A Horse Of Air

A Horse of Air is a Miles Franklin Award winning novel by Australian author Dal Stivens. The horse of the title makes reference to the Australian Aboriginal term for the night parrot. When horses where first introduced to the Australian mainland, their galloping motion was said to resemble the flight of the now critically endangered low-flying parrot. Stivens was himself a keen ornithologist who, interestingly, favoured finches over parrots.