2 8 Wild Birds 



lures to the tent, which soon commands no more attention from 

 them than a rock in the landscape, but the possible rewards of 

 sedentary experiments in this direction are too uncertain to 

 arouse much enthusiasm in the mind of the active bird student. 



This method of studying the daily life of wild birds is recom- 

 mended chiefly to those careful students who are making a study 

 of the habits and instincts of animals, and who are 

 Objections prepared to devote much time and energy in the 

 field. The indiscriminate use of any method of 

 studying the home-life of birds is fraught with 

 danger to the young, and to displace a nest at the wrong time 

 in order to photograph it, or to leave it unprotected, may often 

 open wide the door of destruction. When the study of birds 

 with the camera is pursued' as a recreation, the rule should be 

 to disturb the nest and its occupants as little as possible. 



Since an account of the method was first published, the 

 chief objections which have been raised against it are: (i) that 

 the displacement of the nest is liable to expose the young to new 

 dangers, especially when it is removed from a place of con- 

 cealment to a conspicuous point in a field, and (2) that the in- 

 experienced, ambitious to use their cameras, would be tempted 

 to move a nest, without serious intent, and thus invite that 

 destruction to our birds, which is already far too great, and 

 which every lover of nature should do his utmost to prevent. 



Under the first head would fall the liability of the parents to 

 desert, exposure of the young to heat, cold, storms, and above 

 all to that inveterate enemy of the nestling bird the remorseless 

 cat. Enough has already been said about the weather, which in 

 all protected nests does not enter into the question, and in all 

 exposed ones must be guarded against in the ways suggested. 

 The nesting bough, when firmly fixed to supports, is more secure 

 than it could have possibly been before. The designs of the 

 cat may be completely frustrated by the wire-screen, or when the 

 branch or trunk holding the nest (as in the case of a Wood- 

 pecker or Bluebird) is mounted on a pivot, by a simple device 

 to be later described. In referring to this subject in the earlier 

 edition it was said that predacious animals of all kinds seemed 



