CHAPTER VI. 



PHOTOGRAPHING BY THE CONCEALMENT 

 METHOD. 



UNDER this head falls the vast majority of the 

 work of the bird-photographer. It would hardly 

 be too much to say that this is bird-photography 

 as generally understood, the other branches of the 

 art being but secondary. Certainly it is by this 

 method that most of those delightful pictures 

 portraying the intimate home-lives of our shyer 

 birds are obtained. But it is not only for the 

 excellence of its pictures that this method is to be 

 upheld, it has another and perhaps greater attribute : 

 it affords a lengthy and uninterrupted opportunity 

 for studying the habits and actions of birds at such 

 close-quarters, and under such favourable condi- 

 tions, as were never thought possible before the 

 advent of the hobby. 



No branch of the work is more varied in its 

 methods and adaptations, but there is one funda- 

 mental idea to hide oneself and camera, either 

 together or apart, as near as possible to the nest, 

 and then to await in quiet the bird's return. 



