5 THE CONDOR { VOL. VIII This was accomplished gradually by adding a twig or two day by day and with better results artistically. By the time, however, that all this education was fin- ished--and it was as much an education to me as to the birds--and delayed as it was by the complete destruction of my paraphernalia by a violent gale, the days were growing short and cool and the visitors came not only less frequently but too early in the morning or too late in the afternoon for any photography, and the work had to be abandoned. The photographs from which the accompanyiug cuts were made.were taken with an_'ordinary Sx7 plate camera, not at all adapted to this sort of work, lent to me by a friend. Two ex- posures were taken on each plate for econoroy's sake, and the camera was always set at a distance of four feet from the center of the bowl GREEN-BACKED GOLDFINCHES or mortar, as that was the nearest distance at which it would do fairly good work. While claiming no merit for these cuts'they seemed of sufficient iuterest in the utatter of the subject to warrant publishing, and I do so in the hope that others will follow out the idea of working up what can be done in this line in a dry couutry. San Francisco, California.
