Kookaburra sits . . .

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be.

Yesterday, Jackson and I spotted our first kookaburra in Australia. I say spotted, because a week or so ago, Drew and I actually heard the kookaburras laughing.

"What is that?" Drew asked. "Monkeys?"

"Maybe," I agreed.

I am exposing our combined total lack of wildnerness knowledge here. Did we seriously think there were monkeys in the city? (Yes, we did.) Brisbane may be Australia's "cow town," but it is still a city of 1.8 million. Seriously.

Turns out the kookaburra song most of us know from childhood (But from where? Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts?) was written back in 1936, and introduced at a Scout Jamboree in Melbourne, Australia. In case one round is not enough to satisfy, here are the rest of the lyrics.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.
Eating all the gum drops he can see.
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.
Counting all the monkeys he can see.
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey that's me.

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail.
Gets a boo-boo in his tail.
Cry, Kookaburra! Cry, kookaburra!
Oh how life can be.

[Note: Unfortunately for the kookaburra, a "gum tree" is what we know as a eucalyptus tree, and the "gum drops" he eats are beads of the resinous sap. Yum.]