REPTILES, PHOTOGRAPHY OF The most useful camera for photographing reptiles is a reflex, fitted with as silent a release as possible, and a lens of fairly long focus. Snakes and lizards, toads, frogs, and tortoises are all more or less shy creatures, easily alarmed (the first-named are easily angered), so that some amount of caution and patience is necessary. When startled, a snake generally retreats, but should it find escape difficult or impossible, it may turn and strike at its pursuer ; and this is more particularly the case with poisonous snakes. Therefore a long focus lens which will enable one to obtain a fair-sized image on the photographic plate, without approaching too close, will be found an advantage in many ways.
The wall and sand lizards at their play, or capturing the insects upon which they feed, make most charming and interesting subjects for photography, but on account of their ex tremely rapid movements and shyness, present many difficulties. Tortoises are particularly exasperating models at times, either shutting themselves up tightly in their shells or march ing off in such a hurry that it is impossible to get a satisfactory pose. The best chances of success are when the tortoise first awakens in the morning, before the sun has had time to warm him thoroughly ; when he is busy feeding ; or in the afternoon when he is about to go to sleep.
Frogs are best photographed in an aquarium with rocks placed on the bottom so that they can sit with their head and shoulders out of the water—a very favourite position in their natural state. In the spring of the year they may often be photographed sitting on the banks of shallow ponds and ditches. A few weeks later in the season they will not be so easily found, while masses of their spawn will be seen floating in the shallow water. The life history of the tadpole can be easily watched and photographed by placing some of the spawn in an aquarium, and keeping it in a cool place.
Toads are not nearly so difficult to handle or photograph as are the frogs. They are much bolder, and soon become quite tame if regularly supplied with worms, caterpillars, or meal worms. The toad has very considerable char acter, and therefore always makes an interesting model.
Orthochromatic plates should always be used for photographing reptiles, and as full an expo sure as possible given, so that a negative with a long scale of gradation may be obtained. It is rarely necessary to use a compensating filter, except in such cases as the chameleon, when the gradual changes of colour and re-arrangement of spots and bands of colour may be brought into greater contrast by the use of a suitable screen. F. M-D.