How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts · Chapter
The Coot; The Bandicoot explained
The chapter humorously discusses the common Coot (or mud-hen) and the Australian Bandicoot, suggesting the latter springs from 'Kanga-roots' and their ancestral tree, with a playful motto.
What happens
The chapter humorously discusses the common Coot (or mud-hen) and the Australian Bandicoot, suggesting the latter springs from 'Kanga-roots' and their ancestral tree, with a playful motto.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.
- Setup
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional and psychological peak occurs in the tension between the Ibis’s preserved, sacred death and the…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Wordplay and Homophones
Puns on 'at-tri-bute' and 'Kanga-roots' (kangaroo roots), and the motto 'O possum' playing on 'opossum'.
- Humor and Absurdity
Absurd notion that Bandicoots spring from roots of an ancestral tree, with a whimsical motto.
Characters to notice
- the Birds
The Coot is a bird, referenced as 'mud-hen' and 'Earth-born'.
Key passages
“I do not wish to at‑tri‑bute Importance to the common Coot, Or mud-hen, whom most persons scorn, Because she chanced to be “Earth-born.””
I don't want to give undue credit to the ordinary Coot, also called mud-hen, which people look down on just because it's a common bird.
Explains the speaker's dismissive yet playful tone toward the Coot.
“The small Australian Bandicoots Are said to spring from Kanga‑roots, Which roots, as you of course foresee, Are those of their ancestral tree, The motto of which vegetable Is just “O possum” 2 (I am able).”
Little Australian bandicoots supposedly come from 'kanga-roots,' which are the roots of their family tree, whose motto is 'O possum' (a pun on 'opossum' and 'I am able').
Highlights the pun and absurd origin story for bandicoots.
