WHAT I HAVE LiONE WITH BIRDS 



much time was required ; it will show the studies and will explain 

 what of courage, strength and patience they cost. 



My closet contains hundreds of negatives of nests, young 

 birds, fully feathered on the day of leaving the nest and mostly 

 in pairs, several series from nests to grown birds, some extending 

 over three months ; and grown birds in the act of diving, bathing, 

 flying, singing, in anger, greed, fear, taking a sun bath, and court- 

 ing. I have two studies of birds when the pair were forming 

 their partnership, one of a male bird standing sentinel beside his 

 brooding mate, and one of a pair of Kingfishers on a stump in 

 their favorite fishing shoal. Some of these studies were made 

 from blinds, some with hidden covered cameras and long hose, 

 and some with the camera in plain sight and the lens not ten feet 

 from the subject. 



In cases where nestlings are similar in form and coloring to 

 their elders and will answer every historical purpose as well, I 

 have preferred to use the young in pairs in these illustrations, be- 

 cause my heart is peculiarly tender over these plump, dainty, 

 bright-eyed little creatures, and I fancy others will feel the same. 



Every picture reproduced is of a living bird, perching as it 

 alighted in a characteristic environment. I have no gallery save 

 God's big workshop of field and forest, and my birds are bound 

 by no tie save the chord of sympathy between us. 



