Miscellaneous Papers. 371 



In my efiForts to obtain photographs of this kind I have made 

 use of three different methods. In my first attempts I tried to use 

 my camera as a hand camera, but the results were so discouraging 

 that I consider my efforts worse than wasted. With a camera of 

 the reflex type good work, I presume, can be done in this manner, 

 but with the common type of camera the whole thing is mere 

 chance and guesswork. A better plan is to place the camera in 

 position, focus it upon some definite point and then, with one end 

 of a long string attached to the shutter and all in readiness for an 

 exposure, sit in concealment at the other end of the string and 

 await your opportunity. Instead of a string some use a long rub- 

 ber tube with bulb attached. In many cases where situations were 

 favorable I found the use of the string a very satisfactory method. 

 But it has two serious disadvantages: First, you are too far away 

 from the nest to see what is going on and so have but little oppor- 

 tunity to study the home life of the birds, while at the same time 

 you are never sure of what you are getting when you make an ex- 

 posure, and, second, you disturb or alarm the birds whenever you 

 approach the camera, as you must necessarily do, in order to pre- 

 pare it for a subsequent exposure. When following this plan I 

 frequently failed to get what I desired, because of the difficulty of 

 releasing the shutter at exactly the right instant. If better may 

 not be had this plan will do, but to Prof. F. H. Herrick, of West- 

 ern Reserve University, belongs, I believe, the credit for having 

 hit upon a plan that I consider the best yet devised. 



This requires a tent in which the operator works concealed, and 

 if the nest in its natural situation does not permit of the use of the 

 tent, the nest is moved to a position where the tent can be used. 

 In moving the nest we depend upon the attachment of the parent 

 birds to their offspring to cause them to follow the nest, and in 

 every case in which I found it necessary to move the nest the old 

 birds followed it up promptly. The birds soon become accustomed 

 to the tent and the new situation of the nest .and go about their 

 duties in their usual manner. In the list of birds whose nests I 

 have moved are included the chipping sparrow, wood pewee, Acadian 

 flycatcher, robin, summer warbler, redstart, cedar waxwing, king- 

 bird and Cooper's hawk. The tent I used was made of green denim 

 supported on a light framework consisting of a ridge-pole four feet 

 six inches long, two upright pieces six feet six inches long, 

 each shod with iron at the lower end, and crossed two feet 

 from the upper end by a cross-bar four feet long which was at- 

 tached at its middle point to the upright by a screw. This per- 



