lO 
WILD WINGS 
birds, the efforts of the American Ornithologists’ Union in 
appointing a warden to watch the colony, and a bettering of 
public sentiment in Florida, realizing the great value of inter¬ 
esting wild life in attracting tourists. Our own party is a case 
in point. To see this pelican colony, heron rookeries, and 
other bird resorts, three of us — one more having followed — 
had come all the way from New England, meaning several 
hundred dollars distributed among railroads, boarding-houses, 
guides, stable-men, and store-keepers ; and we are only a few 
out of thousands. The ])eople of Florida are short-sighted 
indeed if they allow vandals and plume-hunters to massacre 
these pelicans, herons, and other interesting creatures. 
In making an expedition of this kind to such great bird 
resorts as this ])elican colony, one feels like a general who is 
planning and conducting the siege of some great capital. 
Plans must be carefully made beforehand, the photographic 
equipment must be comj:)lete and in perfect order, and the 
worker must be in readiness to take advantage of everv 
favoring circumstance. My equipment at this time lacked the 
very desirable reflecting camera, but I had two good long- 
focus cameras, a 4 x 5 and a 5x7, with good lenses and 
a telephoto lens besides. These I was determined to use for 
all they were worth, and with them I went systematically 
to work to “take” Pelican Island and all its defending gar¬ 
rison. 
First I took a number of general views, snap-shots with 
camera in hand, of the pelicans on their nests and in flight. 
Then, with the camera on the tripod, I photographed nests at 
close range, with eggs and voung, using the ball and socket 
clamjD. When these general, I might say “ routine,” matters 
had been disposed of, I had the rest of the time for that 
fascinating, but often slow and exasperating, branch of the 
subject — bird-portraiture. Over at the farther end of the 
