Photographing a Robin 



41 



possible only by means of a boat. A tripod camera would, under 

 the circumstances, be useless, nor could one focus a camera held in 

 the hands, then insert a plate-holder, draw the slide and make the 

 exposure, for the reason that the rapid motion of the geese and 

 pursuing boat requires constant adjustment of focus. 



A wide-angle, short focus or set focus, snap-shot camera would 

 give too small and too distorted an image to be desirable, while an 

 attempt to guess at the distance in focusing the long focus lens 

 required for bird photography would result in failure ninety-nine 

 times out of a hundred. 



But with this mirror camera the focus was easily obtained with 

 the lo-inch Swift lens employed, and the moment the birds appeared 

 sharp on the ground glass the lever was pressed down, mirror 

 thrown up, curtain released, and exposure made, all in the same 

 fraction of a second. 



Photographing a Robin 



BY A. L. PRINCEHORN. Glen Island. N. Y. 



lustrated by pliotographs from nature by the author 



I 



N THE latter part of 

 April. 1898, I noticed 

 a Robin carrying straws 

 to the sill of a window of 

 the Museum building of 

 Glen Island, but, as the 

 wind blew the straw away 

 almost as fast as it was 

 deposited, she was some- 

 what puzzled, and tried the 

 next window, with the same 

 result. 



That evening, with the 

 object of helping her, I 

 nailed a narrow strip of 

 wood to the edge of the 

 sill which had the most straws deposited upon it, and the fol- 

 lowing day she resumed work, apparently appreciating the help I 

 had given her, and adopted that window for her nesting-site. The 

 work now progressed rapidly, and in a few days the nest was com- 

 pleted. 



ROKIN FEEDINC; YOUNG 



