66 BIRDS 



with wings half drooping and feet far apart, head 

 erect and mouth open, panting for breath, while the 

 young lie snugly placed in the cool shadow of the parent 

 bird's body, fresh from the water. It was during one 

 of these brooding periods that I secured my best pic- 

 ture of the Snake-bird. 



The nest is composed of coarse sticks and is a large, 

 compactly built structure, placed, usually, from ten to 

 fifteen feet over the water. The number of eggs is from 

 two to four. The full-grown bird measures about thirty- 

 six inches. 



It was while photographing in the big bird rookeries 

 of Florida that I found my first Snake-bird's nest, which 

 was located twenty feet from the water in a mangrove 

 tree. In order to photograph the birds at close range 

 it was necessary for me to devise some method of steady- 

 ing the ever-moving treetop and anchoring my camera 

 close to the nest. This I did by running many ropes 

 from one tree to another, until I had the swaying boughs 

 snugly fastened. Then I left the camera, or rather the 

 focusing cloth, for three days at the point where I had 

 decided to anchor the camera. When the birds had ceased 

 to take notice of it I securely fastened my camera in posi- 

 tion and tied the focusing cloth over it, focused sharply 

 on the spot which the old bird occupied while feeding 

 and brooding. Then I dropped a fishing line to the 

 ground and trailed it one hundred feet into the mangrove 

 and palmetto snake-ridden swamp. Returning to the 

 tree, I climbed to the camera and set the shutter at 1/25 

 second with an F.8 diaphragm opening, after which I 

 went back to my muddy hiding-spot to await the return 

 of the old birds. It was then that I was enabled to make 

 my first Snake-bird picture. 



The old birds, craning their necks from the tops of 

 the tall trees four hundred yards away, had been watch- 

 ing my every movement; they now began to rush back- 

 wards and forwards over the nest-site, their heads turned 

 sidewise. After several skirmishing flights the female 

 lighted in the mangrove near the nest and remained 

 perfectly quiet for half an hour. She then moved down 

 the limb toward the begging young, until she was within 

 two feet of the nest, but out of focus — and in this posi- 



