August, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
481 
may be made from the small negative. 
There is another advantage which should 
not be overlooked, this having to do with 
stopping motion. The lenses mentioned in 
the previous paragraphs, which, by the way, 
are about standard for cameras making 
2/4 x 3/4> and 3J4 * 5 *A pictures, will do 
for further comparison. Many pictures 
are spoiled by blurring of a moving object. 
If you are making a picture of Pete shoot¬ 
ing the rapids, you want a picture of Pete 
and his canoe, rather than a blurred object 
which might be a log or uprooted tree, for 
all you can prove to your friends. The 
speed at which the object moves is not the 
only factor determining how fast the image 
moves. It is the speed of the image on the 
film which concerns us. Without discuss¬ 
ing the matter in detail, it is plain that as 
the im'age on the film moves much more 
slowly if the picture is a small one—made 
with a short focus lens—than it does on a 
large picture, its motion can be “stopped” 
by an exposure which might not be short 
enough to stop the motion of the larger 
image. In figuring out this statement, re¬ 
member that we are not dealing with pro¬ 
portion, but actual motion of the image 
across the film during an exposure of a 
definite time. The point of this advantage 
is that sometimes when the light is poor, 
one is able to give a fairly long exposure 
with the small camera, getting a fully-ex¬ 
posed, sharp image, while with the larger 
camera the same exposure may not be short 
enough to stop the motion, while if it is 
made shorter to stop motion the negative 
may be under-exposed. 
A FTER wading through all these rocks, 
doubtless a nibble at the subject sug¬ 
gested by the title will be a relief. 
Our illustration, at last, gives an idea of 
the outfit. The picture space is divided in 
three parts, for the sake of clarity, and will 
be considered from left to right. 
The camera is a personal choice, con¬ 
sidering design and efficiency. It is one of 
the splendid pocket cameras, making 2)4 x 
334 pictures. There is a choice to suit 
everybody’s pocketbook, but the main point 
is to buy one with an anastigmat lens. It 
is a photographic axiom that “it pays to get 
the best lens and shutter your pocketbook 
can afford.” The fact that the case is 
shown in this illustration gives an idea that 
there is a little more body to the outfit 
than there really is. This may worry some 
person who expected to see an outfit that 
would fit in a matchbox, so we will proceed 
to place the camera in the case, and slip it 
on our belt, holster fashion, and forget it 
for the time being. Yet there it is always 
ready for instant use, and if the canoe 
takes a spill, the camera does not lie at the 
bottom of the stream for us to fish out. 
The second part of the illustration cov¬ 
ers the requirements of those who travel 
extra light. First, the films: Heat and 
moisture are to films, what mosquitoes and 
gnats are to humans. So the films should 
be packed in containers as shown—four to 
the can—where they will remain dry, at 
least. If more than one can is taken, it 
is a good plan to seal it with wax, before 
winding the edge of the cover with ad¬ 
hesive tape. These cans cost but ten cents 
each, and sometimes save a very precious 
lot of negatives. The small round object 
in the same section is a ray filter: This 
enables one to get clouds in the sky, and 
correct color values when yellows and blues 
are pohtographed. The discussion of the 
why of this is too lengthy to consider here, 
but just add a filter to your equipment (ask 
the dealer for a 3x filter) and not the im¬ 
provement. Of course, the exposure must 
be increased with the filter, but if you have 
a fast lens, snapshots can be made just the 
same, in good light. BUT, get acquainted 
with the filter before using it on a trip. 
The small metal cylinder half withdrawn 
(continued on page 502) 
WESTWARD EXTENSION OF THE BLACK DUCK 
LETTERS FROM VARIOUS LOCALITIES TEND TO PROVE THE RANGE OF 
THIS BIRD IS GRADUALLY BROADENING EXTENSIVELY IN THE WEST 
T HE following letter, which contains 
information of much interest to 
sportsmen and naturalists, has been 
received from -an old friend and corre¬ 
spondent of Forest and Stream: 
Saginaw, Mich. 
Editor of Forest and Stream :—For 
some years I have been interested in an 
apparent westward extension of the range 
of the black duck (Anas rubripes). 
My father came to Saginaw about 1855. 
The Saginaw River from where it enters 
Saginaw Bay, twenty miles below Saginaw, 
was at that time heavily fringed with 
bayous and wild rice marsh. About mid¬ 
way between Saginaw and Bay City, the 
marsh widens out so that the woodlands 
must be fully seven or eight miles apart— 
a vast wild rice lake. The only way one 
could get through it from one pond hole 
to another, was to cut or beat down paths 
for the canoes. Above Saginaw the marsh 
was as fully extensive, extending clear to 
where the Flint and Bad Rivers joined the 
Shiawassee which, in turn, joining with 
the Cass and Tattabawassee, made the 
Saginaw River. This old-fashioned duck¬ 
ing ground was full of water fowl. They 
ired here in the spring and came here in 
:ountless numbers in the fall. 
The method of hunting them was mainly 
saddling them or punting them up early in 
HE Natural History Department 
has been for nearly half a 
century a clearing-house for infor¬ 
mation of interest to dll. Our read¬ 
ers are invited to send any questions 
that come under the head of this de¬ 
partment to Robert Cushman Mur¬ 
phy, in care of Forest and Stream. 
Mr. Murphy, who is Curator of the 
Department of Natural Science in 
the Brooklyn Museum, will answer 
through these columns. [Editors.] 
the season, say the 1st of September until 
the forepart of October. One man pad¬ 
dling or punting the boat, the other sitting 
in the bow doing the shooting, although a 
good many of the market hunters and In¬ 
dians hunted alone, with the gun lying in 
front of them; and they sat upon their 
knees in the little dugout canoes, and re¬ 
lied upon picking up the old muzzle loader 
when a duck flushed, and killing it. The 
canoes were simply made of white pine 
logs, beautifully shaped and hollowed, the 
sides often not much thicker than paper, 
and it required an expert to ride in one. 
They would slide through the wild rice 
easier than any other boat that was ever 
built. After the fall ducks came, there 
was the usual shooting from blinds, but 
none of the old-time hunters of the Sagi¬ 
naw Valley had many decoys. A half 
dozen wooden mallards was the limit. 
There were certain places in September 
where the teal crossed the river. A regu¬ 
larly established flight about four o’clock 
in the afternoon would cross at Crow 
Island, going from the east to the west, 
and it was a favorite sport of my father’s 
to go there in the afternoon with his ten- 
gauge gun and No. 8 shot, and shoot teal 
while the flight was on. They came across 
by thousands, as thick as pigeons. 
This duck shooting of the Saginaw River 
marshes continued until well into the ’70’s 
—I mean as excellent sport. By the time 
I was twelve years old, I was able to par¬ 
ticipate in it with my father. After about 
1878 the shooting became poorer. There 
are still a good many of the marshes left 
and a good many ducks killed on the Sagi¬ 
naw River even at the present time. 
Now in all that duck shooting in those 
early days, the black duck was a rare bird. 
Out of 100 mallards, if one or two black 
ducks were secured, the fact was a sub¬ 
ject of comment. The shores of Saginaw 
Bay contained magnificent duck marshes in 
the early days. Wild Fowl Bay to the east 
of the mouth of the Saginaw River was a 
