Wild Birds. 



The nesting bougli is carried to a convenient distance from the tree, and firmly 

 fastened to two stakes, driven into tlie ground and placed in a good light. If the nest is 

 in a tussock in a shaded swamp, the whole is cut out and taken to the nearest well- 

 lighted place; if in the woods, it is carried to a clearing where the light is favorable for 

 study. Again, when a nest like that of the Brown Thrush occupies the center of a dense 

 thorn bush which no human eye can penetrate and much less that of the camera, its main 

 supports are cut off, and the essential parts are removed to the outside of the clump or to 

 any favorable point close at hand. If the nest is but five or ten feet up, the main stem is 



severed, and the nesting branch 

 lowered to the four-foot mark, 

 ^ . ■ - ■ • a convenient working height. 



; '. ' I wish to emphasize the 



fact that the nest itself is usually 

 not moved or disturbed, or rath- 

 er that it is moved only with 

 , ,' its supports. The change is 



one of space relations, which 

 may change with every pass- 

 ing breeze, but the relation of 

 nest to support remains undis- 

 turbed. 



This sudden displacement 

 of the nesting bough is of no 

 special importance to either old 

 or young, provided certain pre- 

 cautions are taken to be dwelt 

 upon a little later. It is as if an 

 apartment or living room were 

 removed from the fourth story 

 of some human abode to the 

 ground floor, or in the case of 

 the ground building birds as if 

 the first story were raised to 

 a level with the second. The 

 iinmcdiate surroundings of the 

 nest remain the same in any case. The nest might indeed be taken from its bough or 

 from the sward, but this would be inadvisable, chiefly because it would destroy the na- 

 tural site or the exact conditions selected and in some measure determined by the birds- 

 themselves. 



For an observatory I have adopted a green tent which effectually conceals the student 

 together with his camera and entire outfit. The reader will find this fully described in 



the chapter on the tools of the bird-photographer. The tent is pitched 



Concealment of u ■ i ^u *. i i • i.- ■ it ■ ^ 



., „, beside the nest, and when m operation, is open only at one point,. 



marked by a small square window, in line with the photographic lens 



and the nest. 



\. 



Fig. I, Tent in front of Cedar-bird's nest, shown in its original position 

 in Fig. 12, One of the birds is feeding its young. 



