally used as a resting-place. The 

 camera was shifted, but we soon discovered that 

 when the Dragon-fly alighted upon the slender 

 grass stem, it bent sufficiently with the weight to 

 take the insect out of focus. After half a day's 

 patient work, however, we succeeded in making a 

 successful picture. 



Oi,i another occasion we were shown a Wasps' 

 nest suspended under an overhanging bank. My 

 brother fixed u^) his camera at a respectful distance 

 and took a photograph with some of its occupants 

 walking over it. Anxious to make a study at 

 closer quarters, he crept stealthily up, focussed, 

 inserted a dark slide, and was just about to expose 

 a plate, when by an unlucky accident he touched 

 a rootlet, which made the nest vibrate, and out 

 poured an angry crowd of insects upon him, and 

 he was obliged to beat a very hasty retreat 

 minus his camera. 



A year or two ago I read an account of a 

 Grolden-crested Wren having been caught in a 

 Spider's web, but must confess that I doubted the 

 ability of any creature of this kind in the British 

 Isles to make a web strong enough to hold even 

 our smallest bird. 



Last year I caught a member of tlie species 

 represented in the j^icture on the next page, and 

 kept him under a glass globe for some weeks. He 

 made a web right across it, and I cut a piece of 

 cardboard exactly an inch square and, inserting it 



