Bird Pictures 
503 
Screech-Owl. 
Megascops asio (Linn.). 
Bittern. 
Botaurns IcntiginosHS ( Montag. ). 
appeal to those who have not seen with a 
camera, but who have observed and re- 
tained certain impressions of birds through 
their unaided senses. 
Do not imitate. Copy no other man’s 
idea of how a bird looks. It is at its best 
how he thinks it looks. His impression, not 
yours. The bane of this work has been 
copying and imitating, not observing and 
originating ; so that we have the duck, the 
heron, the hawk, eagle, owl, and thrush of 
tradition in positions much oftener learned 
in the house from stuffed birds or pict- 
ures than from the real model, which is 
free to every one who cares to try to re- 
produce his impression of it gained out 
of doors. 
You can never tell where or when your 
chance will come to meet and get a vivid 
picture of this or that one. Therefore be 
always ready. Store observation upon ob- 
servation aAvay in your brain, d'hey will 
all come into play. The results will come 
to the persistent observer, and the stuffed 
birds of the future Avill do much to escape 
the ridicule cast by common consent on 
most of those of to-day. 
The illustrations accompanying this ar- 
ticle are presented with the hope that they 
represent some of the ideas which are fun- 
damental in it, and that they record a step 
toward a higher place for this kind of art 
work. They are reproductions of photo- 
graphs of stuffed birds. 
