THE HOME LIFE OF WILD BIRDS.
The Home Life of Iri/d Birds: a New Method of the Study and Photography of Birds. By Francis Hobart Herrick. ((3. P. Putnam's Sons.)—Among the many books which have appeared illustrated with photographs of wild birds and their nests, we may call our readers' attention to one of exceptional merit. It is the work of an American ornithologist, a remark- ably patient observer, and the photographs are mostly taken in New Hampshire. The birds dealt with are the common birds of that part of the United States: the cedar-bird, the blue-bird, the Baltimore oriole, the king bird, and the red-eyed vireo. These are names which mean nothing to English readers, and the book consequently loses much of its interest for them. It is to Mr. Francis Herrick's method that we would refer, in the hope that English naturalists with their cameras may copy it, and especially that English publishers may learn that it is possible to produce a book illustrated with the most admirable photo- graphs that can be imagined without using the odious glazed and heavy paper that is commonly seen in this country. The clearness with which some hundred and fifty photographs are reproduced, as full-page illustrations or in the text, is wonder- ful. It may be due partly to the excellence of the photo- grapher, but more apparently is due to the process and the paper used in reproducing the plates. We have noticed a number of boJks of this sort which dealt with the birds and wild life of the British Islands. Some were fairly illustrated; others were filled With amateur photographs so absurdly bad that one could only wonder at the authors' boldness in publishing them. It is to these that Mr. Herrick's book and the lessons he inculcates will be valuable. Wild birds are naturally most accessible to the photographer during the nesting season. But it is often im- possible to reach the nest and focus the camera; the light is rarely satisfactory, branches interfere, and a thousand difficulties present themselves. Mr. Herrick's method is to cut off the branch which contains the nest and to fix it securely to a post in a convenient open situation, a few feet from the ground, and as near the original situation as possible. A small green tent with peepholes is then put up to conceal the observer and his camera. In an hour or two—often in a few minutes—the parental instinct of the old birds overcomes their fears, and they approach to tend and feed their brood. Once their alarm at the new state of things is appeased they become almost fearless, and their habits, their food, their attitudes, and whole domestic economy may be watched from within a few feet. Mr. Herrick's book contains much that is new and interesting, and the work of his camera is above all praise. He is an accurate and patient observer of animal life, anxious only to discover exact facts, and much too sensible to wish to give a human interest to the emotions of animals, and to attribute human motives to birds which they do not possess. In the chapter on his camera and his tent Mr. Herrick describes his methods in a manner which will be useful to other photographers.
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