settler's clock

noun

1. (formerly) an informal name for kookaburra

Word History and Origins

Origin of settler's clock¹

C19: so called because its laugh was heard at dawn and sunset

Example Sentences

It is called the 'settler's clock' in the bush by virtue of its regular hilarious uproar at noon-tide and of its far-heard 'salutation to the moon,' and it will equally make any city reserve lively with its note.

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It destroys snakes, which it catches by the tail, and then crushes their head with its powerful beak; it also renders an essential service to the settlers who want to get up early, by shouting out its strange notes to welcome the approach of dawn—from which peculiarity it is also called the “settler’s clock.”

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