Cleaves: Photographic Work with Sandpipers 59 



A shaggy-haired dog had the habit of swimming about the pond 

 in pursuit of a small sailboat. He one day came to shore near 

 the camera, got mixed up in the thread, set off the shutter and 

 spoiled a plate. A Frenchman who passed at a certain time 

 almost every Sunday morning became extremely interested in my 

 work. He would stand at my side and keenly follow the move- 

 ments of the sandpiper on the shore. H the bird started to run 

 in the wrong direction or showed an inclination to fly, an excla- 

 mation of disappointment would escape from the foreigner. But 

 if the bird finally chanced to tarry for a moment at the desired 

 point, and the thread was pulled at the proper instant, the French- 

 man would gesticulate wildly and express his approval. Once he 

 was so excited after an exposure had been made that his feet 

 became entangled in the thread and the shutter was sprung twice 

 on the same plate. That night, when the plates were developed, 

 it was found that the one spoiled by the Frenchman would have 

 been one of the choicest of the lot. 



One afternoon, while working with a semipalmated sandpiper. I 

 became so absorbed in what I was doing that it was not observed 

 that 150 cows were rushing into the barnyard back of me. Sud- 

 denly, however, the sandpiper flew apparently for no reason. 

 Then there was a clatter of hoofs behind me, and it was by the 

 narrowest margin that the camera was rescued from the stam- 

 pede. 



In the early spring of the present year the purchase of a 

 Graflex camera revolutionized the possibilities in bird photog- 

 raphy. It came at the beginning of the busy season, and a list 

 of undertakings from barred owls to long-billed marsh wrens 

 was mapped out. But the hazy month of August, with its sand- 

 piper joys, was not forgotten. A thread, shutter-release at- 

 tachment was made for the new camera, a special blind for it ( to 

 use along the shore) was constructed, and by late July everything 

 was in readiness. 



The blind proved to be a great success, and it was pressed into 

 service on every possible occasion. On week days after business. 



