_Young Birds._—The ease with which photographs of young birds may often be secured, the fact that with the camera their appearance and development may be more satisfactorily recorded than in any other way, makes their study by the photographer of exceeding importance. Photographs of young birds should of course be accompanied by notes on food, calls, special actions, etc., which the camera can not well portray. The young bird is a worthy subject from the moment it leaves the shell until, as far as flight is concerned, it deserves to be ranked with its elders. When possible, series of pictures should be made showing the rate of growth of the same brood from the period of hatching to the date when the nest is deserted. Circumstances do not, however, often permit of the forming of these ideal series, and we must therefore photograph the young bird as we find him, either before or after^{15} he has made his initial flight, or as he is preparing for it.^{16} The suggestions made under the head of Birds’ Nests and Eggs will apply in a general way to photographing young in the nest; but even when at rest in other respects, the rapid respiration of nestlings requires a quick exposure to insure sharpness of outline, and, when in the shadow, sufficient illumination can be secured only with the aid of a reflector. [Illustration: 16. Young Baltimore Orioles and nest.] _Adult Birds._—It is in photographing birds in the full possession of the powers of maturity that the bird photographer’s skill and patience are put to the most severe tests. It might be said that, from a strictly ornithological point of view, the results obtained do not in many instances justify the time expended. Success, however, in this field, as in many others, is not to be measured by the attainment of a certain end, but often by the experience gained in what, to one having only the ultimate object in view, may seem to have been fruitless effort. In matching one’s ability as a hunter against the timidity and cunning of a bird, relations are established between the photographer and his subject which of necessity result in their becoming intimately associated. [Illustration: 17. Wood Thrush on nest.] Doubtless we shall never know just what birds think of the peculiar antics in which the camera enthusiast sometimes indulges, but certain it is that an attempt to photograph some of the most familiar and presumably best-known birds will open the photographer’s eyes to facts in their life histories of which he was previously in utter ignorance. As a known and fixed point to which the bird may be expected to return, the nest offers the best opportunity to the bird photographer, and photographs of adult birds on or at their nests are more common than those taken under other conditions.^{17, 18} [Illustration: 18. Chestnut-sided Warbler on nest.]