EGYPTIAN BIRDS 5 
embark on a libel action on the one side, or act as 
an advertiser of any maker, not even of the maker 
of my own glass, I praise or blame none, but suggest 
with all earnestness to every one who desires to 
really enjoy the study of bird life on the Nile or 
in their own country, without fail to get a glass 
that suits them, and which they can handle with 
lightning speed. I dwell on this because I have 
met so many having most expensive modern glasses 
who say they cannot find any pleasure in using 
them on birds, and I generally find that it is owing 
to the small field that their glasses cover. Some- 
times these glasses are of quite extraordinary 
power, so that I have heard a man declare he could 
see a fly crawling over a carved face on the tip-top 
of some far-away temple, but that type of glass is 
not what is wanted for rough and ready quick field 
work, and it is of no more use than the three-feet 
long telescope still beloved by the Scotch stalkers. 
Birds rarely if ever allow time for one to lie down 
on one’s back, and with help of stout stick and the 
top of knee make a firm stand on which to place 
the glass and get the range. Over twenty-five 
years ago I wrote on “ Nature through a Field- 
glass,” and although since then one has had to alter 
1 In The Art Journal. 
