Birds and the Camera. 



The bird was always thirsty, and although the river 

 was quite near it seemed to prefer to drink in this way, 

 and so I was amused by this delightful little bird all 

 through the heat of the day. I missed it much on 

 moving from this camp. 



The extreme dry heat of the country affects the birds 

 perhaps more than other animals. All the land birds, 

 large and small, almost always kept their mouths open 

 as though gasping in the heat. Yet they sing, some of 

 them as beautifully as our songsters, and seem as happy 

 as birds usually are. We used to take advantage of 

 their propensity to drink as a means to entice them 

 within range of the camera. A tin of water was placed 

 in the sand at a few yards distance from the camera, 

 which was kept focussed, and ready for action whenever 

 a bird came to drink. In this way many interesting 

 photographs were apparently secured, but alas, on 

 development, all my " photographs " proved complete 

 failures. Messrs. Dallmeyer had carefully fitted up for 

 me one of Messrs. Watson & Sons' " Gambier Bolton " 

 cameras with telephoto lenses. The camera proved 

 strong enough to resist the heat and the camels, and 

 would no doubt have worked very well had I taken plates 

 and risked the great chance of their being broken. 

 I chose, however, to take films, which became seriously 



