The _Dacelo gigantea_ is a bird with which every resident and traveller in New South Wales is more or less familiar, for independently of its large size, which in itself would tend to attract attention, its voice is so extraordinary as to be unlike that of any other living creature. In its disposition it is by no means shy, and when any new objects are presented to its notice, such as a party traversing the bush or pitching their tent in the vicinity of its retreat, it becomes very prying and inquisitive, often perching on the dead branch of some neighbouring tree, and watching with the greatest curiosity the kindling of the fire and the preparation of the meal; its presence, however, owing to the quietude with which it passes through the forest, and the almost noiseless manner in which it settles, is seldom detected until it emits its extraordinary gurgling, laughing note, which generally calls forth some exclamation according with the temper of the hearer, such as “There is our old friend the Laughing Jackass,” or an epithet of a less friendly character: not unfrequently does its life pay the penalty of its temerity; for if, as is often the case, the traveller’s larder be ill-provided and his appetite keen, but a few minutes elapse before it is roasting over the fire it was lately surveying with so much curiosity. So remarkable are the sounds emitted by the bird that they have been noted by nearly every writer on New South Wales and its productions. Mr. Caley states that its “loud noise, somewhat like laughing, may be heard at a considerable distance, from which circumstance, and its uncouth appearance, it probably received the extraordinary appellation given to it by the settlers on their first arrival in the colony.” Captain Sturt says, “Its cry, which resembles a chorus of wild spirits, is apt to startle the traveller who may be in jeopardy, as if laughing and mocking at his misfortune;” and Mr. Bennett, in his ‘Wanderings,’ says, “Its peculiar gurgling laugh, commencing in a low and gradually rising to a high and loud tone, is often heard in all parts of the colony; the deafening noise being poured forth while the bird remains perched upon a neighbouring tree; it rises with the dawn, when the woods re-echo with its gurgling laugh; at sunset it is again heard; and as that glorious orb sinks in the west, a last ‘good night’ is given in its peculiar tones to all within hearing.”