258 Camera Craft Notes. [, 



Emu 

 it Apri 



plate can be exposed. Often, however, patience is practised in 

 vain. 



In Riverina I obtained several pictures of White-browed Wood- 

 Swallows {Artamus siiperciliosus) after spending the best part of 

 a broiUng day behind a packing case in a small paddock at 

 Jerilderie. The nest was in the top of a coil of wire netting, 

 standing by a post-and-rail fence. It contained three nestUngs, 

 about five days old. The female was sheltering the brood from 

 the sun (the temperature was about 102° in the shade), quivering 

 her wings to fan them, or else because of her own distress in the 



White-browed Wood-Swallow at Nest. 



heat ; her beak was gaping most of the time. She flew to a clothes- 

 line in a yard adjoining the paddock when I appeared on the 

 scene, and nearly an hour passed before she approached the nest 

 again. When she did it was only to alight for half a second, 

 flash a glance at the chicks, and dart back to her perch. Later 

 she beCo.me more venturesome, and I was able to expose three 

 plates (with good results, as it proved). All this time the male 

 bird was in view, but declined to come within range of the lens. 

 He was very angry, and frequently swooped at the camera. 

 When I went into hiding he seemed puzzled for a while, but, 



