USING THE ORDINARY CAMERA 195 



climbing to change the plate. Next time she did not 

 stay away so long, and I photographed her carrying 

 a strip of bark to line the nest, and again when she 

 had settled down to incubate. Then she seemed 

 alarmed at my frequent appearance, so I withdrew, 

 leaving the cloth there so that I might try again if 

 the plates should not turn out to be good, which, 

 fortunately, was unnecessary. 



The above instance may suggest the general 

 method of procedure in " tree-work." Yet in this 

 and every other department of study and sport one 

 must be fertile of resource in devising expedients to 

 meet the new situations which the birds will often 

 furnish us and which are above all rules. The fol- 

 lowing is such an instance: I was wading through 

 an area of reeds growing from the water near the 

 shore of a large lake in Saskatchewan, northwest 

 Canada, finding nests of canvasback, redhead, eared 

 grebe, coot, and other interesting birds, when I heard 

 quite near me a most singular series of hissing and 

 grunting sounds. Going closer, I saw an American, 

 bittern on her nest, her feathers all bristled out, scold- 

 ing at me. The nest was a rude pile of stems, raised 

 just above the water amid a thicket of reeds. 



I had previously found many a nest of the bittern, 

 but never a bittern that would stay on the nest when 

 discovered. The bird was nearly hidden, but I set 

 up the camera on the tripod, stopped down the lens, 

 and got some pictures showing her among the reeds. 

 But if those reeds were only out of the way I I 



