The Sydney ornithological fraternity, 1930s-1950: anecdotes of an admirer Allen Keast Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

(Allen Keast, now Professor emeritus from Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, is an internationally recognized ornithologist. An early part of his experience was as a member of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. It is fitting that this oral history of his early years is published in the Society's journal. Ed.)

The centre of Sydney 50 years discussions of bird observations, joint trips Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 ago was the Ornithological section of the would be planned: the talk would be about birds Royal Zoological Society that met monthly and nothing else. The Sydney ornithological (originally on Friday, then Thursday, nights) fraternity was smaller 50 years ago, the city jointly with the New South Wales Section of was compact and travel around it easier; inter- the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. changes of home visits were frequent. The meeting place was the 6th floor of Bull's Chambers, 28 Martin Place. We were the most My ornithological career was to be inspired active of the half a dozen Sections, that and shaped by this late 1930s-1940s ornitho- included Aviculture, Conchology, , logical fraternity. Knowledge was freely etc. The meeting room was graced by a dispensed and I absorbed it all. Keith magnificent set of Neville Cayley paintings: Hindwood's city office was always available for these are now housed at Taronga Zoo. visiting - I do not know bow he ever got any work done - and I did not hesitate to call I became a member of the Society at the frequently on Roy Kinghorn and Tom Iredale age of 16 after attending an evening lecture at the Australian Museum. Michael Sharland, at the Australian Museum by Keith Hindwood: on learning of my wishing to become a bird I subsequently wrote him and he invited me to photographer searched the second-hand join. What I experienced at my first meeting shops for a quarter-plate double-extension would set any teenage bird enthusiast agog. camera, bought it on approval for £5.10.0, The Chairman was the distinguished bird tested it, and handed it over to me. I was artist Neville W. Cayley. The 40 members "hooked on bird photography. Such kind- present represented the cream of Sydney's ness was general: I cannot speak too highly of ornitholopical palaxv: Alex Chisholm, Michael it in mv case. ~harland,kom-hedale,Keith ~indwood,Dom Serventy, Perc Gilbert. Gilbert captivated us I have long since forgotten details of the with his account of continuing weekend many and diverse lectures at the monthly studies of the little-known Topknot Pigeon at Society meetings. They covered the widest Bola Creek, Royal National Park, and fielded range of subjects: sea-birds, birds-of-paradise, questions on his Blue Mountains to coast bird breeding seasons, the structure of bird feathers, migration findings (Gilbert 1935, 1936). Keith photographic field trips. A memorable feature exhibited a series of early Watling bird prints. was a 20 minute "discussion" and "observa- Dom reported on derelict seabirds recently tions" period at the end of the meeting when washed up on Cronulla beach. Tom regaled the many subjects of interest were explored. Leg- audience with witty anecdotes on ornithology pulling was rampant at this time. Three at the British Museum. I am not sure if I took examples are still vivid in my memory. out a Life Membership to the Society that first A visiting American ornithologist, Professor evening or not, but I am sure it was soon John Hough of the University of , after!. recounted with delight how he had encountered At the end of the meeting we retired to a an Emu in Central Australia. "How do you nearby coffee shop. Here, and at subsequent know it was an Emu" Alex Chisholm such gatherings, ardent photographers Nonnan demanded to know. "From the way it flew" Chaffer, Roy Cooper, Jack Waterhouse, and countered Hough. This confirmed to Alex others, exhibited bird photographs taken that John merited being made into a friend. since the last meeting. Admiration would be On another occasion Jock Marshall (later to unlimited; many bird species were then being be Professor Marshall of Monash University) taken for the first time. There would be wrote to the Section announcing that he had

26 Australian Zoologist, Vol. 30(1) December 1995 seen an Eastern Bristlebird in the mountains The Section's ornithological lore was also behind Kiama. No Bristlebird had then been dispensed at the meetings. I was assured that seen for 40 years. Tom Iredale jumped to his the suburb "Crow's Nest" got its name when feet and announced that he saw them all the a Raven condescended to grace the first tele- time: they were coloured red, white, and blue, graph pole with a nest. I learnt how Sydney's and whistled "Waltzing Matilda". Needless to only specimen of the Forest Kingfisher came say Marshall obviously had seen a Bristlebird to be. In the 1920s "D'Ombrain", I have . . . the Barren Grounds are now a Bristlebird always assumed it was the distinguished reserve. ornithologist Dr E. A. D'Ombrain, sighted the But Johnno Rhodes delivered the ultimate bird on telegraph wires from a tram in in bizarre "put-downs". Johnno had always Willoughby Road, Chatswood. He leapt out, been an unlikely contender in the "elegant" produced a catapult, shot the bird, and ran member stakes. He would today be referred after the tram yelling for the driver to stop to as a rugged country boy. He and his friend and let him back on. I have often wondered Ernie Woods hailed from the famous birding if every forward-looking ornithologist carried Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Doonside area and he knew more about bird a catapult in the 1920s. On a more sober note nesting than the rest of us put together. He I learnt the story of how, I think it was in had been a side-show boxer in his youth, played 1933, Keith Hindwood had led home the New First Grade Rugby League for Newtown, and South Wales delegates from the R.A.O.U. professionally belonged to the wharf labourer camp-out at Mallacoota after George Mack, fraternity, a group not admired for their then ornithologist at the National Museum, respect for authority. From these diversions Victoria, had collected a Scarlet Robin near Johnno had acquired a cauliflower ear, a the camp. Back in Sydney the press picked up certain gnarled appearance, a tenderness to the story and it eventually led to enforcement ornithologists, and an advanced sense of of regulations against egg-collecting that had humour. In his youth Johnno had been an been in place since about 1919 and never egg-collector, an evil habit that it was really enforced. Years later, after I joined the rumoured he had never completely shaken. staff of the Museum I was to catch up with some On the basis of his skill at nest-finding more of the illegal collections of eggs confiscated at than one eminent Sydney bird photographer, that time. looking over his shoulder to make sure One-day Saturday, or Sunday, field excursions nobody was watching, asked Johnno where he were part of the activities of the Ornithological might find the nest of a so-and-so to photo- Section. In those days few people had cars and graph. Thus challenged Johnno more than we travelled by train or boat. An interesting once went out and found one for him. But weekend excursion was organized by Michael hack to the relevant incident. In the 1940s Sharland in the early October weekend to the the Cumberland Plain supported a high then National Park Trust cabin at Gundamain. density of Paperbarks (Melaleuca) with the On the ferry trip downstream from Audley mistletoe Ayema gaudichaudi and, when these many of us saw Mangrove Herons for the first fruited annually in January-February, of time. The heathland around Gundamain was breeding Mistletoebirds. One February meet- abloom. Brown Thornbills were common and ing Johnno announced that this was a good several nests with newly laid eggs were year for Mistletoebirds and that he had found found. 30 nests. None of us had ever seen a Mistletoe- bird nest, they were hard to find; and An outstanding excursion was the regular Johnno's announcement brought the house annual one by boat to Lion Island at the down. The following month Johnno arrived mouth of the Hawkesbury. We travelled with with two hessian sacks. He stood up and said Keith Hindwood's in-laws, the Goddards, who "You didn't believe I could find Mistletoebird at this time operated the passenger ferry nests. . . here!" With the flip of a wrist he around Pittwater. The short journey from upended the sacks over the table and startled Palm Beach to the Island, landing on the the Chairman who was temporarily lost in a sea sandy beach on the lee side of the island, and of Mistletoebird nests. Rhodes had spent the soon being greeted by the Fairy Penguins of previous weeks finding every derelict Mistletoe- the rocky shore and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters bird nest he could. From mernory there were of the top of the island, were delights. On one 44. Thereafter Johnno was taken seriously. of these trips we found the New Zealand Sooty (Needless to say the wonderful Cumberland Shearwater breeding, the first authenticated Plain Mistletoebird habitat has long since been record for the New South Wales coast (Keast given over to housing!). and McGill 1948, Emu 47: 199-202).

December 1995 Australian Zoologist, Vol. 30(1) 27 Enthusiasm generated on the Lion Island that generated abundant food for Lyrebirds trips led to my greatest island experience, a and Yellow-throated Scrub-wrens. In winter trip to the legendary Five Islands off Port the loam and steep hillsides would be covered Kembla. These were recognized as being the with Lyrebird scratchings. Usually two, and best seabird breeding islands on the New occasionally three, males could be heard South Wales coast: they are isolated, small, singing simultaneously. The football-sized rocky, sea-swept, and the outer ones present Lyrebird nests were located in the sandstone formidable landing difficulties. They were cliffs, on a steep slope, or balanced on the top known as the breeding place of the White- of a tree-fern. From October onwards the faced Storm Petrel, Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Yellow-throated Scrub-wrens suspended their Fairy Penguin, Crested Tern and Silver Gull bulky nests, fashioned to resemble debris (the now-nesting Pelicans are newcomers of from the last flood, over the creek-bed. In later years). To visit them is most ornithologists' summer migrant Rufous Fantails and Black- faced Monarchs were common breeders. dream. One Saturday, soon after I joined the Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Society there was a knock on my door and a Year-round the tall Blackbutt-dominated Professor Consett Davis introduced himself, eucalypt forest along the track down to the saying that he had heard from Iredale that I Cabin supported a full spectrum of eucalypt would like to go to the Five Islands, that he forest birds: treecreepers, thornbills, honey- was studying the plant ecology of the Five eaters, scrub-wrens, fantails, and cuckoos. Islands, and asked if I would like to join their Satin Bowerbirds had their bowers along the next trip. My excitement knew no bounds; I entrance track. A few yards downstream, was incredulous, Davis was based in Armidale. where Waterfall Creek joined the Hacking From Consett (who was eventually killed in River to form wide pools, Azure Kingfishers New Guinea during the War) I started to learn fed and nested. The Rock Warbler was how professional biologists thought, worked, common along the sandstone ridges of the researched. Meeting him was the next step in adjacent hilltops: from here also the loud my evolution: I decided that at all costs I had strident songs of the Cicadabird rang in mid- to become a biologist. Later I was to organize summer. my own trips to the Five Islands, with Norm Chaffer, Roy Cooper, Alan Tubh, and others The Cabin came into the hands of the Royal being my companions, and was able to produce Zoological Society in the late 1920s as part of an updated documentation on the birds of the the successful outcome of a campaign to end islands (Keast 1943, Emu 42: 133-40). logging in the Park. It had formerly housed the timber workers. Nearby was a small saw- The society's national park cabin on mill whose rusty engine can still be seen. The remains of the wide creek bottom and hillside Waterfall Creek tracks along which the bullocks once pulled Singly, the Society's most delightful feature, the fallen logs, and remains of old log bridges, and factor in social cohesion, was the were still visible in those days. Zoologists' Cabin in the Royal National Park. When I first visited the Cabin in the late Nestling deep in a shaded valley floor on 1930s it had already had a distinguished Waterfall Creek, a kilometre below the water- career as a bird study site. Jock Marshall's fall and about four km from the Waterfall rail- remarkable studies of Satin Bowerbirds, and way station, it was situated on the creek hank studies on the Yellow-throated Scrub-wren, with lush temperate rainforest on the one side Rufous Fantail, and Topknot Pigeon by and tall eucalypt forest on the other. For Chaffer, Marshall, and Gilbert (references in much of the year, the air was filled with the accompanying paper) had been carried out calls of lyrebirds, catbirds, bowerbirds, Yellow here. In those days the Cabin was booked Robins and Lewin's Honeyeater, and the virtually every weekend by the naturalist gurgling of the creek's water. community, for bird-watching, photography, Here, and on nearby creeks like Bola and and documenting lyrebird activity. We would Palona, rich underlying chocolate-brown walk down from the Station on Friday nights Narrabeen Shales supported the only stands (few people then had cars). Boohook Owls of temperate rainforest in the Sydney area. would be heard constantly; the odd Greater The dense growth of coachwood and lilly-pilly Glider seen in the tall trees of the valley floor; created a closed canopy, and lichen and moss- on arrival at the Cabin the resident Brushtail covered trunks and branches supported many Possum would greet us. For us it was a quick small aerial orchids and other epiphytes. The cup of tea and bed. An early morning break- forest floor on either side of the creek was fast, cooked outdoors, would be accompanied covered with rotting trunk and leaf mould by visiting Yellow Robins, Red-browed Finches,

28 Australian Zoologist, Vol 30(1) bowerbirds, the Green Catbird, occasionally internationalist with a fundamental back- by a Pied Currawong and, periodically, a ground of knowledge that was remarkable: his Lyrebird would stride past to investigate the conversation was loaded with anecdotes about excitement. ornithology at the British Museum, taxonomists The end of the Cabin came ignominiously and , naming of birds, history of about 1944 when most members of the Society ornithology, and sea-birds. I found every were absent at the war: it was pilfered bit-by- minute with him an inspiration. His wit added bit for seaside cottages on the adjacent Park to the joy of the bird meetings. beaches. Today the old hearthstone is all that Alex Chisholm had a touch of the old Scot remains. But the huge gnarled old turpentine to him, was widely read, and an expert on tree that towered above the Cabin, and whose Australiana - besides Australian birds. He hollow branches and trunk have housed many certainly enlivened ornithological evenings generations of possums, still remains. Even with his historical interludes and interpreta- the severe January 1994 bushfires dared not tions -and knowledge of bush lore and bird Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 touch it. habits. Chisholm acquired some of the latter when he ran a nature column in the news- The great Sydney ornithologists of paper: his correspondence with bushmen 50 years ago comes through in his "folksy" books Maleship The high standards of the Zoological Society in Birds, and Birds and Green Places. Later Alex bird meetings were memorable; as every became Editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph schoolteacher knows, if a group contains a and The Australian Encyclopedia. Today his couple of outstanding participants, it elevates papers on John Gould and book on the the status of the whole. This was the case here. Leichhardt Expedition are legends. Personal profiles of the leading dozen Keith Hindwood was the great expert on Sydney ornithologists of the time are the birds of Sydney, had read everthing ever documented in obituaries in The Emu, and written (and, I am sure, spoken in private elsewhere. What is of interest here is how conversation) about them. He maintained a their personalities compared and how they formidible card catalogue on which every accordingly interacted to produce such an record was inserted: and in conversation enjoyable group. My memories are as follows. could immediately recall every record. He was Neville Cayley was of medium stature, round- for a long time Honorary Ornithologist to the faced, bespectacled, jovial, highly enthusiastic, Australian Museum. Keith was an indefatigable and though completely an artist he had a very field worker and developed and published broad knowledge and love of birds. He handled monographs on the Mangrove Bittern, museum skins he was going to paint with the Leaden Flycatcher, and Rockwarbler, as well tenderness reserved for works of art. His as syntheses on the waders and honeyeaters enthusiasm meant that he was vulnerable to of Sydney, and other topics. He was the "final the dirty tricks of the taxidermists at the court of appeal" on every subject at the meet- Austrialian Museum who would manufacture ings. He was the ultimate gentleman and a skin from bits of other skins and drop the enthusiast. creation into a group of birds he was borrow- ing. I think on one occasion Neville was half- Michael Sharland was probably the best- way into describing a new species before he loved and gracious of the members. He had a found out the truth. I did not like that, birds detailed appreciation of everything ornitho- were sacred to me too. logical, organized field outings and discussions and, as a member of the staff of the Sydney Tom Iredale, Curator of Molluscs at the Morning Herald was able to publicize conserva- Museum (he had to take this post because no tion measures. It was our loss when he left job was available in birds) was an Englishman Sydney to become Director of National Parks who had come to the Antipodes at the age of in Tasmania: there he did much to establish about 15 with a death-from-consumption the present Parks system. threat hanging over him. The climate (of New Zealand) cured him and he went on to work Arnold McGill did not come along until the closely with Dr W. R. B. Oliver, the great New early 1940s. With his endless reading he Zealand ornithologist and to undertake an was soon to become the most knowledgeable expedition to the Kermadecs. Back in Britain of ornithologists, and even Alex Chisholm he was research associate to Gregory Mathews eventually found himself consulting Arnold and played a fundamental role in the writing on all sorts of matters. He had a wide range of the Mathews volumes. He was a true of international bird books and, given the

Australian Zoologist, Vol. 30(1) 29 name of a foreign species, could immediately on some issue; it was the Section's role to state where it occurred. Dr Tom Gilliard of endorse these submissions. Unexpectedly the American Museum of some significant successes were achieved. By once remarked to me that if Arnold had lived way of balance but equally prominent was a in the USA he would long since have been gracious schoolteacher, Elizabeth Butters. She given an Honorary Doctorate. Arnold was to had one objective at the meetings, to persuade become perhaps the most prominent Sydney the "experts" to take "the lesser fry" out into ornithologist of the 1960s and 1970s and was the bush and teach the latter group (to which made a Patron both of the Sydney and she claimed membership) how to identify Cumberland clubs. birds. Mostly her entreaties fell on deaf ears. But early in 1940 we organized a major Norman Chaffer was undeniably the Sunday excursion into the coastal heathlands greatest bird photographer Australia has ever produced. He started off in the 1920s at the at Marley, Royal National Park. Elizabeth same time as Michael Sharland and, in fact, surged to the lead of the party. Every time a Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 they met in the field when out photographing bird appeared she virtually danced with . . . it must have been a chance in ten million excitement. "What's that?" she would demand because there could not then have been more to know. "That's a New Holland Honeyeater" than half a dozen hird photographers in the we replied. And, five minutes later, "What's whole of Australia. He pioneered black-and- that?". Reply: "That's a New Holland Honey- white, then colour, then the use of flashlight eater". Half an hour later another hird peered photography. He published a book on bower- from an adjacent banksia . . . "and that?". "Er, birds. Norman was one of the most obliging er, er, that is also a New Holland Honeyeater". people you could meet, and a staunch conser- I fear Elizabeth was shortsighted. But after vationist. His annual film nights at the bird that, I confess, I was a little less critical of meetings were sell-outs. Keith Hindwood and Norm Chaffer for not having done the right thing and taught Ms Dom Serventy was a professionally trained Butters to identify birds. biologist with a Ph.D. He had been an ornithologist since childhood. He initiated Although they were not then active members beach surveys for derelict seabirds that were of the Section, brief mention should be made continued for many years. A distinguished here of Jock Marshall and Sydney William authority on sea birds and on the birds of Jackson. in the late 1930s after being very Western Australia, he published extensively prominent, Jock was occupied with a University both in books and scientific journals. He built Bachelor of Science degree, under the up the Western Australian Naturalist eventually extremely difficult circumstances of attending to be easily the best publication of its kind in the University by day (the time the course was Australia. Dom was one of my "Gods" and was available), and earning money as a journalist eventually to do more to encourage me in at night. Jock lost an arm in a shooting ornithology than anybody else. At the meetings accident when he was 12 years old, collecting his lively arguments with Tom Iredale over a bird it was said. Dynamic, forthright, some- some point of nomenclature or seabird lore what intolerant, with a vast knowledge of birds were memorable. in the field, Jock continued to publish widely. As his University exposure increased his Far from being narrowly "professional" it interests became increasingly scientific and should be stressed that the club also contained theoretical. He maintained a close contact other personalities. Much revered was J. E. with Sydney ornithologists and his name came (Ted) Roberts, a stately elderly gentleman in up constantly. He was a member of the his 70s who was the long-term Secretary of Oxford University expedition to the New the New South Wales Gould League of Bird Hebrides, under John R. Baker: one of its Lovers, that formed a powerful conservation major objectives was the study of breeding lobby through the schools. Ted saw to it that seasons in the tropics. Jock spent much of his some of the leading ornithologists did their professional life in the study of reproductive civic duty by persuading them to judge school physiology. Post-war he went to Oxford for a bird song competitions. Ph.D., headed the Department at St Jim Palmer was a rabid conservationist, Bartholomew's Medical College in , bushy-haired, and spoke with an intensity that finishing his career as Departmental head at would make a Communist Party organizer Monash University in Melbourne. His blanch. In these earlier days when the conser- researches on bowerbirds and avian repro- vation movement was weak, Jim was forever duction was to do much for the image of Aust- attacking some State Minister or local Council ralian ornithology internationally.

30 Australian Zwlogist, Vol. 30(1) Sydney William Jackson, the great egg- egg-collectors in the 1930s. They had been collector and oologist of earlier decades, the languishing in the Museum archives ever since expert on the birds of the northern rivers of . . . the reason being that, when the Police and New South Wales, and Curator of the H. L. a reluctant Roy Kinghorn had raided the White Ornithological Collections at Scone, was homes, several owners refused to surrender one of the legends of Australian ornithology; their data catalogues. The eggs, hence, he was an old man but somewhat of a recluse remained unidentified and without data were by the 1940s. He never attended meetings hut of no scientific value. I was absolutely horrified Keith Hindwood quoted his early writings in at the spectacle of unopened boxes. At the The Emu constantly. Fables about him were risk of seeming sentimental as I opened the still commonplace. When visiting the Tweed containers I could not help thinking of each River in 1942 I used this as an excuse to visit prettily spotted clutch as some small hird's and meet Jackson who at this time was allowed triumph of creation and, alternatively, of use of a small office in Jack Ramsay's photo- the anguish of the collectors whose polished graphic studio in George Street North. I cedar cabinets were opened and the contents Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 wanted to get his advice on seeing little-known unceremoniously taken away. I was loud in birds like the Sooty Owl. Jackson proved to be my protests to the museum heads that surely a stocky, somewhat short-legged and short- there must be a real use for them, but they armed man (to this mean and nasty youth the already had magnificent collections of properly concept of a barrel came to mind); he was labelled material. When I joined the staff full- tremendously powerful in physique. (There time a couple of years later the unwanted are many photographs of him scaling giant collections were no longer there. New South forest trees by rope ladder.) Bcing able to Wales handled the illegal collecting problem discuss the old rainforests of the Richmond badly: in Victoria, by contrast, they controlled and Clarence Rivers with the old master was collecting by issuing licences to esteemed a delight: he could not have been friendlier, collectors on the basis of the latter providing more interested, and helpful. He described annual returns on eggs taken and willing their and mimicked the major songs of the Sooty collections to the National Museum. Norman Owl for me. From him I learnt a basic lesson Favaloro was one such person. about many old egg collectors; their unique knowledge of some of the subtleties of bird My next task at the Museum was to behaviour. It took me years to learn that state catalogue a collection of British Columbia of nesting in many bird species can be birds donated by the Scottish philanthropist precisely determined from calls used. Wilfred Plowden-Wardlaw. They had been donated a couple of years previously but Australian Museum ornithology in the because of shortage of staff remained in their old o5ys original boxes. On a return visit Wilfred discovered this, and the matter got into the The Australian Museum was the ultimate press. home of Sydney "professional" ornithology: Wardlaw was the protege of Tom Iredale here resided the big specimen collections, and and Gilbert Whitley who had befriended him many of the unique early collections of A. J. when he came to Sydney. Impressed by their North and others. Here would be delivered enthusiasm he offered to have some over- "road kills" and dead birds picked up by out- seas collections made for the Museum. This of-town residents. Weekly the Honorary collection had been the result. Later I got Ornithologist, Keith Hindwood, would visit to know Plowden-Wardlaw. He was a most the taxidermy section to inspect and identify original unusual and delightful person. In the these. Here lay the specimens that Neville way of exchanging confidences that only Cayley used in his paintings. ornithologists do he claimed to be the shining As a boy 1 visited the galleries of the light of a conservative Scottish Catholic family Museum frequently. I was befriended by the but there had bcrrl a divrrging of priorities, then Ornithologist, Roy Kinghorn, who as a result of which he had been condemned eventually had much to do with my getting on forever after to travel the world, on a very the staff, and Tom Iredale. I eventually joined lucrative expense account, as the agent for the the Museum staff in 1948, for the first years family business (Tennants Beer comes to working only in University vacations. My initial mind, if there is such a company!), drinking role was to clear up a backlog of specimens beer with the leaders of countries and study- that needed registering. I immediately "tripped ing birds. He had entered the new career with over" boxes and canons of birds' eggs, the ones delight: drinking beer with important people that had been confiscated from the unlicensed from Canada to the West Indies, South Africa,

December 1995 Australian Zoologist, VoL 30(1) 31 New Zealand, and Australia - but most of The 1950s was the beginning of a new era the time studying birds - was no hardship. at the Australian Museum with the appoint- Later he assembled a small collection of 30-40 ment of Dr John Evans as Director. I was New Zealand birds for the Royal Scottish given the task of modernising the museum's Museum - most of them old skins purchased bird display galleries . . . which consists of from private collections. The war intervened endless cases filled with multiple specimens of and he could no longer send them to Britain, each species, each individual desperately try- so they came to the Australian Museum. They ing to come up with a different posture. I apparently departed from New Zealand supplied an overall plan and a design outline under a cloud, without an export permit. for each case; the Head of the Art Depart- Wilfred painted for me a glowing final ment John Beeman created the layout; there- scenario of half a dozen fussy little New after the plan was for me to work closely with Zealand gunboats valiantly trying to intercept the taxidermists as the work proceeded. There

the departing freighter. At any event the must have been some difference in work Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-pdf/30/1/26/1475436/az_1995_003.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Australian Museum got the birds, and the styles: at the end of the year Christmas party, furore died down. when everybody was given a funny present mine was of the box-within-box-within-box Later Wilfred offered to assemble a collection variety. In the smallest box in the centre was of West Indian birds for the Australian a length of rope. But we eventually completed Museum. The response he got apparently, the installations even though we had to use which infuriated Tom Iredale and myself the old cases with small panes of glass separated when we later heard about it was: "For by numerous strip partitions. To read a label Heaven's sake do not inflict any more foreign one had to crane one's neck around these. To specimens on us". In fairness, storage space this day the ornithologists who developed in was very limited in those days but it would the 1950s and 1960s can be recognized by have been nice to have a collection of West their wrynecks. Indian birds in Australia. Subsequently I met ~ilfredin Vancouver. (Allen Keast i a life member of the Royal Zoological He was as elegant and enthusiastic as ever. But Society of New South Wales. The Omitholopcal he had dropped the name "Plowden-Wardlaw" Section ofthe RZS has ceased to exist but the RAOU and was now "The Campbell of Craigie". is stzllJou~i~hing.Ed.)

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32 Australian Zoologist, Val. 30(1) December 1995