Pee AUDUBON BULLETIN 39 
Gathering Field Notes for Bird Paintings 
By Wa.tTER A. WEBER 
Of the various phases of ornithology, none is more fascinating than 
the study of living birds in the field. Intimate contact with any of the 
wild creatures accelerates the pulse of the nature-lover, but to the bird- 
minded person, seeing birds close at hand, whether they are performing 
some elaborate courtship display or quietly carrying on the ordinary ac- 
tivities of their lives, evokes a thrill of delight comparable to nothing else 
in the world. ‘The fact that birds are much like people in that they exhibit 
characteristics of individuality in practically everything they do, adds zest 
to observation of their various performances. 
There is practically no day in the year that does not see numbers of 
enthusiastic bird-lovers, armed with field glasses of one sort or another, 
tramping through our woods and fields or wading through marshes bent 
on renewing old acquaintances, but ever on the lookout for species not 
seen before and, more particularly, for any new thing which they can 
learn about some of the more common forms. “The average bird-student 
is happy if he can simply watch birds, see them in their various attitudes, 
marvel at their gorgeous colors or intricate markings, discover how each 
one has learned to meet its problems of life. But there are many who 
are not satisfied with this, who are so afflicted with “morbus aves studendi,” 
that they are obsessed with the desire to recreate, when at home, images of 
what they have seen in the field. Some of the more fortunate individuals, 
facile of pen, are able to weave their experiences and observations into the 
delicate fabric of poetry or prose, the charm and magic of their verse evolv- 
ing feathered forms of grace and beauty in the rays of the reading lamp. 
Others, with indefatigable patience, endure exposure to wind and sun, 
rain and the scourge of insect stings to capture on photographic film pic- 
torial images that can be viewed later by thousands from comfortable 
theatre seats. “Then there is the artist, intrigued by form and color, pat- 
tern and line, who finds in the bird world an unbelievable wealth of these 
things exceeded perhaps, in land life, only by the insects. 
Undoubtedly by this time it is evident that the present writer is not 
gifted with the pen and the intricacies of exposure, time and stop of camera 
manipulation have never become clear to him, but he has been dominated 
ever since he could hold a pencil by the unquenchable desire to capture on 
paper the exquisite beauty of the live bird. With the aim of ultimately 
being able to make paintings that will depict faithfully the attitude, con- 
tour, markings and color of birds as he sees them in nature, the writer 
has applied himself to the study of birds in the field as intensively as time 
and the exigencies of the modern world will permit. He has scratched 
