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Chas. K. Reed

Worcester, Mass.

Copyrighted 1911 Chas. K. Reed, Worcester, Mass.

PREFACE Although I had previously made many photographs in which living birds formed either the chief or a secondary object of the picture, it was in the year nineteen hundred that my first real efforts in the line of bird photography were made. The paths of camera-hunters in this line are not by any means strewn with roses. I have had my share of the necessary hard work, hardships, sometimes dangers, disappointments and the many failures to be expected. On the other hand, I have as results about two thousand good negatives and several thousand others not satisfactory to me but still passably good.

Success or failure depends/practically upon the dispositions of the individual birds selected as subjects. If they are willing, you get the picture; if not, you pack up your outfit and depart, chalking down another failure. I have been very fortunate in this respect for "my" birds have nearly always proved very tractable; what failures I have recorded have been due chiefly to the fact that I was not willing to cause undue suffering to the little birds either from lack of food or too long exposure to hot sunrays. I have always worked upon the principle that no bird photograph is worth even the risk of destruction to a nest of little birds. I speak of this because I wish to impress upon all my readers who may undertake bird photography that pictures must always take a place secondary to the welfare of the little birds.

A few minutes/exposure to hot rays of a burning sun may prove fatal to young birds; therefore always when possible have them shaded. Digestion, in a young bird, takes place very rapidly; an hour without food may prove fatal to a very young bird, therefore do not be the means of causing the parents to withhold food from the little ones for long at a time. Changing the location of a nest even but a short distance may cause the owners to desert it or may leave it exposed to attacks from cats, squirrels or other enemies, therefore do not for any reason remove a nest from its original site I have selected, as far as possible, pictures in series showing the various happenings at nests of the different birds. Unfortunately limited space will not permit of showing my large series of sea birds and birds of prey, so I have selected chiefly the more common song and insectivorous birds.

Every half-tone shown is from a photograph of an authentic nest in its original location as chosen by the bird or of living, free, wild birds. The majority of these are of my own making, but to fill in series I have used a few that have been published in American Ornithology. I wish to give credit to the makers of these as follows:

G. C. Embody, Fig. 13.

C. A. Smith, Fig. 105-6/83.

A. R. Dugmore, Fig. 104, 212.

G. E. Moulthrope, Fig. 44-5, 50, 253.

J. H. Miller, Fig. 41,/80, 252, 254, 71 111.

J. E. Seebold, Fig. 3/4-5.

R. H. Beebe, Fig. 114, 234, 242, 62, 67, 257, 189, 85-6. I. E. Hess, Fig. 248-9, 93.

E. L. Bickford, Fig. 166.

J. M. Schreck, Fig. 238, 246-7.

A. R. Spaid, Fig. 69, 70, 130.

A. J. Meyer, Fig/199.

L. S. Horton, Fig. 97, 8 F. R. Miller, Fig. 135-6, 48, 51.

N. F. Stone, Fig. 17, 53.

W. F. Smith, Fig. 73, 122.

A. D. Wheedon, Fig. 250, 112.

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