Winking O.—
<i>N. connivens</i>, Lath.
In New Zealand, the species are—Laughing Jackass, or L. Owl, <i>Sceloglaux albifacies</i>, Kaup (Maori name, <i>Whekau</i>, q.v.), and the Morepork, formerly <i>Athene novae-zelandiae</i>, Gray, now <i>Spiloglaux novae-zelandiae</i>, Kaup. (See <i>Morepork</i>.)
See also <i>Barking Owl</i>.
<hw>Owl-Parrot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand. See <i>Kakapo</i>.
<hw>Oyster</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian varieties are—Mud-Oyster, <i>Ostrea angasi</i>, Sow. (sometimes considered only a variety of <i>O. edulis</i>, Linn., the European species): New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia. <i>O. rutupina</i>, Jeffreys, "the native" of Colchester, England, is a variety and occurs in Tasmania. Drift-O., <i>O. subtrigona</i>, Sow., called so because its beds are thought to be shifted by storms and tides: New South Wales and Queensland. Rock-O., <i>O. glomerata</i>, Gould, probably the same species as the preceding, but under different conditions: all Eastern Australia. And other species more or less rare. See also <i>Stewart Islander</i>. Australian oysters, especially the Sydney Rock-Oyster, are very plentiful, and of excellent body and flavour, considered by many to be equal if not superior to the Colchester native. They cost 1s. a dozen; unopened in bags, they are 6d. a dozen—a contrast to English prices.
<hw>Oyster-Bay Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>.
1857. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 155:
"16 August, 1848 . . . A sample of the white resin of the Oyster Bay Pine (<i>Callitris Australis</i>, Brown) lay on the table. The Secretary stated that this tree has only been met with along a comparatively limited and narrow strip of land bordering the sea on the eastern coast of Tasmania, and upon Flinders and Cape Barren Islands in Bass's Straits; that about Swanport and the shores of Oyster Bay it forms a tree, always handsome and picturesque, and sometimes 120 feet in height, affording useful but not large timber, fit for all the ordinary purposes of the house carpenter and joiner in a country district."
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 222:
"Those most picturesque trees, the Oyster Bay pines, which, vividly green in foliage, tapering to a height of eighty or one hundred feet, and by turns symmetrical or eccentric in form, harmonise and combine with rugged mountain scenery as no other of our trees here seem to do."