86 THE NIDOLOGIST 
lazy to clear, as they go, a way for the tiring feet 
that follow. All that is here said will pertain 
exclusively to the photographic art as applied to 
Ornithoscopy—taking this word in its most com- 
prehensive sense, Odlogic and Nidologic, as well 
as Ornithic. My bird-loving friend, all en- 
thusiasm, wants to know what camera to buy. 
Knowing him to be a sensible man, I sweep 
away all illusions by saying, “ Buy a five-dollar 
instrument at first; bythe end of three months, 
you will have become slightly acquainted with 
the ways of a camera, and will have learned 
the more radical, at least, of cameric limitations, 
as related to the recording of bird-life studies.” 
“Let me save you,” I add, ‘‘many a spoiled 
negative, by dropping a half-dozen hints: Take 
no ‘shots’ at first, save in strong sunlight. With 
bird subjects and nest subjects, never try time 
exposures at the first. And, as for small nests 
and eggs—all of them—and for nearly all nests 
im waving grass, avoid them if you would escape 
disappointment.” 
My friend has still a crumb of patience left; 
and I go on to disenchant him as to his fancy 
that he will do marvelous things, on the start, 
at ““shooting”’ birds in flight. I tell him how 
coldly dealers once treated my own enthusiasm 
in this direction; and I quench the fire of his 
eye, incredulously ardent at this remark, by 
telling him how I once took, in the brightest of 
midday June sunshine, under the most favor- 
able circumstances, with a forty-dollar camera, 
negative after negative of Franklin’s Gulls fol- 
lowing a prairie-breaking plow; so near me that 
even the most delicate shade of their colors 
could be distinctly seen, as they floated by, 
quietly and unscared, while yet in not a single 
negative could the uninitiated tell whether the 
winged things that followed the plow were bats, 
gnats, or cheese mites. 
“What camera shall I buy, after I’ve out- 
grown the five-dollar one ?’’ queried my young 
friend, a little disconcertedly. Feeling that I 
must encourage him a bit, [ answer, ‘‘ That’s 
an open question,” which, of course, is very easy 
to say, if not very wise. 
But, candidly, if one be ambitious to do 
thoroughly satisfactory work in the photograph- 
ing of ordinary nests and eggs, I doubt whether 
there be any camera manufactured, that is sold 
under, say, twenty-five dollars, that would long 
satisfy the purchaser. One might even risk dis- 
couraging, altogether, some who might otherwise 
attain a fair measure of success, by saying, that 
even a forty-dollar camera has grave limitations 
in the matter of nest photography. One must 
find what form and weight of camera is found 
by most men to be best suited to his especial 
purposes, and then he should buy the highest 
grade of that camera that he can possibly afford; 
one involving possible change of lenses being 
highly preferable. As a.mark to aim at, it 
might be said, that if one can have but a single 
camera, that one should be a magazine film 
camera focusable down to two feet or less, with 
glass plate attachment, perhaps, and the best of 
“rapid rectilinear” lenses. 
Having now discarded my beginner's camera 
and settled into serious work, I start out on 
the new season, repeating to myself a few 
cardinal hints: Avoid windy days. Don’t 
“shoot” at everything you see; many things 
lose the heart of them when transferred to a neg- 
ative. Learn to see, not merely pretty things, but 
picturesque things, and not things that are merely 
picturesque, but photographically so, as well. 
( To be continued.) 
>> 
Notes from the Great Lakes. 
N the December issue of this journal, Mr. 
Watkins gives interesting notes regarding 
the Black-throated Bunting, Spzza amer- 
tcana (Gmel.). This is another of those species 
which are greatly increased in numbers by the 
clearing of the country and the advancement of 
civilization. We have in Michigan over one hun- 
dred species of birds, both permanent residents 
and visitors, who are more or less influenced by 
civilization, and of these there are two or more 
becoming extinct, while quite a number of spe- 
cies, but only among the smaller birds, are be- 
coming more common, like the Dickcissel, and 
some are even added to our list through the 
effects of civilization. 
It is to be hoped that the observing readers 
will present notes upon the arrival and abun- 
dance of the Bluebirds in the succeeding num- 
bers of the Nipotocist. The notes need not 
be long; in truth, extended observations on 
arrivals are never pleasing. But let us have 
terse notes, but plenty of them, and from every 
place in the Union where this pleasing warbling 
harbinger of spring failed to appear in his ac- 
customed haunts, or has lessened in numbers 
In 1895. 
W. H. Fisher presents an interesting scrap of 
notes on the ‘“‘Ornis of a City Yard” in the 
March Nrpotocistr. An item of this nature is 
always of interest, as it indicates what may be 
done in the line of observation by anyone so 
inclined, even if within the confines of a city. 
As a further evidence of the benefit from con- 
tinued observation, it may be stated that I have 
carefully noted the birds which have visited my 
city yard during the last twenty-seven years 
in Kalamazoo, Southern Michigan, latitude be- 
tween the forty-second and forty-third parallels, 
and longitude approximately eighty-five de- 
