96 WILD WINGS 



it is a good time for snap-shots of birds a-wing, giving about 

 one five-hundredth of a second with the reflex camera. The 

 negatives secured are likely to be full of birds, if we aim 

 anywhere except down by our feet ! Still the birds' are rising 

 from beneath the bushes. Some of them are in such a hurry 

 that they get tangled up in the branches, and we take one 

 or two of them in hand, stroking them and then letting the 

 frightened creatures fly away. 



Eggs are lying everywhere, in any sort of a situation. 

 Some of the Sooties, in fact, even lay on the plank walk that 

 runs eastward from the house. So, careful not to trample 

 upon their treasures, we stroll off through openings into the 

 midst of the bushy tract. Some of the Sooties have flown ; 

 others, surprised upon their nests, refuse to turn tail to the 

 invader, and bristle up with a showing of courage, almost 

 allowing themselves to be handled. We can easily take snap- 

 shots of them, but I prefer to set up my small camera upon 

 the tripod, using a single, long-focus lens of my double 

 anastigmat, and, with a brief time exposure, secure a fully 

 exposed, soft, detailed picture, even the veinings of the feath- 

 ers showing. 



Out on the open sand again, we sit down. In a moment 

 or two the confiding, though nervous, little Sooties, whose 

 eggs are all around us, begin to alight, first at some distance, 

 but soon within three or four yards. When there is quite 

 a mass of them, the focal-plane shutter drops with a bang, 

 and up they go, to return in a moment, and quietly steal to 

 their nests in plain sight or under the bushes. 



Now we will take a look at the little pier. The Noddies 

 and the Man-o'-War Birds love to roost on it in the morning 

 sun, though, somehow, the Sooties seem not to relish the 

 company, or else their tastes are different. There they sit, as 

 usual, perhaps twenty Noddies and half a dozen of the great 



