PHOTOGRAPHING NESTS AND EGGS 63 



will usually do so after a few attempts), unless it 

 can fly, when of course it must be covered ; but if 

 it is unable to perch, place it in your hat (a lining 

 of a few leaves will be a desirable precaution) or 

 some similar receptacle, but on no account carry it 

 for any length of time in your hand. 



Before finishing these lines on young-bird photog- 

 raphy a few words may not be amiss in regard to 

 the advisability of always, if you use accessories, 

 choosing such as are in keeping with the bird's nat- 

 ural environments. Try to make the surroundings 

 tell of the bird's nature and habits. For example, a 

 scrub-loving bird, like the Maryland yellowthroat, 

 should be among some scrubby growth of a damp- 

 soil nature by preference. An oven-bird would be 

 better on the leafy ground or on a log rather than 

 on a bush. The robin might be placed on a branch, 

 a meadow-lark on a grassy sod, and so on. I once saw 

 a photograph of a family of barn-swallows perched on 

 a vine. The picture was good enough from a pho- 

 tographic and pictorial standpoint, but it lacked inter- 

 est from the bird student's point of view. If you 

 have many birds together, arrange them so that they 

 will show in different positions, back, front, and side 

 views. It is in all these small details that the difi^er- 

 ence is shown between the careful and the casual 

 photographer of birds. If a picture is worth taking, 

 it is worth taking as well as one knows how. 



