HUNTING BIRDS WITH CA]\IERA 



the long grass, and yet no one else discovered her. I 

 set up the camera as near as I could wish, and photo- 

 graphed her without the least trouble. Then Ned 

 poked her off the nest. I got her picture as she was 

 leaving, out in the grass, where he "shooed" her to 

 make her stand still, before she flew. Having to drive 

 past on the following day in the evening, I stopped 

 my buggy within a yard of her and watched her awhile. 

 As usual, she never moved or winked. The next day 

 eleven split shells told the story of the birth of eleven 

 little Bobby- whites to roam the grain fields and pastures 

 of their beautiful valley. 



I had now secured photographs from wild life of 

 three of the four important game birds, and was eager 

 now to conquer the remaining one, the Ruffed Grouse. 

 In past years I had often found their nests. A favorite 

 location is in a pine grove, under some little bush or 

 sprout. One day, some ten years before this, I had 

 found two in one tract of pines, within half an hour. 

 Another favorable place is swampy w^oods, beside a 

 fallen log or underbrush, as well as in drier woodland. 

 Confident of success, through past experience, the fol- 

 lowing spring, in May, I began the hunt for a nest in 

 woods where the birds were common. It is largely a 

 matter of chance — though of persistence, too — to walk 

 close to the brooding bird, practically invisible by her 

 protective coloration, and flush her from her eggs. 

 What a tremendous w^hirring she makes as she leaves! 



Somehow luck was plainly against me at the first. 



26 



