132 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :4— April, 1912 



they had finished the subject. It would have been much better 

 if one of them said "I have been studying civic improvement," 

 and for the other to have declared "I have been studying hygiene" 

 rather than that either should think that he had completed nature- 

 study. 



If nature-study is to do its work for the coming generation 

 and bring about that perfect sympathy with the whole great out- 

 of-doors and establish spiritual as well as bodily sanity, it must 

 stand for all of nature and not for detached bits of it which may 

 be utilized in this or that other study or enterprise. The child 

 forgets himself when he is doing the best nature-study, which 

 should give him sympathy and understanding with all birds and 

 not merely with the ones which work for him ; and for all trees 

 whether they make good timber or not ; and for all insects whether 

 they help or hinder him or remain neutral ; and for the skies and 

 the eternal stars as well as for the soil beneath his feet. 



It is only in the larger sense and in the widest bounds that 

 the companionship with nature may be established, and this ideal 

 is, after all, what makes nature-studv worth while. 



The Study o£ Birds With a Camera 



Robert W. Hegner. 

 University of Michigan. 



1. INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this paper is to point out some of the methods 

 employed by a bird photographer, and to prove that no elaborate 

 apparatus nor exceptional skill are necessary to obtain first class 

 results. The writer began to study birds when he was a very 

 small boy, and, as in so many cases where small boys are not 

 properly instructed, he began by making a collection of birds' 

 eggs. The transition from the questionable practice of stealing 

 birds' eggs to the laudable enterprise of recording, by means of 

 photographs, events in the life histories of birds brought about 

 an entirely new outlook upon birds and upon living things in 

 general. I know of no pursuit which will teach one to love and 

 admire all bird life that can comi)are with that of tuying to photo- 

 graph these shy, active creatures. Anyone who has placed a 

 camera near a bird's nest and has waited hour after hour for the 

 parents to return in order to take a snapshot, cannot help but 

 learn something of the habits of the birds, since nothing can 



