PHOTOGRAPHING NESTS AND EGGS 6j 



tographer. Decoys in the form of food will attract 

 many kinds of birds, and some will become regular 

 visitors where food is habitually placed and will 

 gradually become very tame. A piece of meat or 

 suet secured to a branch will tempt some species, 

 while bread-crumbs or seed thrown ofi the ground 

 will attract others. Still another good bait is a cocoa- 

 nut, broken in half and hung in a convenient place. 

 Some birds may at times be coaxed to a conve- 

 nient site for photographing by the presence of a 

 mounted owl, but this plan works best during the 

 nesting season. A scheme which I have long in- 

 tended to try, and which might perhaps work suc- 

 cessfully, is a portable blind in the form of an arti- 

 ficial cow. This should be made of a light frame- 

 work of cane or split bamboo and covered with 

 thin muslin painted in imitation of the animal. Of 

 course it must be made light enough to be readily 

 portable. It would be interesting to see how crude 

 an imitation of an animal would pass the critical 

 eye of birds. The photographing would have to 

 be done by means of a graflex or some such camera, 

 as, of course, a tripod would be out of the question. 

 Whether or not this idea would work out cannot be 

 known until it has been tried. I simply offer it as a 

 suggestion. A device used by Mr. Frank Chapman, 

 which works satisfactorily, is an umbrella of a green- 

 ish-drab colour. From the rib ends a cloth of the 



