WILD DUCKS AND GEESE 153 



watched about forty geese for several hours as they 

 fed and played scarcely two hundred yards away. 

 All this time the sun was shining brightly. At 

 noon it clouded over, and an hour later the rain 

 fell in torrents. Then, of course, those exasperating 

 birds came to the bait and fed not forty yards 

 away. It was too dark, however, to make a satis- 

 factory photograph as they flew away. I would 

 have made a picture of them feeding, but no one 

 would have believed that they were wild geese. 



For photographing such quick birds as ducks 

 and geese it is, needless to say, absolutely necessary 

 to use a very rapid shutter and a long-focus lens. 

 The telephoto is not very satisfactory, owing to its 

 lack of speed, so it is better to be content with a 

 smaller image and enlarge the negative, as I have 

 done with all the accompanying illustrations, some 

 of which have been enlarged over eight diameters. 



