Page "Willie Wagtail" Paragraph 32

A tale from the Kieta district of Bougainville Island relates that Maneka, the Willie Wagtail, darting along a river bank echoes a legendary daughter looking for her mother who drowned trying to cross a river flooding in a storm.

The bird has been depicted on postage stamps in Palau and the Solomon Islands, and has also appeared as a character in Australian children's literature, such as Dot and the Kangaroo ( 1899 ), Blinky Bill Grows Up ( 1935 ), and Willie Wagtail and Other tales ( 1929 ).