CAMERA EQUIPMENT 177 



One will readily see the need of it when trying to 

 focus the camera without it on a ground nest, or on 

 something near it. Mr. Peabody's device is to use 

 the same ball and socket clamp as above, and, instead 

 of the screw-bolt, a shorter round iron rod, about six 

 inches long, bent in the middle at an angle of forty- 

 five degrees. One end should be flattened, so the 

 thing will stand firmly on that side, the other pointing 

 up at the aforesaid angle. 



Near the end of this flattened part a hole should be 

 bored, with a thread cut to correspond with the thread 

 of the tripod screw. At the other extremity of the 

 rod should be put a pad like that of the screw-bolt. 

 Then one screws it to the tripod, and with the clamp 

 attaches the camera to the pad, and it will be found 

 possible to aim in absolutely any direction. There 

 are other devices on sale, but I have seen none so 

 light, convenient, and simple as this combination for 

 both tree and tripod work. 



There is one other article without which the equip- 

 ment is incomplete, — a hiding-tent, to conceal the 

 camera-hunter while doing certain kinds of work. It 

 is wonderful how the shyest birds can be so deceived 

 as to utterly ignore such a device. I have sat in one 

 in a colony of herring gulls and had the birds actually 

 brush their tails and wings against me, separated 

 from them but by the thickness of the cloth, as they 

 walked to their nests. Had I sat there uncovered, 

 not one would have come anywhere near the nest. 



Various tent devices have been described, but the 



