INSESSOUES. 123 



nary gurgling, laughing note, which generally calls forth 

 some exclamation according with the temper of the hearer, 

 such as " There is our old friend the Laughing Jackass," or 

 an epithet of a less friendly character. So remarkable are 

 the sounds emitted by the bird that they have been noted by 

 nearly every writer on New South Wales and its productions. 

 Mr. Caley states that its " loud noise, somewhat like laughing, 

 may be heard at a considerable distance, from which circum- 

 stance, and its uncouth appearance, it probably received the 

 extraordinary appellation given to it by the settlers on their 

 first arrival in the colony." Captain Sturt says, " Its cry, 

 which resembles a chorus of wild spirits, is apt to startle the 

 traveller who may be in jeopardy, as if laughing and mocking 

 at his misfortune " ; and Mr. Beimett, in his ' Wanderings,' 

 says, " Its peculiar gurgling laugh, commencing in a low, and 

 gradually rising to a high and loud tone, is often heard in all 

 parts of the colony, the deafening noise being poured forth 

 while the bird remains perched upon a neighbouring tree ; it 

 rises with the dawn, when the woods re-echo with its gurgling 

 laugh ; at sunset it is again heard ; and as that glorious orb 

 sinks in the west, a last ' good night ' is given in its peculiar 

 tones to all within hearing." 



It frequents every variety of situation; the luxuriant 

 brushes stretching along the coast, the more thinly-timbered 

 forest, the belts of trees studding the parched plains, and 

 the brushes of the higher ranges being alike favoured with 

 its presence ; over all these localities it is rather thinly dis- 

 persed, being nowhere very numerous. 



Its food, which is of a mixed character, consists exclusively 

 of animal substances ; reptiles, insects, and crabs, however, 

 appear to be its favourite diet : it devours lizards with avidity, 

 and it is not an unfrequent sight to see it bearing off a snake 

 in its bill to be eaten at leisure ; it also preys on small mam- 

 malia. I recollect shooting a Great Brown Kingfisher in South 

 Australia in order to secure a fine rat I saw hanging from its 



