WITH CHILDREN IN BIRDLAND 77 



bewitched small girl to set them down? "If I am 

 asked which day is the best in the year I shall say 

 to-day" Victor Daley, you remember, gave token 

 of similar enthusiasm : 



When the days that have passed arise 



On the Day that is to be, 



When souls leave the land and sea 

 And graves under many skies, 



This day I shall know and say: 



"I was alive that day!" 



"As we walked along a bracken path," runs 

 another record, "I saw what I thought were gleams 

 of the sun, but when we reached the spot I saw what 

 I had mistaken for the sun was wattle." The 

 aesthetic value of that experience was probably not 

 lessened by what followed: "I picked some of the 

 fragrant blossom for the gratification of my nose !" 



Rambling observations of quaint expressiveness 

 crowd the recollection. Here are just a few (the 

 italics being mine) : "The Magpie is black plu- 

 maged, with white feathers." "The short eggs of 

 the Soldier-Bird will hatch hens and the long ones 

 will hatch roosters." (Behind that forthright in- 

 formation is a fairly general belief.) "The Friar- 

 Bird is a sole inhabitant of Australia." "The nest" 

 (of a water-bird, evidently a creature of millinery 

 tastes) "is trimmed with pebbles." "Haunts of 

 wild-fowl were hidden in the grass." "In one 

 Bower-Bird's playground we found numerous 

 brightly colored rages" The final "e" was probably 

 accidental, but a brightly colored rage is too inte- 

 resting to be overlooked. "Water-birds fly as though 

 they were reaching out for something to eat in the 



