Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/464

446 specimens, frequently taken in their natural haunts, that for accuracy and beauty defy criticism.

Upon the whole, the mixture of feelings is by no means pleasurable when he comes to examine, for instance, some of the drawings of mice he had the temerity to publish in a popular journal some dozen or more years ago, that came before the eyes of a very large constituency of readers and observers. Yet he can remember very well the time and labor that were expended in attempts to faithfully portray those beautiful little animals, so difficult of correct portrayal. Unsatisfactory in the extreme were the results, and disappointment, the sole reward. How very differently does the camera do its work I Not so very long ago, having captured a fine living specimen of the common white-footed or deer mouse, the attempt was made to photograph this, one of the gentlest and prettiest little creatures in Nature. A result was obtained far exceeding the most sanguine expectations of the operator. Having placed an ear of ripe yellow corn, with husk and silk attached, the subject was induced to jump from the hand on to this as a perch. No sooner was this feat accomplished than he ran up and down it in a very excited, not to say interesting, manner. Already the ear of corn had been focused upon the ground glass of the camera box, and a holder armed with a very sensitive five-by-eight plate been duly placed in position. After having satisfied himself upon the state of things, my mouse suddenly paused and balanced himself to jump off, and if possible gain his liberty. In this attitude, and offering an opportunity not to be lost, an instantaneous exposure was made, and the plate removed to the dark room and developed.

This entire operation took no more than half an hour, and yet the outcome of the achievement was a picture of surpassing interest and accuracy, and one that even a rapid artist could not have produced in less time than a day, and then not have succeeded anything like as well. A reproduction of this picture is shown in rig. 1, which for animation and fidelity to Nature would be hard to equal.

Similar and equally successful photographs have been produced by the writer of other species of mice, of young opossums, of the muskrat, and several other mammals. With respect to birds it may be said, by employing the same means in the same way, photographic pictures have been secured of upward of fifty species of those forms occurring in our United States avifauna. A certain proportion of these are of adult individuals, while many others are of nests containing young in various stages of development. Sometimes old birds, male and female, were secured together, in the most natural attitudes upon the same limb, as in the case of cedar birds, and a