Morepoke

[I]t was better fun wandering about with the old man at night than moping in my hut, listening to the morepoke.

Where's that old morepoke? O, you're there, are you? Fetch the jack off o' your wagon—come! fly roun'! you're (very) slow for a young fellow.

We were a family of odd bods and every summer we spent by the river. At night the morepokes called again and again.

As soon as the shades of evening close in over the Australian forest, the ear is startled by the cry of "morepoke," clearly and loudly repeated, and a bird as large as an owl flits by on noiseless wing, like the goat-sucker at home. This is the Morepoke, a species of large night-jar,^([sic]) all head and mouth, about the size of an owl.