PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS 37 



the patient worker and bird-lover loneliness is impos- 

 sible while with such good entertainers as the birds. 



' ' One must be full to the brim of bird enthusiasm to 

 enjoy the many things encountered on a trip through the 

 Everglades of Florida, surrounded by sharp-pointed, un- 

 yielding forests of palmetto, thorny-leafed clusters of 

 beautiful Spanish daggers and meadows of rasping-edged 

 saw-grass." The travel over, under and through these ob- 

 stacles is anything but conducive to good cheer and bodily 

 comfort. Then add to these drawbacks a pair of hip 

 waders, a Graflex camera, a 4x5 plate camera and a few 

 other necessities, free both hands to ward off the wind- 

 tossed foliage and myriads of mosquitoes and you are 

 fairly busy. Such is the experience of the photographer 

 in the Everglades. One does not have to go through these 

 hardships from choice, since in every city suburb, golf 

 course and park there are always to be found many birds 

 to study. On the farm, on old brush-grown abandoned 

 fields, birds congregate in sufficient numbers during 

 migration and nesting time to offer a rich pictorial yield 

 to anyone who will take the time to reap the ornithologi- 

 cal harvest. 



It is a comparatively easy matter whenever a live 

 bird is found to procure a bird's skin with the assistance 

 of a shotgun. The instant a bird's life is sacrificed its 

 body ceases to be a thing of much interest to anyone ex- 

 cept the scientist for compilation or for the preservation 

 of a rare or almost extinct species. Many have become 

 extinct from this very cause. I know a number of collec- 

 tors who look forward to the semi-annual migration of 

 rare birds and never fail to aid in the extermination by 

 collecting specimens, or by stealing eggs during the nest- 

 ing time. 



''By following the subdued and sweet refrain of 

 some mother bird, I have often been led to beautiful and 

 enchanting woodland nooks." Birds are by nature 

 romantic and poetical, temperamentally speaking. Their 

 nesting sites are so well hidden and often so remote that 

 one must have special inducements to visit and locate 

 these isolated beauty-spots. 



I can no better illustrate some of the pleasant fea- 

 tures of remote bird picture hunting than by quoting 

 from my field notes, made on a trip to the Arctic Ocean 



