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 
hustlings 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 
