A SIDEWAYS GLANCE : NOT A G'DAY FOR KANGAROO.Two seldom seen mammals and a bird of the bush that Australians endearingly refer to as the Laughing Jackass laughing jackass: see kookaburra. laughing jackass bird whose cry brings in daylight. [Euahlayi Legend: How the People Sang The Mountains Up, 19] See : Dawn , or Jackie, are off to the next Olympics as officially designated mascots. If the echidna echidna, in zoology echidna (ĭkĭd`nə) or spiny anteater, primitive animal of the order Monotremata, the egg-laying mammals. , platypus platypus (plăt`əpəs), semiaquatic egg-laying mammal, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, of Tasmania and E Australia. Also called duckbill, or duckbilled platypus, it belongs to the order Monotremata (see monotreme), the most primitive group and kookaburra kookaburra (k  k`əbûr'ə), common name for a squat, long-tailed Australian kingfisher, Dacelo navaguinae. are less familiar than, say, the kangaroo or koala koala (kōä`lə), arboreal marsupial, or pouched mammal, Phascolarctos cinereus, native to Australia. Although it is sometimes called koala bear, or Australian bear, and is somewhat bearlike in appearance, it is not related to true , that's bonza, or all right, with the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Organizing Committee. ``Australians very quickly would have found the kangaroo a big yawn,'' said John Moore, the committee's marketing director, ``and a koala is a koala is a koala.'' The echidna and the platypus are the world's only two egg-laying mammals. The echidna, or spiny anteater, lives anywhere from the desert to the rain forest. It is covered with quills and catches ants and other insects in the sticky saliva of its tongue. The platypus, inhabiting the waterways of eastern Australia, has a duck-like bill, webbed feet and flattened tail. It eats aquatic food that it stores in cheek pouches. The kookaburra, the largest member of the kingfisher family, is so known for its loud cackle. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: No Caption (Kangaroo) |
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