. The oist . ere generallyquiet, and hardly any birds would beabout. At this time a Western Mock-ingbird would sometimes appear. Thisspecies was very shy, however, andthings had to be pretty quiet or they would not come near. These observa-tions were made from November 29tli,1903 to December 20th, 1903, afterwhich I left the locality. If I had beenable to visit the place in the springI have no doubt but that many morespecies would have been recorded, butby that time I was in the northernpart of the territory. Both my friend and myself were in-terested in photography, and so we de-cided to try
. The oist . ere generallyquiet, and hardly any birds would beabout. At this time a Western Mock-ingbird would sometimes appear. Thisspecies was very shy, however, andthings had to be pretty quiet or they would not come near. These observa-tions were made from November 29tli,1903 to December 20th, 1903, afterwhich I left the locality. If I had beenable to visit the place in the springI have no doubt but that many morespecies would have been recorded, butby that time I was in the northernpart of the territory. Both my friend and myself were in-terested in photography, and so we de-cided to try to obtain some picturesof our feathered friends. We bothowned cameras of the long focus,cycle style, and 4 by 5 inches in size,fitted with ordinary symmetricallenses, which had a speed of F. 8. Ofcourse all work must be instantane-ous, but the light is stronger and moreintense in the southwest than in theeast, and so we were able to obtainliretty good results. The fountain was too high for an THE OOLOGIST 260. Arizona Jays -Photo by Earl R. Forrest ordinarj- tripod, and so we obtainedtwo large boxes at the store, which wefastened securely together. These weplaced about five feet from the foun-tain, putting some roclvs in the bot-tom for ballast. We made some holesin the top, and at the proper angleand distance, in which we placed pegsto hold a camera in position. We focussed the machine on thefront part of the mountain, tied along string to the finger release sothat we could operate it from thehouse, and waited for the arrival ofthe birds. However, not one wouldventure near the place. The strangelooking affair so close was too muchfor them. Patiently we waited fortwo days without any success, andthen we moved the camera. Afterthis it was only a day or two untilthe birds commenced to return, andthey w^ere soon there in as great num- bers as ever. After they seemed tohave lost their fear for the boxes weplaced a focussing cloth on top whichthey seemed a little shy of for abouthal
Size: 1642px × 1521px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidoist29al, booksubjectbirds
