54 



KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



attempt was made to climb to its tip, 

 the mouse, without dismay or apparent 



THE COMMON MOUSE. 



understanding, tried again and again 

 evening after evening. 



The two specimens figured in our plate 

 lived with others of their kind in a 

 tool shed in my garden. Observing 

 that they came forth towards evening 

 in search of food, I placed some oatmeal 

 on a path close by, and fixed my camera 

 in position. After making a number of 

 exposures I hopefully developed, but, 

 alas ! only to discover that all I had 

 secured were the portraits of india-rubber 

 mice stretching from one side to the other 

 of each plate. The timid little beasties 

 had heard my time shutter open, and 

 had moved. Here was a pretty problem. 

 The animals were too quick for a slow 

 exposure, and the light too poor for a 

 fast one ! This is how I surmounted 

 the difficulty. Placing two cameras in 

 front of the food one with a plate in 

 it and the other without I practised 

 the shutter of the empty apparatus 

 until the mice grew used to its slight 

 grating sound, and then quietly opened 

 the other in front of my unexposed 

 plate with entirely satisfactory results. 



