86 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



from negatives of very small size. Good photographs of 

 birds' nests are often of great interest and prized by 

 the ornithologist. Care should be taken that the correct 

 point of view is selected from which to photograph them, 

 not only to give the form of the nest, but what is in it, 

 be it the eggs or the young of the builder. Figure 14 is 

 the nest of the Redwing Blackbird, and demonstrates the 

 above points very well ; it was secured in Virginia by the 

 writer. All sorts of nests are constructed by birds, and 

 a collection of good photographs of them are well worth 

 the while. There are communal nests, where many indi- 

 viduals build and occupy it in common ; large nests built 

 entirely of mud, as by some of the birds of Australia; 

 while others make no nest at all, but lay their eggs right 

 on the ground or sand. 



When birds are captured and become more or less 

 tame, beautiful photographs may be obtained of them in- 

 doors, and some of the writer's best results have been 

 secured in this way, as may be appreciated by referring 

 to Figure 13, which offers a picture of our handsome 

 little Sparrow-hawk of Eastern United States. In little- 

 frequented countries it will often be seen that the natives 

 have captured various species of birds found in them, 

 and keep them about their habitations. As a rule, no 

 trouble is experienced in obtaining photographs of these, 

 especially if one has the faculty of easily cultivating the 

 friendship of the natives and getting them interested. 

 When the writer was in Zuni a number of years ago, he 

 noticed that those Indians had captive eagles, and there 



was no trouble at all in getting photographs of them, as 

 they were kept in the open and very tame. 



Should the explorer be detained for any length of time 

 among little-known natives, in a country of which scarcely 

 anything is known, it is not a difficult matter to have 

 some obliging member of the tribe, for the gift of a 

 very trifling object, go and capture some of the birds 

 for him. The eminent traveler and naturalist, the late 

 Alfred Russel Wallace, often succeeded in obtaining the 

 beautiful birds of paradise in this way, and his account 

 of it in his charming work on the Malay Archipelago 

 gives vivid description of how he accomplished it. 



Passing to mammals, the rules and aims already point- 

 ed out above are found to be equably applicable to them. 

 The chances are, however, that one will see a far greater 

 number of these dead, than is the case with some other 

 forms. Still, if properly photographed, pictures of dead 

 mammals, particularly should they be rare species, are of 

 value to science. The little ground squirrel here shown 

 in Figure 15 shows very well how to pose a small dead 

 mammal in such a way as to exhibit the majority of its 

 external characters and general appearance. Any mam- 

 malogist could identify this species from such a picture, 

 if the traveler's notes give the locality where it occurred, 

 the color, size, and so on. In Figure 16 we have a dead 

 Marmoset, a photograph which the writer made of one 

 of these interesting little monkeys that died in captivity. 

 It was taken in that the curious form of its ear might 

 be studied. 



FOREST EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



THAT there is a growing realization of the need for 

 adequately manned and thoroughly equipped forest 

 experiment stations in the important forest regions of 

 the country is shown conclusively by the fact that the 

 following bills providing for such stations are now pend- 

 ing in Congress : 



For a Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, S. 3822 

 and H. R. 12,188, introduced by Senator Keyes and 

 Mr. Wason, respectively. 



For an Appalachian Station, S. 3558 and H. R. 11,336, 

 introduced by Senator Overman and Mr. Weaver. 



For a Southern Station, S. 3946 and S. 461 1, intro- 

 duced by Senator Fletcher and Senator Ransdell. 



For a Lake States Station, S. 3640 and H. R. 11,717, 

 introduced by Senator Nelson and Mr. Carss. 



For a Colorado Station, S. 4676 and H. R. 14,477, *"" 

 troduced by Senator Phipps and Mr. Timberlake. 



For an Arizona Experiment Station, S. 4776, intro- 

 duced by Senator Ashurst. 



For a California Station, S. 3741 and H. R. 12,483, in- 

 troduced by Senator Johnson and Mr. Osborne. 



For a Pacific Northwest Station, S. 4703, introduced 

 by Senator McNary. 



Of these bills, those for the Colorado, Arizona, and 

 Pacific Northwest Stations and Senator Ransdell's bill 

 for a Southern Experiment Station have been intro- 

 duced since the opening of the present session of Con- 

 gress. In addition to these specific bills the Secretary 



of Agriculture, in his appropriation estimates for the 

 next fiscal year, has requested an increase of $105,000 in 

 the appropriation for forest investigations, a large part 

 of which would be available for experiment station work, 

 although the total amount requested would fall far short 

 of financing adequately a station in each of the impor- 

 tant forest regions of the country. The Secretary of 

 Agriculture, in his annual report for 1920, has also 

 emphasized very strongly the need for thorough-going 

 investigations as a basis for forest management. His 

 statement on this point is as follows : 



"Full productiveness of our forests can not be secured 

 without full information regarding the means of con- 

 trolling their growth. Unfortunately, at a time when 

 better knowledge is particularly urgent, the machinery 

 for obtaining it has been seriously curtailed as the result 

 of decreased appropriations. One consequence of this 

 has been the virtual abandonment of the forest experi- 

 ment stations in the West, at which many of the most 

 important investigations were centered. The number of 

 these stations should be increased, not reduced. They 

 are as necessary to forestry as the agricultural experi- 

 ment stations are to progress in agriculture, and there 

 should be at least one Station in each of the main forest 

 regions of the country. Economic studies dealing with 

 the prospective requirements of the various industries, 

 and, in general, with the demands which the forests of the 

 country should be prepared to meet, also are essential. 



