THE7 CONDOt. Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club, A BI-I?[ONTHLY EXPONENT OF CALIFORNIAN ORNITHOI,OGY. Vol. 2. No. 4- Santa Clara, Cal., July-August, 1900. $.oo a Year. On the Scientific Photography of Birds' I:ggs BY DR. R. ?,V. SHI;FI?LDT, C. 1'?. Z. 'S. A FEW months ago when in the room of my friend, Mr. De Lan- cey W. Gill at the Bureau of American Ethnology in Washington, I). C., I saw hin] making some photo- graphs of a variety of sanall Imtian rel- ics. The method he employed is not altogether new, but is especially adapt- ed to the taking of sanall aud medium- sized objects of scieutific material, and recently I have been wouderfully suc- cessful in employing this method in the photography of sea-shells, and my pa- per upon this subject will appear some time during the year in 7;?e ?hoto- .?,'raphic 77roes of New York City. I,ater on it occurred to me that it would be the very thing to employ in the case of birds' eggs, as from their size, form and coloratmn they coustitute a class of ob- jects especially adapted to its applica- tion. Then, too, of all the' reproduc- tions of photographs of birds' eggs in oological works and magazines, how very few of them are really of a merit- ()rious character? Of course the superb illustrations in Major Bendire's famous volumes are quite another thing, but I am inclined to think that with a little further practice and experience, I can, t)y the aid of the 3-color process in pho- tography, come remarkably near rival- ing even those eelel)rated figures. Now to get photographic pictures of eggs after the method spoken of above, we attach the specimens by means of wax to a 8XlO pane of thin, clear glass, perfectly free from imperfections of all kinds whatever. This is supported by any simple contrivance iu the vertical position, while some tw2 feet posterior to it, we suspend a large sheet of per- feefly white, coarse, and "linty" blot- ting paper. This must be hekl abso- lutely parallel to the glass bearing the eggs, and it serves as their background. When prepared, the entire affair can be sustained upon a spare tripod, an easel or anything of the kind, so long as its horizontal part is in the same plane, or nearly so, with the bed of the earnera. We now focus with an open lens, and carefully study our subjects upon the ground-glass of the camera. It must be seen well to, that the blot- ting-paper is free from all shadows, and is uniformly and ?riYianth, lighted all over its surface. Next, make perfectly sure that all of the lights and shadows on four eze's are just as they should be. Stfidy the glass closely to which they are attached, and be certain they nmke no r(/leclicns in it. Then with a pair of sharp-pointed c(;mpasses and a strong hand-lens, again study the eggs upon the ground-glass of your camera, and satisfy yourself that you have them pre- cisely of the size of nature, and so well focused that you can see the ]Sils in the shell-structure. (My photo- graphs show these distinctly.)
