CHAPTER IX 



Rare Pictures Afield 



^MONG the rarest pictures secured by an 

 / \ ornithological field worker I should not in- 

 -^ ^ elude those having wonderful backgrounds, 

 good composition, atmosphere, or any fine example 

 of pictorial art, but rather enumerate the reproduc- 

 tion directly from life of birds exhibiting some 

 especial characteristic, performing some particu- 

 larly intimate act of their lives, or in some pose 

 which is of peculiar scientific value. In the illus- 

 tration of my first book "The Song of the Cardi- 

 nal," there are more instances of these things than 

 in any other series of studies of the home life of a 

 pair of birds that I have been fortunate enough to 

 secure. In order to carry the pictorial history of 

 these birds through the entire gamut of bird life I 

 worked around every cardinal nest I could find 

 for three years, using many lures to attract the 

 birds before set cameras, such as wiring beefsteak 

 to limbs and bushes, and subterfuges such as 

 introducing lemon trees from my conservatory 

 into the immediate surroundings of a nest so that 

 I could secure reproductions of the birds portray- 

 ing their time of residence in the South. 



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