BOOBOOK OWL. 155 



CHAPTER CXLI. 



Boobook Owl. 



(Ninox boobook, Latham.) 



This handsome little owl is well known to most of us 

 as the bird which makes the cry of " mopoke," or 

 " morpork," although for years this fact was doubted 

 by many excellent naturalists and others. Formerly, it 

 was believed that the cry of " mopoke " was made by 

 the Common Podargus, or Frogmouth, and Gould has 

 stated as a fact that one of the latter birds kept in cap- 

 tivity did actually make the noise alluded to. My own 

 opinion, and that of others accustomed to the bush, 

 is that both these birds, namely, the Frogmouth and the 

 Boobook, can emit somewhat similar sounds. 



The colour of the Boobook Owl is a rusty-brown and 

 white. Gould remarks that the sexes offer but little 

 difference in the colouring of their plumage, but the 

 female is the larger of the two. A great diversity is found 

 to exist in the colouring of the irides, some being yellowish- 

 white, others greenish-yellow, and others brown. 



The eggs (three to a sitting) are white and finely pitted, 

 and Mr. Hall gives the measurements as follows : — Length, 

 1"5 inches; breadth, 13 inches. They are deposited in 

 holes in trees. In Mr. Campbell's book, an excellent 

 photograph is given, showing one of our well-known 

 naturalists climbing to a hole in which eggs are supposed 

 to have been deposited. 



The Mopoke is one of our most useful insect-destroying 

 birds, especially in the case of night-flying beetles which 

 are so destructive to our forest trees, as they kill and devour 

 them in the most wholesale manner. They also destroy 

 mice and other small vermin. 



