FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 177 



I could not bring her on to the plate except at the extreme 

 top, in such a position that the picture would have been 

 quite useless. As the birds are now quite noisy I suppose 

 she must have been in the neighbourhood some little time 

 even if I did not see her. At 11.15 I left the tent." 



(Note. Readers must bear in mind that when in a bird 

 tent it is only possible to have quite small peepholes to see 

 out of, otherwise birds can see in, and freedom of movement 

 is practically absent). 



16th May. W.P.C. had another try to get a photograph, 

 but his hearing is so faulty that he failed, and formed the 

 opinion that it requires a person of very acute hearing to 

 handle the proposition satisfactorily. W.P.C. 's notes were 

 as follows. 



10.30 I went into the tent: The light was rather poor and 

 heavy clouds veiled the sun, which peeped through weakly at 

 times. The birds were very quiet this morning, as it was so 

 dull perhaps ; but since the sparrowhawks have frequented 

 the copse which formerly had a very full orchestra it now seems 

 strangely silent. At 11.15 I had observed no sign of the 

 hawks, but a cock pheasant was querking, and then a large 

 shadow came over. This was the female, but she only wiped 

 her bill on a rotten bough. I swung the camera round very 

 slowly, but the maximum swing I could get only enabled me 

 to get half the bird with an image about 56mm. high on the 

 plate, and before I could even think out a scheme of getting 

 round further she slipped quietly away as noiselessly as she 

 arrived. One wants a tent with a revolving turret top for the 

 job. 



At 11.10 the cock arrived from nowhere in the same 

 mysterious fashion and sat high up in a tree some distance 

 away. I swung the camera back and put the full rise and tilt 

 on, and had got him comfortably on the plate, although the 

 image was somewhat small, and was doing the finishing 

 touches to the focus, when he slipped off. 



I came out, and then E.H.C. and I hunted with a butterfly 

 net and an old bird cage for a young blackbird or thrush to 



