On Hearing A Magpie Singing At Night Poem by Francis Duggan

The magpie on the gum tree is singing in the night
I hear him softly piping in the faint moonlight
From mid Winter all through the Spring sometimes on his roosting tree
He even sings in the dead of night to proclaim his territory.

Why the magpie often sings at night is beyond me to explain
He wakes and he sings for awhile and he goes to sleep again
A natural thing for him to do since his kind are born to sing
The magpies can be heard all year Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.

The magpie's song on a calm night is a pleasant thing to hear
It echoes through the silence so beautiful and clear
The spur winged plovers call in the paddock the frogs sing in the drain
These tiniest of amphibians their songs tell us of rain

The moonlit sky is full of stars with scarce a puff of breeze
And the sounds of Nature are profound on evenings such as these
And the magpie for to sing his song can't wait till dawn of day
At breeding time he sings at night it is his natural way