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

I believe he's the devil in the shape of a mopoke!

From Robbery under Arms; a story of life and adventure in the bush and in the Australian goldfields by Boldrewood, Rolf

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

And all day through, from the time of the dew To the hour when the mopoke calls, Our mallets ring where the woodbirds sing Sweet hymns by the waterfalls.

From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Kendall, Henry

We must certainly try to accustom ourselves to the mopoke and the sarsaparilla plant, and to make the gum-tree and the buddawong as dear to us as the olives and the narcissi of white Colonus. 

From Reviews by Wilde, Oscar