78 PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BIRD-LOVERS. 



spells but one thing an eye, and an eye staring 

 out of a thicket, means but one other a lurking 

 enemy ; small wonder, then, at the precipitation 

 of our sitters on finding such an apparition within 

 a few feet of their home. Knowing beforehand 

 their dislike to the lens, it is a good plan to set up 

 the camera, or a dummy substitute, the evening 

 before, in the place it is finally to occupy ; and 

 then in the morning, when one comes to work, the 

 birds will probably have ceased to regard it with 

 any considerable degree of fear. Night is the friend 

 of the bird-photographer in many ways. As long 

 as it is day a bird may refuse to return, but as 

 darkness comes on it dictates either her return 

 or the desertion of her treasures, and happily she 

 generally decides in favour of the former course. 

 Whether it is simply the urgency of night that 

 brings them back, or whether it is that, in the 

 failing light the THING, being less clearly seen, is 

 to them less to be feared, is a point I have never 

 been able to make up my mind upon ; but the 

 fact, that with night they do come back, is one 

 well worth trading upon. Time after time I 

 have left a bird standing disconsolately near its 

 nest in the gathering gloom, unable to muster up 

 courage to return, while in the morning I have 

 come back to find her contentedly sitting, almost 

 oblivious of the camera's once-dreaded presence. 



