40 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



came to a ledge that was moist and slimy he fell 

 over and was drowned. What was still more sad, 

 he caused the death of two other men who bravely 

 attempted to rescue him. 



We next come to the consideration of studying 

 and photographing birds' nests, squirrels' dreys, and 

 similar objects in trees and high hedges. It is not 

 so arduous a business as cliff-work, nor so danger- 

 ous, yet it requires a fair amount of physical 

 strength, level-headedness, and care, to carry out 

 successfully. 



In the case of trees that are too thick in the 

 trunk to be clasped and swarmed in the ordinary 

 way my brother puts on a pair of climbing-irons, 

 and ascends with his camera slung upon his back, 

 as shown on the previous page. He is, however, not 

 very partial to these aids, and dispenses with them 

 whenever he can, and I remember an amusing 

 accident which once befell us in consequence. 



A gentleman living near us expressed a great 

 desire to go out and watch us photograph the nest 

 and eggs of a carrion crow. Our photographer 

 tried several times in vain to swarm the giant 

 trunk of a tree in which a member of the species 

 had built, and then conceived the notion of getting 

 amongst its branches by throwing the end of a 

 rope over the lowest one, and putting one foot 

 into a loop, allowing our spectator and myself to 

 haul him up. We borrowed a good strong rope 

 from an adjoining farmhouse, made a big loop at 



