that birds are an important factor in agriculture. At the last monthly
meeting of the Farmers' Club of the American Institute of New York, the
subject for discussion was "Birds and Their Relation to Agriculture."
The subject was introduced by Mr. N. Hallock, who presented a well
prepared paper giving much valuable information regarding birds as
insect destroyers. These statistics were from publications of the U. S.
Dept. of Agriculture and from his own observations. He strongly
urged the protection of all birds from the farmer's standpoint. The
paper was then discussed by the members present. Mr. William Dutcher,
of the Executive Committee of the New York Audubon Society, who was
present, addressed the Club, elaborating some of the statements in the
paper under discussion and emphasizing the fact that every bird an
agriculturist permitted to be killed on his farm was a direct loss to
him in money value.
_... JUST READY. PRICE, $1 NET ..._
Nature Study For Grammar Grades
_A Manual for the Guidance of Pupils below the High School in the Study
of Nature_
BY
WILBUR S. JACKMAN, A.B.
Dep't of Natural Science, Chicago Normal School
Author of "Nature Study for the Common Schools," "Nature Study and
Related Subjects," "Nature Study Record," "Field Work in Nature Study,"
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_REVISED EDITION_
In preparing this Manual, it has been the author's aim to propose,
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That pupils need some rational and definite directions in nature
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that interruption in his work, which is, otherwise, due to the pupil's
attempt to _think_ and at the same time _hear_ what the teacher says.
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PUBLISHED BY
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York
* * * * *
VOL. 1 20c. a Copy
No. 4 AUGUST, 1899 $1 a Year
=Bird-Lore=
[Illustration]
Edited by
FRANK M. CHAPMAN
The Macmillan Company
ENGLEWOOD, N. J.
NEW YORK LONDON
_R. Weber_
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN
=Bird-Lore=
August, 1899
CONTENTS
Frontispiece--Nesting Site of Cliff or Eave Swallows _H. W. Menke_
Photographing Shy Wild Birds and Beasts at Home. Illustrated.
_R. Kearton, F.Z.S._ 107
Two Nova Scotia Photographs. Illustrated. _C. Will Beebe_ 113
In the Spartina with the Swallows. Illustrated. _O. Widmann_ 115
Watching the Bittern 'Pump'. _Bradford Torrey_ 123
FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
Hints to Young Bird Students. { _Witmer Stone, J. A. Allen,_
{ _Robert Ridgway, C. Hart Merriam,_
{ _William Brewster, and others_ 125
Fall Migration at Portland, Conn. _John H. Sage_ 128
FOR YOUNG OBSERVERS
Mr. Flicker Writes a Letter. Verse. Illus. by Ernest W. Smith.
_Garrett Newkirk_ 129
Zip and Phoebe. Illustrated. _Florence A. Van Sant_ 130
NOTES FROM FIELD AND STUDY 132
Birds through a Telescope, _Frank M. Chapman_; The Cardinal in
Maine, _Ella Gilbert Ives_; A Useful Bird.
BOOK NEWS AND REVIEWS 133
Kearton's 'Wild Life at Home'; Mrs. Grant's Economic Value of Birds;
Nash's Birds of Ontario; Howe's 'On the Birds' Highway'; Palmer's
'Danger of Introducing Noxious Animals and Birds'; Judd's 'Birds
as Weed Destroyers'; Beal's 'Economic Relation of Birds'; Book News.
EDITORIAL 135
AUDUBON DEPARTMENT 136
Editorial; American Society of Bird Restorers; Massachusetts Society;
Connecticut Society; Tennessee Society.
×*× _Bird-Lore is published at Englewood, New Jersey, on the first of the
month, where all notices of change of address, manuscripts intended for
publication, books, etc., for review, and exchanges should be sent._
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT
The most important paper in Bird-Lore for October will be an
illustrated article on the American Ornithologists' Union, by its first
president, J. A. Allen, which will be of especial interest to all bird
students.
[Illustration: NESTING SITE OF CLIFF OR EAVE SWALLOWS, LITTLE MEDICINE
RIVER, CARBON COUNTY, WYO.
Photographed from nature by H. W. Menke, July 4, 1898]
=Bird-Lore=
A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS
Official Organ of the Audubon Societies
=======================================
Vol. 1 August, 1899 No. 4
=======================================
Photographing Shy Wild Birds and Beasts at Home
BY R. KEARTON, F. Z. S.
Author of "Wild Life at Home: How to Study and Photograph It;" "With
Nature and a Camera," etc.
[Illustration]
My brother and I were both delighted to see the first number of
Bird-Lore, and take the opportunity of congratulating our naturalist
and photographic chums across the Atlantic upon having such a practical
and highly interesting magazine to help them in their enchanting
pursuits. Such a publication would have been a veritable godsend to us
when we started our natural history photography.
As we have had a good deal of experience in circumventing the cunning
and timidity of the majority of wild creatures living in the British
Isles, and the same characteristics in this respect are common to wild
animals all the world over, I propose to tell by what means we have
secured some of our rarest pictures.
First of all, I ought to explain that we never use anything but a
strongly built, half-plate stand camera, fitted with a Dallmeyer
stigmatic lens, and an adjustable miniature on the top, which is used
as a sort of view-finder when making studies of flying birds and
mammals in motion. When fixed in position, and its focus has been
set exactly like its working companion beneath it, both are racked
out in the same ratio by the screw dominating the larger apparatus
which, when charged with a dark slide and stopped down according to
the requirements of light and speed of exposure, needs no further
attention. When the combination is in use, the photographer focuses
with his right hand, and, holding the air ball or reservoir of his
pneumatic tube in his left, squeezes it quickly and firmly directly
he has achieved a sufficiently clear and strong definition of his
object upon the ground glass of the miniature camera. This enables
the operator to focus up to the last instant, and to select the best
attitude of his "sitter."
We have a silent time-shutter built in behind the lens, and for very
rapid work, such as flying bird studies, use a Thornton & Pickard focal
plane shutter working up to the thousandth part of a second.
Good apparatus, that will work under almost any conditions with
precision and certainty, must be possessed for the achievement of
successful natural history work. We use the quickest plates made in the
old country for the greater part of our work, although, of course, for
still objects full of color, we cannot beat Ilford chromatic plates.
We soon discovered that it was absolutely impossible to figure many
timid birds at close quarters without some natural contrivance in
which the camera and its operator could be effectually hidden. For
the study of wood birds at home, we built an artificial tree trunk of
sufficient internal capacity to contain either of two broad-shouldered
Yorkshiremen. This is how we made it. Purchasing three pieces of
stout bamboo, each 7 feet in length, I split them down the center and
lashed each piece to three children's bowling hoops, the topmost and
center ones being 24 inches in diameter, and the bottom one 27, so
as to represent the base of a tree and give the legs of our camera a
greater stride. We then covered the whole with galvanized wire and a
coat of green American cloth, which my wife painted to resemble the
bark of a tree. After this we stuck bits of lichen and moss on to it,
and then passed a number of bits of strong grey thread from the inside
to the out. With these we tied on several pieces of ivy stripped from
adjoining tree trunks, so as to make our contrivance look as natural
as possible. How far we succeeded in deceiving the feathered folks of
Britain may be judged, when I state that one day a Chaffinch alighted
on the broken top of our artificial forest monster and began to rattle
off its song just over the unseen photographer's head.
[Illustration: IN THE TREE-TOPS
From Kearton's 'Wild Life at Home,' copyrighted by Cassell & Co., Ltd.]
We should much like to hear of this device being tried by someone
on American wood birds. Whoever makes and gets laced up inside
an artificial tree trunk will discover that a peculiarly dizzying
sensation attends the first attempt or two to stand for any length of
time so encased.
For some birds we fix up a mock camera near their nests or feeding
haunts a few days before we attempt to make a picture. This can be
easily done with a small wooden box and tin canister with its lid or
bottom blackened to represent a lens.
For photographing ground builders, such as Larks, Plovers, and so on,
we built an artificial rubbish heap, such as farmers rake up off their
grass land before laying it down to grow for hay time, and cart off to
form rick bottoms.
This we made from an old umbrella, to the ribs of which we lashed
pieces of bamboo four feet in length. The whole was then covered with
brown holland. To the outside we tied innumerable wisps of straw and
rubbish, and as some sort of testimony to its efficacy, I need only
mention that we have succeeded in photographing a Lark at her nest
bang in the middle of a bare field, and one of our very shyest British
Plovers, quite recently, sitting on its nest within a few feet of the
lens.
We next come to a consideration of how to photograph the eyries,
eggs and young of such birds of prey as Eagles, Falcons and Ravens,
that breed, at any rate so far as Britain is concerned, in the most
inaccessible cliffs.
The first business is to secure a couple of climbing ropes. We had
ours specially manufactured for us, from the best manila hemp, by a
London rope-maker of good repute. They are each two hundred feet in
length. The guide rope is an inch and a half in circumference, and the
descending rope, which has three loops at one end for the photographer
to sit in, is two inches in circumference. It will thus be seen that
both ropes are pretty stout, some folks might say unnecessarily stout,
but it is better to be on the safe side, as a break and a fall of three
or four hundred feet onto jagged crags or into the sea would be likely
to send the photographer into perpetual retirement.
It is a curious thing, but nevertheless true, that fictionists have
fixed one idea in the mind of the public in regard to the danger
attending a man hanging over a precipice on the end of a rope; viz.,
that all his danger comes from a probability of one or two of the
strands of his rope getting chafed in two over some sharp rock. I am
frequently asked, after my lectures, the question: "Has your brother
ever had a narrow escape from the rope nearly getting chafed in twain?"
They seem genuinely disappointed because he has not been hauled up on
the last faithful strand of a rope, with his hair standing on end, his
face o'erspread with an unspeakable horror, and then fainted dead away
on reaching _terra firma_.
[Illustration: DESCENDING AN OVERHANGING CLIFF
From Kearton's 'Wild Life at Home,' copyrighted by Cassell & Co., Ltd.]
I have heard a lot of terrible tales about chafing ropes, but as a
matter of fact, there are dangers a thousand times greater if less
picturesque; such, for instance, as a prosaic little stone, no bigger
than an orange, being dragged out of its bed by one of the ropes when
the photographer is being hauled up a cliff, and, after dropping a
hundred feet or so, alighting plump on the head of the unsuspecting
camera man. My brother has had one or two narrow escapes of this kind,
though never the shadow of one from a chafing rope.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHING A CORMORANT
From Kearton's 'Wild Life at Home,' copyrighted by Cassell & Co., Ltd.]
Upon setting forth to photograph the eyries of cliff-breeding birds, we
equip ourselves with (1) our ropes; (2) a stout crowbar; (3) a good,
strong, level-headed assistant (nervous or careless assistants should
be studiously avoided, as the one kind of man is as dangerous as the
other), that can be relied upon; (4) a revolver; (5) a camera; (6) a
photographer who, in addition to being a good athlete and gymnast,
possesses no nerves at all, and can, in consequence, stand on the very
lip of a cliff a thousand feet sheer, as he would do on the gutter edge
of a sidewalk, and look straight below him.
I would advise all who do not possess the above qualities, more or
less, to leave cliff photography severely alone, as walking backwards
into a yawning abyss, even on the end of a good, stout rope, feels
uncommonly like stepping into eternity, and I would not like to have
the blood of any American cousin on my head.
Upon reaching the edge of any precipice wherein we suspect, say an
Eagle, to be breeding, we step as close to the lip of the crag as
possible. I hold the revolver over my head, fire, and watch to see
where a bird flies out. Should one do so we mark the spot, drive
our crowbar into the ground above it, tie one end of the guide rope
securely to it and fling the rest down into the chasm below. The
photographer lashes his camera to his back, dons the three loops at
the end of the descending rope round his hips, the rope is then passed
once round the crowbar, and the assistant pays it out from behind,
whilst the photographer, steadying himself by means of the guide-rope,
literally walks backwards down the cliff. Before going down, however,
he takes good care to clear away all the loose stones and rubble, for
if he did not do so they would be sure to be dislodged by the rope when
he comes up.
Upon reaching an eyrie, if it is situated on a ledge wide enough to set
the tripod of the camera on, he does so and makes his studies, taking
good care not to let go his ropes.
If the nest should be on a ledge too narrow to set the apparatus upon,
my brother passes two of the legs of his tripod through a belt round
his waist and the third into any convenient crevice he can find, and
with his body practically at right angles to the face of the crag and
his camera almost resting on his chest, focuses and takes his picture.
I feel that I have barely touched the fringe of my subject in this
short article, but I have no doubt that to the man equipped with a
decent camera and a genuine love of nature, the hints I have given will
be sufficient to set him to work natural history picture-making, and,
as an old farmer, I know enough of American ingenuity in tool-making to
convince me that there is no bird or beast living in the western world
that cannot be photographed, living, loving, and laboring in its free,
open-air home. Any way, every reader of Bird-Lore has the best wishes
of the brothers Kearton.
Two Nova Scotia Photographs
BY C. WILL BEEBE
With photographs from nature by the author.
[Illustration]
The slate-colored Junco or Snowbird breeds very abundantly in the
fields of Digby county, Nova Scotia, and its neat nests are often
so artistically placed that they are a continual temptation to the
naturalist photographer. One nest, in particular, with four eggs, was
especially beautiful, seen through the ground glass of the camera, the
contrast between the eggs and the waxy green leaves and scarlet fruit
of the bunch-berries near it making one long for color photography.
This nest was in a field, five feet from a road, and partly protected
by a tiny bank of turf.
[Illustration: NEST AND EGGS OF JUNCO]
Five days after the photograph was taken the eggs hatched, and four
balls of long, jet-black fuzz appeared. Daily twelve-hour meals of
green measuring-worms, provided by the parents, wrought marvels in
the appearance of the young birds, and in a surprisingly short time a
second suit of streaked black and brown was assumed. In this, perhaps,
the facsimile of their ancestors' plumage, they left the nest, and
apparently lost individuality among the large flocks of their species.
Another abundant summer bird of this part of Nova Scotia is the
Night-hawk, the name being almost a misnomer, as they are visible in
numbers, flying all day. But all do not depart from their usual custom
of sleeping during the day, as is shown in the accompanying photograph,
taken about 11 A. M. one August day, 1898. While walking along a
railroad track, I noticed this bird resting in a fallen trunk about
four feet from the track. I focused my camera and made the exposure
without disturbing the bird in the least. A train had passed not long
before, so it could hardly have been asleep more than an hour. The
characteristic longitudinal position assumed by this bird in perching
is well shown, and its protective coloring makes it appear a mere
excrescence on the bark.
[Illustration: NIGHT-HAWK ASLEEP]
When it awoke what a dream it might relate to its companions of being
approached by a horrible one-eyed, three-legged creature, which at a
glance made it immortal!
The photograph of the Junco's nest and eggs was made with a 128 opening
and a 4-second exposure, while that of the Night-hawk was stopped at
64, with an exposure of two seconds.
In the Spartina with the Swallows
BY O. WIDMANN
[Illustration]
Maple Lake, in St. Charles county, Mo., is one of a series of lakes
situated between the bluffs and the Mississippi River. The bluffs are
four to five miles from the river bank, thus leaving a wide stretch of
alluvial land, lowest toward the bluffs, forming an extended, nearly
level marsh, mostly too wet and poor for cultivation, and covered with
square miles of cord-grass (_Spartina cynosuroides_). In dry summers or
on higher levels it reaches only a height of three or four feet, but
in wet summers, as for instance in 1898, it attains the stately height
of six to eight feet, with such a dense growth of rigid leaves that it
is hard work to walk or even drive through. As a commercial article it
is worth very little, though it will make good paper. When young it is
liked by horses and cattle, and when two feet high it makes pretty good
hay, which is sometimes baled and sold as prairie hay.
But while man does not yet know how to make good use of it, birds do,
especially some species of the families Hirundinidæ and Icteridæ--the
Swallow and Blackbird families--who find in the spartina the material
for a good and safe dormitory. Hundreds of acres of this grass cover
the region about Maple Lake, and as they are within the confines of
one of the best managed club grounds, where neither plow nor cattle,
neither drainage nor fire are allowed, they serve many kinds of birds
for a roosting place at all seasons of the year, but especially in fall
migration.
Of Swallows, the most numerous frequenters are the Eaves, the Tree or
White-breasts, and the Roughwings, and they show their appreciation of
this rare place of security and peace by coming early in the season and
staying late. When the Eaves have become strangers at their breeding
stations for a long time, the marsh is the place to find them in
plenty. Here is the place to look for the first White-breast of the
year as early as the second week of March, and for the last, in the
third week of October. For two months, from the middle of August to
the middle of October, a cloud of Swallows may be seen every evening,
just before dark, hovering over the most remote and inaccessible part
of the immense spartina waste, and wherever you are in the marsh in the
late afternoon, you cannot fail to notice innumerable Swallows skimming
the grassy ocean and the adjacent lakes. If toward sunset you watch
them closely, you will find that, though they may linger long on some
favorite hunting ground, the general trend is toward one particular
region, and if you will wait long enough, you will find that they have
all disappeared in that direction and that, when almost dark, belated
parties passing by go in a straight line direct for the same unknown
destination. Certainly a most interesting sight for the naturalist to
see so many of these lovely, lively, likely creatures passing over,
about and around you, all governed by one idea, all driven by one
common impulse, all eager to reach the same aim, the common roost!
Where is the roost? Where do all these birds spend the night? How do
they retire in the evening, and what is their conduct when they leave
their night-quarters in the morning?
[Illustration: TREE OR WHITE-BREASTED SWALLOWS
Photographed from nature by Edward Van Altena, Alpine, N. J.,
September, 1898]
In spite of their large numbers and generally unconcealed activity,
the answer to these questions is not quite easy. Otherwise confiding
creatures, Swallows are careful to keep the exact location of their
roost as much as possible a secret from the outer world. Neither the
persons who live in the neighborhood of the marsh, nor the hunters who
desecrate its sanctity, could tell you where the Swallows roost. It
requires the persistent efforts and full attention of the naturalist to
show you where and how his favorite bird goes to rest and how it sets
out and enters upon the duties and pleasures of another day. You have
to be after nightfall, alone with the mosquitos and other pests, in the
wide, wet and pathless marsh, and again before the faintest glimmer
announces the approach of day.
But select a day in the latter part of August or the first half of
September, and follow me. We are up early, to be on the grounds before
5 A. M.; the stars are vanishing, one after the other, and the first
dawn appears on the eastern horizon; the air is cool and misty, the
grass loaded with heavy dew, but we have to plow our way through as
best we can. By previous observation we have located the whereabouts of
our birds, and we are now fast approaching their sanctum, all alive and
alert for the expected disclosures.
Before this, only the hooting of the Barred Owl in the distant woods
had broken the silence, but now comes from the depth of his private
retreat, the sleepy 'seewick' of the Henslow's Sparrow, and at the same
time the weak but lively 'chip chip churr' of the Short-billed Marsh
Wren. 'Pink, pink, pink' exclaims the Bobolink, whom we have startled
from his slumber of repose, and, as we advance, up go some Swallows,
one by one, to the right, to the left, in front of us, not in masses or
bunches, but singly, every few yards one or two flying up, silent, and
on wings heavy with dew.