CHAPTER XIII. 

 The Prince of Mocking Birds. 



BY reason of certain features, unsatisfactory from a 

 photographic standpoint, of the class of country re- 

 presented in the picture reproduced here, and 

 because of the apparent scarcity of subjects men- 

 tioned, the reader may form the opinion that the deep 

 forest and the Mountain Gully are lacking in interest to 

 the bird-photographer. If our method of setting out this 

 book has, in any way, fostered such an impression, we 

 hasten to correct it. It was our intention merely to convey 

 our conviction that such localities are not altogether suited 

 to the beginner. 



Far from considering such country uninteresting, we 

 can truthfully say that the localities mentioned here hold 

 for us a very strong and a very deep attraction, which, once 

 discovered, has been held in check only as a result of a 

 desire, natural to all beginners, to add quickly to our col- 

 lection of pictures. We will admit that such cannot be 

 accomplished in the dark fern gully. However, it is the 

 ideal collecting ground for the photographer who wishes to 

 encounter rare birds and is content to use his camera seldom 

 and under conditions of difficulty greater than usual. 



In the deep quiet and the subdued light of the forest, 

 there is an air of mystery. Even those commoner birds 

 which have forsaken their usual habitations on the plain, 

 and by the creekside for these still, dark haunts seem to 

 have put aside their accustomed cheerfulness and song. 

 Their hushed voices sound ghostly. The leafy mould of 

 centuries, moreover, stifles the footfall of Nature-lovers, 



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