50 “WITH THE TSLAND BIRDS JONGCE (MOnEe 
Searching through a matted mass of dry 
dead wood, from out of which the bird had 
flown, eleven greenish-white eggs stood out 
quite plainly in the gloom, lying warm and 
snug in a large deep nest of twigs and sticks 
and grass, comfortably lined with a quantity 
of feathery down, torn from the mother 
builder’s breast. 
By this time those dark clouds in the 
south had forged their way overhead, and 
thunder grumblings now and then gave 
presage of a coming storm. ‘Do _ you 
think you can get the nest, with so bad a 
light?“ Pik try, at any rate, for smears 
chance must not be thrown away.’ So, 
despite the now pattering rain, I set the 
camera. up. . But, owing to. the= unevea 
ground and the denseness of the dead wood 
round the nest (some of which we broke 
away), it took some time to get the legs in 
place. So dark, too, was the sky above, it 
was no easy task to get the focus right. 
But at last it was arranged, and with the 
lens stopped to F/32, I gave exposures of 
