he name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the French word
Jacasser, `to chatter,' and the correct form is the `Laughing
Jacasse.'"

[No. See above.]

1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76:

"Magpies chatter, and the jackass
Laughs Good-morrow like a Bacchus."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' [telling an
old story] p. 155:

"The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had
attracted his attention. `Your grace, we call that the
laughing jackass in this country, but I don't know the
botanical [sic] name of the bird."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 27:

"Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as this
curious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy and
unattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jackass,
it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. It
boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is
consequently the friend of the colonist."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:

"`There's a jackass--a real laughing jackass on that dead
branch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know--'
and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of
a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical
tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear."

1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule':

"[Close season.] Great Kingfisher or Laughing Jackass.
The whole year. all Kingfishers other than the Laughing Jackass.
From the 1st day of August to the 20th day of December next
following in each year."

(2) The next quotations refer to the New Zealand bird.

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 122:

"<i>Athene Albifacies</i>, wekau of the Maoris, is known by
some up-country settlers as the big owl or <i>laughing
jackass</i>."

"The cry of the laughing jackass . . . Why it should share
with one of our petrels and the great <i>Dacelo</i> of
Australia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not;
if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable
outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been
able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the
unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird."

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198:

"<i>Sceloglaux albifacies</i>, Kaup., Laughing Owl; Laughing
Jackass of the Colonists."

[The following quotation refers to the <i>Derwent Jackass</i>.]

1880. Mrs. Mer