SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 45 



one of these birds has been found to contain two rose-chafer beetles, part of 

 a cicada, and other beetle remains ; but they also capture moths, though 

 Gould says that he found nothing but the remains of beetles in specimens he 

 dissected. 



The Dollar-bird constructs no nest, but, like its cousin the Laughing-jackass, 

 deposits its eggs in a hole in a hollow limb, upon the decayed wood. The 

 eggs, four in number, are very round and pearly white. The birds nest from 

 September to December in New South Wales. 



The More-pork (Podargus strigoides Latham). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 84 No. 40 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 104, No. 217. 



This curious bird takes it popular name from the old idea that the noc- 

 turnal call of " more-pork " or " mopoke " was made by it, though the cry is 

 now known to be that of the Boobook-owl. The only sound I evet 

 heard the More-pork make was an angry grunt when disturbed in its mid 

 day sleep ; it is said, however, to repeat when flying, a feeble cry like " oom- 

 oom oom." 



During the day, this bird, like the owl, sleeps in the shelter of a bush, and 

 her remarkable grey, white, and mottled-brown plumage blends into a won- 

 derful protective coloration. This is seen to perfection if you come upon one 

 nesting on the bole of a white gum, upon which she simply places a few 

 sticks, in such a primitive fashion that one wonders why the pair of pure- 

 white eggs do not tumble off whenever she moves. Sitting on her nest she 

 presses her body against the tree-stem, head and tail in line, so that in spite 

 of her size, you might pass close to her without recognising as a bird the ex- 

 crescence on the limb. Gould described eight species of More-pork (or Frog- 

 mouth, as some writers call them), but modern writers have decided that the 

 Tasmanian form (which Gould called Podargus curveri) is the same as our 

 common species. Three other species are found in different parts of Aus- 

 tralia. Our More-pork has a wide range over Tasmania and the whole of 

 Australia except the northern part of Western Australia. 



The More-pork feeds upon the phasmids, mantis, leaf grasshoppers, and 

 cicadas which are found resting or moving among the foliage at night. In 

 my garden I had several young More-porks which used to rest on a flower-pot 

 with eyes closed. When a mouse was dangled in front of one of them, it 

 would open its great mouth, apparently let the mouse run down its throat, 

 shut its beak with a snap and go to sleep again. 



The Delicate Owl (Strix delicatula Gould). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 66, No. 31 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 86, No. 179. 

 Owls are nocturnal birds of prey that usually sleep or hide during the 

 hours of daylight in thick brush, old ruins, rocky caves, or hollows of big 

 gum-trees. At twilight and all through the night they hunt for their food, 

 which consists chiefly of small mammals, birds, and the larger insects that 

 move about under cover of the dark hours. Most of their food is captured 



