FROGMOUTHS 
A naturalist tells of roaming with a friend through the Australian bush 
and seeing a frogmouth’s nest perched on a eucalyptus bough some twelve 
feet above the ground. The friend remarked that some boys apparently had 
thrown a stick across it and was much surprised when the “stick” took 
wing and flew away. The “stick” was a frogmouth, whose brown and gray 
protective coloring, coupled with the rough texture of its plumage, made it 
indistinguishable from the bark of the surrounding trees. 
These birds are active only at night; by day they sleep, perched on a 
eucalyptus bough, not crosswise like other birds, but lengthwise. This posi¬ 
tion probably makes them invisible to the sharp eyes of soaring hawks and 
other birds of prey. They sleep so profoundly that they can be captured 
by hand, and if awakened, they merely flap lazily to another limb, where 
they resume their slumbers. 
At night the frogmouth hunts locusts, grasshoppers and other insects. 
Not being swift enough to catch them on the wing, it creeps silently along 
tree branches and surprises them in their sleep. It also eats mice, and 
berries. 
On its nocturnal prowls the frogmouth utters a cry described by some 
as mo-poke and by others simply as a “harsh, indescribable cry.” Mo-poke, 
which is more pork with an aboriginal accent, is also the cry of the boobook 
owl. Both birds have enthusiastic partisans, each side arguing that its 
favorite is the one and original mopoke. 
These mopokes breed from August to January on low, swampy islands. 
The nest, usually situated on a broken eucalyptus or swamp oak bough, is 
a frail platform of twigs. The eggs, two in number, are oval in form and a 
spotless white. The male broods by night, the female by day. In seeking a 
nesting site, the frogmouths are careful to choose a branch matching their 
own coloring. 
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