4FOR PRACTICAX 

 WORKERS 



^ 



Electrically Operated Camera- 

 Shutter for Photographing Birds 



IX the attempt to photograph small wild 

 animal life, particularly birds, it is 

 necessary to have some means of operating 



sons on some suitable food supplied for the 

 purpose. 



There are three methods now in general 

 use for operating the shutter. In one a 

 string is attached to the shutter lever and 

 simply pulled at the opportune moment. 



A brown creep- 

 er partaking of 

 a free lunch put ^ 

 on a fence post 



The magnets are attached to the 

 camera bed with clamps where 

 they operate the shutter release 



the camera from a distance. Many meth- 

 ods have been tried with varying success, 

 but the method 

 described herein 

 is conceded to 

 be the best. The 

 idea is simply to 

 focus the cam- 

 era on a spot 

 ^\here from pre- 

 ious observa- 

 tion the birds 

 are known to 

 come, and to 

 have some 

 means of operat- 

 ing the shutter 

 from a distance. 



A chickadee near its nest with a bill full of grubs 

 and a tufted titmouse on a post, attracted by suet 



The spool for carrying the flexible 

 cord incloses the battery for oper- 

 ating the magnetic shutter release 



While fairly good, this is difficult to work at 

 long distances and has the disadvantage of 



being liable to 

 be operated by 

 outside forces, 

 such as wind- 

 blown twigs. A 

 long tube at- 

 tached to the 

 pneumatic re- 

 lease lacks the 

 above disad- 

 vantage but is 

 not instantane- 

 ous in its action. 

 Besides, the 

 rubber will, in a 

 short time, be- 



In the springtime the best places to focus come hard and useless from lying on the 

 are On or near the nests, and in other sea- damp ground and may be easily damaged in 



921 



