A FEW SUGGESTIONS. 



173 



get them in a good position ; and the best pictures are but poor. 

 When seriously wounded, their Hstless and dejected look is not 

 what is wanted in a picture, and at the best the surroundings of 

 fences, cages, chains, or cords destroy the worth of the likeness. 

 A dead bird is a hopeless task, and photographs of stuffed and 

 mounted birds, with their dull, protuberant, and lifeless eyes are an 

 abomination. I will venture to say that not one photograph in a 

 hundred of mounted birds has the faintest life-like look about it. 



Leaving birds and turning to fish, we find a class that, as a rule, 

 make elegant subjects for the photographer. With them I have 

 been quite successful. The best to work upon are scale fish of 

 moderate size; but I have made good pictures of sharks of five 

 feet in length and of small fish of barely three inches. I would 



GREEN HERON (MOUNTED SKIn). 



recommend this work to lovers of photography, and will give a 

 brief explanation of my process. You will need a large sheet of 

 white blotting-paper, some small wire nails and pins, and a pair of 

 wire-cutting pliers. Select a moderate-sized fish, with uninjured 

 tail and fins, fasten your blotting-paper to a board, wipe the fish 

 dry, and lay it in the centre of the sheet of paper. Cut off the 

 heads of two of the wire nails, and drive them through the fish and 

 into the board, one near the head, and the other near the tail. 



