HUNTING BIRDS WITH CAMERA 



tried to approach, but she ran the instant she saw me 

 coming. Evidently this method was hopeless, so I 

 rigged the camera up in some bushes in front of the 

 nest, covering it with leaves. Then came a tedious 

 wait in hiding, with thread attached to the shutter, but 

 no sign of the bird. So I extended my line of thread 

 away off in the woods, went off for an hour, and then 

 pulled at a venture. This time the bird was at home, 

 having become used to the camera. It was now late 

 afternoon, so I had to return home, after fixing an 

 imitation of the camera to keep the bird accustomed to 

 the instrument. The plate proved to be hopelessly 

 under-exposed, though the exposure was for one sec- 

 ond, with full aperture, but with a single lens of the 

 doublet. 



The next two days brought pouring rain, but I tried 

 it again on Memorial Day, arising at 4 A. M., as I had 

 to be back at noon for public exercises. The bird 

 skulked off again, so I set the camera as before, but 

 she had not returned in over three hours. It was then 

 eleven o'clock. I left the camera set, ran the three 

 miles down the trail in twenty-eight minutes, jumped 

 into the buggy, and barely was in time for my appoint- 

 ment. The exercises were over by the middle of the 

 afternoon, and I hustled back up the mountain, reach- 

 ing the nest at 4.15. The bird was on, and I pulled 

 the thread, the shutter set for its longest movement, 

 about a second and a half, and with the doublet lens, 

 giving four times the illumination of the single lens. 



28 



