“… As we were anxious to make a photograph showing the eggs in the nest, and it was impossible to do so without fixing something up to enable us to get above it, we borrowed a twentyfoot ladder from a friendly farmer. It will be seen from the illustration on page 343 —which is from a photograph kindly taken for us by our friend, Mr. J. H. Powell, of Balham —that the ladder is as nearly perpendicular as may be. This was the only position possible, because the branches to which we lashed it would have snapped like matches through the leverage produced by our combined weight if it had been placed at any angle. When the legs of the tripod had been lashed to the ladder, and the camera focussed, my brother’s next difficulty was to get his dark slide in and the plate exposed without interfering with the precise adjustment of the apparatus. In order to accomplish these feats, he was obliged to hold on to one of the rungs of the ladder with his teeth and thus leave his hands free to work with…”