UNIVERSITY 



OF 



A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 1 5 



young need no protection from this source. As to this point, however, the illustrations 

 in this book will speak for themselves. 



Evergreens like the pine and spruce hold their leaves bright for a long time after 

 cutting, and in this respect the various deciduous trees and shrubs differ greatly, those 

 with a hard, close grain keeping fresh the longer. 



As to any injury to trees which the method may be supposed to entail, it is not worth 

 considering, since no valuable tree should be mutilated without first obtaining the per- 

 mission of the owner, for however trifling the damage may appear, his point of view is 

 likely to be different from your own. The cutting of an occasional twig or branch, even 

 if it does not trim the tree, is not regarded as an important event in this country at 

 present. If every farmer who owns orchards and woodlands did his duty, he would cut out 

 more useless wood in a year than a student of birds would need to do in a decade. It is 

 possibly unnecessary to add that no one should set up a nest in a field, and leave the 

 trouble of removing it to the owner of the land. 



A more serious objection is likely to occur to the ornithologist, namely the liability 

 of exposing the birds to new enemies. I feared lest prowling cats should discover the 

 young ones whose nest and branch had been brought down from the tree top, and set up 

 again in plain sight within easy reach from the ground, but I was happily mistaken. 

 Predacious animals of all kinds seem to avoid such nests as if they were new devices to 

 entrap or slay them. 



As to the weather, barring heat which must be guarded against in the way described, 

 the nesting bough is more secure when fixed firmly to supports than it could possibly 

 have been before. The only depredator of whom I stand in fear is the irresponsible or 

 malicious small boy, and to anticipate his possibilities for evil, I take a look at the nest now 

 and then when not encamped beside it. 



When the nest is completely exposed and the weather is very hot, the young may be 

 tempted to forsake it a day or two earlier than they would naturally do, but this does not 

 usually happen and is not necessarily serious. Some Kingbirds, already referred to, spent 

 eighteen days in the nest, and were a week old when it was moved. This was probably 

 longer than common, and certainly longer than necessary. 



The tent not only conceals the observer but protects his camera, an important con- 

 sideration, since the prolonged action of the sun is liable to spring a leak in the bellows. 

 As to the portability and general convenience of the tent I shall speak elsewhere. 



With notebook in hand you can sit in your tent, and see and record everything which 

 transpires at the nest, the mode of approach, the kind of food brought, the varied activi- 

 ties of the old and young, the visits of intruders, and their combats with 



the owners of the nest, the capture of prey which sometimes goes on 



r J the Method. 



under your eye. No better position could be chosen for hearing the 

 songs, responsive calls, and alarm notes of the birds. You can thus gather materials for 

 an exact and minute history of life at the nest, and of the behavior of birds during this 

 important period. More than this, you can photograph the birds at will, under the most 

 perfect conditions, recording what no naturalist has ever seen, and what no artist could 

 ever hope to portray. The birds come and go close to your eye, but unconscious of 

 being observed. 



I have watched the Night Hawk feed her chick with fireflies barely fifteen inches 



