36 PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BIRD-LOVERS, 

 alone) will afford a coign of vantage whence to 

 look across on to the nest, but failing this there 

 is but one alternative, and that not an easy one, 

 to climb past the nest and to bind the camera, 

 pointing straight downwards, to the stem some 

 few yards above the nest, and thus secure a photo- 

 graph in plan never a pleasing picture, but 

 sometimes the only one that can be obtained. 



I have already mentioned what an excellent 

 support an inclined ladder makes, for the camera 

 base-board can be hooked over any convenient 

 rung, and can be made very firm. Tall ladders are 

 rather difficult and weighty to manage in a tree, 

 but even a short one will often enable a position, 

 otherwise unattainable, to be secured. The ladder 

 is pulled bodily up into the tree, and the bottom 

 rung set astride a stout bough. The top is then 

 allowed to slope outwards towards the nest until 

 it is well inclined, and then made fast to the upper 

 branches with ropes. This sloping is most impor- 

 tant, giving the ladder stability, and, moreover, 

 placing the photographer nearer the nest. In windy 

 weather a tall ladder is somewhat dangerous in a 

 tree, and if not considerably inclined, never making 

 an angle of more than sixty degrees with the hori- 

 zontal, it may in a sudden gust blow bodily over. 



Sometimes a nest at the extremity of a very 

 long out-growing bough cannot be approached 



