Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-23

of pictures We ever had the chance to
get" he said.
Some of their other methods in gatting
close to shy wild birds, while less eXcit-
ing. are almost as interesting. One of the
most successful has been the use OF
stuffed sheep and oxen. in the bodies OF
which they have concealed themselves.
Artificial tree trunks and rocks have a SO
been utilized.
"Our aim Is to make ourselves a part
Of the landscape" said Richard kearton
land think we have been successful. A
shepherd has tried to herd our sheep. and
once cattle man tried to drive our arti-
fetal bullock out of his masters pasture
into which he thought 1t had strayed."
The story referred to above Of the pic
ture Of the black-throated diver. one OF
fowl. is also interest. Richard Kearton
located a particularly fine specimen which
lived on an island in one of the Scottish
lakes. He tried for weeks to approach
1t in a boat and failed. Then he donned
a compete suit of oilskins and took up his
position in the water on the edge of the
lake. Stone by stone he built himself a
little hut. taking the stones from the bot
tom of the lake. and so gradually was II
reared that it became insensibly a part
Of the natural scenery. The bird swan
round and round watching the progress.
and gradually became accustomed to- 1t.
but not for several days after the hut was
completed did she come near enough to be
up to the hut and the snapshot was taken.
4
Both the Kearton brothers have the
greatest contempt for the nature takers.
who have been SO vigorously denounced
by President Roosevelt.
Mature is not in need of writer's who
invent impossible stories about birds and
beasts" Richard Kearton says. 1.-The
lie f,y1
thing that any writer can invent. and
cannot see why any one should take the
trouble to invent lies when the bare facts
are so much more interesting. For IN
mothering of their young by the birds.
A few months ago / secured photo
graphic record of a male bird Of one
, species feeding the young of an entirely
or other had lost their parents. Can any,
thing In the romances of the nature
takers be more wonderful than that?
''Then there is the habit Of ascribing
human attributes to animals. This is al
together wrong. Wild animals even OF
the same species differ a great deal in in.
| telligence and disposition. and 1t is won.
derful how much some of them know In
the way of taking care of themselves. but
it is no use attempting to endow them
with human intelligence. Every practical
| field naturalist knows that the thing is
not SO and every attempt to do so must be
| classed as fiction.
1.-The mind of the most intelligent OF
domesticated animals-and they are even
| more intelligent than wild animals-is
| when compared with the human mind
! like rushlight compared to the noon
| day SUM-
It is doubtful If the Kearton brothers
would have been so successful even with
their patience. pluck and ingenuity. if
Richard Kearton had not been one OF
| those men who are gifted by nature with
an almost intuitive knowledge of the
habits and characteristics of wild crea-
| lures. There is hardly a wild bird which
| is fairly plentiful in Great Britain whose
call he cannot initiate SO accurately that
| the birds themselves are deceived. He
| can go out into his garden and cali the
birds to him and with many of them ne
has become SO familiar a friend that they
will perch on his finger and allow him to
stroke their oacks. 1t is this intimate
knowledge of birds and beasts that makes
him so impatient with the mature fax
| ers." JOHN S. STEELE.