3 6 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



egg-ledges of the fulmar petrel in St. Kilda with- 

 out any help whatever. But here, again, it is a 

 matter of a cool head and a sure foot, and in the 

 absence of either or both it would be madness to 

 make the attempt. 



The picture on the preceding page shows my 

 brother at work on a shelf in a Shetland cliff, 

 whither we climbed by taking advantage of ledges. 

 He is just in the act of making a study of a 

 shag which had left her nest in a sheltered corner 

 upon his approach, and walked to the edge of the 

 ledge ready to fling herself into space and fly away 

 out to sea upon the slightest alarm. 



A Yorkshire naturalist friend of ours, who 

 accompanied us that day, was so highly amused at 

 seeing my brother creep carefully along the guano- 

 streaming shelf of rock, with his camera in front 

 of him and his head well hidden beneath the 

 focussing- cloth, all the while trying to arrest the 

 bird's attention by imitating its own peculiar form 

 of language, that he suggested photographing the 

 photographer at work, and as we had a spare 

 camera he tried his hand, with the result already 

 mentioned. Some idea may be gathered of how 

 near a bird it is possible to get by careful stalking 

 when it is mentioned that the picture of the shag 

 in the act of stretching herself was made a moment 

 after the one of the photographer, and has in no 

 way been enlarged. One of its chief beauties is 

 that it represents exactly the exercise indulged in 



