mopoke

British  

/ ˈməʊˌpəʊk /

noun

1. Also called (NZ): ruru.  a small spotted owl, Ninox novaeseelandiae, of Australia and New Zealand. In Australia the tawny frogmouth, Podargus strigoides, is very often wrongly identified as the mopoke

2. slang a slow or lugubrious person

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Etymology

Origin of mopoke

C19: imitative of the bird's cry

Example Sentences

Magpie to mopoke: diurnal and nocturnal Australian birds; hence, "dawn to dusk."

From Time Magazine Archive

No cry of beast or bird ruffles the 111 stillness, save perhaps the faint tinkle of the bell-bird or the solemn plaint of the mopoke from some distant scrub.

From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland

Then we stared, nervously, into the night, and listened for Dad's return, but heard only the wind and the mopoke.

From On Our Selection by Rudd, Steele

The hooting of the mopoke owl Floats on the midnight air; The prowling dingoe’s dismal howl Is chorused wide and far.

From Early Days in North Queensland by Palmer, Edward

Only a mopoke called plaintively in the distance.

From The Pioneers by Prichard, Katharine Susannah