138 
THE CONDOR 
I Vol. Ill 
of specimens to lie hidden away in 
some cabinet. Of course the latter is 
essential but not to such an extent as it 
is carried on by some people, while the 
former when it becomes more general 
will open up a much broader and more 
interesting field of work. 
The difficulties of getting good pic- 
tures, as one will find by experience, are 
exceedingly numerous, yet the ability 
is utterly incapable of showing some 
birds to any advantage unless a suitable 
back- ground can be secured. Besides 
the difficulty of back-ground there is 
always an equal one of getting the 
proper light at the proper time, and the 
subject is not very often found in a con- 
venient place to take a picture. In a 
time exposure, which is often necessary, 
a slight move at the critical moment 
PHOTO BY HERMAN T. BOHLMAN 
YOUNG RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. 
to overcome the many obstacles and se- 
cure a good representation of the sub- 
ject places a just value upon the re- 
sults. The display of a few good bird 
plates does not in any way indicate 
the amount of time that the photo- 
grapher may have spent in getting 
them or the number of other plates that 
may have been wasted. Nature has 
provided her creatures with wonderful 
protection as to coloring and the camera 
often spoils a plate. Collecting a good 
series of bird photographs differs from 
gathering eggs and skins, in that good 
pictures of even the commonest birds are 
still rare and so the photographer does 
not have to go far to find subjects for 
study. 
The interest in bird photograph}" has 
spread very rapidly in the east and 
many valual^le pictures have been tak- 
en, but as yet little lias been done among 
