Alec Chisholm was a naturalist, historian, editor, etc., widely regarded as
an authority on Australian birds and bird lore in his day. Circa 1960 he
told me that he was often asked to take visitors to Royal National Park, a
heavily-visited park near Sydney, to see the birds. He said that if there
were ladies in the party, he would say, "I don't want the bower-bird to get
frightened by a group of people. Would you please wait here while I go to
the bower first. Then he'll quietly move away without getting a fright."
What in fact Chisholm was doing was removing the used condoms (yellowish)
and contraceptive device boxes (blue) to save possible embarrassment. The
introduction of The Pill probably caused the supply to dry up, but HIV may
have seen it renewed. Any comment, Sydney-siders?
Cheers
Syd
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