290 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



PHOTO-TEAPPING : PUEPLE HEEONS AND 

 SPOONBILLS. 



By E. B. Lodge. 



It was in 1896 that I described, in 'The Zoologist,'* a 

 visit to a well-known breeding-place for Spoonbills in North 

 Holland, and I then expressed a desire to spend a week in the 

 attempt to photograph the adult Spoonbills. This wish was 

 gratified, as far as the week goes, in 1897, but, though I exposed 

 two plates on adult Spoonbills on their nest, both plates were 

 found to be fogged and useless on my return home. In the 

 same year I attempted the same birds in a Spanish lagoon, and 

 failed, and I began to think that Spoonbills were not to be 

 photographed. However, in my albums a blank page was left 

 for them, and my determination was fixed to have another 

 attempt. Not until this year has this been possible, and my 

 blank page is now filled to overflowing. 



A week was spent in the same "meer," and hopes were fixed 

 on a new automatic electric photo-trap of my own contrivance ; 

 but directly I reached the colony I found it was too late to use 

 it, as far as the Spoonbills were concerned. The eggs were 

 hatched, and the half-grown young ones were walking about 

 restlessly, and would certainly have sprung the trap before the 

 arrival of the parent birds. Other methods therefore had to 

 be resorted to, and the electric shutter was released by means 

 of a string on to the switch from a hiding-place the other side 

 of a narrow channel cut in the reeds, from which place, waist 

 deep in water, I also used the tele-photo lens with good efi"ect. 

 Finding that the birds came much more readily than on any 

 previous occasion, I took a whole-plate camera, and hid up with 

 it about seven yards away from the nest, and got my boatman 

 to cover me over with reeds. Here I soon had two splendid 

 chances in a very short time. Once both the old Spoonbills and 

 their three young ones were in front of me ; the 3'oung birds, 

 - Zool. 1896, p. 321. 



