BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE OUTFIT 
AND METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER 
INTRODUCTION 
What is Bird Photography?—Bird photography, 
as I would encourage its practice, does not mean 
simply photographing birds; it means the use of 
the camera as an aid in depicting the life histories 
of birds. A picture of the bird itself is, of course, of 
the first importance, but any fact in its biography 
which the camera can be employed to portray is 
within the province of bird photography. 
The Scientific Value of Bird Photography.—There 
are certain matters, such as a bird’s song, its time of 
migration, etc., which must be set forth with the 
pen; there are others, such as its haunts, nesting 
site, nest, eggs, the appearance and development of 
its young, where the camera is so far ahead of the 
pen in its power of graphic representation that it 
is a waste of time to use the former when circum- 
stances permit the utilization of the latter. 
A photograph of a marsh or wood showing the 
favorite haunts of a species is worth more than 
pages of description. A picture of a bird’s nest- 
ing site conveys a better idea of the situation than 
words can possibly give, while in place of such 
vague phrases as “nest of coarse grasses, weed 
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