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 THE. CO.IB.R Volume XV[ January-February, 191 Number 1 DIRECT APPROACH AS A METHOD IN BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY By WILLIAM EOlg DAWSON WITH EIGHT PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR T IS USUALLY assumed that a bird-photographer works from a blind. The customary compliment paid to the writer when his photographs are shown is upon his patience. Never was a compliment wider of the mark. I am not a patient man. I am as little patient as a mountain torrent--Oh, a fev "darkling pools" and placid stretches, to be sure, but for he most part dashing, foaming, fretting, plunging on to the sea. And by the same token it has always seenled to me that bird photography from a blind bears about the same relation to bird pho- tography in the open that jugging for catfish does to fly-fishing. Pound for pound the jugger probably has the advantage, and we concede that the quality of his catch is above reproach; but the fly-caster, whether he lands a string of sparkling beauties or not, has always a glorious good time, and he knows in his heart that the tamer methods are not for him. Of course it is a matter of psychology, the difference between the waiting game and the aggressive, the store-keeper and the drummer. Being, therefore, a bit of a drummer himself, the writer will confess at once that he never took a doz- en photographs from a blind in his life; and that when he wants portraits of birds he does precisely what he does when he wants subscribers to "The Birds of Cali- fornia"; viz., goes after them. But there is the psychology again; you can't "rush" birds any more than you can humans. Not as often, in fact. There is, often, in humans a fund of good nature which will bear with sudden approach, and occasionally a fund of accumu- lated interest (in your subject, whatever it may be) that justifies quick action. But save in those rare cases where curiosity enters in, your claim-in-advance upon the forbearance or indulgent attention of a bird is absolutely nil. His approachability is measured only by his inertia, and that, in a creature so mobile, is'very small in-