INTRODUCTION 



I earnestly hope that the photographs in this volume 

 will so effectively illustrate the part the camera may play 

 in definitely recording facts in bird-life, that they will stim- 

 ulate fresh interest in the subject of bird photography. To 

 further this end I add here a word to what I have said on 

 the outfit of the bird photographer in ' ' Bird Studies with a 

 Camera ' ', 



So far as cameras and lens are concerned, I have found 

 no reason to change the advice offered in that volume. I 

 still use a reflecting camera of the "Graflex" type, and also 

 a tripod camera, each with a bellows length of fifteen inches, 

 and carrying plates four by five inches. 



With about twenty exceptions all the pictures in this 

 book were made with the lens described in " Bird Studies 

 with a Camera". It is a Bausch & Lomb Convertible Series 

 AH^Ia No. 10, F. 6. 3., with a focal length of eight inches, the 

 component lenses having each a focal length of fourteen 

 inches. Although these single lenses are rated with a speed 

 of only F. 12. 5., I have found no difficulty in making satis- 

 factory pictures of birds in flight with an exposure of one- 

 thousandth of a second, the lens being wide open. 



The single lens will not, of course, do the work of the 

 doublet and, if one can afford a No. 19 lens of the same 

 series with a focal length of thirteen and one-eighth inches, 

 the components being each of twenty -three and one-eighth 

 inch focus, he will materially increase his chances of suc- 

 cess ; but were I to be restricted to one lens and one camera, 

 I should take the lens first mentioned, and a camera of the 

 reflecting type. Seventy-five per cent, of the pictures in 

 this book were made with an outfit of this kind. 



