Photographing Birds and their Young 173 



ish bath for the person concealed inside, and this 

 becomes distinctly uninteresting in cases where a 

 wait of an hour or two is necessary. 



I find that, with many of the birds, the camera 

 needs no hiding so long as the operator is at a 

 distance, and so I simply use the long rubber 

 tubine and large bulb that will allow me to work 

 the shutter from a distance of seventy-five to one 

 hundred feet. With some birds, however, it is 

 necessary to somewhat conceal the camera, and 

 this can be easily accomplished by the use of 

 leafy boughs, or a long piece of green cloth that 

 will completely drape the camera and tripod, or, 

 better still, by a conjunction of the two. 



My course of procedure, after having found a 

 nest of half-grown fledglings, is to set up and 

 focus my camera upon the nest, leaving enough 

 space on either side of the nest in the image to 

 admit of the old bird. Then cut away or tie 

 back (preferably the latter) all the intervening 

 foliage that interferes, in the least, with an unob- 

 structed view ; insert the plate-holder, attach the 

 long tubing, set the shutter, and cover the whole 

 with the green cloth (leaving the lens protruding), 

 which serves not only to conceal the camera, but 

 as a further protection to the plate from the sun's 

 rays. This protection is important, as the plate, 

 during the long wait that is often necessary, 

 would be liable to fog if left with no other pro- 



