^°''i i6^'] Campbell, Reminiscences of a Field Collector. 253 



Someone has asked me what I consider my greatest finds. I 

 can hardly say. But those of most lasting memories to me are 

 probably the finding of my first Lyre-Bird's nest — the excitement 

 of flushing the sitting bird, with its loud, whistling shriek of 

 alarm as it flew down gvdly. Then, when your excitement sub- 

 sides, there is the admiration for the picturesque nest, with its 

 virgin forest and fern surroundings. Or, perhaps, it would be 

 the first finding of an Emu's nest. You notice the noble bird tear 

 away through the belt of box timber, and on going to the starting 

 point there you behold, upon a bed amidst the cane-grass, the 

 clutch of eight or ten large and beautiful greenish eggs. Or it 

 may be when you land on an out-of-the-way islet, at a sea-bird 

 rookery. Then your nerves tingle from head to foot in an 

 ecstasy of extreme delight while hundreds of wild birds, on 

 shivering wings, are screeching overhead, and you see mottled 

 and curiously marked eggs amongst grass, succulent ice-plant, 

 or on the bare sand, as the case may be. in numbers dotting the 

 landscape. 



Another indelible memory was a scene I witnessed only last 

 year, when, with a genial companion, I visited a Swiftlet cave 

 on a verdure-clad islet — a secluded spot set in a blue sheet of coral 

 sea. It was the most splendid of serene summer days, and the 

 place the most picturesque that one could imagine. Bean-trees 

 wreathed with rosy flowers, and umbrella-trees and palms, reared 

 their graceful forms above luxuriant scrub. Underneath were 

 rich, rocky galleries of native gardens where grew great patches 

 of an ornamental polvpodium, bearing brownish, flat, embroidered 

 fronds. Here and there, on tree or stone, were orchids con- 

 spicuous with bowing heads of bottle-brush-like flowers — i.e., 

 composed of clusters of tubular flowerets of waxy appearance, 

 variegated crimson, green, and white {Dendrohium SmillicB, von 

 Mueller). From the dazzling sunUght we entered the deep shade 

 of a canopy scrub, then a gloomy cavern, where between 50 and 

 60 Swiftlets' nests could just be discerned attached to the roof. 

 A score of nests contained each a single pure white egg. Closer 

 examination by the aid of a pocket electric lantern showed the nests 

 in groups, distant from the floor from 4 feet up to about 7 feet. 

 Some nests were adjoining, so that tails of the tiny brooding birds 

 overlapped. The nests were spoon-shaped, about 2h inches in 

 diameter, with a short, handle-like appendage cemented to the 

 rock, and were composed of shreds of grass, moss, &c., intermixed 

 with a kind of gluten. The little birds, on being disturbed, flew 

 quietly, save for a few feeble notes, like fairy forms about the 

 cave, or in and out, there being more than a smgle entrance. 



In concluding this brief sketch of some of my reminiscences, 

 I must say that " the lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places." 

 I have often thanked the Almighty for my being and for the 

 wonder of His works. 



