But the name has been erroneously derived from the French jacasse, as to which Littre gives « terme populaire.Femme, fille qui parle beaucoup.» He adds, that the word jacasse appears to come from jacquot, a namepopularly given to parrots and magpies, our «Poll.» The verb jacasser means to chatter, said of a magpie. Thequotation from Collins (1798) seems to dispose of thissuggested French origin, by proving the early use of the name Laughing Jackass. As a matter of fact, the French namehad already in 1776 been assigned to the bird, viz. GrandMartin-pecheur de la Nouvelle Guinee. [See PierreSonnerat, `Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee' (Paris, 1776),p. 171.] The only possibility of French origin would be fromthe sailors of La Perouse. But La Perouse arrived in BotanyBay on January 26, 1788, and found Captain Phillip's shipsleaving for Sydney Cove. The intercourse between them was veryslight. The French formed a most unfavourable idea of thecountry, and sailed away on March 10. If from their shortintercourse, the English had accepted the word Jackass,would not mention of the fact have been made by GovernorPhillip, or Surgeon White, who mention the bird but by adifferent name (see quotations 1789, 1790), or by CaptainWatkin Tench, or Judge Advocate Collins, who both mention theincident of the French ships?
The epithet «laughing» is now often omitted; the bird isgenerally called only a Jackass, and this is becomingcontracted into the simple abbreviation of Jack. A commonpopular name for it is the Settlers' – Clock. (See quotations – – 1827, Cunningham; 1846, Haydon; and 1847,Leichhardt.) The aboriginal name of the bird is Kookaburra (q.v.), and by this name it is generallycalled in Sydney; another spelling is Gogobera.
There is another bird called a Laughing Jackass in NewZealand which is not a Kingfisher, but an Owl, Sceloglauxalbifacies, Kaup. (Maori name, Whekau). The NewZealand bird is rare, the Australian bird very common. Theso-called Derwent Jackass of Tasmania is a Shrike(Cracticus cinereus, Gould), and is more properly calledthe Grey Butcher-bird. See Butcher-bird.
1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' p. 287:
Description given with picture, but under name «Great Brown Kingsfisher» [sic].
Ibid. p. 156:
Similar bird, with description and picture, under name «Sacred King's Fisher.»
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 137:
«We not long after discovered the Great Brown King's Fisher,of which a plate is annexed. This bird has been described byMr. Latham in his `General Synopsis of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 603.
Ibid. p. 193:
«We this day shot the Sacred King's-Fisher (see plate annexed).»
1798. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South Wales,'p. 615, (Vocabulary):
«Gi-gan-ne-gine. Bird named by us the Laughing Jackass.
Go-con-de – – inland name for it.»
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.p. 232:
«The loud and discordant noise of the laughing jackass (or settler's-clock, as he is called), as he takes up his roost onthe withered bough of one of our tallest trees, acquaints usthat the sun has just dipped behind the hills.»
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of LinnaeanSociety,' vol. xv. p. 204:
«The settlers call this bird the Laughing Jackass. I have alsoheard it called the Hawkesbury-Clock (clocks being at theperiod of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there notbeing one perhaps in the whole Hawkesbury settlement), for itis among the first of the feathered tribes which announce theapproach of day.»
1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,'p. 71:
«The laughing jackass, or settler's-clock is an uncouth lookingcreature of an ashen brown colour . . . This bird is thefirst to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus ithas received its other name, the settler's clock.»
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 234:
«I usually rise when I hear the merry laugh of the laughing-jackass ( Dacelo gigantea), which, from its regularity,has not been unaptly named the settlers' – clock.»
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 18:
« Dacelo Gigantea, Leach, Great Brown King Fisher;Laughing Jackass of the Colonists.»
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58:
«You are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks ofgeese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of thelaughing jackass ( Dacelo gigantea) a species of jay.»
[Howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azureiridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colourlike the blue feathers on the jay.]
1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vi. p. 145:
«The odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes fromthe `Laughing Jackass.'»
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18:
«At daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as ifthe infernal regions had been broken loose – – this was the song ofanother feathered innocent, the laughing jackass – – not half a badsort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes,and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water.»
1880. T. W. Nutt, `Palace of Industry,' p. 15:
«Where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve.»
[Footnote] «The familiar laughing jackass.»
1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 13:
«Dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynicof the woods, as A. P. Martin calls the laughing jackass,seemed to mock us for our pains.»
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 37:
«The harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jackass.»
1881. D. Blair, `Cyclopaedia of Australasia,' p. 202:
«The 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 anold story] p. 155:
«The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which hadattracted his attention. `Your grace, we call that thelaughing jackass in this country, but I don't know thebotanical [sic] name of the bird.»
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 27:
«Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as thiscurious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy andunattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jackass,it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. Itboldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and isconsequently the friend of the colonist.»
1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:
«`There's a jackass – – a real laughing jackass on that deadbranch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know – – 'and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all ofa sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolicaltremolo 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.»
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 122:
« Athene Albifacies, wekau of the Maoris, is known bysome up-country settlers as the big owl or laughingjackass.»
«The cry of the laughing jackass . . . Why it should sharewith one of our petrels and the great Dacelo ofAustralia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not;if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollableoutburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never beenable to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in theunearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird.»
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198:
« Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup., Laughing Owl; LaughingJackass of the Colonists.»
[The following quotation refers to the Derwent Jackass.]
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 110:
«You have heard of . . . the laughing jackass. We, too, havea `jackass,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable,except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when severalpipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of verytalkative people all chattering against time, and all at once.»