324 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



a swaying one rather than a rotary, and the result is generally to blur 

 the picture. 



The next day I caught the male bird (photographically) as he was 

 bringing a dragon fly (Fig. 3.) This insect had been specially pre- 

 pared for young birds and was divested of wings and all but one of its 

 legs. To my astonishment, the male Vireo stepped up and cooly 

 thrust this large insect headfirst down the throat of his smallest little 

 one. About two inches of the flies body was left projecting from the 

 young birds mouth and his contortions as he slowly but surely swal- 

 lowed it were painful to watch. It was fully four minutes before the 

 last of the dragon fly disappeared and the diner settled down in the 

 nest to rest. For about fifteen minutes the head of this particular bird 

 was invisible but at the end of that time it bobbed up as earnestly and 

 wide open as before. The effect of motion on a dry plate is shown in 

 Fig. 4. Here the movement of the adults head is clearly indicated by 

 the streaks which extend from the breast to the bill showing the sweep 

 of the bird's head during the early part of the exposure. One hundredth 

 part of a second, which is the quickest exposure obtainable on most 

 lens shutters, seems to be a remaikably short time to non-camera users, 

 but it is entirely too long in which to photograph a moving object at 

 short range even though the motion be slight. 



The odd appearance of a Vireo face too, is well shown in Fig. 5. 

 This is the nest mentioned previously in this article. The bird is just 

 returning to sit upon the eggs which are in the nest although it is so 

 deep that it conceals them. After she had settled down as comfortable 

 as she could owing to the limited quarters, I walked up, changed the 

 plate and made the photo for Fig. 6 without disturbing her. She 

 showed a decided lack of judgment in the choosing of the place for her 

 nest. It was swung from a young oak and was built nearer the ground 

 than I have ever before seen one of this species. When I first saw the 

 nest it held one &z^ and at that time the bottom of the nest was within 

 six inches of the ground. When the photograph No. 6 was taken, the 

 weight of the four eggs, bird, and increased growth of leaves had 

 caused the bottom to touch the ground, While the nest was perfectly 

 concealed from above, the eggs had been there less than a week before 

 they formed a meal for one of the numerous red squirrels or chipmunks, 

 both of which fairly abounded throughout the woods- 



