36 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



egg-ledges of the fulmar petrel in St. Ktlda with- 

 out any help whatever. But here, again, it is n 

 matter of a cool head and a sure foot, and in the 

 absence of either or both it would be madness tc 

 make the attempt. 



The picture on the preceding page shows my 

 brother at work on a shelf in a Shetland cliff 

 whither we climbed by taking advantage of ledges. 

 He is just in the act of making a study of a 

 shag which had left her nest in a sheltered corner 

 upon his approach, and walked to the edge of the 

 ledge ready to fling herself into space and fly away 

 out to sea upon the slightest alarm. 



A Yorkshire naturalist friend of ours, who 

 accompanied us that day, was so highly amused at 

 seeing my brother creep carefully along the guano- 

 streaming shelf of rock, with his camera in front 

 of him and his head well hidden beneath the 

 focussing. cloth, all the while trying to arrest the 

 bird's attention by imitating its own peculiar form 

 of language, that he suggested photographing the 

 photographer at work, and as we had a spare 

 camera he tried his hand, with the result already 

 mentioned. Some idea may be gathered of how 

 near a bird it is possible to get by careful stalking 

 when it is mentioned that the picture of the shag 

 in the act of stretching herself was made a moment 

 after the one of the photographer, and has in no 

 way been enlarged. One of its chief beauties is 

 that it represents exactly {.he exercise indulged in 



