PREFACE 



Although I had previously made many photographs in 

 which living birds formed either the chief or a secondary 

 object of the picture, it was in the year nineteen hundred 

 that my first real efforts in the line of bird photography 

 were made. The paths of camera-hunters in this line are 

 not by anj' means strewn with roses. I have had my share 

 of the necessary hard work, hardships, sometimes dangers, 

 disappointments and the many failures to be expected. On 

 the other hand, I have as results about two thousand good 

 negatives and several thousand others not satisfactory to 

 me but still passably good. 



Success or failure depends practically upon the dispo- 

 sitions of the individual birds selected as subjects. If they 

 are willing, — you get the picture ; if not, — you pack up 

 your outfit and depart, chalking down another failure. I 

 have been very fortunate in this respect for "my" birds 

 have nearly always proved very tractable; what failures 

 I have recorded have been due chiefly to the fact that I 

 was not willing to cause undue suffering to the little birds 

 either from lack of food or too long exposure to hot sun- 

 rays. I have always worked upon the principle that no 

 bird photograph is worth even the risk of destruction to a 

 nest of little birds. I speak of this because I wish to im- 

 press upon all my readers who may undertake bird pho- 

 tography that pictures must always take a place secondary 

 to the welfare of the little birds. 



A few minutes exposure to hot rays of a burning sun may 

 prove fatal to young birds; — therefore always when possi- 

 ble have them shaded. Digestion, in a young bird, takes 

 place very rapidly; an hour without food may prove fatal 

 to a very young bird, — therefore do not be the means of 

 causing the parents to withhold food from the little ones 

 for long at a time. Changing the location of a nest even 



