September, 1909 
found an easy subject for photog- 
raphy when sitting, yet the writer 
found this to be far from the case 
with one of these birds found incu- 
bating her eggs on June 7, 1906. 
This bird was very wild and suc- 
cessfully frustrated all efforts to 
photograph her. The hundred feet 
of rubber tubing and bicycle pump, 
which has so often been successfully 
used to operate the camera from a 
distance, was brought into play, but, 
though the camera was very care- 
fully covered, she refused to go on 
her nest while it was there. An 
arched-topped tin and wood cover 
was then made and painted green. 
This could be placed over the 
camera, entirely concealing it except 
the lens. A “fake” camera was 
placed under this blind and left there 
for several days for the bird to be- 
come accustomed to, when the real 
camera was substituted, but Mrs. Bob refused to be trapped. 
Finally, the camera was left in position over night, and, 
though the bird was on the nest when the exposure was made 
the next morning, she moved so badly as to spoil the photo. 
Despite this disturbance of her household affairs Mrs. Bob 
hatched sixteen young Bobs. 
Some bluejays are bold about their nests, and ales photos 
to be made without much difficulty; others are almost im- 
possible subjects. One of the great difficulties in photograph- 
ing many birds on their nests is the fact that the nests, being 
in the shade, the light will not admit of a “snap,” and the 
bird spoils a time exposure by movement. 
A very convenient thing in photographing birds and their 
nests is a clamp instead of a tripod, by means of which the 
camera can be attached to the limb of a tree. The writer 
has used two kinds with satisfaction, a ball and socket and 
a simple type of pocket clamp. 
One spring it was noticed that a pair of bluebirds were 
seeking a nesting-place around the barn, and a box was hur- 
riedly put up just over the upper floor window. 
The birds immediately took possession, and after the 
young had been hatched out a bracket was fastened up about 
four feet from the box, to which a camera could be screwed, 
the tube running back through the window. Back in the 
shadow of the interior the operator 
could watch the arrivals of the par- 
ents with food, and make exposures. 
Some six or eight negatives were thus 
secured, and at the same time a 
record was kept for several hours of 
the time periods between the trips of 
the parent birds. A bird box at the 
back door of the house gave an op- 
portunity for similar study and pho- 
tographing, with a pair of house 
wrens as subjects. 
Where it is necessary to make a 
time exposure on a sitting bird some 
method must be found to overcome 
the sudden start that the bird is al- 
most sure to give at the opening click 
of the shutter. The writer has some- 
times accomplished this by “stopping 
down,” necessitating an exposure of 
fifteen to thirty seconds. If the bird 
gives one start at the opening click 
An improvised ladder of cordwood for photographing 
nest and eggs of hairy woodpecker, fifteen 
feet from the ground 
On the way to photograph a red-shouldered 
hawk’s nest sixty feet from the ground 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 357 
of the shutter and then sits expec- 
tantly, the movement is covered by 
such a small part of the time of ex- 
posure as not to show in the picture. 
Some birds, however, continue to 
move nervously, and there is no al- 
ternative but a “snap” with open 
diaphragm, which in such situations 
is too apt to mean a hopeless under- 
exposure as well as no depth of 
focus. 
One ingenious bird photographer, 
to overcome the start of a cedar 
waxwing at the shutter’s click, hung 
a clock under the camera and left it 
until the bird became accustomed to 
the ticking, so that she took no note 
of the extra click of the shutter. 
Perches have been arranged close 
to the nesting sites in such a way that 
when a bird lit on the perch it was 
depressed and closed an electric cir- 
cuit, thereby setting off the shutter. 
For operating the camera from a distance a thread has some- 
times been used in place of the long rubber tube and bicycle 
pump, though less convenient than the latter. 
Such birds as hawks are very wary, and it is difficult for 
the photographer to conceal his presence, even near enough 
to the nest to operate the camera with tube or thread. One 
bird photographer secured very successful photographs of a 
pair of red-tailed hawks by passing a string over the nest, 
one end running to the camera and the other to a limb, so 
that when the birds stood or sat on the nest they drew the 
string taut and made the exposure. 
Where it is necessary to have the camera some distance 
from the bird to be photographed, the ordinary lens gives 
a picture too small to be of value. If the lens be a com- 
pound one, one part or the other is sometimes used singly 
as a “long-focus combination,” whereby the size of the 
image is magnified considerably. The ‘‘telephoto”’ attach- 
ment is also used for this purpose, allowing a magnification 
up to three and one-half times the result obtained with the 
regular lens. 
The focal plane shutter cameras have been a boon to 
the nature photographer, and results have been accom- 
plished in the way of photographing flying birds, even to 
the extremely rapid wing movements of the iovaavamiiaved ited 
which would otherwise have been ab- 
solutely impossible. With these 
cameras the operator can focus on 
his object right up to the second of 
exposure, and the quickness of the 
focal plane shutter is supposed to 
range well above a thousandth part 
of a second. 
The experiences of the bird pho- 
tographer include glad surprises, the 
securing of an occasional seemingly 
impossible, splendid photograph, the 
incidental acquisition of a great deal 
of delightful knowledge of the ways 
of the birds—also bitter disappoint- 
ments, the hardest of work and the 
most extreme fatigue, with the oc- 
casional risk of life and limb on the 
face of the cliff, the dizzy height of 
the tree top, or the treacherous 
morasses of swamp or marsh, 
whither his quest leads him. At his 
