Method of Bird Study and Photography 15 



silent and motionless, unless it happens to be windy, but the 

 young are close by, and fear of the new objects gradually wears 

 away. Parental instinct, or in this case maternal love, for the 

 instinct to cherish the young is usually stronger in the mother, 

 wins the day. The mother bird comes to the nest and feeds her 

 clamoring brood. The spell is broken; she comes again. The 

 male also approaches, and their visits are thereafter repeated. 



Possibly the fears of the old birds are renewed at sight of 

 the window which is now opened in the tent-front, and of the 

 glass eye of the camera gleaming through it, but the lens is also 

 silent and motionless, and soon becomes a familiar object to be 

 finally disregarded. Again there is the fear which the sound of 

 the shutter, a sharp metallic click, at first inspires, unless you 

 are the fortunate possessor of an absolutely silent and rapid 

 shutter, an instrument which is unknown to the trade, at least 

 in this country. At its first report when two feet away, many 

 a bird will jump as if shot, give an angry scream, and even fly 

 at the tent as if to exorcise an evil spirit, while after a few hours, 

 or on the second day, they will only wince; finally they will 

 not budge a feather at this or any other often repeated sound, 

 whether from shutter, steam whistle, locomotive, or the human 

 voice. This illustrates the effect of the alarm clock over again. 

 At our first experience with this nerve-wracking machine, we 

 start from deep sleep and promptly heed its summons ; then we 

 are apt to mind it less and less until we sleep on serenely in 

 spite of it. If we were to place an alarm clock on or near the 

 nesting bough, and let it off at regular but not too frequent 

 intervals, the birds would soon learn to disregard it as we do, 

 and as some of them disregard the babel of a city street. 



It is the young, the young, always THE YOUNG, in whom the 

 interest of the old birds is centered, and about whom their lives 

 revolve. They are the strong lure, the talisman, the magnet to 

 which the parent is irresistibly drawn. The tree, the branch, 

 the nest itself, what are these in comparison with the young, 

 for whom alone they exist? 



With some species it is possible to make the necessary 

 change without evil consequences when there are eggs in the nest; 



