Photographing Birds' Nests 



155 



to disturb the nest as little as is possible. Carry it 

 to some spot where its original surroundings can 

 be reproduced with, at least, an approach to faith- 

 fulness and try to make yourself think that the 

 negative you have thus obtained is a sufficient 

 recompense for robbing the birds of their home ; 

 for, no matter how you may tie the branch back 

 in its original place or 

 return the nest to its 

 natural site, or near it, 

 they will never, except 

 in very rare instances, 

 return to it. 



The nests of wood- 

 peckers, wrens, and all 

 the other birds that 

 breed in excavations 

 in the limbs or trunks 

 of trees must be treated 

 in a much different 

 manner from those of 

 any other bird. Here, in many instances, it will 

 be found necessary to remove the limb, as no 

 amount of ingenuity will devise a scheme for 

 photographing them m siiu when, as frequently 

 is the case, they are on the under side of a limb 

 that is forty or fifty feet from the ground and 

 projecting from a dead tree at an angle of forty- 

 five degrees, with no other limb below it. More- 



Bluebird's Nest and Eggs. 



