120 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
nest, it showed no alarm at the click of the shutter 
as the exposure was made. This surprised me not 
a little. The camera was usually about three feet 
from the bird, the exposure was necessarily rapid 
(315 second and stop 8), the snap of the old-style 
“Henry Clay,” used on the first day, or even of the 
less loud Iris diaphragm, could be plainly heard at 
a distance of several yards, and its failure to startle 
these nervous, easily frightened birds makes one 
suspect that their hearing is deficient. 
The nests of the Terns that chose the upland for 
a home were often picturesquely surrounded by 
stunted sumach or blooming yarrow, but the birds 
here were far less easy to photograph because of 
62. Tern brooding young. Same nest as No. 60. 
the difficulty of thoroughly concealing one’s camera. 
The owner of an especially pleasing nesting site kept 
me beneath my bit of sail for somewhat over two 
hours, while she—if it was she—hung in the air just 
