MOPOKE OR FROGMOUTH 
MOPOKE OR FROGMOUTH 
Podargus strigoides victorice 
With its moth-like mottled and spotted grey plumage 
and enormous gape, the Mopoke is familiar to most 
bush-dwellers ; where the battle royal rages is round 
the point whether it really does, at night, utter a cry 
like " mo-poke " or not. Gould thought it did, had 
no doubts on the subject ; some later writers say 
that it does not, and that the only sound it makes is a 
low hiss. It has been definitely proved that the Boo- 
book Owl produces by night a noise which sounds 
like " mo-poke," the unfortunate bird having been 
shot in the act. So far the Mopoke has been more 
lucky, and the point, as regards it, remains unde- 
termined. 
Curiously enough the two species are equally well 
distributed over the whole of the Geelong district. I 
have seen more nests of the Mopoke, but that is 
merely because, being built of sticks and placed rather 
conspicuously in a horizontal fork, they attract more 
attention than does the Owl's nest, which is deep 
down in a hollow spout. 
The Mopoke is untouched by migratory instinct, 
and remains all its days in the same locality. It does 
not take refuge in hollows as one might expect of a 
nocturnal bird, but slumbers the livelong day motion- 
less on a branch. In the spring you will find its mate 
usually but a few feet away, taking its ease likewise. 
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