. Wild nature's ways . nest and its contentsfrom an advantageous point on the precipitousbank above, and left. Next day the sun shonebrilliantly, and, fondly imagining that I hadnothing to do but go and photograph the owlsitting with her eyes closed, I sallied forth. Tomy surprise, the bird took her departure directlyI commenced operations. Determined to give hera fair trial, however, I fixed up the camera,focussed the nest, put a plate in, and attachingthe longest piece of pneumatic tubing in mypossession, dragged it up the steep hillside, andthen went into hiding under an overhangingcrag ten
. Wild nature's ways . nest and its contentsfrom an advantageous point on the precipitousbank above, and left. Next day the sun shonebrilliantly, and, fondly imagining that I hadnothing to do but go and photograph the owlsitting with her eyes closed, I sallied forth. Tomy surprise, the bird took her departure directlyI commenced operations. Determined to give hera fair trial, however, I fixed up the camera,focussed the nest, put a plate in, and attachingthe longest piece of pneumatic tubing in mypossession, dragged it up the steep hillside, andthen went into hiding under an overhangingcrag ten or a dozen yards beyond. I could tell exactly where the owl was locatedin the wood from the chivvying and scolding ofthe blackbirds and chaffinches, and by-and-byeheard her uttering that rather peewit-like cry l82 WILD NATURES WAYS. common to the species. Nearer and nearer shecame, with her tormentors making an increasinglyprodigious din, until at last she flew on to thenest, and sat down, with the sun blazing full in. SONG-THRUSH PHOTOGRAPHEDBY FLASHLIGHT WHILST AT ROOST IN A HEDGEROW. her face. I allowed her plenty of time in which toget settled down, and then attempted to creep softlydown to tlie air-ball at the end of my i)neumatic BIRDS OF WOODLAND AND HEDGEROW. 183 tubing. But she saw me directly I stirred, andinstantly took her departure. I tried again andagain, but with equally disheartening results. \\hilst photographing the song-thrush repro-duced herewith at roost by flashlight, one moonlessnight in April, we accidentally frightened a memberof the species off a nest containing four far-incu-bated eggs. I knew that the chicks could not with-stand the fatal effects of the frosty night air forlong, and did not consider it probable the ownerof the nest would find her way back in the must have done so, however, for two daysafterwards the nest contained four lively chicks.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
