CHAPTER IX. 



THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF BIRDS IN FLIGHT. 



SINCE flight is at once the most interesting and 

 remarkable property of a bird, it is only natural 

 that bird-lovers should be anxious to obtain 

 pictures showing their favourite creatures engaged 

 in this characteristic and wonderful art. Others, 

 too, who pay no heed to birds as such, cannot fail to 

 take interest in and admire the perfection of their 

 performance in the art that man is now so hardly 

 and dearly striving to acquire. But lest early 

 failure should lead to abandonment, it may be 

 well to point out that this is undeniably difficult 

 work ; in fact, to get pictures of excellence is more 

 difficult in this than in any other branch of the art. 

 Any rapidly and irregularly moving object, such 

 as a galloping horse or a hunting dog, taxes our 

 adroitness, but these subjects, though they may 

 turn from side to side and follow an erratic course, 

 yet must of necessity move always in one plane, 



