BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS AT HOME 43 
To return to the Sparrow. The bird’s nest also 
provides a focal point for the camera, but, as else- 
where, the greatest 
precautions must be 
taken, and I have 
succeeded in secur- 
ing a picture only 
when some advan- 
tageously situated 
window afforded a 
natural blind. One 
of the pictures thus 
obtained shows a 
nest in the orna- 
mental part of a 
gutter, with the fe- 
male looking from 
an adjoining open- 
ing.” This gutter 
seems especially de- 
signed to furnish 
lodgings for Spar- 
rows, and no ar- 
gument that I have 
thus far advanced has convinced them that it was 
not erected for their use. During the early part 
of their occupancy, a rap on their roof promptly 
brought them out to perch in the branches of the 
neighboring trees, where their chattering protest was 
soon interrupted by a gunshot; but the survivors 
quickly learned the meaning of the roof tap, and now, 
without a moment’s pause, they dive downward from 
their doorway and fly out of range at topmost speed, 
i 
22. Female House Sparrow and nest. x 3. 
