BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS AT HOME 



43 



To return to the Sparrow. The bird's nest also 

 provides a focal point for the camera, but, as else- 

 where, the greatest 

 precautions must be 

 taken, and I have 

 succeeded in secur- 

 ing a picture only 

 when some advan- 

 tageously situated 

 window afforded a 

 natural blind. One 

 of the pictures thus 

 obtained shows a 

 nest in the orna- 

 mental part of a 

 gutter, with the fe- 

 male looking from 

 an adjoining open- 

 ing." This gutter 

 seems especially de- 

 signed to furnisli 

 lodgings for Spar- 

 rows, and no ar- 

 gument that I have 

 thus far advanced has convinced them that it was 

 not erected for their use. During the early part 

 of their occupancy, a rap on their roof promptly 

 brought them out to perch in the branches of the 

 neighboring trees, where their chattering protest was 

 soon interrupted by a gunshot ; but the survivors 

 quickly learned the meaning of the roof tap, and now, 

 without a moment's pause, they dive downward from 

 their doorway and fly out of range at topmost speed. 



22. Female House Sparrow aud nest, x 3. 



