THE UOLOGISr 



59 



look at the lake over which the suu was 

 now beaming, left. A pair of Spotted 

 Sand-pipers tlew noisily before us and 

 in the pasture above a Vesper Sparrow 

 flushed from her nest and three eggs. 

 Chats flew passionately into the air pour- 

 ing forth their medley of songs, and Bob 

 White's called from the brush. It was 

 a long-to-be-remembered scene. 



Our last Parula's nest was found as 

 we were passing thi'ough an old moss 

 grown orchard, it was entirely dift'erent 

 from all of the others. The general 

 shape was that of the lower half of a 

 Baltimore orioles nest, straws were 

 sticking through the moss and it was 

 almost entirely composed of the disk 

 shaped usnea, 'Usnea barbata." Four 

 eggs slightly incubated was the com- 

 plement contained. The male was 

 singing from the woods near. 



The illustration shows a typical nest 

 as we found tnem. It was photo- 

 graphed at home and showed fairly well 

 the shape and situation. With the ex- 

 ception of the last nest found, all of our 

 nests were entirely composed of the 

 moss with the addition of a few fine 

 straws or pine needles which constitut- 

 ed a flrmer lining for the bottom of the 

 nest. The average egg measures .63x 

 .40 and is glos.^y white dotted with 

 claret brown and lilac, often wreathed 

 about the larger end. The size of the 

 nest of course varies with the bunch of 

 moss selected, but the entrance has a 

 diameter averaging about three fourths 

 of an inch. 



Frank J. Birtwell, 

 Dorchester, Mass. 



Purther Remarks on Ornithological 

 Photography. 



Editor Oologist: 



Noticing the remarks of Mr. R. C. 

 Woodhouse in the June issue dn this 

 subject I beg to submit a few suggest- 

 ions along this line, which difler mater- 

 ially in many respects from the above 



writer's experience. Doubtless every 

 collector who has made use of the cam- 

 era in the tield will agree as to its in- 

 estimable value, and each artist has 

 probably marked out his own methods 

 of photographing birds and nests, and 

 consequently what I may oS'er is simp- 

 ly individual opinion. 



The collector who goes afield should 

 not expect to gain valuable results 

 without some trouble and pains, and 

 many of the best ornithological views 

 are the results of continued patience 

 and perseverance on the part of the 

 artist. If 50U have a subject worth 

 taking do not mind a little extra weight 

 or trouble in getting your apparatus to 

 the spot. Select a good camera and a 

 large one if necessary and you will not 

 regret your troulde when the finished 

 print lies before you. 



I would advocate using at least a 5x7 

 camera, as it gives the test all-round 

 satisfactory results and is not as un- 

 wieldy as one who has not used it 

 would be led to believe. I have used a 

 5x7 camera entirely' for several years 

 and never find it a burden when I have 

 bird photography in view, and espec- 

 ially if the subject is to be one 01 inter- 

 est. My present camera is a "Midget," 

 manufactured by the R. O. Co., and 

 can be folded up to a thickness of about 

 2\ inches and the lense and shutter 

 dropped into my pocket. The plate 

 holders can be packed next the camera 

 and the whole wrapped in a focusing 

 cloth and carried by a strap, making a 

 convenient package, and when in use 

 is transformed into a very neat bellows 

 camera. I should by all means recom- 

 mend a focusing camera and not one of 

 the fixed-focus type, the results with the 

 former being eminently more satisfac- 

 tory. 



Use a tripod and take time to care- 

 fully focus on the bird or nest you wish 

 to take; then use the "stop" you con- 

 sider will gl\-e the best results and 

 time accordingly. In such cases with 



