“…In the case of timid or cunning birds, of which we desired to make studies on or near their nests, we used to build a bower close by and huddle the camera and its owner inside; but the gradual drooping of leaves, or the unbending of boughs, invariably showed some portion of one or both, and postponed the arrival of the feathered “sitter.”
I accordingly set myself to work upon the task of thinking out how to make something that would effectually do away with this sort of temporary contrivance, and be at the same time more effective. An imitation tree-trunk of sufficient internal capacity to accommodate my brother and his camera, as shown in the picture on page 12, appeared to be the best appliance for use in woods
and by hedgerows, and I determined to build one. Purchasing three pieces of stout bamboo, each seven feet in length, I split them down the centre and lashed them to three small wooden hoops, the topmost and centre ones being twentyfour inches in diameter and the bottom one twenty-seven, so as to represent the base of a tree, and give the legs of our tripod a greater stride.
I now found that the green American cloth which I had purchased to cover my skeleton trunk, and when painted to represent its bark, assumed the shape and appearance of a hexagonal column between the hoops. This would not do at all, so I paid a visit to our village ironmonger’s shop and bought a sufficient number of yards of galvanised wire of the largest mesh to cover the whole wooden skeleton, and when the covering of cloth was put on over this the effect was much more trunk-like.
Another difficulty now presented itself. We
could not carry such a structure along roads and over hedges and ditches for miles without having it rolled up. So I took the hoops out, arid fastening the galvanised wire together I formed it into an oblong sheet, threaded each of the pieces of bamboo through its meshes, like slats, covered the
whole with the American cloth, and drawing the two edges together with strings tied the hoops in their respective positions inside. The top was arranged broken-column fashion, to represent a storm-snapped trunk; and in painting that portion of it I took care to make it look as if innumerable birds had perched upon it. My wife painted the whole to represent bark, and when it was dry my
brother glued small pieces of moss and lichen on to it, and I fastened a number of pieces of strong thread to the wire inside and passed the ends through to the outside. With these we tied on a number of sprays of ivy, which we stripped from the trunks of trees, as nearly in the same position as that in which they grew, so as to make the whole thing realistic, and the illustration on page 13 will give some idea how far we succeeded. The next thing was to slit a hole for the lens in front, and a small one on either side for the eye of the photographer. The device, it is pleasant to relate, answered our highest expectations upon the very first trial, and some of the photographs taken by its aid, illustrating the next two chapters of this work, furnish incontestable proof of what may be done by such an effective method of hiding…”
Contributed by
Juan Pablo Macías