2 9 o ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



of the precipice into the sea below.' Then the 

 screw fastening the camera to the tripod fell out, 

 and it had to be fixed by some strong wing-feathers 

 picked up on the crag ; and ' while the artist held 

 the camera to the tripod, the writer, from a more 

 secure footing, held the artist by the coat-tails on to 

 the Craig/ The picture is notable in its way, show- 

 ing the steplike clifF, the single sitting bird, and 

 the infinite distance of silvery sea. The pictures of 

 the red-throated diver's nest, by a Scotch lakeside, 

 of the razor-bill's and other sea birds' eggs on 

 flower-adorned shelves of rock, are admirable ; and 

 of its kind we have never seen anything so charm- 

 ing as the newly-hatched goslings of the grey-leg 

 geese among the deep heather. But these are 

 matched by Mrs Blackburn's drawings of the young 

 black guillemots perhaps the best picture of young 

 birds of any kind which has yet been published. 

 For living objects, even birds, the pen and the brush 

 are still first. But for such c cameos ' from natural 

 history as the nests of birds in their natural setting, 

 Dr Bowdler Sharpe's judgment on Mr Kearton's 

 photographs will not be questioned. They c mark a 

 new era ' in the illustration of natural history. 



