xiv BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



The experienced ornitliologist will no doubt miss 

 a few nests he might reasonably expect to find in 

 this work; but on the other hand it is certain he 

 will discover some of infinitely greater value, which 

 he did not expect to fall in with. The omission of 

 such birds as the Golden Plover, Dabchick, Yellow 

 Wagtail, Corncrake, and a few others, is due in 

 some cases to accident, and in others to our inability 

 to find them, although we searched long and 

 diligently. In some instances it happened that 

 directly we succeeded in finding and photographing 

 a bird's nest which had entailed considerable trouble 

 in the search, we immediately came across others 

 by accident. This w^as notably the case with the 

 Ringed Plover, Kingfisher, and Dunlin. In several 

 cases good pictures have been left out because w^e 

 were unable, from lack of trustworthy evidence, to 

 identify them with absolute certainty. 



No one wdio has yet to try this particular branch 

 of photography, can j^ossibly appreciate its troubles 

 and disappointments. As an instance of the latter, 

 my brother on one occasion travelled upwards of 

 five hundred miles by rail, and dragged his camera 

 at least twelve miles up and down a mountain side, 

 in order to take a view of one bird's nest, and 

 w^as defeated by the oncoming of a thick mist at 

 the very moment he was fixing up his apparatus. 

 The Golden Eagle's eyrie was photographed during 

 the temporary lifting of a Highland mist, and con- 

 sidering the situation, and the unsatisfactory state 

 of the light, has turned out very successfully. 



The picture of the Solan Goose was obtained 



