The Laughing Owl (Sceloglaux albifacies), also known as Whēkau or the White-faced Owl, was an endemic owl found in New Zealand, but is now extinct. It was plentiful when European settlers arrived in New Zealand in 1840. Specimens were sent to the British Museum, where a scientific description was published in 1845. The species belongs to the monotypic genus Sceloglaux ("scoundrel owl", probably because of the mischievous-sounding calls).
Read more about Laughing Owl: Description, Distribution and Subspecies, Ecology and Behaviour, Extinction
Famous quotes containing the words laughing and/or owl:
“Found this picture of Angie laughing in a restaurant with some other people, everybody pretty but beyond that it was like they had this glow, not really in the photograph but it was there anyway, something you feel. Look, she said to Lanette, showing her the picture, they got this glow.
It’s called money, Lanette said.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern’st good night.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)