22 



Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 



man : "As a one-time sportsman who yielded to 

 none in his enjoyment of the chase I can affirm 

 that there is a fascination about the hunting of 

 wild animals with a camera as far ahead of the 

 pleasure to be derived from their pursuit with 

 shot-gun or rifle as the sport found in shooting 

 quail is beyond that of breaking clay pigeons, 

 j Continuing the comparison, from a sportsmans' 

 standpoint, hunting with the camera is the high- 

 est development of man's inherent love of the 

 chase. 



" The killing of a bird with a gun seems little 

 short of murder after one has attempted to cap- 

 ture its image with a lens. The demands on the 

 skill and patience of the bird photographer are 

 endless, and his pleasure is intensified in propor- 

 tion to the nature of the difficulties to be overcome, 

 and in the event of success it is perpetuated by 

 the infinitely more satisfactory results obtained. 

 He does not rejoice over a bag of mutilated flesh 

 and feathers, but in the possession of a trophy — 

 an eloquent token of his prowess as a hunter, a 

 talisman which holds the power of revivifying the 

 circumstances attending its acquisition. 



" What mental vision of falling birds can be as 

 potent as the actual picture of living birds in their 

 homes ? And how immeasurably one's memories 

 are brightened by the fact that this is not a picture 

 of what has been, but of what is ! 



