Last winter, when all the streams in Surrey were swollen and muddy, a Kingfisher found its way almost daily into a garden belonging to a friend of ours living in the neighbourhood of Redhill, and containing a pond in which a number of goldfish were kept. The bird used to come and sit on a little ash sapling sprouting from the left hand bank of the pond, as seen from our friend's house, or upon the trailing boughs of a tree overhanging the right bank, and, whenever a fish swam within its ken, it made a swift downward plunge into the water, and, securing its prey, flew with it to one or the other of its favourite perches. The unfortunate victim quickly received its quietus by a few vigorous blows on the branch, and was then swallowed head foremost.

Hearing of the bird's visits, my brother was very anxious to try to photograph it, and a resourceful friend of ours cut a round hole in the side of a large wooden box, which he placed on a gravel path some distance from the ash sapling, moving it a little closer each day, in order that by degrees the bird might get accustomed to its presence. He next fixed an old door up in such a position as to hide from the Kingfisher the approach of anyone leaving a French window at the end of the house, and carpeted the gravel path

x 2

thickly with old sacks, so that the bird might not hear the crunching- of the photographer's feet upon it when he approached. My brother went down, and, placing his camera in the box, focussed the favourite twig through the hole our friend had cut, brought his pneumatic tubing behind the door, and retired to wait in our friend's sitting-room, which commanded a good view of the pond. As the bird only came three or four times a day, and did not stay long on any occasion, no opportunities were to be lost, and while photographic light lasted he kept constant watch, even having some of his meals brought to him, for fear of missing a chance. Six days spent more or less in patient waiting and watching resulted in his obtaining a series of studies, one of which is reproduced on the opposite page.

We have suffered a few minor accidents resulting in sundry bumps and sore bones, and the smashing of our apparatus, but nothing of a serious character. On one occasion my brother reared a ladder against the trunk of a tree which was too thick to swarm, with the idea of getting amongst the branches by its aid. He had nearly reached the top, when one side of the contrivance suddenlv snapped with a loud crack about a yard from its upper end, and three or four rungs flew high in the air as if cast by a juggler. The climber's head came in violent contact with the tree, and, losing his footing and balance at the same time, he spun half round and fell, l)ut in passing what remained of the ladder he snatched at it from beneath, and, arresting his descent, swung himself ba(;k again, and thus, l)y a gynniastic feat, averted what might have proved a nasty accident.

KINGFISHER.

358

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Last spring we were trying to photograph a Wild Duck sitting on her nest in a steep bank leading down to a pond eight feet deep. She could only be approached from the front, so we procured a couple of wooden trestles and a long ladder, and interlocking the former, pushed them out beneath the latter. My brother then walked along the ladder, and with the assistance of sundry sticks managed to fix up his camera. Just as he was about to make a picture, the trestles slipped, and photographer and camera fell with a tremendous splash into the pond, and the startled Duck flew away in a hurry.

One of the great difficulties connected with natural history photography is the recharging of dark slides, and we have more than once had a valuable batch of plates fogged in doing so by means of a changing bag. At the outset of my brother's photographic career, he one day, whilst on the moors in North Yorkshire, conceived the idea of crawling far enough up a disused lead-mine to meet with darkness sufficiently dense for his purpose, as he had forgotten his changing bag. Just as he was congratulating himself upon having reached a point suitable for his purpose, he fell head over heels into an old shaft full of icy cold water.

We have essayed the portrayal of winged insects at work and play, but found it an even more difficult and tedious task than that of making photographic studies of wild birds and beasts in their native haunts. One sunny day, whilst out hunting for subjects for the camera on a friend's farm, we discovered a couple of large Dragon-flies floating backwards and forwards across a cattle pond. We watched their airy swingings to and

fro for a while, and noticed that one of them, after an angry collision with its neighbour, invariably alighted u])on a favourite grass stem. My brother waded into the pond and focussed it, but the insect immediately took a fancy to another a few feet away, and constantly patronised it instead of the one originally used as a resting-place. The camera was shifted, but we soon discovered that when the Dragon-fly alighted upon the slender grass stem, it bent sufficiently with the weight to take the insect out of focus. After half a day's patient work, however, we succeeded in making a successful picture. Oi,i another occasion we were shown a Wasps' nest suspended under an overhanging bank. My brother fixed u^) his camera at a respectful distance and took a photograph with some of its occupants walking over it. Anxious to make a study at closer quarters, he crept stealthily up, focussed, inserted a dark slide, and was just about to expose a plate, when by an unlucky accident he touched a rootlet, which made the nest vibrate, and out poured an angry crowd of insects upon him, and he was obliged to beat a very hasty retreat minus his camera. A year or two ago I read an account of a Grolden-crested Wren having been caught in a Spider's web, but must confess that I doubted the ability of any creature of this kind in the British Isles to make a web strong enough to hold even our smallest bird. Last year I caught a member of the species represented in the j^icture on the next page, and kept him under a glass globe for some weeks. He made a web right across it, and I cut a piece of cardboard exactly an inch square and, inserting it

SO that it caught the web flat, I then attached a s^Dring balance and began to pull steadily. To my great surprise, although it was only fixed to the smooth glass on either side and had a span of ten inches, it sustained a strain of over four ounces, avoirdupois, before giving way.

SPIDER'S SNAFJE

INDEX.

Accident, Curious, to a Moorhen, 228 — Laughable, 66 — Remarkable, to a Chaffinch, 184 — Whilst Swimming to a Rock to Photograph Cormorants, 350 Accidents, Climbing, 124 — Minor, 356 — to Young Rabbits, 180 Adder, Photographing an, 140 Adventure, Tale of, 134 Ailsa Craig, Puffins on, 268 — „ Very Early Morning Visit to, 322–326 Alarm, False, 38 Animals, Differences in, 238 — Wild, Photographing, 354 Ankle, Development of Cliff-climber's, 44 Apartment, Old Maid's, at St. Kilda, 34 Apparatus, Our Photographic, 334 Architecture of Birds' Nests, 183

Bagpipes, Effect of, on St. Kildans, 37 Bass Rock, How to reach, 265 Beards of St. Kilda Men, 32 Becking for Grouse, 160, 163 Bees never seen at St. Kilda, 128 Bell on the Neck of a Goose, 156 Bible, Grace Darling's, 332 Biorrach, 124 Bird-catcher, Immortalising a, 281 — -catchers' Call-Birds, 278 — „ Care for their Birds, 282 — „ How they Work, 278 — „ Lure Birds, 280 — „ Plant, 282 — -catching an Inherited Instinct, 294 — „ Places, Favourite, round Brighton, 286 — Change of Habits in, 292 — Island, A Famous, 313 — Life in the Firth of Lorne, 321 — Lime, Species caught by, 288 — Male, Feeding Young, alone, 230 — Mistaking Rising of Moon for Sun, 246 Birds and Spare Nests, 186 — Call-Notes of, 281 — Caught on Nests, 198 — Difficulties of Photographing at Night-time, 247 — Different Species sharing Nest, 194 — Eggs and Young, Protection of, 207 — „ Enemies of, 207 — „ Exchanging, 207 — „ How Laid, 205 — „ Show of, in Windows at St. Kilda, 12 — „ Sharing, at St. Kilda, 53 — Experimenting with, on Wire Perches, 232 — Extravagance of, 192 — Feeding their Young, 214, 216, 229 — Frightened of a Camera, 354 — Great Flights of, 284 — „ Numbers of, at Borrera, 75–76 — Helping them to build their Nests, etc., 216

Birds, How prevented from falling off Perch when asleep, 231 — „ the Presence of Brooding Game, may be known, 198 — „ they are called, 278 — „ they keep warm whilst sleeping, 232 — „ they sit on their Nests, 198 — Love of an old Breeding Haunt, 138 — Male, that feed their Mates, 202 — Migration of, 289 — Nests, Eggs, and Young of, 183 — „ near London, 222 — „ Photographing in High Hedges, 352 — Nets used for catching, 276 — Not so particular as supposed about Nests and Eggs, 206 — of Prey, Gamekeepers on killing, 142 — on Brighton Downs, 274 — Photographing in the Snow, 355 — Predominating Sex in, 241 — Protection of Young, by Harmonisation, 210 — Sanitary Arrangements of, 218 — Seen at St. Kilda, 57 — Singing at Night, 246 — Sleeping habits of, 233–235, 245, 246 — „ together, 239 — Stealing each others' Nests, 189 — Trapping, 290 — Unwearying Devotion of, 196 — Vast Multitude of, 122 — Watching Shy, 212 — When they retire to sleep, 245 — Where they go to die, 234 — „ „ sleep, 231 — Wings on Midden Heaps, 12 — Young, killed by Rooks, 146 Blackbird, Curious Eggs of a, 205 Blackbirds feeding their Young, 213 —— Nests well and badly hidden, 188 —— Peculiar Positions of Nests of, 264 —— Where they sleep, 234 Boat, Curious Old Method of landing from, 123 — Dangerous leap into, 121 — Difficulties of hiring a, 320 — Hauling, Curious Custom of, 43 — Keels wearing Grooves in Rocks, 44 — Race, St. Kilda as a Prize for, 16 Boats lowered, 131 — Photographing from, 350 Bonnet, Highland Woman's, 321 Boots, How a Highland Woman wears her, 321 Borrera, Difficulties of landing on, 76, 77 —— Excursion to, 75 —— Scaling the Cliffs of, 78 —— Sheep killed on, 87 —— Stone Lamp on, 81 —— Underground Dwellings on, 81, 82 Breakfasting off Guillemots' Eggs, 323

362

INDEX.

Breeches, Strange Story of a Pair of, 123 Brighton as a starting and arriving Place for Migratory Birds, 289 —— Downs, Bird-life on, 285 —— „ Cage-Birds on, 274 —— First Run of Motor Cars to, 275 —— When Migratory Birds arrive at, in the Spring, 292 Brooches, Peculiar, at St. Kilda, 19 Bullet-hole, Spotted Flycatcher's Nest in, 196 Bullfinches, Close Sitters, 200 ——— How they are caught, 285 Burrows, or “Nests,” of Rabbits, 180 —— Petrels, 244 —— Habits of, 148 —— How Trapped, 148

Cage Birds, Big Catches of, 281 — „ Calling, 278 — „ How they are caught, 274 — „ Ground on which caught, 286 — „ on Brighton Downs, 274 — „ Where they are sold, 286 — for receiving Newly-Caught Birds, 282 Call Birds, Value of, 281 — Notes of Birds, 281 Calling Cage Birds, 278 —— Grouse, 160 —— Partridges, 171 Camera and Photographer falling into a Pond, 358 —— Birds frightened of a, 354 Cats, Chance spoilt by, 101 — Destructiveness of, 152 — How trapped, 152 — Ingenious Trap for, 153 Cattle, Stock of, at St. Kilda, 38 Cave, Bird-haunted, 314 Chaffinch, Abnormal Blue Eggs of, 205 —— Curious behaviour of, 199 —— Devotion of, 199 —— Remarkable Accident to, 184 —— Song of, 289 Chaffinches, Character of Nests of, 183 —— How they are caught, 288 —— Nest decorated with Bits of Newspaper, 184 —— Simultaneous Nest-Building of, 184 —— Where they Sleep, 234 Chanticleer, Frostbitten, 233 Characteristics of Gamekeepers, 135 Charging Bag, Using an Old Lead Mine as, 358 Cheese, St. Kilda, 39 Chiffchaff, Helping, to Feed her Young, 220 —— How She fed her Young, 216 Child's Life saved by a Homer Pigeon, 324 Cleits of St. Kilda, 46 Cliff-climbers, St. Kildans as, 57 — Climbing, Sensations of, 56 — How to descend, 338 — Important Points in regard to descending, 340 — Photography, Dangers of, 341 — „ How it is Managed, 341 — Sensations of descending, 341 — Terrible Fall from, 126 Cliffs of Borrera, Scaling the, 78 Climb, Difficult, 108 —— Hazardous, 323 —— Stiff and Dangerous, 87 —— Stiffest and Most Dangerous, in St. Kilda, 124 Climbing Accidents, 124 Clipping Shears unknown in St. Kilda, 41 Clock Chiming, Man who could not understand, 327 Collection Boxes, Curious, at St. Kilda, 10 Coloration, Protective, Value of, 252 ——— „ Puzzle about, 254 Commonwealth of St. Kilda, 53