morepoke

plural morepokes

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of morepork.

   [I]t was better fun wandering about with the old man at night than moping in my hut, listening to the morepoke.

   1876, Richard Rowe, “The Bunyip”, in A Child’s Corner Book: Stories for Boys and Girls, London; Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo. […], →OCLC, page 182

   2 more examples

   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.

   1903 August 1, Tom Collins [pseudonym; Joseph Furphy], chapter 1, in Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, Sydney, N.S.W.: Bulletin Newspaper Company, →OCLC; republished Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin House of Books, 2012, →ISBN

   We were a family of odd bods and every summer we spent by the river. At night the morepokes called again and again.

   2016, Brigid Lowry, “My Inky Life: Thoughts about Writing Memoir”, in Still Life with Teapot: On Zen, Writing and Creativity, North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, →ISBN

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of morepork.

   1 more example

   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.

   1861, [Horace William Wheelwright], “A Chapter on the Ornithology of Port Phillip”, in Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist; or, Notes on the Field Sports and Fauna of Australia Felix. By an Old Bushman, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, […], →OCLC, page 126