324 Bird -Lore 



was now an easy matter to photograph them and they paid little attention to 

 the dick of the shutters or to the noise attending the changing of plate-holders. 

 Dozens of exposures were made, until the whole supply was used up. 



My companion and leader on this expedition was Prof. Arthur A. Allen, 

 Editor of the School Department of Bird-Lore. The place was the west 

 shore of Cayuga Lake, about a mile from the inlet. He had apparently become 

 hardened to the benumbing eifect of a cake of ice on a zero day, but I found it 

 difficult to adapt myself comfortably to this kind of a cushion. It was not so 

 much the cold in itself as it was the trying to walk loaded down with cameras 



A HEN AND TWO COCK PHEASANTS 



and plate-holders after my legs had become paralyzed. So I might say that 

 the idea of the Trailer-Blind de Luxe had its inception while I was sitting on 

 Allen's icy cushion. 



The Trailer-Blind de Luxe is a small house on wheels so constructed that 

 it can be drawn as a trailer behind a car or wagon. It is 7 feet long, 4 feet 

 wide and 7 feet tall under the cupola. It is provided with a writing-desk, a 

 collapsible bed, an oil-stove, and a presto-lite tank with a suitable burner. 

 There is linoleum on the floor, a limited library, refreshments, and a thermos 

 bottle of coffee when in operation. 



This blind has usually been left for a season in various favorable places for 

 bird-photography. The first station was near a ravine where the Ring-necked 

 Pheasants had been regularly fed during the severe weather for several years. 

 In front of the blind a pile of corn was left at a convenient distance for photo- 

 graphing the birds. At the same time a suet-basket was hung up so that other 

 birds of the region could be studied and photographed. For six weeks the 

 feeding-station was kept up with no attempt at photographing the birds. 



