BIRDS. 41 



applied title of the " More-pork.'' Unfortunately, as an outcome of the popular error 

 rife in regard to the vocal talents of this bird, another gross injustice is rendered it 

 from a social standpoint. Attributing to Podargus the eerie, melancholy call-note of 

 the Boobook Owl, it is, as attested to in Mr. Gould's original description, with 

 reference to this note, commonly regarded by the uneducated settlers as a bird of 

 ill-omen and, if not persecuted on that account, held in high disfavour. It is trusted 

 that the testimony here recorded concerning the author's specimens will assist somewhat 

 towards the dissipation of this most unmerited prejudice. 



To return to our own particular, not " Moutons," but " More-porks," the birds, a 

 pair of them, were purchased in the first instance as big balls of fluff, wherein the gleaming 

 of their glorious golden eyes yielded the only sure indication of their correct topography. 

 The company with which they were first consorted was of the most heterogeneous 

 description, consisting of young Parrots, Cockatoos, Magpies (Piping Crows), Butcher- 

 birds and many others. The accommodation provided in the hawker's van, in which 

 the birds paraded the streets of Brisbane, was far too limited to permit of such a 

 luxury as a separate compartment, and hence our More-porks were imprisoned with 

 a mixed assemblage of the various species above enumerated. To this ill-assorted 

 company, and more especially that of the screeching Parrots, they manifested the 

 most distinct antipathy, and, shrinking into the darkest corner of their noisy cage, 

 sought temporary respite from the madding crowd. 



The rescue of the poor Podargi and their translation to an independent home, 

 where they were altogether freed from the discordant voices and more unwelcome 

 bustlings of their former comrades, soon wrought a marvellous change in their aspect 

 and comportment. From this time forth, for no less a period than five years, these 

 two birds occupied the position of familiar household pets, and rewarded all the 

 care and attention bestowed upon them by the concession of an undreamt-of insight 

 into their most marvellously Protean moods and tenses. Fortunately, about this 

 time, the chance gift to the writer of a very modest form of camera opened up 

 his mind to the great possibilities afforded by the photographic art for accurately 

 recording and delineating the remarkably divergent aspects and attitudes which these 

 Podargi were capable of assuming. As a means to this definite end, photography 

 was accordingly taken up, and with such a fair measure of success in the 

 accomplishment of the object as is testified to by the illustrations of these pages. 

 While the thirty or more replicas included in Plates VI. to X. may be said 

 to embody presentments of the most conspicuously distinct variations of contour 



F 



