The Camera as an Aid in the Study of Birds 37 



in devices. Arranginf( the camera as already described, omitting 

 the green hood in this instance, as it would have been worse than 

 useless, we retired entirely from the field, which fortunately lay on 

 a gently sloping hillside. From our distant retreat we watched, 

 with field-glass in hand, the maneuvers of the mother bird. The 

 experience of the preceding ''evening had evidently helped to pre- 

 pare the way, for after only brief delay the anxious biril began run- 

 ning in a great spiral steadily converging to the central point. 

 Every clod of earth or little mound in the path was mounted and, 

 with much craning of neck and turning of head, the dreadful engine 

 glistening in the sunshine was closely scrutinized from all sides, but 

 as it was motionless, it probably was regarded as some new-fangled 

 contrivance for cultivating corn, of finer build than the hoes, rakes, 

 and other implements left by the men in the field. Once satisfied, 

 she made a last (]uick run directly between the legs of the tripod, 

 and stood erect over her treasures. A long trolling-line. procured at 

 a neighboring farmhouse, had been attached to the lever arm releas- 

 ing the shutter, as our seventy-five feet of tubing was not half long 

 enough. Creeping to the end of the line, a (]uick pull made the ex- 

 posure, — yJg of a second, with wide open stop and rapid plate. 

 Pulling up the slack of the line seemed to startle the bird more 

 than the click of the shutter, and after repeating this procedure 

 several times we were altogether uncertain as to whether the bird 

 had been caught at all ; and as it was impossible, there in the field, 

 to follow the advice of an interested farmer spectator, who insisted 

 that we "ought to look at them there plates and see what we had 

 before going further," we cast about for some surer method. Care- 

 fully looking over the ground, I found tliat some sevent}-five feet 

 from the nest there was a shallow depression just deep enough to 

 entirely conceal a man lying prone on the soft, ploughed ground. 

 So the rubber tube was substituted for the line and the bulb end 

 carried up the slope to the little hollow. As it would be impossible 

 from this position to see the bird, and as we had discovered that a 

 low whistle or noise caused her to leave the nest at once, some 

 method of signaling had to be arranged. The trolling line sug- 

 gested a way, as we found that it would reach readily from the 

 bulb in the hollow to the edge of the field. So, attaching one end 

 of it to my wrist, I took my position flat on the ground in the mid- 

 dle of the field, with a hot noon sun pouring down over-head, and 

 awaited the signal, ^ — a vigorous jerk on the trolling line, to be given 

 by Mr. Gleason, who from a distance was watching with a glass 

 the movements of our unwilling sitter. The signal soon came, and 

 these complicated and rather juvenile tactics proved so successful 



