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HOW BIRDS CAN TAKE THEIR OWN PORTRAITS 
By GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd 
The inventor of flashlight photography of wild animals and birds and of the 
methods of making animals and birds take their own photographs, and author of 
numerous articles in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, as follows: “Photo- 
graphing Wild Game with Flashlight and Camera,” with 72 illustrations; “One 
Season's Game Bag with the Camera,” with 7o illustrations; “A Flashlight Story 
of an Albino Porcupine and of a Cunning but Unfortunate Coon,” with 26 illustra- 
tions; “The White Sheep, Giant Moose, and Smaller Game of Kenai Peninsula, 
Alaska,” with 62 illustrations; “Wild Animals that Took Their Own Pictures by 
Day and by Night,” with 67 illustrations, and “Nature's Transformation at Pan- 
ama,” with 36 illustrations and 2 colored maps. 
NY ANIMAL or bird and many a 
reptile, however large or small, 
agile or cunning, may have its 
picture faithfully recorded during day- 
light or darkness, without the immediate 
presence of a human assistant. 
While most birds and daylight-feeding 
animals, like the elk, caribou, mountain 
sheep and goat, and small animals, such 
as the squirrel and woodchuck, present 
no insurmountable difficulties in photog- 
raphy, getting a good picture of others 
is often uncertain or irksome when the 
game photographer must either await 
their coming or attempt a near approach. 
In many instances, owing to the noc- 
turnal character of the animal, the keen- 
ness of scent and vision, with the habit 
of skulking in thick underbrush or oc- 
cupying points of vantage where no ap- 
proach can be made, I have usually found 
it a waste of effort to try to get pictures 
in the ordinary way; for, even if occa- 
sionally successful, the loss of time can 
be avoided by the use of the set camera. 
To meet the difficulties of self-photog- 
raphy by creatures of the forest, I have 
developed methods suitable to the habits 
of each animal and bird subject. In the 
main I have used many of the devices of 
the trapper rather than the hunter, substi- 
tuting the automatic camera for the trap 
and using the same baits and scents in 
favorable localities during the season of 
the year when success was likely. 
The greatest immediate pleasure which 
comes to the camera hunter when, on 
foot, he can successfully stalk, or in a 
canoe quietly paddle up to, a big-game 
Io! 
animal, and at other times get pictures 
from the recess of a well-concealed blind, 
can still be followed while, at the same 
time, there are secreted in the forest or 
along the waterways several cameras 
capable of picturing the living form of 
many an elusive animal, and that, too, 
without the loss of time or patience. 
In this branch of photography one 
should have a fair knowledge of the 
habits and range of the animal sought; 
for while there are many—if they can 
be located—that will seize almost any 
kind of bait, regardless of human scent 
or the appearance of a poorly concealed 
camera, such as the raccoon, opossum, 
skunk, muskrat, woodchuck, rabbit, or 
squirrel; yet in the case of others, like 
the beaver, bear, fox, wolf, and"deer, one 
should follow the cautious methods of 
the trapper when he erects a dead-fall, 
sets a steel trap, or puts out poisoned 
bait. 
Then, toward the close of the day, 
when the fading light puts an end to the 
use of the hand camera, one may ex- 
pectantly visit the camera traps, and if 
the string across the runway is broken 
or the bait disturbed, the surroundings 
should be carefully examined for the 
hoof-marks of a frightened deer or the 
scratches made by the claws of some 
carnivorous animal fleeing on the click of 
the revolving shutter. If, however, no 
visitor has come, the flashlight machine 
may be adjusted and the shutter of the 
camera reset at a much slower speed, so 
that when-some night prowler presses 
against the string or eagerly pulls at the 
