CHAPTER II 



Automatic Photography by Electricity 



S)'OONBlLL {Platalca Icucorodui). 



Sinc'p: writino' 

 the foregoing 

 cluipter, the 

 idea o f the 

 automatic elee- 

 t r i e release 

 til ere in sug- 

 gested lias be- 

 come an ac- 

 c o m p 1 i s h e d 

 fact. 



In 11)01 1 

 devised an elec- 



tric shutter to l)e actuated automatically by the pressure of 

 a bird's foot, and in the chapter dealing with I^ird I^ife 

 in Dutch ^Marshes will be found an account of how it was 

 used successfully in portraying an unconscious Purple Heron 

 in the very act of stepping on to its nest. This was in the 

 midst of a certain " meer," which must remain nameless, where 

 these Herons, so common on the Continent, but so extremely 



