166



On my Moreporks.



birds when in a temper or a fright, which I can always create by

showing them a stuffed cat or dog. They sit then like a cat, with

hunched backs, ready one might think for a spring, and with a

terrifying expression—Mephistopheles is not in it.


They are no longer plentiful, but it is still possible to get then)

as they are most trusting birds, allowing one to come right up to

them. Their call is a kind of booming noise emitted in quick succes¬

sion. Years ago they were very plentiful in the district in which I

am living. One would meet them any evening and anywhere on

post or branch to which one was directed by their call. Now they

are gone. The last of them probably joined the happy land last year.

The long dry spell caused food for birds and animals to become very

scarce, and as a consequence a pest of Flying Foxes visited the

orchards and gardens in this and other districts. Guns and pea-

rifles destroyed all on the wing, and the Moreporks went with the

rest! Since then I have not seen one, although few know the bush

as well as I do. A few years ago a pair of Moreporks, which had

been about my home for a long time, made their nest in a tree close

to my fence in the adjoining paddock. Built about 30 feet from the

ground it consisted of a few sticks across the horizontal fork of a

branch. When the bird was sitting on the nest it was quite impos¬

sible to distinguish her from the nest itself. The young in their first

stages were covered with the most delicate creamy down one would

wish to see—tiny balls of fluff. Watching them grow I had made up

my mind to experiment with them and teach them to pick up their

food from the ground, as I do with my Bee-eaters. To my inexpres¬

sible disgust coming home one afternoon I saw some boys standing

at the bottom of the tree, and I overheard one saying, “ look at its

bunged-up eye.” The rascals had climbed the adjoining tree, hit the

old bird which was covering the young, and destroyed the babies. I

was able to save the old bird, but I suppose I shall never get a chance

again to observe these interesting birds so close to my home. I don’t

see why these birds should not breed in captivity like the Jackasses,

etc., if given a flight to themselves, and it is a pity that zoological

gardens will not trouble to procure and keep such an interesting

species, which, although nocturnal, seem to be always awake, seldom

even dozing in the daytime.



