io WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



postponed the arrival of the feathered " sitter." 

 I accordingly set myself to work upon the task 

 of thinking out how to make something that 

 would effectually do away with this sort of tem- 

 porary contrivance, and be at the same time more 

 effective. An imitation tree-trunk of sufficient in- 

 ternal capacity to accommodate my brother and 

 his camera, as shown in the picture on page 12, 

 appeared to be the best appliance for use in woods 

 and by hedgerows, and I determined to build 

 one. Purchasing three pieces of stout bamboo, 

 each seven feet in length, I split them down the 

 centre and lashed them to three small wooden 

 hoops, the topmost and centre ones being twenty- 

 four inches in diameter and the bottom one 

 twenty-seven, so as to represent the base of a tree, 

 and give the legs of our tripod a greater stride. 

 I now found that the green American cloth which 

 I had purchased to cover my skeleton trunk, and 

 when painted to represent its bark, assumed the 

 shape and appearance of a hexagonal column be- 

 tween the hoops. This would not do at all, so I 

 paid a visit to our village ironmonger's shop and 

 bought a sufficient number of yards of galvanised 

 wire of the largest mesh to cover the whole wooden 

 skeleton, and when the covering of cloth was put 

 on over this the effect was much more trunk-like. 



Another difficulty now presented itself. We 

 could not carry such a structure along roads and 

 over hedges and ditches for miles without having 



