O'er Fell and Dale 



the British Isles. I was anxious to try my photo- 

 graphic hand upon one of the birds. On the shore, 

 some two hundred yards away, we found a huge conical 

 hamper half buried in the sand, so dug it up and 

 utilized it as a hiding contrivance. When inverted 

 there was plenty of room underneath for photographer 

 and apparatus. I cut a round hole through the wicker- 

 work on one side for my lens to look though, and 

 another at the back for signalling purposes, and was 

 duly installed. 



The tern came back without the slightest sign of 

 fear or suspicion, and I obtained a beautiful series of 

 pictures of her on and near her handsome pair of eggs. 

 Presently I thrust my pocket handkerchief through the 

 hole in the wickerwork behind me as a signal to my 

 assistant watching proceedings with my binoculars, 

 whilst lying on a distant sand-hill, that I had finished. 



We had not taken the moving-picture camera out 

 with us that day, but determined to try the bird with it 

 on the following morning. We did so, but instead of 

 scoring a success, as I had every reason to expect, 

 suffered a bitter disappointment. 



The old hamper was moved several feet farther back, 

 as I did not require to portray the bird as large on the 

 film as on my plates, thus increasing the chances of the 

 tern's ready acceptance of things, and I was tucked 

 away by my assistant with a feeling of absolute cer- 

 tainty of coming success. Alas ! as Bobby Burns puts 

 it : " The best-laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft 

 agley." My bird had a neighbour only two or three 



in 



