The New York herald., 1921-12-25
Night Hunting With the Camera.

Marines mean business.
Night Hunting With the Camera.
The photographing of wild ami
NAL life at night with camera and
fiashlight, which has become to the
humane hunter in recent years one
of the most fascinating of sports.
owes its origin and largely its pres
ent development to GEORGE SHIRAs
Sd. The United States Government
exhibited at the Worlds Fair, Paris,
in 1900 and again at the st. Louis
Fair group of photographs taken
by him on Whitefish Lake, Michigan,
rearly thirty years ago, which first
photographs showed the possibilities
Of the camera in the wilds at night
These results were obtained only
after years of experiment and re-
| search. Mr.. SHIRAs was Of the third
generation of his family who had
gone for recreation into this Lake
Superior region. The slough at the
end of Whitefish Lake, where in a
small area more deer were killed and
later more photographed by day and
night than in any similar locality on
the continent. was the place where
animal fashlight photography had
its birth. In order to take daylight
pictures Mr.. SuIRAs rugged up a
camera on the beach and from it ran
a string to a seat in tree. When.
ever deer passed within range of
the camera" he says, "a sharp whis-
tie stopped it and then pull on the
string recorded the scene"
Having taken daylight pictures. it
became a matter of interest to Mr..
SHIRAs to find out if there was any
means of taking them at night when
wild animals were more active and
could be approached more easily than
at any other time. A method of
doing this was finally developed and
the first successful fashlight was
made. Mr.. SuIRAs caught glimpse
OF deer and just as its neck was
craned and the head elevated the
flash was fired Then, he says.
1--WE hastened to camp, where the
developed plate showed the little
buck in the centre of the scene, with
the foreground OF reeds and a back
ground Of alders and cedars, depict
ing the first successful effort in the
recording of an animal on it's mid
night rambles.'
BY far the greater number of wild
snimals are nocturnal. Those which
are occasionally seen in daylight
can rarely be approached sufficiently
near with a camera to be photo
graphed with the full advantage of
favorable light. 1t was generally
believed that with the second growth
On q cutover forest there came a
new animal life. A raccoon tripped
over string and photographed itself
building a home in territory where
this species was hardly expected to
appear. BY night photographs musk.
rats were disclosed as among the
new arrivals. The pictures revealed
too facts regarding their home build
ing and habits with which natural.
lists were not familiar. A fashlight
also showed that the thief which was
stealing white ducks from n swim
ming pool was another new arrival,
the mink.
His night photographs brought out
some new and interesting facts re-
garding the beaver. This animal is
seldom seen in the daytime. so that
pictures OF IL at work were rare.
An especially valuable flashlight dis
closes q beaver three feet below the
surface of the water working on the
substructure of dam. IL was for
years much discussed question
whether more than one beaver en-
gagged in the cutting OF tree. Every
photograph showed that only one
beaver was at work and not another
near the tree. One OF Mr.. SHfRAs's
priced pictures is that of beaver
cutting down black ash. For two
weeks the camera and fashlight faced
this tree; then one night the beaver
came and left his photograph. He
was too frightened by the hashlight
to return. "The tree stands to-day
unfelled,' says Mr.. SuRAs. proof
that single animal does the work"
Interest in wild life photography
bas been further stimulated by the