The Morepork 
197 
referred to is a nightjar, and the British nightjar is also known 
as the dor-hawk, dor being a dor-beetle or cock-chafer, and the 
name referred to the fact that the bird hawks in the dusk for 
these beetles. Dor-hawk, again, is very like more-pork in sound, 
but the former name was not given from the cry of the bird. 
This shews how similar names may have very different origins. 
The usual cry consists of two notes, repeated twice or more at 
intervals, as in (1) and (2), and whilst the words more-pork 
may often be distinctly fancied, the vocalization is as often 
kou-kou. The four notes are uttered in about a second, and 
8Y 
CL 
-4- 
•i 
L 
fM~ 
TW 
a * 
irnv 
8 va -_ _ 
! f^i 
kou-kou kou-kou 
m 
kou 
. _ . __-- 
kou kou kou 
- 4 - 
kou 
repeated at intervals of five seconds or so. The sounds kou kou 
are also heard in a series of notes that often precede the usual 
call, as in (3). The sound is frequently muffled, or half choked, 
as one might imagine the cry of the hokio, the ominous biid of 
battle referred to in the proverb ,—Hokio rere po, pekapeka 
rere ahiahi (GK, P . 32), “The hokio flies in the night, the bat 
flies in the twilightmeaning, “Do you think I will go in the 
dark ? ’ ’ The cry apparently resembles that of the British Scops- 
eared owl, of which Yarrell (YH, Vol. 1, p. 129) writes: “It does 
not merely ‘to the moon complain’ occasionally, but keeps 
repeating its plaintive and monotonous cry of ‘ kew, kew ,..in 
the regular intervals of about two seconds, the lrv elon & 
night;.” The kou kou is at times kau kau (caw caw), and 
in a vibration such as would be caused by vibrating the uvula 
whilst imitating the sound, making the vocalization kirau krrau 
or krrou krrou ; and, as noted earlier, it is evident that this 
sound was heard by the Maori. Writing of the time when he 
first came to Nelson, 1843, Wohlers remarks, Only now and 
then an owl in the wood called out ‘Morepork in English ^ 
but it is not likely the owls here have already learnt English. 
He continues, w T ith truth, “The voice calls out exactly Koo 
koo’ (the Maori name of this owl) ; each vowel, although flowing 
