CROW RELATIVES 



that here was a splendid chance for just the picture I 

 wanted. Another small oak grew close alongside the 

 one with the nest, at just the right distance and in the 

 right direction, on the sunny side of the nest. Ned ran 

 to get the small camera and the tree apparatus, while 

 I climbed the tree next to the nest and looked in. Five 

 hungry little crows, nearly fledged, raised their heads 

 and opened their mouths as wide as they knew how, 

 beseeching me to appease their gnawing appetites. 

 Pretty soon Ned came back with the camera, and, 

 after going down to get it and climbing back, I went to 

 Avork to screw it up. It took certainly a quarter of an 

 hour to make everything ready. By this time the 

 youngsters had settled sleepily down into the nest and 

 would not rouse up to beg for food, till I bethought 

 myself to cut a switch and stir them up. No sooner 

 done than, presto, up popped five black heads, with 

 five red-flannel mouths stretched agape, from which 

 were issuing excited caws, because they thought that 

 mother had arrived. Instantly I squeezed the bulb 

 and had them just as I wanted them. I barely had 

 time to finish the work when it clouded over darkly, 

 so we drove off. 



I planned to photograph these youngsters again 

 when they were about to leave the nests, so I drove 

 back there alone some days afterward. But I had 

 waited just too long. My subjects were there, but they 

 had left the nest and could fly from tree to tree, so that 

 it would have required the help of a gun to capture 



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