Automatic Photography by Electricity 31 



and sliccp have broken it and wasted plates no end. On 

 anotlier occasion, M'hen })aitint>' for Hooded Crows witli a dead 

 rabbit, niv bait was discovered by a bi^- l)lack doo- ; and though, 

 being pegged down, lie could not take it away, he released the 

 shutter and left a photograph of his mongrel carcass instead 

 of the desired Hoodie. All of which things are aggravating 

 to ones patience and waste a lot of \jduable time. 



The })est place for the shutter is behind the lens, for many 

 reasons; but some birds cannot stand the uncanny look of the 

 .single eye looking at them. I have watched a Lapwing go up 

 to the camera, look into the lens, gi\'e a bol) or two, as if to 

 bow to it, and then settle on her eggs. l?ut it seems fatal 

 to success with any of the Crow family. Jackdaws I have 

 tried, as well as Hoodie Crows, with rabbits, eggs, and a variety 

 of attractions for the corvine taste, when the camera has 

 been perfectly invisible, but the lens looking out (although on 

 one occasion I made a tunnel about a foot long in front of it) 

 was ah\ays detected sooner or later. I watched a Jackdaw 

 once walk round with every precaution, then hurry forward, and 

 raise his beak to dig at two hen's eggs temptingly displayed, 

 when the tail of his eye caught sight of the lens, and that was 

 quite sufficient. That Jack departed eggless, but un-photo- 

 graphed, lea^-ing me \'ery wroth, but at the same time amused 

 at his hurried and undignified departure. 



There is a good deal of interest in this phototrappi ng, 

 and not a little uncertainty. You may find you have caught 

 nothing, or that you ha\ e got something you never expected, 

 more especially mIicu depending upon a bait to attract to 



