CHAPTER X 



PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS AND THEIR YOUNG 



This is, to me, the most interesting branch of 

 nature work, and yet it is the one that is at- 

 tended with, perhaps, the greatest amount of diffi- 

 culty. Yet these very difficulties that must be 

 overcome should, to an able-bodied man, add to 

 the interest and enhance the value of the photo- 

 graphs, for it is human nature to care more for 

 those things which are obtained through hard 

 work and persistent effort than for the ones that 

 come to us easily. 



Possibly it is because I have taken a great 

 interest in the feathered inhabitants of the woods 

 and fields, since I was old enough to follow and 

 study them, that I find the photographing of 

 them so intensely enjoyable. Certain it is that it 

 was my love of the birds and the wish to become 

 more intimately acquainted with them and their 

 home life that caused me to take up the camera; 

 and, although I have often been discouraged at 

 the results, still I have never been sorry that I 

 turned my attention and energy to the photo- 

 graphing of the wild things. 



1 60 



