22, BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
string. When the exposure is to be made from a 
distance as much as one hundred feet of tubing may 
be employed. With any length of over twenty-five 
feet an extra large bulb is required. The ordinary 
tubing sold by photographers will not be found so 
well adapted to long-distance work as a less elastic 
kind, which does not so readily yield to pressure and 
transmits a larger portion of the force applied when 
squeezing the bulb. 
The Tripod.—A_ stout two-length tripod is to be 
preferred to one of the slender multifolding type, in 
which stability is sacrificed to weight and size. The 
legs, except the inner sides of the upper section into 
which the lower section slides, and brass work should 
be painted bark color in order to make them as in- 
conspicuous as possible. For use in the water a 
metal tripod will prove more serviceable than one 
of wood. 
A very useful substitute for a tripod is the 
“Graphic” ball-and-socket clamp designed more 
especially for bicycle camerists. With it a camera 
can easily be attached to the limb of a tree, rung of 
a ladder, or, by screwing a block on to the head of 
the tripod, it may be employed in connection with 
the tripod—in fact its applicability will be evident 
to every one using it. 
Plates—Among the many excellent brands of 
plates now offered to photographers there is really 
very little difference. However, it is advisable to 
select the one you think the most rapid and use it 
to the exclusion of all others. Under certain cir- 
cumstances—in photographing Robins, for instance 
—isochromatic plates will be found desirable, and 
