Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/210

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The method of the study and photography of birds now to be described consists in first bringing the birds to you and then camping beside them. They can thus be watched and photographed at arm's length, or even as near as one would hold a book to read, and under the most perfect conditions of light and position, for hours or days at a time, while quite unconscious of being observed.

To be more explicit the method depends mainly upon two conditions: (1) The control of the nest or nesting site, and (2) the concealment of the observer.

If the nest like that of an Oriole, Robin, Flycatcher, Waxwing or Vireo is fastened to any leafy branch, the nesting bough or twig is cut off, carefully taken down, carried to a convenient spot where there is