THE KOOKABURRA

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 18 May 1929, Page 7

THE KOOKABURRA

BIRD FALLS FROM GRACE. RAIDS IN POULTRY YARDS. (FBOM OTJi OW* COEWtSPONDSITP.) SYDNEY, May 2. It looks as though that typically Australian bird, the quaint-looking kookaburra, or laughing jackass, is in Imminent danger, at least in Sydney, of falling from grace as one of the most lovable of Australia's feathered family. "Jacko," it appears, has revealed » penchant for chicken, and has suddenly brought down ipoir its head the wrath of people whose poultry yards it has been raiding. Other people are writing to the newspapers in stout defence of the bird with the shrill laugh, but, taking the majority of correspondents, the case against the kookaburra looks somewhat black. It was felt that it might be merely an isolated cat® when the laughing jackass robbed a poultry yard on the Blue Mountains of »me of its chickens, but the laugh now seems to be on those who have championed its lovable innocence, for, since then, it has been indicted with practically all the crimes in the calendar of bird life.

One man, for example, reports the losß of numerous valuable ducklings as a result of the audacious forays of "Jacko." -Another tells the story of how one of these birds swooped down and seized goldfish from a householders aquarium, and yet another, of the pitiful squawks of a chicken in a surburban yard when it was carried off. Now that "Jacko" seems to have been unmasked, and revealed in its true colours, it is not improbable that an agitation will arise for the repeal of the law which protects this bird. Now that the P n ~' ,c has been given much evidence of the ferocious and bloodthirsty proclivities of the laughing jackass, and ofiti epicurean taste for chicken especially, " is beginning to feel that much of the affection bestowed upon the bird, mainly because of its joyous laugh, has been misplaced. It looks now as though there is a Machiavelian, subtle note in it* laugh.