6o 



THE MUSEUM. 



when dry, the print can be submitted 

 to a bath of saturated corrosive sub- 

 limate, which removes everything save 

 what you have traced with your draw- 

 ing ink. The "black and white" figure 

 thus produced can be electrotyped by 

 any of the ordinary methods, at a very 

 moderate cost, and it will make a fair 

 figure to illustrate what the young 

 naturalist may have to say in the 

 journal he suscribes for. Excellent 

 figures of fish may be obtained by any 

 of the above methods, if you will but 

 go to the trouble of constructing a glass 

 tank of clear panes of window-glass, 

 say i ox 1 6, but only an inch or two a- 

 part and parallel. In such a tank, 

 filled with the very clearest of water, 

 your ordinary- sized fish will be kept 

 constantly in position and quiet. You 

 can photograph through the double 

 glass and the water, but you must only 

 have the sky behind it for a background. 

 To get an animal life-size you must 

 measure it with a pair of compasses, 

 and compare this measurement with 

 the image on the ground-glass of the 

 camera, after you have finally focused 

 to your liking. Your best stock of 

 patience will be demanded in the pho- 

 tography of living birds. An entire 

 chapter might be written upon this 

 branch of the subject, and then it 

 would hardly be exhausted. The same 

 scrupulous care must be exercised in 

 reference to position, the accessories, 

 the backgrounds, and so on. 



A few years since I photographed a 

 living Western Red-tail Hawk in New 

 Mexico. 



I selected a rugged pine stump for 

 him to stand upon, and this perch was 

 sharply focused before placing my sub- 

 ject upon it- Further, I secured a hor- 

 izon; in other words, the hawk is 

 brought out in strong relief against a 

 good sky. It would have been a sim- 

 ple matter to have placed a dead bird 

 under one of his talons, but it was not 

 done; I have figures of owls wherein I 

 have accomplished it. Where no back- 

 ground is demanded, such birds can be 

 photographed in one's study, with a 



white sheet behind them, and against 

 this conebearing pine boughs, old 

 stumps, and the like, come out beauti- 

 fully, and elegant figures of many kinds 

 can be reproduced from the negative 

 thus secured. A pneumatic snap-shut- 

 ter is almost an indispensable adjunct 

 to your camera in the proper photog- 

 raphy of birds, as some of them have 

 to be partially hypnotized before 

 placed in position to be taken. Then, 

 as they recover from the effect of this, 

 they dress their plumage, assume a nat- 

 ural posture, and then appear animated. 

 You now watch your opportunity, and 

 secure an instantaneous picture of your 

 feathered subject. In the forest you 

 can often get most valuable negatives 

 of nests and similar objects, all of 

 which are highly prized by the scien- 

 tific naturalst, and can be used in his 

 work. Large lizards, such as onr 

 "Gila Monster" of Arizona, I have ob- 

 tained by firmly strapping my camera 

 in such a manner as to have the line 

 of the focal axis perpendicular to the 

 floor, upon which I have placed a sheet 

 of white blotting paper, and then al- 

 lowed the reptile to walk over it, and 

 as he came beneath the lens, I secured 

 a first-class negative of him In the 

 case of mammals, I have photographs 

 of dead ones, placed in natural post- 

 ures, so faithfull done that they de- 

 ceived the eyes of the best experts 

 afterwards. 



The field and line of work I have 

 briefly indicated above, is brimful of 

 interest for the enthuiastic young nat- 

 uralist, and one wherein he will soon 

 find that all his ingenuity will be most 

 amply demanded. As every faithful 

 young biologist should keep his "jour- 

 nal" of observations made afield, and 

 in the forest, or afloat, he will very 

 soon find that his camera will aid him 

 immensely in affording the means of 

 furnishing permanent pictures where- 

 with to illustrate his remarks, and these 

 in addition to the ones used from which 

 his photo-electrotypes have been se- 

 lected for printing. 



