17 



to illushrate them, than 1 bad before. Now put a 

 camera into the bands of snch an entomoIoErist. 

 Coald he not produce just the things that are 

 wanted, although I am well aware that in many 

 caees he would feel that photography was alto- 

 gether inadequate to illustrate bis study in the 

 manner worthy of it. 



One of the first thoughts that take hold of ns on 

 entering upon this class of work Is as to our 

 apparatus. But we have the assurance of all the 

 writers upon the subject that the ordinary stand 

 camera and lens with a tilting top to the tripod, 

 is all that is required at the start, and although a 

 formidable list of apparatus is sometimes described, 

 these are only accumulated after years of work. 

 Personally, I have nothing in the way of apparatus 

 that may not be found in the list of any amateur, 

 not having yet touched the branches calling for 

 telephoto lenses and such-like paraphernalia. 



The sizes of plates and camera also may be 

 safely left to the worker himself, although I have 

 my own opinion on this matter. Most workers 

 recommend ^-plate size, which is a very nice size, 

 although I have only used i-plates, for two im- 

 portant reasons. When one is exposing a large 

 number of plates (and large numbers are used if 

 the worker is at all energetic, as the number of 

 failures is out of all proportion to the successes), 

 the cost of plates often decides the matter. Last 

 year I exposed 300 plates (or 294 to be exact), 

 though not all on Natural History subjects, the 

 difference between which and ^-plates would be as 

 between 25s. and ^3 2s. 6d.. to which must be 

 added cost of printing papers and then mounts or 

 albums, if the prints are to be kept in order and 

 properly arranged. I readily admit when one 

 gets a good picture, a ^-plate is not too large, iu 

 fact one wishes it were about 12 x 10, but for the 

 failures (and the naturalist photographer knows 

 full well how many of his plates take the shorteat 

 possible cut from the developing dish to the dust- 

 bin), i-plates are amply large. 



But my second objection to a large camera is to 

 the weight of it. I have often found after a day's 

 or a long afternoon's tramp, a ^-plate camera, 

 slides, and all the necessary etceteras that have to 

 be carried, is more than heavy enough, and coming 

 home with a severe backache have felt thankful 

 that I did not have the extra weight of a larger 

 camera and accessories. But these two questions 

 of depth of pocket and physical endurance can be 

 best settled by the photographer himself. 



In coming to the work, I think it will be fairly 

 safe to say that the photography of birds' nests 

 will be one of the first branches that the coming 

 naturalist photographer will turn his attention to, 

 and that for one or two reasons SubJRCts are 

 easily found by anyone who takes the trouble ta 

 look for them — the work is easy, interesting, and 

 yields results that are pretty and attractive. The 

 slides that have been shown are of the nests of our 

 most familiar birds, most of which can be found 

 in the first season or two, and it needs but a short 

 time at this work to prove what a lot there is of 

 interest that may be learned from the nests and 

 «gg9. the building sites and habits of the birds that 

 come under our observation. 



The lecturer then described a number of nests. 



which he illustrated by means of slides, dwelling 

 upon the different kinds of nest and modes of pro- 

 tection, etc., and also alluded to the devices 

 adapted by various birds to render their nests and 

 eggs almost invisible by building in such places 

 as hedges, or on the seashore, or on banks and 

 clifTs. 



The extremely interesting study of the develop- 

 ment of young birds was next touched upon, as 

 was also the very difficult task uf securing pictures 

 of the habits of the old birds, the operator having 

 to resort to numerous dodges to hide himself and 

 bis camera in order to watch the comings and 

 goings of the objects of his study. 



Mr. Douglas English— than whom probably 

 there is no greater authority — divided Natural 

 History photography into two broad classes, which 

 he describes as '* Stalking Photography " and 

 " Control Photography." The former embraces 

 all those methods of work, such as I have described, 

 where the photographer goes in search of his sub- 

 ject, and by many and various means masks and 

 conceals himself or his camera or both near to the 

 object he wishes to photograph, and waits and 

 watches for his sitter to return to the nest, or to 

 the bait laid for him, or to come to the spot where 

 the photographer reasonably hopes he will return 

 sooner or later. The latter method deals with the 

 photography of creatures — done at home — amidst 

 naturally-arranged surroundings, which are made 

 to imitate as near as may be possible the natural 

 habitat of the creature he is engaged in photo- 

 graphing. With many of our wild creatures — as 

 I shall endeavour to show later— this is really the 

 only workable and satisfactory plan if we wish to 

 get illustrations pourtraying tho?e creatures in a 

 clear, distinct, and satisfactory way ; pictures 

 which shall illustrate our subject so as to show its 

 distinctive points, form, and markings in such a 

 way that we shall not only be able to recognise the 

 animals photographed from our knowledge of 

 the animal, but shall be able to recognise the 

 animal from cur photograph of it, and altogether 

 taken amidst surroundings which imitate so closely 

 or suggest satisfactorily the natural habit of our 

 subject. The latter method Mr. English considers 

 the more satisfactory way of dealing with many of 

 our common birds. The common ones — those that 

 may be caught or obtained, he argues, may be 

 photographed in this way with greater chances of 

 surcess and with a much less expenditure of time 

 and personal comfort than in waiting on them out 

 in their natural wilds, and the illustrations that 

 he gives to support his view certainly bears out 

 his contention, and although possibly the naturalist 

 or photographic purist may be at first inclined 

 to hold another view, I am strongly inclined to 

 think that the results should justify the means, 

 and if the studies so obtained are successful from 

 the scientific point of view, the methods. I think, 

 may be considered as satisfactory t\> tne end. 



One of the most instructive books I have come 

 across on Natural History Photography is one by 

 Mr. Douglas English, entitled " Photographs for 

 Naturalists," and the in^^^tructions he gives and 

 the description of his methods of work are almost 

 exactly opposite to those of the bird photographs 

 I have mentioned. With birds* nests, of course. 



