INTRODUCTION 3 
from Funk Island, taken during the period of its 
existence there! 
Of what surpassing interest would be photo- 
graphs of the former flights of Wild Pigeons, which 
the younger generations of to-day can with diffi- 
culty believe occurred ! 
The Charm of Bird Photography.—As a one- 
time sportsman, who yielded to none in his enjoy- 
ment of the chase, I can affirm that there is a fasci- 
nation about the hunting of wild animals with a 
camera as far ahead of the pleasure to be derived 
from their pursuit with shotgun or rifle as the sport 
found in shooting Quail is beyond that of breaking 
clay “ Pigeons.” Continuing the comparison, from a 
sportsman’s standpoint, hunting with a camera is 
the highest development of man’s inherent love of 
the chase. 
The killing of a bird with a gun seems little 
short of murder after one has attempted to cap- 
ture its image with a lens. The demands on the 
skill and patience of the bird photographer are end- 
less, and his pleasure is intensified in proportion 
to the nature of the difficulties to be overcome, and 
in the event of success it is perpetuated by the infi- 
nitely more satisfactory results obtained. He does 
not rejoice over a bag of mutilated flesh and feath- 
ers, but in the possession of a trophy—an eloquent 
token of his prowess as a hunter, a talisman which 
holds the power of revivifying the circumstances 
attending its acquisition. 
What mental vision of falling birds can be as 
potent as the actual picture of living birds in their 
homes ? And how immeasurably one’s memories are 
