140 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly May 



plate, and I am inclined to think that a good *' single " 

 landscape lens will serve every purpose, extreme speed ex- 

 cepted (as for flying birds). A landscape lens at full opening 

 requires about double the exposure of an R.R. (doublet) 

 lens, and this in its turn requires about double the exposure 

 of the modern anastigmat, full opening being presumed in 

 each case. But although most animal photography should 

 be done with fair rapidity, the occasion for what is called an 

 instantaneous exposure is much less frequent than might be 

 supposed. Probably exposures of from \ to \ of a second 

 will be most general, and the popular idea that everything 

 is done by a " snap-shot " (about tjV to ^V of a second) is 

 very wide of the mark. 



Rapid plates of a good make should be used, not the slow 

 or ordinary brands. But, on the other hand, it is not well 

 to select plates of extreme rapidity, as these are liable to 

 "go off" with keeping, and do not always give such good 

 results as the same maker's second brand of plate. I cer- 

 tainly advise that plates, and not celluloid or reliable films, 

 should be used. 



Those who have read the brothers Kearton's fascinating 

 work ' With Nature and a Camera,' will form a good idea 

 of the many ingenious shifts the enthusiastic naturalist de- 

 vises for his photographic work, and will be struck with the 

 many different ways in which a tripod is fixed. Whether 

 when waist deep in a stream for the nest of a water- 

 bird, suspended by rope from the edge of a lofty cliff after 

 peregrine falcons, high up in the branches of a lofty tree 

 taking the nest of a carrion crow, or in other like predica- 

 ments, the tripod is always part of the outfit. Probably the 

 reason is that the use of the tripod leaves more freedom for 

 the use of the hands and limbs than the hand-camera, which 

 monopolises the use of both hands. In many cases, as in 

 taking a bird's nest high up in a hedge, the tripod legs are 

 lengthened by sticks lashed to them. In such work the 

 first essential is, of course, an enthusiastic love of the sub- 

 ject, and the rest is summed up in the one word — patience. 

 For all wild animals the capacity of keeping perfectly still 

 and waiting for long periods is absolutely indispensable. 



The stalking down of freely moving wild creatures, 



