236 On Lonely Bird Key 
Large flocks also sun themselves upon the 
beach. As we approach, they rise in 
astonishing numbers. The sun is yet 
low in the east, and lights up their under 
parts, so it is a good time for snapshots, 
the focal-plane curtain shutter being set 
with a slit of about a quarter of an inch, 
and the spring wound some fifteen clicks, 
giving an exposure of about one five- 
hundredths of a second. The negatives 
secured are bound to be full of birds— 
have flown; some, surprised upon their 
nests, refuse to turn tail to the invader, 
and stay upon the nest, bristling up with 
a show of bravado, almost allowing them- 
selves to be handled. We can easily take 
snapshots at them, but I prefer to set up 
my 4 x 5 long-focus upon the tripod, using 
the shorter member—12-inch focus—of 
my double anastigmat at a distance of a 
yard or two, with a medium stop and a 
very brief timed interval, and secure a 
Sooty Terns Sunning Themselves on Bird Key Beach. 
unless, indeed, we aim down at our feet! 
Still the birds keep rising from the bushes, 
an inexhaustible supply. Some of them 
are in such a hurry that they get tangled 
in the branches, and we take one or two 
of them in our hands, freeing them and 
letting the frightened creatures fly away. 
Eggs are lying everywhere, in any sort 
of a situation. Some of the sooties, in 
fact, lay on the plank walk that runs east- 
ward from the hospital building. So, 
careful not to trample upon them, we 
stroll off through openings into the middle 
of the bushy tract. Most of the sooties 
fully exposed soft detailed picture, even 
the veinings of the feathers showing. 
After a few moments of hovering and 
screaming, the confiding though nervous 
little sooties, whose eggs lie all about us, 
begin to alight, first at some little dis- 
tance, but soon, if we keep perfectly still, 
within three or four yards. When quite 
a company of them have thus gathered, 
the focal-plane shutter drops with a bang, 
and up they all go, to return again very 
soon, and then steal quietly to their nests, 
some of which are in plain sight, others 
under the nearby bushes. 
&e © 
5” Se 
