204 
IDENTIFICATION BY CAMERA 
By WILLIAM LEON DAWSON 
Vol. XV 
A 
; 
WITH TWO PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR 
NATURAL rivalry — oh entirely good-natured, I trust — exists between 
the “gunmen” and the exponents of those more modern weapons of at- 
tack, the camera and the binoculars. Of course the arbitrament of the 
gun in your ozvn hands is conclusive, as in- 
disputable as the virtue of the dead Indian; 
but there be those who find less pleasure in 
knock-down arguments than in the more 
subtle play of the wits. Science deals with 
facts and her cold storage chambers of in- 
duction are crowded with certainties, estab- 
lished truths, often uninteresting because un- 
disputed and so, nearly forgotten. But the 
(jiiest concerns itself with near-facts, prob- 
abilities, possibilities even, and herein resides 
the interest of life. As instruments of re- 
search in the realm of interest I submit that 
the binoculars and the camera are proving 
themselves superior to the gun. 
iMoreoA^er, in the fact-product itself the 
work of the camera at least is by no means 
negligible. It, no more than the gun, de- 
pends in the last analysis, upon the cred- 
ibility of human testimony, upon the 
honesty of the observer. You say this Ten- 
nessee A'Varbler’s skin was secured in such 
and such a place. Very well; I agree that it 
is a Tennessee Warbler’s skin. Whether it 
is therefore a bird of California rests with 
you. I will accept it as such on your say-so. 
I say that the accompanying photographs, be- 
lieved to include portraits of the Lesser Yel- 
low-legs (Tofanus flaz'ipcs)^ were taken in 
the Estero at Santa Barbara on the i6th day 
of August, 1913. The conclusion that these 
photographs really do represent the Lesser 
Yellow-legs in life is less obvious, less forced 
Fig. , 57 . Lesser and Greater Yee- upon you than in the case of your warbler 
Eow-EEGS, photographed on the skin. That is a matter for you to decide. The 
Estero near Santa Barbara, Caei- which w'e are able to submit for your 
fornia, August 16, i9io. consideration are much less complete than 
those you offer me. I can offer only evidence 
which answers the tests of outline, distribution of light and shade and compara- 
tive size. That this has some value you mnst admit, but I shall not blame you if 
you do not find it conclusive. For, after all, the status of T. flavipes as a bird of 
California must rest upon testimony, upon the reliability of a witness, iie c’est pas? 
*Disano\ved as a bird of southern California by the latest authority (Willett, Pac. Coast Avif. no. 7, 1912, 
p. 111). 
rf 
