A Kingbird Family 



in the radius of a foot. Hours quickly passed, 

 indeed, while one was engrossed in watching 

 the aerial manoeuvres of these expert flyers. 



The old birds repeatedly tried to entice their 

 offspring away from the perch on which they 

 were placed for photographing. With a 

 choice morsel in its beak, the parent would 

 hover just behind the young, approaching and 

 retreating in its efforts to coax its progeny to 

 a safer location; and without dropping the 

 morsel from its beak it argued and called per- 

 sistently. In this endeavor, it was frequently 

 successful to the annoyance of the photo- 

 grapher, whose patience and perseverance 

 were otherwise sufficiently tried. 



To secure bird pictures, the naturalist often 

 must spend many tedious hours in gaining the 

 confidence of his subjects, but once they begin 

 to overcome their original shyness it becomes 

 a question of dexterity in snapping the re- 

 quired poses. These preliminary hours of pa- 



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