<hw>Moor-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name (<i>Gallinula</i>). The Australian species are—
the Black, <i>Gallinula tenebrosa</i>, Gould; Rufous-tailed, <i>G. ruficrissa</i>, Gould.
1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 169:
"The Rail-like bird, the Black-tailed Tribonyx, or Moor-Hen of the colonists, which, when strutting along the bank of a river, has a grotesque appearance, with the tail quite erect like that of a domestic fowl, and rarely resorts to flight." [The Tribonyx is called <i>Native Hen</i>, not <i>Moorhen</i>.]
<hw>Moon</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. a process in opossum-shooting, explained in quotations.
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 182:
"`Mooning' opossums is a speciality with country boys. The juvenile hunter utilises the moon as a cavalry patrol would his field-glass for every suspected point."
1890. E. Davenport Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 66:
"They had to go through the process known as `mooning.' Walking backwards from the tree, each one tried to get the various limbs and branches between him and the moon, and then follow them out to the uttermost bunch of leaves where the 'possum might be feeding."
<hw>Mopoke</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for an Australian bird, from its note "Mopoke." There is emphasis on the first syllable, but much more on the second. Settlers very early attempted to give an English shape and sense to this name. The attempt took two forms, "<i>More pork</i>," and "<i>Mopehawk</i>"; both forms are more than fifty years old. The <i>r</i> sound, however, is not present in the note of the bird, although the form <i>More-pork</i> is perhaps even more popular than the true form <i>Mopoke</i>. The form <i>Mope-hawk</i> seems to have been adopted through dislike of the perhaps coarser idea attaching to "pork." The quaint spelling <i>Mawpawk</i> seems to have been adopted for a similar reason.