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SONG THRUSH 



HIS photograph was taken several years ago with 

 a small electric shutter which I attach to my 

 camera, and with this I am able to get birds to 

 take their own photographs, while at the time I 

 may be far away. Sometimes I have set my 

 camera in the morning, left it in the fields all day, and on 

 my return at night have found that the bird or mammal has made 

 a successful exposure. 



But a shutter of this description at times has its drawbacks. 

 One autumn day I fixed up the camera near the haunt of a 

 Heron. This bird frequented the lake side day after day, and I 

 so arranged the apparatus that if the bird touched a very fine 

 piece of silk that was stretched across its path, the exposure 

 would be made. On going to the camera in the evening I found 

 that an exposure had been made, and I went home with my plate, 

 hoping that at last I had obtained a picture. The reader can 

 imagine my dismay when I found, instead of a Heron, that I 

 had secured a photograph of a fisherman's legs ! While walking 

 round the lake he had all unconsciously exposed my plate for me. 

 The small heap of seed seen in my photograph was placed 

 there to attract the Thrush, and immediately it reached the spot 

 on which it is standing, the shutter was silently released, and the 

 bird went on with its meal as though nothing had happened. 



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