INSTRUCTIONS IN GENERAL 



Among-st hundreds of negatives we found a few still un- 

 damaged and this was one. 



There is a large field for interesting and useful work 

 during winter months in enlarging, lantern-slide making, 

 and in the improvement of pictures. 



Another little plan we have for passing the months which 

 separate one nesting season from another, is the portraiture 

 of those introduced birds which frequent suburban gardens. 

 Such pictures, to us at any rate, are quite useless 

 when obtained, but provide quite a considerable interest 

 nevertheless. The beginner also may well have some use- 

 ful practice in this way before operating in the field. These 

 domesticated birds, however, are usually so wary that it is 

 impracticable to sit watching with a thread in one's hand 

 for them to perch in the desired position. We will 

 describe our methods in case any reader should be inclined 

 to try them. We must urge, however, that if the results 

 obtained in this way are ever shown, it be made clear 

 that they do not portray Nature subjects in their natural 

 surroundings. 



The necessary outfit for this "back yard" photography 

 cost us about five shillings or so. We purchased a cheap 

 electrical dry battery sufficiently strong to operate an 

 electric bell. A few yards of insulated wire was also neces- 

 sary. The whole was connected up in a manner which any 

 book on electric bells will describe, and the bell, with the 

 gong removed, was adjusted to drop a weight on contact 

 being made. The weight in turn was adjusted to release 

 the shutter when so dropped. The loose ends of the wire 

 were then fastened in such a way that the weight of a bird 

 on some kind of perch near a drinking tin or on the tin 

 itself brought them together and completed the circuit. 

 With the camera focussed upon the chosen spot, and the 

 apparatus arranged in this way, the sparrows, the doves, or 

 other birds of the garden may be relied upon to take their 

 own portraits, while the photographer is engaged else- 

 where. We are satisfied that similar methods could with 

 advantage be employed in dealing with some few unsatis- 

 factory subjects in the wild, and it is our intention to use, 

 later on, a modification of the device described. The male 

 lyre-bird, we think, may be photographed in this way more 

 surely than in any other. 



In England and in other countries bird photographers 



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