Photo by George Shiras, 3rd 



BIRDS CAN AI.SO TAKE THEIR OWN PICTURES (SEE PAGE 801) 



After trying vainly for more than an hour to photograph comparatively tame buzzards 

 and vultures, the author abandoned the blind behind which he had been concealed and set 

 out the automatic camera with string and bait. On returning in about half an hour, he 

 found the bait gone, and the development of the plate some hours later revealed the above 

 picture of a black Florida vulture and tame buzzards. 



birds, for strong sunlight or chilling wind 

 are equally fatal. In this way I secured 

 a series of snipe pictures on the eastern 

 shore of Virginia otherwise unobtainable. 



Having for several seasons scattered 

 grain about an orange grove to attract 

 local birds more regularly, I took a few 

 of their pictures with the automatic cam- 

 era, the focal plane shutter being set at 

 1/400 of a second. For the quail and 

 ground doves (see page 806) I used 

 grains of wheat and sunflower seed 

 strung on a thread. 



Finally several gray squirrels discov- 

 ered this feeding place ; so corn and nuts 

 were substituted, the loose end of the 

 string being just long enough to permit 

 the squirrel to rise on its quarters — the 

 most graceful and characteristic pose of 

 this animal (see page 810). 



PHOTOGRAPHING WIED ANIMAES OE THE 

 RURAE DISTRICTS 



I think very few persons suspect the 

 abundance of night-loving animals in the 



vicinity of country homes, where there 

 is a dense thicket, a swamp, or a rocky 

 ravine. There may be found a burrow, 

 a cleft in the rocks, or a hollow tree af- 

 fording safe refuge to many an animal 

 that seldom makes its presence known to 

 the throng that daily passes. 



Here, hidden away until the midnight 

 hour, is the raccoon, opossum, skunk, 

 weasel, or the rabbit. 



Just by way of proof for any one that 

 doubted this, I have set out every winter 

 for several years past a camera and 

 flashlight in the town of Ormond Beach. 

 Florida, within 100 yards of a dozen 

 cottages and a great winter hotel harbor- 

 ing a thousand guests and employes. 

 Nearly every night came the burst of 

 brilliant light betwixt an orange grove 

 and a thicket, with an explosion audible 

 to all awake, and each morning there- 

 after it became the custom to hear the 

 oft-repeated inquiry, ''Well, what did you 

 get last night"? 



During 33 nights in 19 13 the nega- 



804 



