A keen bird fancier, the kind who spends weekends in the bush with binoculars hoping to spot rare species, heard about a place in the mountains where strange hybrids were being bred.
He arranged to visit the aviary and was shown around.
The breeder pointed out a black-and-white bird with patches of pink and grey, the result of crossing a magpie and a galah. “We call it a maglah,” he said.
The next one, brightly coloured with bits of grey, was high up a gumtree and laughing… a cross between a kookaburra and rosella. “We call it a kookella,” the breeder said.
Many other birds were seen and explained. One of them, floating on a pond and quacking, sported beautiful multicoloured plumes…a cross between a pheasant and a duck.
“We can’t work out a name for this one,” the breeder said. “Duckant sounds ridiculous”