Austral English Part 123

"The settlers call this bird the Laughing Jacka.s.s. I have also heard it called the Hawkesbury-Clock (clocks being at the period of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there not being one perhaps in the whole Hawkesbury settlement), for it is among the first of the feathered tribes which announce the approach of day."

1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,'

p. 71:

"The laughing jacka.s.s, or settler's-clock is an uncouth looking creature of an ashen brown colour ... This bird is the first to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus it has received its other name, the settler's clock."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 234:

"I usually rise when I hear the merry laugh of the laughing- jacka.s.s (Dacelo gigantea), which, from its regularity, has not been unaptly named the settlers'-clock."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 18:

"Dacelo Gigantea, Leach, Great Brown King Fisher; Laughing Jacka.s.s of the Colonists."

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58:

"You are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks of geese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of the laughing jacka.s.s (Dacelo gigantea) a species of jay."

[Howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azure iridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colour like the blue feathers on the jay.]

1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vi. p. 145:

"The odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes from the `Laughing Jacka.s.s.'"

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18:

"At daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as if the infernal regions had been broken loose--this was the song of another feathered innocent, the laughing jacka.s.s--not half a bad sort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes, and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water."

1880. T. W. Nutt, `Palace of Industry,' p. 15:

"Where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve."

[Footnote] "The familiar laughing jacka.s.s."

1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 13:

"Dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynic of the woods, as A. P. Martin calls the laughing jacka.s.s, seemed to mock us for our pains."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 37:

"The harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jacka.s.s."

1881. D. Blair, `Cyclopaedia of Australasia,' p. 202:

"The name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the French word Jaca.s.ser, `to chatter,' and the correct form is the `Laughing Jaca.s.se.'"

[No. See above.]

1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76:

"Magpies chatter, and the jacka.s.s Laughs Good-morrow like a Bacchus."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' [telling an old story] p. 155:

"The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had attracted his attention. `Your grace, we call that the laughing jacka.s.s in this country, but I don't know the botanical [sic] name of the bird."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 27:

"Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as this curious laughing jacka.s.s, though it is both clumsy and unattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jacka.s.s, it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. It boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is consequently the friend of the colonist."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:

"`There's a jacka.s.s--a real laughing jacka.s.s on that dead branch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know--'

and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear."

1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule':

"[Close season.] Great Kingfisher or Laughing Jacka.s.s.

The whole year. all Kingfishers other than the Laughing Jacka.s.s.

From the 1st day of August to the 20th day of December next following in each year."

(2) The next quotations refer to the New Zealand bird.

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 122:

"Athene Albifacies, wekau of the Maoris, is known by some up-country settlers as the big owl or laughing jacka.s.s."

"The cry of the laughing jacka.s.s ... Why it should share with one of our petrels and the great Dacelo of Australia the trivial name of laughing jacka.s.s, we know not; if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird."

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198:

"Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup., Laughing Owl; Laughing Jacka.s.s of the Colonists."

[The following quotation refers to the Derwent Jacka.s.s.]

1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 110:

"You have heard of ... the laughing jacka.s.s. We, too, have a `jacka.s.s,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable, except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when several pipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of very talkative people all chattering against time, and all at once."

Jack-bird, n. a bird of the South Island of New Zealand, Creadion cinereus, Buller. See also Saddle-back and Creadion.

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 23:

"It has become the habit to speak of this bird as the Brown Saddle-back; but this is a misnomer, inasmuch as the absence of the `saddle' is its distinguishing feature. I have accordingly adopted the name of Jack-bird, by which it is known among the settlers in the South Island. Why it should be so called I cannot say, unless this is an adaptation of the native name Tieke, the same word being the equivalent, in the Maori vernacular, of our Jack."

Jack Shay, or Jackshea, n. a tin quart-pot.