(also Gogobera and Goburra)
the aboriginal name for the bird called the Laughing Jackass (q.v.). The first spelling isthat under which the aboriginal name now survives in English,and is the name by which the bird is generally called in Sydney.
1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 123:
«And wild goburras laughed aloud
Their merry morning songs.»
1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 167:
«The rude rough rhymes of the wild goburra's song.»
1886. E. M. Curr, `Australian Race,' p. 29:
«The notes of this bird are chiefly composed of the sounds ka and koo, and from them it takes its namein most of the languages . . . It is noticeable in somelocalities that burra is the common equivalent of people or tribe, and that the Pegulloburra . . .the Owanburra, and many other tribes, called the laughing-jackass – – kakooburra, kakaburra, kakoburra, and so on; literallythe Kakoo people.» [Mr. Curr's etymology is notgenerally accepted.]
1890. `The Argus,' Oct. 25, p. 4, col 5:
«You might hear the last hoot of the kookaburra then.»
1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 26, p. 5, col. 4:
«But what board will intervene to protect the disappearingmarsupials, and native flora, the lyre-bird, the kookaburra,and other types which are rapidly disappearing despite the lawswhich have been framed in some instances for their protection?»
1894. E. P. Ramsay, `Catalogue of Australian Birds in theAustralian Museum at Sydney,' p. 2, s.v. Dacelo:
«Gogobera, aborigines of New South Wales.»