HUNTING BIRDS WITH CAMERA 



Day after day I had ranged the woods for miles and 

 miles, but I did not happen upon just the right spot. 

 But at length, while I was thus hunting, I met a man 

 burning brush, who told me of an Indian hunter who 

 recently, while guiding a surveying party, had found 

 two " Partridge " nests. That evening I saw the Indian, 

 and arranged to have him show me his finds. 



Two days later, in the morning, we started up a trail 

 over a very mountainous tract. For nearly two miles 

 it followed a rocky ravine by a roaring brook. A 

 rattlesnake sprung his wavering alarm, but I was too 

 eager in the quest to care that day for snake trophies. 

 Three miles back from the road we reached the neigh- 

 borhood of the nests. One was in a swampy hollow 

 along the line of the surveyors' blazings, beside a stump. 

 We finally found it, after quite a search, but some wild 

 animal had eaten the eggs and the shells were scattered 

 about. The other was a little further on, beside the 

 trail we had been following. The bird was on the 

 nest, directly at the base of a clump of chestnut sprouts. 

 Despite her solitude, or else because of it, she was one 

 of the wary sort and ran off, trailing her wings, before 

 I could get with the camera within fifteen feet of her. 

 She had twelve eggs. 



Leaving the vicinity for a time, when I returned she 

 was not on, though the eggs were warm. Then I hid 

 and watched. In half an hour she came walking back, 

 with head erect, jerking her tail. After waiting a 

 quarter of an hour for her to get composed, again I 



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