Two Interesting Photographs from Alberta 



By SIDNEY S. S. STANSELL. Stony Plain, Alberta 



OX June ig, 1908, I started on a short tramp through the deep woods 

 to a small lake where I had been told that a pair of Loons were breed- 

 ing. This particular lake has a hard bottom, which is something for 

 a lake to boast of in this locality, as the mud and muck are usually much deeper 

 than the water. Being skirted with willows, poplars and spruce, it made an 

 ideal nesting-place for the bird of my quest. 



On the western bank, under some outspreading willows, the nest was found 

 in about a foot of water, and close against a small tree that had fallen into the 

 lake. It was composed of grasses, sticks and decayed vegetation, and lined, or 

 partially so, with strips of spruce bark. The structure was quite flat, and con- 

 tained two large, dark-colored eggs with blackish spots on them. 



Just as I was about to photograph the nest and eggs, it began to rain, so I 

 retired to the shelter of a large spruce tree nearby. In a short time, the shower 

 was over, and I proceeded to photograph the nest and eggs. This done, I con- 

 structed a blind of some of the willows and saskatoon bushes, and placed my 

 camera in it, set the diaphragm at 6.8, the shutter at one-half second, attached 

 a stout linen thread to the shutter, ran it back about thirty feet, then placed 

 my plate-holder in position, drew the slide, covered the camera with the focusing 

 cloth, then started around the lake to the place where a friend was erecting a 

 cabin. On the way, I observed six or seven old nests, but not a single new one, 



LOON ox m;st 

 (108) 



