s 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
difficulty. J halutually advance with downcast eyes, thus presenting a bowl of 
brown khaki instead of telltale gleams ; or, if I require to re-locate my birds, steal 
a glance through the camera. 
Color harmony in dress is to be cultivated solely insofar as it lends to incon- 
sj)icuousness. The slightest display of white or any bright color is to be avoided, 
not only because it draws attention at the outset, but because it emphasizes mo- 
tion. You may move a brown sleeve slowly through the air without provoking 
liight, Avhere the slightest oscillation of a white cuff would send your quarry scat- 
tering. 
In approaching shore-birds, especially, it is desirable to disguise tbe man- 
like qualities by altered iiosture. Ground-feeding birds hold any object in fear in 
direct ratio to its elevation, or one might almost say to the square of its elevation. A 
man on hands and knees is not half so terrible as one standing, while a prone fig- 
ure, although just as surely seen, scarce seems to threaten at all. 
Fig. 5. EoNG-BirnED Dowitchers .-vnd Western Wielet at Sandyeands: 
APPROACHED WITHOUT COVER 
The su])pression of noise is also important, though not paramount. Save in 
the case of unusual sounds, it is not the noise in itself which is fright-provoking, 
but its connection with a suspected object. In case of camera noises it is necessary 
to conduct a rapid course of education. The first roar of a focal-plane shutter 
will startle any bird, but if it is delivered by a motionless person at a distance, 
and no harm follows, the birds (juickly accejit it as ]iart of the established order 
of things, and will submit to it, thereafter, at any range, without question. In di- 
rect approach, therefore, it is well to accustom the birds to the .sound of your shut- 
ter at a distance, so that it may no longer complicate your situation. In this way 
one can take repeated shots at close quarters, where, if the noise had been held 
in reserve, only one would have been possiiile. 
.As a concrete and rather extreme example of the success of these methods, 
let me instance the ^^dute-faced Glossy Ibises herein portrayed. On the fourth 
day of September last, I sighted these Ibises as they settled in the edge of the 
