morepork

The Tasmanian spotted owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae), a small brown owl indigenous to New Zealand and Tasmania.

[T]he eye of the Morepork or Greater Night Jarr,^([sic]) which I lately had the opportunity of examining, is wonderfully adapted for enabling it to see the insects in the dark, on which it feeds.

Although the living figure of our owl may be unknown to most persons, from the nature of its habits, yet few, perhaps very few, of the older settlers are unacquainted with the human-like cry of the More-pork.

Used as a mild term of abuse.

It is interesting that the Opposition morepork is starting to chirp. [...] We have all heard about the "gang of four and a half"—the morepork brigade.

Used as a mild term of abuse.

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.

The call of a morepork.

[T]he morepork, a species of caprimulgus, or goatsucker,^([sic]) keeps up all night the exact repetition of its own name, "Morepork! morepork!" It is a sound to me most expressive of a dreary loneliness and twilight distance that I ever heard.

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.