BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA [Illustration: 1. Gannet (flying over), Murres, Puffins, and Razorbilled Auks.] BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE OUTFIT AND METHODS OF THE BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN ASSISTANT CURATOR OF VERTEBRATE ZOÖLOGY IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND AUTHOR OF HANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, BIRD-LIFE, ETC. [Illustration: [Logo]] _WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATURE, BY THE AUTHOR_ NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. _All rights reserved._ THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY WIFE, WHO, BOTH AT HOME AND AFIELD, IS EVER “MY BEST ASSISTANT.” You have learnt from the Birds and continue to learn, Your best benefactors and early instructors. FRERE’S _Aristophanes_. PREFACE The practice of photographing birds in Nature is of too recent origin in this country to permit of its being treated authoritatively. The methods which may be employed are so numerous, the field to be covered so limitless, that many years must elapse before the bird photographer’s outfit will meet his wants, while the constantly varying details which surround his subjects almost prohibit duplication of experience. But it is these very difficulties which render all the more imperative the necessity of conference among workers in this fascinating and important branch of natural history. The causes of both success and failure should, through the medium of books and journals, be made accessible to all, thereby shortening this experimental stage of the study of birds with a camera, and hastening the day when the nature of the outfit and methods shall have been settled with more or less definiteness. It is as a contribution toward this end, and as a means of answering the queries of numerous correspondents, that the following pages, embodying the results of my own experiences, are offered. It is sincerely hoped that they may increase the interest in the study of birds in Nature, and at the same time furnish a more profitable and delightful outlet for the hunting instinct than is afforded by the shotgun or rifle. A large proportion of the Bird Rock pictures and several of those from Pelican Island have appeared in the Century and St. Nicholas respectively, and are here reproduced by the courtesy of the editors of those magazines; others have been previously published in Bird-Lore.