FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



try to approach her so soon after she had been from the nest for 

 her morning exercise. Late that afternoon I returned. The 

 light was directly in the face of the lens in case I had a chance to 

 set up a camera, but I wanted to accustom her to the process. 



It seemed to me I used an hour to go from the well to a spot 

 as close the nest as possible. I never wanted to make a study of 

 a bird more, and so worked in greater trepidation, and with 

 caution that I never before employed with any subject. That 

 shy, slipping, deep wood thing if I only could reproduce her! 

 She allowed me to set up the camera, and focus on her, so I 

 shaded the lens, made a time exposure and left without causing 

 her to desert. That night I made up lost sleep, for I felt that 

 "I had the hang of it now and could do it again." 



The following morning, instead of going early, I waited until 

 eleven o'clock, which was as late as I dared risk the light; then 

 with the same deliberation and caution I approached her again 

 and made three exposures, each time slipping the camera slightly 

 closer. She sat, as brooding tree birds always do, on the point of 

 her breast. Her tail was toward the lens and her head at the 

 farthest side of the nest. That was not a position I would have 

 chosen, but it was a very good omen that she would stay when she 

 had her back toward me. Had she brooded facing me, she 

 would have been compelled to make an impulse in my direction 

 in order to reach the deep shrubbery, which she would not have 

 liked to do. 



The day after I went an hour earlier, moved up to ten feet, 

 and exposed two more plates in the same attitude. The follow- 

 ing morning she was in a beautiful position, sidewise toward the 

 lens, showing her outline from beak to tip in one elegant sweep, 

 her black bill, her red-rimmed eye, and the exquisite shadings 

 of her silvery throat and the bronze of her back and wings. She 

 was all of twelve inches in length. I set my teeth hard to keep 



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