6 Hiding shed versus blow-pipe. 
eventually, owing to rough weather making it unsafe to land the 
shed, it was a week later than the previous year when we put it up. 
The shed itself was quite satisfactory, but a new focal-plane shutter, 
in which I had invested four pounds, was apparently unfinished 
when finally delivered a day or two before I started, and ruined 
most of my exposures. The weather only permitted three watches 
at the eyrie, and, to crown all, the young left it a week sooner, 
as, owing to there only being two of them, they were more 
abundantly fed and developed more rapidly, a fact. I had pre- 
viously noted with ravens. 
In 1912 the shed was erected within two days of hatching, 
and as I had invited several bird-watchers to join me, we were 
enabled, by a system of daily reliefs, to have the birds under con- 
stant observation for thirteen days and nights. Of the notes thus 
acquired I am including those of my friend, H. B. Booth, both 
because they give a fair idea of life in the shed and because I think 
they will make it obvious how valuable such a contrivance is for 
those who, untrammelled by the cares of photography, wish to use 
it for simply observational purposes. Its cost, however—the 
material alone came to over three pounds—will, no doubt, prevent 
its adoption generally by ornithologists, who seem to prefer the 
inexpensive blowpipe and its immediate and tangible results. 
