Journal of 



Applied Microscopy 



and 



Laboratory Methods. 



Volume IV. 



NOVEMBER, 1901, 



Number 1 1 



Studying and Photographing the Wild Bird. 



The problem in Bird Photography* is how to see and not be seen. If a 

 bird is actually caught and kept in a cage, or in any way restrained, its behav- 

 ior is no longer perfectly natural and free, at least not until all fear has been 

 subdued, and it is no longer wild but tame. What is most needed in the photog- 

 raphy of wild birds is an invisible chain to hold the animals to some fixed spot 

 which can be approached in 

 disguise. 



Fortunately for the student 

 of bird habit and instinct, all 

 these conditions are fulfilled for 

 a most important and interesting 

 period, that of life at the nest. 

 The nest is the given fixed point, 

 and parental instinct is the in- 

 visible chain. The wild bird, 

 however, is bound not merely 

 to the nest, but to its young. 

 Wherever the young go the old 

 follow. By using the nearly 

 fledged young as a lure, some 

 species could, I believe, be led 

 across the country for a mile or 

 more. I have taken them two 

 hundred feet without special 

 effort. 



Hitherto the bird photog- 



. ° Fig. I.— Nest-hole of Flicker used by Bluebirds. This dead stump 



rapher has had to rely mamly was sawn from an apple tree and mounted on a pivot so that it 



could be easily turned at any angle with the sun. 



* The following paper is partly taken from " The Home Life of Wild Birds : A New Method 

 of the Study and Photography of Birds," by Francis H. Herrick, with 141 original illustrations 

 from nature by the author, and published by Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and 

 London, to which the reader is referred for further details. It also contains some results of the 

 author's latest experience in the field. 



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