CHAPTER IV 



The Lure of Field Work 



TO THIS beginning I have now added more 

 than twenty years of straight field work 

 with every kind of camera on the market 

 suitable for my purposes. In all this time the 

 birds have been the main object of my search, 

 but it would be impossible for any nature lover to 

 spend this length of time afield, a large part of it 

 being consumed in watching set cameras from some 

 vantage point for hiding, without having accumu- 

 lated a large fund of other experience. Upon 

 many occasions I have had such rare and beautiful 

 natural history subjects of other kinds literally 

 thrust upon me that I have neglected the birds 

 for their closest rivals, the moths and butterflies, 

 while rare and exquisite flowers are always of in- 

 tense interest to any field worker. 



Aside from work I have done among the birds, 

 I have photographed or painted in water colours 

 every rare moth native to the Limberlost, as well 

 as the common ones, and many of the most ex- 

 quisite butterflies. The moth studies made the 

 foundation for my book entitled "Moths of the 

 Limberlost," while stray pictures of other insects, 



57 



