Vol. XV 

 1916 



Camera Craft Notes. 



255 



Fantails and Swallows. — Bird photographers, especially those 

 using in(.'.\pjiisi\c caineras, very often find themselves in diffi- 

 culties tlirougli lack of sufficient light to admit of the short 

 exposures usually necessary when dealing with adult birds. In 

 November, 1915, we located the nest of a pair of Rufous Fantails 

 {Rhipidiira ritfifrons), overhanging a creek in a deep fern gully. 

 It was our first experience of the nest since taking up photography, 

 and our anxiety to obtain pictures of the birds accounted for the 

 use of many ])lates. So far as the tameness of the birds was con- 

 cerned, the case presented no difficulty. On account of the bad 

 weather at the week-ends and the natural darkness of the gully, 

 however, several exposures, ranging from one twenty-fifth to half 

 a second, failed to make an impression on the plates. It was then, 

 almost as a last resource, that we decided to try long exposures 

 of the bird on the nest — a system we had not previously tried. 

 The liirds appeared to face the ordeal so well that we gradually 



Rufous Fantail. 



LAWRENCE. 



18 



