From a Cabin Window 



15 



fierce, wintry blasts sweeping over the plains and filling the air 

 with snow and dust. 



A single experiment taught me the inadvisability of leaving the 

 camera exposed for any length of time to these conditions. I had 

 been trying to get a large photograph of Horned Larks. The camera 

 was placed on the ground and a handful of oats scattered before it, 



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HORNED LARKS AND SNOWFLAKES 



while I waited within the cabin for nearly two hours for an oppor- 

 tunity to pull the thread attached to the camera shutter. But the 

 birds persistently avoided the pebble marking the focal plane, and 

 clouds continually obscured the sun when I wished to make an expo- 

 sure. x\t last the right moment came, I pulled the thread, and hurried 

 out to get the result. That plate was never developed. Snow had 

 clogged the shutter, and I found it had remained wide open after 

 being sprung. 



By throwing oats on only one spot, and that close to the window, 

 I soon gathered quite a fiock of Horned Larks, who came regularly 

 every morning to feed from the constantly replenished supply. 

 Finally, after a week of gloomy, dark weather, a cloudless sky offered 

 especially good chances for a photograph of my feathered friends. 

 This time I placed the camera on the window-sill. Maneuvres 

 attendant upon focusing and inserting a plate-holder, of course, 



