WOOD AND WASTE 153 



among the trees, the photographic results 

 have been poor. By ill luck, the only fairly 

 good negative gave us the bird without his 

 tail. He had during the infinitesimal 

 fraction of time necessary for exposure, 

 turned from broadside to full face. Nor 

 has such a case been exceptional; again and 

 again has the image on the plate turned 

 out utterly different from our anticipation, 

 the bird, for instance, pointing north and 

 south when we had expected it east and 

 west. 



In this alone, of course, there is nothing sur- 

 prising, but it seems curious that several 

 of these plates have come out sharp and 

 clear and show no trace of motion. 



The movements of some breeds in par- 

 ticular are enormously rapid, and there 

 seems to be a great lot of luck in very 

 fast photographic work, and even with the 

 most rapid lens; the most restless species 

 may be secured in a quiet fiftieth part of a 

 second, and the most phlegmatic and slow 

 spoiled in a restless hundredth. 



Then, again, when the parent birds of 

 any breed have become suspicious, even 



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