GREATER SHEARWATER AND WILSON'S PETRELS 



CHAPTER XI 



OFF .CHATHAM BARS 



Yet he ne'er falters, so, petrel, spring 

 Once more o'er the -waves on thy stormy wing. 



CORNWALL. 



MY very first successful photographs of free wild 

 birds were of " ocean wanderers," taken out here 

 on the bounding main from the unstable deck 

 of a fishing-boat, and with an ordinary little camera. That 

 I secured any such results at that callow stage of my expe- 

 rience under such conditions is now a marvel to me, after 

 further experience of the difficulties, even with a complete 

 modern photographic outfit. I must attribute it to consum- 

 mate good luck. 



Minded to have another " try " at the birds of the ocean, 



