Chirps and 
Chatter. 
(180) THE BIRD WORLD. 
Birds that Photograph Themselves. 
The American nature student took 
down a superb snapshot of a Red-tailed 
Hawk. “ The Hawk took that picture 
herself,” he said. “ This Gull took her 
own picture, too. And so did this 
Robin and this Thrush.” “ Explain 
yourself.” “To get a picture of a bird 
on its nest,” the student explained, 
“ you conceal your camera somewhere 
near the nest when the mother is away, 
you get a good focus, and then you wait 
noiselessly, bulb in hand, till the bird 
returns. When she returns you press 
the bulb, and the picture is taken. But 
sometimes she is long away. Sometimes 
you must wait, hidden, noiseless and 
motionless, for two or three hours—a 
great trial. To escape this trial I got 
my birds to photograph themselves. I 
focussed my hidden camera as before, 
set the shutter and fastened a string to 
the shutter spring. This string I laid 
along the ground, and up the tree, and 
into the nest. That was all. The 
string lay in the nest. And when the 
bird returned, sitting on it, she clicked 
the shutter and took her own picture. 
Concerted Action by Birds. 
A friend of ours has a cat which ap¬ 
pears to be somewhat of an epicure with 
regard to young birds—to wait until they 
are of an age to be a dainty morsel, 
then to take the whole brood. On one 
occasion his usual course was thwarted 
with regard to a brood of Missel- 
Thrushes. Three—if not four—old 
birds attacked him and drove him away. 
This joint action or partnership of birds 
is of interest. At Charlbury railway 
station last year (says a writer) a Black¬ 
bird and Thrush laid in the same nest— 
there were, I think, five Blackbird’s and 
four Thrush’s eggs. Years ago I found 
on the edge of Bewdley Forest a long¬ 
tailed Tit’s nest. Putting my finger in, 
and finding there were young birds, I 
moved away, whereupon four old birds 
came, made no end of a fuss, and in¬ 
duced all the young birds to come out. 
The nest now being empty, I took it 
with me, bough and all. A day or two 
after I had it with me at Hartlebury 
railway station when a fellow-traveller 
—apparently a farmer—without any re¬ 
mark from me came up and said, “ I 
think there are more than two old birds 
to these nests.” Recently a letter has 
been published giving an instance of the 
execution of capital punishment by a 
Rook community on three of their 
criminals. Years ago, at Harbro’ Hall, 
near Kidderminster, then occupied by 
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Foyler, one spring 
morning a disturbance was noticed in 
the rookery. Ultimately one Rook was 
killed by his fellows and his body 
gibbeted—hung up among the nests. I 
saw it hanging there myself, and it 
appeared out of the question that it could 
be accidental. 
Scoters Nesting in Britain, 
Numerous as is the common Scoter 
in British seas, especially in winter, 
when many parts of the Channel and 
North Sea are black with them, instances 
of the nesting of this bird in these 
islands are not very common. Last year 
the interesting fact of a pair of Scoters 
rearing their young successfully on an 
Irish lough was established by Major 
H. Trevelyan. This year, at least, one 
instance of the nesting of this bird has 
been reported from Sutherland. Suther¬ 
land, Caithness, and Ross-shire seem to 
be almost the only counties in Britain 
where the Scoter cares to attempt to 
rear her young. A pair will now and 
again nest in the Hebrides; but even 
in those remote parts of the kingdom 
such instances are not very frequent. 
Whence, then, are recruited those vast 
armies of these birds which appear upon 
our seas in winter ? Principally, it 
would seem, in North Russia, Siberia, 
and the northern parts of Scandinavia, 
where in vast, unpeopled wildernesses the 
Black Duck ’ is enabled to rear its 
sooty brood, near fresh water lakes, in 
absolute tranquility. In these lonely 
haunts the Scoter and a thousand other 
birds are likely to be able to nest in un¬ 
disturbed seclusion for generations yet 
to come. 
