84 



BIRD STUDIKS WITH A CAJIERA 



• ■!""«» *» -<r% 



securing, with tlie aid of a teleplioto, a picture'"' of 

 two adult birds feeding well out of gunsliot, and 

 with the assistance of climbers 1 reached the uj^per 

 l)ranclies of a tree some seventy feet in height con- 

 taining five nests whose contents ranged from eggs 

 to nearly grown young. With the ball-and-socket 



clamp the camera was 

 fastened to favoring 

 limbs, and after three 

 hours' work several 

 satisfactory pictures of 

 young in the nest and 

 on the adjoining branch- 

 es were secured.'""'^ Al- 

 though well able to de- 

 fend themselves, the 

 young assumed no such 

 threatening attitudes as 

 the American Bittern 

 strikes when alarmed, 

 from which perhaps we 

 ^^^J^^S^siwiiTi!! "^^^ argue that they are 

 yW^ J^^K^^Sk^^iW 4| li'ippily ignorant of the 

 My ^S^jM^^^^^|B dangers which beset 

 ^ '^-^Vi^SBi0^9H their ground-nesting re- 



hitive. 



As the sun crept up- 

 ward and the last fishers 

 returned, the ca,lls of both old and young birds were 

 heard less and less f)ften, and by ten oYdnck night 

 had fallen on the rookery and the birds were all 

 resting ((uietly. Four o'clock in Uu^ afternoon was 

 evidently early morning, and at this hour the birds 



