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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/27977.txt b/27977.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58b964e --- /dev/null +++ b/27977.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50808 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Dictionary of Austral English, by Edward Morris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Dictionary of Austral English + +Author: Edward Morris + +Release Date: February 3, 2009 [EBook #27977] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DICTIONARY OF AUSTRAL ENGLISH *** + + + + +Produced by Geoffrey Cowling + + + + + +AUSTRAL ENGLISH + +A DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN WORDS, PHRASES AND USAGES + +with those Aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have +become incorporated in the language and the commoner scientific +words that have had their origin in Australasia + +by Edward E. Morris M.A., Oxon. + +Professor of English, French and German Languages and +Literatures in the University of Melbourne. + +1898 + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +CONTENTS + + +I. ORIGIN OF THE WORK + First undertaken to help O.E.D. + The Standard Dictionary + +II. TITLE AND SCOPE OF THE BOOK + Not a Slang Dictionary + +III. SOURCES OF NEW WORDS:-- + 1. Altered English + 2. Words quite new to the language:-- + (a) Aboriginal Australian + (b) Maori + +IV. THE LAW OF HOBSON-JOBSON + Is Austral English a corruption? + +V. CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS + +VI. QUOTATIONS. THEIR PURPOSE + +VII. BOOKS USED AS AUTHORITIES + +VIII.SCIENTIFIC WORDS + +IX. ASSISTANCE RECEIVED + +X. ABBREVIATIONS:-- + 1. Of Scientific Names + 2. General + + + +I. ORIGIN OF THE WORK. + + +About a generation ago Mr. Matthew Arnold twitted our nation +with the fact that "the journeyman work of literature" was much +better done in France--the books of reference, the biographical +dictionaries, and the translations from the classics. He did +not especially mention dictionaries of the language, because he +was speaking in praise of academies, and, as far as France is +concerned, the great achievement in that line is Littre and not +the Academy's Dictionary. But the reproach has now been rolled +away--<i>nous avons change tout cela</i>--and in every branch +to which Arnold alluded our journeyman work is quite equal to +anything in France. + +It is generally allowed that a vast improvement has taken place +in translations, whether prose or verse. From quarter to +quarter the <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> continues +its stately progress. But the noblest monument of English +scholarship is <i>The New English Dictionary on Historical +Principles</i>, founded mainly on the materials collected by +the Philological Society, edited by Dr. James Murray, and +published at the cost of the University of Oxford. The name +<i>New</i> will, however, be unsuitable long before the +Dictionary is out of date. Its right name is the <i>Oxford +English Dictionary</i> (`O.E.D.'). That great dictionary is +built up out of quotations specially gathered for it from +English books of all kinds and all periods; and Dr. Murray +several years ago invited assistance from this end of the world +for words and uses of words peculiar to Australasia, or to +parts of it. In answer to his call I began to collect; but +instances of words must be noted as one comes across them, and +of course they do not occur in alphabetical order. The work +took time, and when my parcel of quotations had grown into a +considerable heap, it occurred to me that the collection, if a +little further trouble were expended upon it, might first enjoy +an independent existence. Various friends kindly contributed +more quotations: and this Book is the result. + +In January 1892, having the honour to be President of the +Section of "Literature and the Fine Arts" at the Hobart Meeting +of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, +I alluded to Dr. Murray's request: + +A body like this Section, composed of men from different parts +of scattered colonies, might render valuable help in organising +the work of collecting authorities for our various peculiar +words and usages. Twenty or thirty men and women, each +undertaking to read certain books with the new dictionary in +mind, and to note in a prescribed fashion what is peculiar, +could accomplish all that is needed. Something has been done +in Melbourne, but the Colonies have different words and uses of +words, and this work is of a kind which might well extend +beyond the bounds of a single city. At first it may seem as if +our words were few, as if in the hundred years of Australian +life few special usages have arisen; but a man with a +philological turn of mind, who notes what he hears, will soon +find the list grow. Some philologers speak, not perhaps very +satisfactorily, of being "at the fountains of language": we can +all of us testify to the birth of some words within our own +memory, but the origin of these, if not noted, will in time be +lost. There are many other words which the strictest cannot +condemn as slang, though even slang, being the speech of the +people, is not undeserving of some scientific study; words, for +instance, which have come into the language from the +Aborigines, and names of animals, shrubs, and flowers. It +might even be possible, with sufficient co-operation, to +produce an Australian dictionary on the same lines as the +<i>New English Dictionary</i> by way of supplement to it. +Organisation might make the labour light, whilst for many it +would from its very nature prove a pleasant task. + +These suggestions were not carried out. Individuals sent +quotations to Oxford, but no organisation was established to +make the collection systematic or complete, and at the next +meeting of the Association the Section had ceased to exist, +or at least had doffed its literary character. + +At a somewhat later date, Messrs. Funk and Wagnall of New York +invited me to join an "Advisory Committee on disputed spelling +and pronunciation." That firm was then preparing its +<i>Standard Dictionary</i>, and one part of the scheme was to +obtain opinions as to usage from various parts of the +English-speaking world, especially from those whose function it +is to teach the English Language. Subsequently, at my own +suggestion, the firm appointed me to take charge of the +Australian terms in their Dictionary, and I forwarded a certain +number of words and phrases in use in Australia. But the +accident of the letter A, for Australian, coming early in the +alphabet gives my name a higher place than it deserves on the +published list of those co-operating in the production of this +<i>Standard Dictionary</i>; for with my present knowledge I see +that my contribution was lamentably incomplete. Moreover, I +joined the Editorial Corps too late to be of real use. Only +the final proofs were sent to me, and although my corrections +were reported to New York without delay, they arrived too late +for any alterations to be effected before the sheets went to +press. This took the heart out of my work for that Dictionary. +For its modernness, for many of its lexicographical features, +and for its splendid illustrations, I entertain a cordial +admiration for the book, and I greatly regret the unworthiness +of my share in it. It is quite evident that others had +contributed Australasian words, and I must confess I hardly +like to be held responsible for some of their statements. For +instance-- + + "<i>Aabec</i>. An Australian medicinal bark said to promote +perspiration." + +I have never heard of it, and my ignorance is shared by the +greatest Australian botanist, the Baron von Mueller. + +"<i>Beauregarde</i>. The Zebra grass-parrakeet of Australia. +From F. beau, regarde. See BEAU n. and REGARD." + +As a matter of fact, the name is altered out of recognition, +but really comes from the aboriginal <i>budgery</i>, good, and +<i>gar</i>, parrot. + +"<i>Imou-pine</i>. A large New Zealand tree. . . . called +<i>red pine</i> by the colonists and <i>rimu</i> by the +natives." + +I can find no trace of the spelling "Imou." In a circular to +New Zealand newspapers I asked whether it was a known variant. +The <i>New Zealand Herald</i> made answer--"He may be sure that +the good American dictionary has made a misprint. It was +scarcely worth the Professor's while to take notice of mere +examples of pakeha ignorance of Maori." + +"Swagman. [Slang, Austral.] 1. A dealer in cheap trinkets, etc. +2. A swagger." + +In twenty-two years of residence in Australia, I have never heard +the former sense. + +"<i>Taihoa</i>. [Anglo-Tasmanian.] No hurry; wait." + +The word is Maori, and Maori is the language of New Zealand, not +of Tasmania. + +These examples, I know, are not fair specimens of the accuracy +of the Standard Dictionary, but they serve as indications of +the necessity for a special book on Australasian English. + + + +II. TITLE AND SCOPE OF THE BOOK. + + +In the present day, when words are more and more abbreviated, +a "short title" may be counted necessary to the welfare of a +book. For this reason "Austral English" has been selected. +In its right place in the dictionary the word <i>Austral</i> +will be found with illustrations to show that its primary meaning, +"southern," is being more and more limited, so that the word +may now be used as equivalent to <i>Australasian</i>. + +"Austral" or "Australasian English" means all the new words and +the new uses of old words that have been added to the English +language by reason of the fact that those who speak English +have taken up their abode in Australia, Tasmania, and New +Zealand. Hasty inference might lead to the remark that such +addition is only slang, but the remark is far from being +accurate; probably not one-tenth of the new vocabulary could +fairly be so classified. A great deal of slang is used in +Australasia, but very much less is generated here than is +usually believed. In 1895 a literary policeman in Melbourne +brought out a small <i>Australian Slang Dictionary</i>. In +spite of the name, however, the compiler confesses that "very +few of the terms it contains have been invented by +Australians." My estimate is that not one word in fifty in his +little book has an Australian origin, or even a specially +Australian use. + +The phrase "Australasian English" includes something much wider +than slang. Those who, speaking the tongue of Shakspeare, of +Milton, and of Dr. Johnson, came to various parts of +Australasia, found a Flora and a Fauna waiting to be named in +English. New birds, beasts and fishes, new trees, bushes and +flowers, had to receive names for general use. It is probably +not too much to say that there never was an instance in history +when so many new names were needed, and that there never will +be such an occasion again, for never did settlers come, nor can +they ever again come, upon Flora and Fauna so completely +different from anything seen by them before. When the +offshoots of our race first began to settle in America, they +found much that was new, but they were still in the same North +Temperate zone. Though there is now a considerable divergence +between the American and the English vocabulary, especially in +technical terms, it is not largely due to great differences in +natural history. An oak in America is still a <i>Quercus</i>, +not as in Australia a <i>Casuarina</i>. But with the whole +tropical region intervening it was to be expected that in the +South Temperate Zone many things would be different, and such +expectation was amply fulfilled. In early descriptions of +Australia it is a sort of commonplace to dwell on this complete +variety, to harp on the trees that shed bark not leaves, and +the cherries with the stones outside. Since the days when +"Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and +to every beast of the field" never were so many new names +called for. Unfortunately, names were not given by the best +educated in the community, but often by those least qualified +to invent satisfactory names: not by a linguist, a botanist, an +ornithologist, an ichthyologist, but by the ordinary settler. +Even in countries of old civilisation names are frequently +conferred or new words invented, at times with good and at +times with unsatisfactory results, by the average man, whom it +is the modern fashion to call "the man in the street." Much of +Australasian nomenclature is due to "the man in the bush" +--more precise address not recorded. Givers of new names may +be benefactors to their language or violators of its purity and +simplicity, but in either case they are nearly always, like the +burial-place of Moses, unknown. + + + +III. SOURCES OF NEW WORDS. + + +Of Australasian additions to the English language there are two +main sources, which correspond to the twofold division of them +into new words and new uses of old words. + +1. Altered English. + +The commoner origin of Australasian English words is the +turning and twisting of an already existing English name. The +settler saw a fruit somewhat like a cherry. Though he knew +well that it was not a cherry, he christened it the "native +cherry." It may here be remarked that the prefix native is not +a satisfactory distinguishing adjective. Native bear, native +cherry, may teach the young Australian that the bear and the +cherry so named are not as the bear of the Arctic Regions or +the cherry of Europe. But in the British Museum the label does +not help much. The settler heard a bird laugh in what he +thought an extremely ridiculous manner, its opening notes +suggesting a donkey's bray--he called it the "laughing +jackass." His descendants have dropped the adjective, and it +has come to pass that the word "jackass" denotes to an +Australian something quite different from its meaning to other +speakers of our English tongue. The settler must have had an +imagination. Whip-bird, or Coach-whip, from the sound of the +note, Lyre-bird from the appearance of the outspread tail, are +admirable names. + +Another class of name brought the Australian word nearer to its +English use. "Robin" for instance is applied to birds of +various species not known in Europe. Bird-names, fish-names, +plant-names, are sometimes transferred to new species, +sometimes to a new genus, sometimes to an entirely different +Natural Order, bearing a resemblance to the original, either +real or fancied, as for instance "Magpie." It is hardly +necessary to dwell longer on this point, for almost every page +of the Dictionary bears witness to it. + +2. Words new to the Language. + +(a) Aboriginal Australian. + +Many of the new Australasian words are taken from the languages +of the aborigines, often with considerable alteration due to +misunderstanding. Such words are either Australian or Maori. +Whilst in New Zealand careful attention has been paid by +competent scholars to the musical Maori language, it can hardly +be claimed that the Australian family of languages has ever +been scientifically studied, though there is a heap of printed +material--small grammars and lists of words--<i>rudis +indigestaque moles</i>. There is no doubt that the +vocabularies used in different parts of Australia and Tasmania +varied greatly, and equally little doubt that the languages, in +structure and perhaps originally in vocabulary, were more or +less connected. About the year 1883, Professor Sayce, of +Oxford, wrote a letter, which was published in <i>The +Argus</i>, pointing out the obligation that lay upon the +Australian colonies to make a scientific study of a vanishing +speech. The duty would be stronger were it not for the +distressing lack of pence that now is vexing public men. +Probably a sum of L300 a year would suffice for an educated +inquirer, but his full time for several years would be needed. +Such an one should be trained at the University as a linguist +and an observer, paying especial attention to logic and to +Comparative Philology. Whilst the colonies neglect their +opportunities, and Sibylla year by year withdraws her offer, +perhaps "the inevitable German" will intervene, and in a +well-arranged book bring order out of the chaos of vocabularies +and small pamphlets on the subject, all that we have to trust +to now. + +The need of scientific accuracy is strong. For the purposes of +this Dictionary I have been investigating the origin of words, +more or less naturalised as English, that come from aboriginal +Australian, in number between seventy and a hundred. I have +received a great deal of kind assistance, many people taking +much trouble to inform me. But there is a manifest lack of +knowledge. Many supplied me with the meanings of the words as +used in English, but though my appeal was scattered far and +wide over Australia (chiefly through the kindness of the +newspapers), few could really give the origin of the words. +Two amongst the best informed went so far as to say that +Australian words have no derivation. That doctrine is hard to +accept. A word of three syllables does not spring complete +from the brain of an aboriginal as Athene rose fully armed from +the head of Zeus. + +It is beyond all doubt that the vocabularies of the Aborigines +differed widely in different parts. Frequently, the English +have carried a word known in one district to a district where +it was not known, the aboriginals regarding the word as pure +English. In several books statements will be found that such +and such a word is not Aboriginal, when it really has an +aboriginal source but in a different part of the Continent. +Mr. Threlkeld, in his <i>Australian Grammar</i>, which is +especially concerned with the language of the Hunter River, +gives a list of "barbarisms," words that he considers do not +belong to the aboriginal tongue. He says with perfect +truth-"Barbarisms have crept into use, introduced by sailors, +stockmen, and others, in the use of which both blacks and +whites labour under the mistaken idea, that each one is +conversing in the other's language." And yet with him a +"barbarism" has to be qualified as meaning "not belonging to +the Hunter District." But Mr. Threlkeld is not the only writer +who will not acknowledge as aboriginal sundry words with an +undoubted Australian pedigree. + +(b) Maori. + +The Maori language, the Italian of the South, has received very +different treatment from that meted out by fate and +indifference to the aboriginal tongues of Australia. It has +been studied by competent scholars, and its grammar has been +comprehensively arranged and stated. A Maori Dictionary, +compiled more than fifty years ago by a missionary, afterwards +a bishop, has been issued in a fourth edition by his son, who +is now a bishop. Yet, of Maori also, the same thing is said +with respect to etymology. A Maori scholar told me that, when +he began the study many years ago, he was warned by a very +distinguished scholar not to seek for derivations, as the +search was full of pitfalls. It was not maintained that words +sprang up without an origin, but that the true origin of most +of the words was now lost. In spite of this double warning, it +may be maintained that some of the origins both of Maori and of +Australian words have been found and are in this book recorded. + +The pronunciation of Maori words differs so widely from that of +Australian aboriginal names that it seems advisable to insert a +note on the subject. + +Australian aboriginal words have been written down on no +system, and very much at hap-hazard. English people have +attempted to express the native sounds phonetically according +to English pronunciation. No definite rule has been observed, +different persons giving totally different values to represent +the consonant and vowel sounds. In a language with a spelling +so unphonetic as the English, in which the vowels especially +have such uncertain and variable values, the results of this +want of system have necessarily been very unsatisfactory and +often grotesque. Maori words, on the other hand, have been +written down on a simple and consistent system, adopted by the +missionaries for the purpose of the translation of the Bible. +This system consists in giving the Italian sound to the vowels, +every letter--vowel and consonant--having a fixed and +invariable value. Maori words are often very melodious. In +pronunciation the best rule is to pronounce each syllable with +a nearly equal accent. + +Care has been taken to remember that this is an Australasian +<i>English</i> and not a Maori Dictionary; therefore to exclude +words that have not passed into the speech of the settlers. +But in New Zealand Maori is much more widely used in the matter +of vocabulary than the speech of the aborigines is in +Australia, or at any rate in the more settled parts of +Australia; and the Maori is in a purer form. Though some words +and names have been ridiculously corrupted, the language of +those who dwell in the bush in New Zealand can hardly be called +<i>Pigeon English</i>, and that is the right name for the +"lingo" used in Queensland and Western Australia, which, only +partly represented in this book, is indeed a falling away from +the language of Bacon and Shakspeare. + + + +IV. LAW OF HOBSON-JOBSON. + + +In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the +expression "the law of Hobson-Jobson." The name is an +adaptation from the expression used by Col. Yule and +Mr. Burnell as a name for their interesting Dictionary of +Anglo-Indian words. The law is well recognised, though it has +lacked the name, such as I now venture to give it. When a word +comes from a foreign language, those who use it, not +understanding it properly, give a twist to the word or to some +part of it from the hospitable desire to make the word at home +in its new quarters, no regard, however, being paid to the +sense. The most familiar instance in English is +<i>crayfish</i> from the French <i>ecrevisse</i>, though it is +well known that a crayfish is not a fish at all. Amongst the +Mohammedans in India there is a festival at which the names of +"Hassan" and "Hosein" are frequently called out by devotees. +Tommy Atkins, to whom the names were naught, converted them +into "Hobson, Jobson." That the practice of so altering words +is not limited to the English is shown by two perhaps not very +familiar instances in French, where "Aunt Sally" has become +<i>ane sale</i>, "a dirty donkey," and "bowsprit" has become +<i>beau pre</i>, though quite unconnected with "a beautiful +meadow." The name "Pigeon English" is itself a good example. +It has no connection with pigeon, the bird, but is an +Oriental's attempt to pronounce the word "business." It +hardly, however, seems necessary to alter the spelling to +"pidjin." + +It may be thought by some precisians that all Australasian +English is a corruption of the language. So too is +Anglo-Indian, and, <i>pace</i> Mr. Brander Matthews, there are +such things as Americanisms, which were not part of the +Elizabethan heritage, though it is perfectly true that many of +the American phrases most railed at are pure old English, +preserved in the States, though obsolete in Modern England; for +the Americans, as Lowell says, "could not take with them any +better language than that of Shakspeare." When we hear railing +at slang phrases, at Americanisms, some of which are admirably +expressive, at various flowers of colonial speech, and at words +woven into the texture of our speech by those who live far away +from London and from Oxford, and who on the outskirts of the +British Empire are brought into contact with new natural +objects that need new names, we may think for our comfort on +the undoubted fact that the noble and dignified language of the +poets, authors and preachers, grouped around Lewis XIV., sprang +from debased Latin. For it was not the classical Latin that is +the origin of French, but the language of the soldiers and the +camp-followers who talked slang and picked words up from every +quarter. English has certainly a richer vocabulary, a finer +variety of words to express delicate distinctions of meaning, +than any language that is or that ever was spoken: and this is +because it has always been hospitable in the reception of new +words. It is too late a day to close the doors against new +words. This <i>Austral English Dictionary</i> merely +catalogues and records those which at certain doors have +already come in. + + + +V. CLASSIFICATION OF THE WORDS. + + +The Dictionary thus includes the following classes of Words, +Phrases and Usages; viz.-- + +(1) Old English names of Natural Objects--Birds, Fishes, +Animals, Trees, Plants, etc.--applied (in the first instance by +the early settlers) either to new Australian species of such +objects, or to new objects bearing a real or fancied +resemblance to them--as <i>Robin, Magpie, Herring, Cod, Cat, +Bear, Oak, Beech, Pine, Cedar, Cherry, Spinach, Hops, Pea, +Rose</i>. + +(2) English names of objects applied in Australia to others +quite different-as <i>Wattle</i>, a hurdle, applied as the name +of the tree <i>Wattle</i>, from whose twigs the hurdle was most +readily made; <i>Jackass</i>, an animal, used as the name for +the bird <i>Jackass</i>; <i>Cockatoo</i>, a birdname, applied +to a small farmer. + +(3) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been +incorporated unchanged in the language, and which still denote +the original object--as <i>Kangaroo, Wombat, Boomerang, Whare, +Pa, Kauri</i>. + +(4) Aboriginal Australian and Maori words which have been +similarly adopted, and which have also had their original +meaning extended and applied to other things--as <i>Bunyip, +Corrobbery, Warrigal</i>. + +(5) Anglicised corruptions of such words--as <i>Copper-Maori, +Go-ashore, Cock-a-bully, Paddy-melon, Pudding-ball, +Tooky-took</i>. + +(6) Fanciful, picturesque, or humorous names given to new +Australasian Natural Objects--as <i>Forty-spot, Lyre-bird, +Parson-bird, and Coach-whip</i> (birds); <i>Wait-a-while</i> (a +tangled thicket); <i>Thousand-jacket, Jimmy Low, Jimmy +Donnelly, and Roger Gough</i> (trees); <i>Axe-breaker, +Cheese-wood, and Raspberry Jam</i> (timbers); <i>Trumpeter, +Schnapper and Sergeant Baker</i> (fishes); +<i>Umbrella-grass</i> and <i>Spaniard</i> (native plants), and +so on. + +(7) Words and phrases of quite new coinage, or arising from +quite new objects or orders of things--as <i>Larrikin, Swagman, +Billy, Free-selector, Boundary-rider, Black-tracker, +Back-blocks, Clear-skin, Dummyism, Bushed.</i> + +(8) Scientific names arising exclusively from Australasian +necessities, chiefly to denote or describe new Natural Orders, +Genera, or Species confined or chiefly appertaining to +Australia--as <i>Monotreme, Petrogale, Clianthus, Ephthianura, +Dinornis, Eucalypt, Boronia, Ornithorhynchus, Banksia</i>. + +(9) Slang (of which the element is comparatively small)-- +as <i>Deepsinker, Duck-shoving, Hoot, Slushy, Boss-cockie, +On-the-Wallaby</i>. + + + +VI. QUOTATIONS. + +With certain exceptions, this Dictionary is built up, as a +Dictionary should be, on quotations, and these are very +copious. It may even be thought that their number is too +large. It is certainly larger, and in some places the +quotations themselves are much longer, than could ever be +expected in a general Dictionary of the English Language. This +copiousness is, however, the advantage of a special Dictionary. +The intention of the quotations is to furnish evidence that a +word is used as an English word; and many times the quotation +itself furnishes a satisfactory explanation of the meaning. I +hope, however, I shall not be held responsible for all the +statements in the quotations, even where attention is not drawn +to their incorrectness. Sundry Australasian uses of words are +given in other dictionaries, as, for instance, in the parts +already issued of the <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> and in +<i>The Century</i>, but the space that can be allotted to them +in such works is of necessity too small for full explanation. +Efforts have been made to select such quotations as should in +themselves be interesting, picturesque, and illustrative. In a +few cases they may even be humorous. + +Moreover, the endeavour has been constant to obtain quotations +from all parts of the Australasian Colonies--from books that +describe different parts of Australasia, and from newspapers +published far and wide. I am conscious that in the latter +division Melbourne papers predominate, but this has been due to +the accident that living in Melbourne I see more of the +Melbourne papers, whilst my friends have sent me more +quotations from books and fewer from newspapers. + +The quotations, however, are not all explanatory. Many times +a quotation is given merely to mark the use of a word at a +particular epoch. Quotations are all carefully dated and +arranged in their historical order, and thus the exact +chronological development of a word has been indicated. The +practice of the `O.E.D.' has been followed in this respect and +in the matter of quotations generally, though as a rule the +titles of books quoted have been more fully expressed here than +in that Dictionary. Early quotations have been sought with +care, and a very respectable antiquity, about a century, has +been thus found for some Australasian words. As far as +possible, the spelling, the stops, the capitals, and the +italics of the original have been preserved. The result is +often a rich variety of spelling the same word in consecutive +extracts. + +The last decade has been a very active time in Australian +science. A great deal of system has been brought into its +study, and much rearrangement of classification has followed as +the result. Both among birds and plants new species have been +distinguished and named: and there has been not a little change +in nomenclature. This Dictionary, it must be remembered, is +chiefly concerned with vernacular names, but for proper +identification, wherever possible, the scientific name is +added. In some cases, where there has been a recent change in +the latter, both the new and the older names are recorded. + + + +VII. AUTHORITIES. + + +The less-known birds, fishes, plants, and trees are in many +cases not illustrated by quotations, but have moved to their +places in the Dictionary from lists of repute. Many books have +been written on the Natural History of Australia and New +Zealand, and these have been placed under contribution. Under +the head of Botany no book has been of greater service than +Maiden's <i>Useful Native Plants</i>. Unfortunately many +scientific men scorn vernacular names, but Mr. Maiden has taken +the utmost pains with them, and has thereby largely increased +the utility of his volume. For Tasmania there is Mr. Spicer's +<i>Handbook of Tasmanian Plants</i>; for New Zealand, Kirk's +<i>Forest Flora</i> and Hooker's <i>Botany</i>. + +For Australian animals Lydekker's <i>Marsupials and +Monotremes</i> is excellent; especially his section on the +Phalanger or Australian <i>Opossum</i>, an animal which has +been curiously neglected by all Dictionaries of repute. On New +Zealand mammals it is not necessary to quote any book; for when +the English came, it is said, New Zealand contained no mammal +larger than a rat. Captain Cook turned two pigs loose; but it +is stated on authority, that these pigs left no descendants. +One was ridden to death by Maori boys, and the other was killed +for sacrilege: he rooted in a tapu burial-place. Nevertheless, +the settlers still call any wild-pig, especially if lean and +bony, a "Captain Cook." + +For the scientific nomenclature of Australian Botany the +<i>Census of Australian Plants</i> by the Baron von Mueller +(1889) is indispensable. It has been strictly followed. For +fishes reliance has been placed upon Tenison Woods' <i>Fishes +and Fisheries of New South Wales</i> (1882), on W. Macleay's +<i>Descriptive Catalogue of Australian Fishes</i> (Proceedings +of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, vols. v. and vi.), +and on Dr. Guenther's <i>Study of Fishes</i>. For the +scientific nomenclature of Animal Life, the standard of +reference has been the <i>Tabular List of all the Australian +Birds</i> by E. P. Ramsay of the Australian Museum, Sydney +(1888); <i>Catalogue of Australian Mammals</i> by J. O. Ogilby +of the Australian Museum, Sydney (1892); <i>Catalogue of +Marsupials and Monotremes</i>, British Museum (1888); +<i>Prodromus to the Natural History of Victoria</i> by Sir +F. McCoy. Constant reference has also been made to Proceedings +of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, Proceedings and +Transactions of the Royal Societies of Victoria and Tasmania, +and to the journal of the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria. + +The birds both in Australia and New Zealand have been +handsomely treated by the scientific illustrators. Gould's +<i>Birds of Australia</i> and Buller's <i>Birds of New +Zealand</i> are indeed monumental works. Neither Gould nor Sir +Walter Buller scorns vernacular names. But since the days of +the former the number of named species of Australian birds has +largely increased, and in January 1895, at the Brisbane Meeting +of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, +a Committee was appointed to draw up a list of vernacular +bird-names. By the kindness of a member of this Committee +(Mr. A. J. Campbell of Melbourne) I was allowed the use of a +list of such vernacular names drawn up by him and Col. Legge +for submission to the Committee. + + + +VIII. SCIENTIFIC WORDS. + + +The example of <i>The Century</i> has been followed in the +inclusion of sundry scientific names, especially those of +genera or Natural Orders of purely Australasian objects. +Although it is quite true that these can hardly be described as +Australasian <i>English</i>, it is believed that the course +adopted will be for the general convenience of those who +consult this Dictionary. + +Some of these "Neo-Latin" and "Neo-Greek" words are +extraordinary in themselves and obscure in their origin, though +not through antiquity. In his <i>Student's Pastime</i>, at +p. 293, Dr. Skeat says "Nowhere can more ignorant etymologies +be found than in works on Botany and `scientific' subjects. +Too often, all the science is reserved for the subject, so that +there is none to spare for explaining the names." + +A generous latitude has also been taken in including some words +undoubtedly English, but not exclusively Australasian, such as +<i>Anabranch</i>, and <i>Antipodes</i>, and some mining and +other terms that are also used in the United States. +Convenience of readers is the excuse. <i>Anabranch</i> is more +frequently used of Australian rivers than of any others, but +perhaps a little pride in tracking the origin of the word has +had something to do with its inclusion. Some words have been +inserted for purposes of explanation, e.g. <i>Snook</i>, in +Australasia called <i>Barracouta</i>, which latter is itself an +old name applied in Australasia to a different fish; and +<i>Cavally</i>, which is needed to explain <i>Trevally</i>. + + + +IX. ASSISTANCE RECEIVED. + + +There remains the pleasant duty of acknowledging help. Many +persons have given me help, whose names can hardly be listed +here. A friend, an acquaintance, or sometimes even a stranger, +has often sent a single quotation of value, or an explanation +of a single word. The Editors of many newspapers have helped +not a little by the insertion of a letter or a circular. To +all these helpers, and I reckon their number at nearly 200, I +tender my hearty thanks. + +Various officers of the Melbourne Public Library, and my friend +Mr. Edward H. Bromby, the Librarian of this University, have +rendered me much assistance. I have often been fortunate +enough to obtain information from the greatest living authority +on a particular subject: from the Baron von Mueller, from Sir +Frederick M'Coy, or from Mr. A. W. Howitt. [Alas! since I +penned this sentence, the kind and helpful Baron has been taken +from us, and is no longer the greatest living authority on +Australian Botany.] My friend and colleague, Professor Baldwin +Spencer, a most earnest worker in the field of Australian +science, gave many hours of valuable time to set these pages +right in the details of scientific explanations. +Mr. J. G. Luehmann of Melbourne has kindly answered various +questions about Botany, and Mr. A. J. North, of Sydney, in +regard to certain birds. Mr. T. S. Hall, of the Biological +Department of this University, and Mr. J. J. Fletcher, of +Sydney, the Secretary of the Linnaean Society of New South +Wales, have rendered me much help. The Rev. John Mathew, of +Coburg, near Melbourne, has thrown much light on aboriginal +words. The Rev. E. H. Sugden, Master of Queen's College in +this University, has furnished a large number of useful +quotations. His name is similarly mentioned, <i>honoris +causa</i>, in Dr. Murray's Preface to Part I. of the `O. E. D.' +Mr. R. T. Elliott of Worcester College, Oxford, has given +similar help. The Master himself,--the Master of all who +engage in Dictionary work,--Dr. Murray, of Oxford, has kindly +forwarded to me a few pithy and valuable comments on my +proof-streets. He also made me a strong appeal never to pass +on information from any source without acknowledgment. This, +the only honest course, I have striven scrupulously to follow; +but it is not always easy to trace the sources whence +information has been derived. + +When gaps in the sequence of quotations were especially +apparent on the proofs, Mr. W. Ellis Bird, of Richmond, +Victoria, found me many illustrative passages. For New Zealand +words a goodly supply of quotations was contributed by Miss +Mary Colborne-Veel of Christchurch, author of a volume of +poetry called <i>The Fairest of the Angels</i>, by her sister, +Miss Gertrude Colborne-Veel, and by Mr. W. H. S. Roberts of +Oamaru, author of a little book called <i>Southland in</i> +1856. In the matter of explanation of the origin and meaning +of New Zealand terms, Dr. Hocken of Dunedin, Mr. F. R. Chapman +of the same city, and Mr. Edward Tregear of Wellington, author +of the <i>Maori Polynesian Dictionary</i>, and Secretary of the +Polynesian Society, have rendered valuable and material +assistance. Dr. Holden of Bellerive, near Hobart, was perhaps +my most valued correspondent. After I had failed in one or two +quarters to enlist Tasmanian sympathy, he came to the rescue, +and gave me much help on Tasmanian words, especially on the +Flora and the birds; also on Queensland Flora and on the whole +subject of Fishes. Dr. Holden also enlisted later the help of +Mr. J. B. Walker, of Hobart, who contributed much to enrich my +proofs. But the friend who has given me most help of all has +been Mr. J. Lake of St. John's College, Cambridge. When the +Dictionary was being prepared for press, he worked with me for +some months, very loyally putting my materials into shape. +Birds, Animals, and Botany he sub-edited for me, and much of +the value of this part of the Book, which is almost an +Encyclopaedia rather than a Dictionary, is due to his ready +knowledge, his varied attainments, and his willingness to +undertake research. + +To all who have thus rendered me assistance I tender hearty +thanks. It is not their fault if, as is sure to be the case, +defects and mistakes are found in this Dictionarv. But should +the Book be received with public favour, these shall be +corrected in a later edition. + +EDWARD E. MORRIS. + +The University, Melbourne, +February 23, 1897 + + + + + +LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS OF NAMES + + +Ait. . . . Aiton. +Andr. . . . Andrews. + +B. and L. . Barere and L. +Bail. . . . Baillon. +Bechst. . . Bechstein. +Benth. . . Bentham. +Bl. . . . Bleeker. +Bodd. . . . Boddaert + +Bp. ) + ) . Bonaparte. +Bonap. ) + +R. Br. . . Robert Brown +Brong. . . Brongniart. + +Cab. . . . Cabanis. +Carr. . . . Carriere. +Castln. . . Castelnau. +Cav. . . . Cavanilles. +Corr. . . . Correa. + +Cunn. ) + ) . A. Cunningham +A. Cunn. ) + +Cuv. . . . Cuvier. + +De C. . . . De Candolle. +Dec. . . . Decaisne. +Desf. . . . Desfontaines. +Desm. . . . Desmarest. +Desv. . . . Desvaux. +De Tarrag. . De Tarragon +Diet. . . . Dietrich. +Donov. . . Donovan. +Drap. . . . Drapiez. +Dryand. . . Dryander. + +Endl. . . . Endlicher. + +Fab. . . . Fabricius. +Forsk. . . Forskael. +Forst. . . Forster. +F. v. M. . . Ferdinand von Mueller + +G. Forst. . G. Forster. +Gaertn. . . Gaertner. +Gaim. . . . Gaimard. +Garn. . . . Garnot. +Gaud. . . Gaudichaud. +Geoff. . . Geoffroy. +Germ. . . Germar. +Gmel. . . Gmelin. +Guich. . . Guichenot. +Gunth. . . Guenther. + +Harv. . . Harvey. +Hasselq. . . Hasselquin. +Haw. . . . Haworth. +Hens. . . Henslow. +Herb. . . Herbert. +Homb. . . Hombron. +Hook. . . J. Hooker. +Hook. f. . . Hooker fils. +Horsf. . . Horsfield. + +Ill. . . . Illiger. + +Jacq. . . . Jacquinot. +Jard. . . . Jardine. + +L. and S. . Liddell and Scott. + +Lab. ) + ) . Labillardiere. +Labill. ) + +Lacep. . . Lacepede. +Lath. . . . Latham. +Lehm. . . Lehmann. +Less. . . Lesson. +L'herit. . . L'Heritier. +Licht. . . Lichtenstein. +Lindl. . . Lindley. +Linn. . . . Linnaeus. + +Macl. . . . Macleay. +McC. . . . McCoy. +Meissn. . . Meissner. +Menz. . . Menzies. +Milne-Ed. . Milne-Edwards. +Miq. . . . Miquel. + +Parlat. . . Parlatore. +Pers. . . . Persoon. + +Plan. ) + ) . Planchol. +Planch. ) + +Poir. . . Poiret. + +Q. . . . Quoy. + +Rafll. . . Raffles. +Rein. . . . Reinwardt. +Reiss. . . Reisseck. + +Rich. ) + ) . Richardson. +Richards.) + +Roxb. . . Roxburgh + +Sal. . . . Salvadori. +Salisb. . . Salisbury. +Schau. . . Schauer. + +Schl. ) + ) . Schlechten +Schlecht.) + +Selb. . . . Selby. +Ser. . . . Seringe. +Serv. . . . Serville. +Sieb. . . . Sieber. +Sm. . . . Smith. +Sol. . . . Solander. +Sow. . . . Sowerby. +Sparrm. . . Sparrman. +Steph. . . Stephan. +Sundev. . . Sundevall. + +Sw. ) + ) . Swainson. +Swains. ) + +Temm. . . Temminck. +Thunb. . . Thunberg. +Tul. . . . Tulasne. + +V. and H. . Vigors and Horsfield. +Val. . . . Valenciennes. +Vent. . . . Ventenat. +Vieill. . . Vieillot. +Vig. . . . Vigors. + +Wagl. . . . Wagler. +Water. . . Waterhouse. +Wedd. . . . Weddell. +Willd. . . Willdenow. + +Zimm. . . . Zimmermann. + + + +OTHER ABBREVIATIONS + +q.v. <i>quod vide</i>, which see. + +i.q. <i>idem quod</i>, the same as. + +ibid. <i>ibidem</i>, in the same book. + +i.e. <i>id est</i>, that is. + +sc. <i>scilicet</i>, that is to say. + +s.v. <i>sub voce</i>, under the word. + +cf. <i>confer</i>, compare. + +n. noun, + +adj. adjective. + +v. verb. + +prep. preposition. + +interj. interjection. + +<i>sic</i>, "thus," draws attention to some peculiarity of + diction or to what is believed to be a mistake. + +N.O. Natural Order. + +sp. a species, + +spp. various species. + +A square bracket [ ] shows an addition to a quotation by way +of comment. + +O.E.D. "Oxford English Dictionary," often formerly quoted + as "N.E.D." or "New English Dictionary." + + + +AUSTRALASIAN DICTIONARY + + +A + + +<hw>Absentee</hw>, <i>n</i>. euphemistic term for a convict. +The word has disappeared with the need for it. + +1837. Jas. Mudie, `Felonry of New South Wales,' p. vii.: + +"The ludicrous and affected philanthropy of the present +Governor of the Colony, in advertising runaway convicts under +the soft and gentle name of <i>absentees</i>, is really +unaccountable, unless we suppose it possible that his +Excellency as a native of Ireland, and as having a +well-grounded Hibernian antipathy to his absentee countrymen, +uses the term as one expressive both of the criminality of the +absentee and of his own abhorrence of the crime." + +<hw>Acacia</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a genus of shrubs or +trees, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. The Australian species often +form thickets or scrubs, and are much used for hedges. The +species are very numerous, and are called provincially by +various names, e.g. "Wattle," "Mulga," "Giddea," and "Sally," +an Anglicized form of the aboriginal name <i>Sallee</i> (q.v.). +The tree peculiar to Tasmania, <i>Acacia riceana</i>, Hensl., +(i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, is there called the <i>Drooping +Acacia</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 202: + +"We possess above a hundred and thirty species of the acacia." + +1839. Dr. J. Shotsky, quoted in `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, +p. 5, col. 2: + +"Yet, Australian sky and nature awaits and merits real artists +to portray it. Its gigantic gum and acacia trees, 40 ft. in +girth, some of them covered with a most smooth bark, externally +as white as chalk. .. ." + +1844. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland,' by J. D. Lang, p. 91: + +"Rosewood Acacia, the wood of which has a very agreeable violet +scent like the Myal Acacia (<i>A. pendula</i>) in Liverpool +Plains." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 149: + +"The Acacias are innumerable, all yielding a famous bark for +tanning, and a clean and excellent gum." + +1869. Mrs. Meredith, `A Tasmanian Memory,' p. 8: + +"Acacias fringed with gold." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 24: + +"The name Acacia, derived from the Greek, and indicative of a +thorny plant, was already bestowed by the ancient naturalist +and physician Dioscorides on a Gum-Arabic yielding +North-African Acacia not dissimilar to some Australian species. +This generic name is so familiarly known, that the appellation +`Wattle' might well be dispensed with. Indeed the name Acacia +is in full use in works on travels and in many popular writings +for the numerous Australian species . . . Few of any genera of +plants contain more species than Acacia, and in Australia it is +the richest of all; about 300 species, as occurring in our +continent, have been clearly defined." + +<hw>Acrobates</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +Australian genus of <i>Pigmy Flying-Phalangers</i>, or, as they +are locally called, <i>Opossum-Mice</i>. See <i>Opossum-Mouse, +Flying-Mouse, Flying-Phalanger</i>, and <i>Phalanger</i>. The +genus was founded by Desmarest in 1817. +(Grk. <i>'akrobataes</i>, walking on tiptoe.) + +<hw>AEpyprymnus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +of the <i>Rufous Kangaroo-Rat</i>. It is the tallest and +largest of the Kangaroo-Rats (q.v.). (Grk. <i>'aipus</i>, +high, and <i>prumnon</i>, the hinder part.) + +<hw>Ailuroedus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the genus of +Australian birds called <i>Cat-birds</i> (q.v.). From +Grk. <i>'ailouros</i>, a cat, and <i>'eidos</i>, species. + +<hw>Ake</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally Akeake, Maori name for either +of two small trees, (1) <i>Dodonaea viscosa</i>, Linn., in New +Zealand; (2) <i>Olearia traversii</i>, F. v. M., in the Chatham +Islands. Ake is originally a Maori <i>adv</i>. meaning +"onwards, in time." Archdeacon Williams, in his `Dictionary of +New Zealand Language,' says <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, +means " for ever and ever." (Edition 182.) + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church +Missionary Society), p.133: + +"Akeake, <i>paulo post futurum</i>" + +1835. W. Yale, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 47: + +"Aki, called the <i>Lignum vitae</i> of New Zealand." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 43: + +"The ake and towai . . . are almost equal, in point of colour, +to rosewood." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 131: + +"Ake, a small tree, 6 to 12 feet high. Wood very hard, +variegated, black and white; used for Maori clubs; abundant in +dry woods and forests." + +<hw>Alarm-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name no longer used in +Australia. There is an African Alarm-bird. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 9: + +"<i>Lobivanellus lobatus</i> (Lath.), Wattled Pewit, Alarm Bird of +the Colonists." + +<hw>Alectryon</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree and flower, +<i>Alectryon excelsum</i>, De C., Maori name <i>Titoki</i> +(q.v.); called also the <i>New Zealand Oak</i>, from the +resemblance of its leaves to those of an oak. Named by +botanists from Grk. <i>'alektruown</i>, a cock. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' I. 7, p. 16: + +"The early season could not yet +Have ripened the alectryon's beads of jet, +Each on its scarlet strawberry set." + +<hw>Alexandra Palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland tree, +<i>Ptychosperma alexandrae</i>, F. v. M. A beautifully marked +wood much used for making walking sticks. It grows 70 or 80 +feet high. + +<hw>Alluvial</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common term in Australia and +New Zealand for gold-bearing alluvial soil. The word is also +used adjectivally as in England. + +1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 403: + +"The whole of the alluvial will be taken up, and the Terrible +Hollow will re-echo with the sound of pick and shovel." + +<hw>Ambrite</hw> (generally called <B>ambrit</B>), <i>n</i>. +Mineral [from amber + ite, mineral formative, `O.E.D.'], a +fossil resin found in masses amidst lignite coals in various +parts of New Zealand. Some identify it with the resin of +<i>Dammara australis</i>, generally called <i>Kauri gum</i> +(q.v.). + +1867. F. von Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 79: + +"Although originating probably from a coniferous tree related +to the Kauri pine, it nevertheless has been erroneously taken +for Kauri gum."--[Footnote]: "It is sufficiently characterised +to deserve a special name ; but it comes so near to real +<i>amber</i> that it deserves the name of <i>Ambrite</i>." + +[This is the earliest use of the word.] + +<hw>Anabranch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a branch of a river which leaves +it and enters it again. The word is not Australian, though it +is generally so reckoned. It is not given in the `Century,' +nor in the `Imperial,' nor in `Webster,' nor in the `Standard.' +The `O.E.D.' treats <i>Ana</i> as an independent word, rightly +explaining it as <i>anastomosing</i>, but its quotation from +the `Athenaeum' (1871), on which it relies,is a misprint. For +the origin and coinage of the word, see quotation 1834. See +the aboriginal name <i>Billabong</i>. + +1834. Col.Jackson, `Journal of Royal Geographical Society,' p. 79: + +"Such branches of a river as after separation re-unite, I would +term <i>anastomosing-branches</i>; or, if a word might be +coined, <i>ana-branches</i>, and the islands they form, +<i>branch-islands</i>. Thus, if we would say, `the river in +this part of its course divides into several +<i>ana-branches</i>,' we should immediately understand the +subsequent re-union of the branches to the main trunk." + +Col. Jackson was for a while Secretary and Editor of the +Society's Journal. In Feb. 1847 he resigned that position, and +in the journal of that year there is the following amusing +ignorance of his proposed word-- + +1847. `Condensed Account of Sturt's Exploration in the +Interior of Australia--Journal of the Royal Geographical +Society,' p. 87: + +"Captain Sturt proposed sending in advance to ascertain the +state of the Ana branch of the Darling, discovered by Mr. Eyre +on a recent expedition to the North." + +No fewer than six times on two pages is the word +<i>anabranch</i> printed as two separate words, and as if +<i>Ana</i> were a proper name. In the Index volume it appears +"Ana, a branch of the Darling." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 35: + +"The river itself divided into anabranches which . . . made the +whole valley a maze of channels." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 298: + +"What the Major calls, after the learned nomenclature of +Colonel Jackson, in the `Journal of the Geographical Society,' +anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels +coming out of a stream and returning into it again." + +1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660 (' O.E.D.'): + +"The Loddon district is called the County of Gunbower, +which means, it is said, an ana branch [sic]." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 48: + +"A plain bordering an ana-branch sufficient for water." + +<hw>Anchorwing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, <i>Falco +melanogenys</i>, Gould. The Black-cheeked Falcon, so called +because of the resemblance of the wings outspread in flight to +the flukes of an anchor. + +<hw>Anguillaria</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the vernacular names +used for the common Australian wild flower, <i>Anguillaraa +australis</i>, R. Br., <i>Wurmbsea dioica</i>, F. v. M., +N.O. <i>Liliaceae</i>. The name <i>Anguillarea</i> is from the +administrator of the Botanic Gardens of Padua, three centuries +ago. There are three Australian forms, distinguished by Robert +Brown as species. The flower is very common in the meadows in +early spring, and is therefore called the <i>Native Snow +Drop</i>. In Tasmania it is called <i>Nancy</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' 67: + +"Spotted Anguillaria. Nancy. The little lively white flower +with blue spots in the centre, about 2 inches high, that +everywhere enlivens our grassy hills in spring, resembling the +Star of Bethlehem." + +1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany,' p. 83: + +"Native Snowdrop. <i>Anguillaria Australis</i>. The earliest +of all our indigenous spring-flowering plants. . . . In early +spring our fields are white with the flowers of this pretty +little bulbous-rooted plant." + +<hw>Ant-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. +(1) i.q. <i>Ant-eating-Porcupine</i>. See <i>Echidna</i>. +(2) The <i>Banded Ant-eater</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Ant-eater, Banded</hw>. See <i>Banded Ant-eater</i>. + +<hw>Antechinornys</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the genus +with the one species of <i>Long legged Pouched-Mouse</i> +(q.v.). (Grk. <i>'anti</i>, opposed to, <i>'echivos</i>, +hedgehog, and <i>mus</i>, mouse, sc. a mouse different to the +hedgehog.) It is a jumping animal exclusively insectivorous. + +<hw>Antipodes</hw>, <i>n</i>. properly a Greek word, the plural +of <i>'antipous</i>, lit. "having feet opposed." The +ancients, however, had no knowledge of the southern hemisphere. +Under the word <i>perioikos</i>, Liddell and Scott explain that +<i>'antipodes</i> meant "those who were in opposite parallels +and meridians." The word <i>Antipodes</i> was adopted into the +Latin language, and occurs in two of the Fathers, Lactantius +and Augustine. By the mediaeval church to believe in the +antipodes was regarded as heresy. `O.E.D.' quotes two examples +of the early use of the word in English. + +1398. `Trevisa Barth. De P. R.,' xv. lii. (1495), p. 506: + +"Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that have theyr fete +ayenst our fete." + +1556. `Recorde Cast. Knowl.,' 93: + +"People . . . called of the Greeks and Latines also +<i>'antipodes</i>, <i>Antipodes</i>, as you might say +Counterfooted, or Counterpasers." + +Shakspeare uses the word in five places, but, though he knew +that this "pendent world" was spherical, his Antipodes were not +Australasian. In three places he means only the fact that it +is day in the Eastern hemisphere when it is night in England. + +`Midsummer Night's Dream,' III. ii. 55: + + "I'll believe as soon +This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon +May thro' the centre creep and so displease +His brother's noontide with the Antipodes." + +`Merchant of Venice,' V. 127: + +"We should hold day with the Antipodes +If you would walk in absence of the sun." + +`Richard II.,' III. ii. 49: + +"Who all this while hath revell'd in the night, + Whilst we were wandering with the Antipodes." + +In `Henry VI.,' part 3, I. iv. 135, the word more clearly +designates the East: + +"Thou art as opposite to every good + As the Antipodes are unto us, + Or as the South to the Septentrion." [<i>sc</i>. the North.] + +But more precise geographical indications are given in `Much +Ado,' II. i. 273, where Benedick is so anxious to avoid +Beatrice that he says-- + +"I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that +you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a tooth-picker +now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of +Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair of the great Kam's beard; +do you any embassage to the Pygmies rather than hold three +words conference with this harpy." + +Now the Pygmies lived on the Upper Nile, near Khartoum, +Prester John in India, and the great Kam (Khan) in Tartary. + +The word <i>Antipodes</i> in modern use is applied rather to +places than to people. Geographically, the word means a place +exactly opposite on the surface of the globe, as Antipodes +Island (Eastward of New Zealand), which is very near the +opposite end of the diameter of the globe passing through +London. But the word is often used in a wider sense, and the +whole of Australasia is regarded as the Antipodes of Great +Britain. + +The question is often asked whether there is any singular to +the word Antipodes, and `O.E.D.' shows that <i>antipode</i> is +still used in the sense of the exact opposite of a +person. <i>Antipod</i> is also used, especially playfully. The +adjectives used are <i>Antipodal</i> and <i>Antipodean</i>. + +1640. Richard Brome [Title]: + +"The Antipodes; comedy in verse." [Acted in 1638, first +printed 4t0. 1640.] + +<hw>Ant-orchis</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian and Tasmanian +orchid, <i>Chiloglottis gunnii</i>, Lind. + +<hw>Apple</hw> and <hw>Apple-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. and +<i>adj</i>. The names are applied to various indigenous trees, +in some cases from a supposed resemblance to the English fruit, +in others to the foliage of the English tree. The varieties +are-- + +Black or Brush Apple-- + <i>Achras australis</i>, R. Br. + +Emu A.-- + <i>Owenia acidula</i>, F. v. M.; called also <i>Native + Nectarine</i> and <i>Native Quince</i>. + <i>Petalostigma quadriloculare</i>, F. v. M.; called also + <i>Crab-tree</i>, <i>Native Quince</i>, <i>Quinine-tree</i> + (q.v.) + +Kangaroo A.-- + See <i>Kangaroo Apple</i>. + +Mooley A. (West N.S.W. name)-- + <i>Owenia acidula</i>, F. v. M. + +Mulga A.-- + The Galls of <i>Acacia aneura</i>, F. v. M. + +Oak A.-- + Cones of <i>Casuarina stricta</i>, Ait. + +Rose A.-- + <i>Owenia cerasifera</i>, F. v. M. + + +1820. John Oxley, `Journal of Two Expeditions into the Interior +of New South Wales,' p. 187: + +"The blue gum trees in the neighbourhood were extremely fine, +whilst that species of Eucalyptus, which is vulgarly called the +apple-tree . . . again made its appearance. . . ." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' + vol. xv. p. 260: + +"It builds its nest of sticks lined with grass in +<i>Iron-bark</i> and <i>Apple-trees</i> (a species of +<i>Angophora</i>)." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' + vol. i. p. 200: + +"The apple-trees resemble the English apple only in leaf." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 195: + +"In looking down upon the rich flats below, adjoining the +stream, I was perpetually reminded of a thriving and rich +apple-orchard. The resemblance of what are called apple-trees +in Australia to those of the same name at home is so striking +at a distance in these situations, that the comparison could +not be avoided, although the former bear no fruit, and do not +even belong to the same species." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 52: + +"I have heard of men employed in felling whole apple-trees +(<i>Angophera lanceolata</i>) for the sheep." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. c. +iv. p. 132; + +"Red Apple, Quonui, affects salt grounds." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Phillipsland,' p. 256: + +"The plains, or rather downs, around it (Yass) are thinly but +most picturesquely covered with `apple-trees,' as they are +called by the colonists, merely from their resemblance to the +European apple-tree in their size and outline, for they do not +resemble it in producing an edible fruit." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 32: + +"The musk-plant, hyacinth, grass-tree, and kangaroo apple-tree +are indigenous." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219: + +"Pomona would indignantly disown the apple-tree, for there is +not the semblance of a pippin on its tufted branches." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 113: + +"Sandy apple-tree flats, and iron-bark ridges, lined the creek +here on either side." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 158: + +"The desolate flats where gaunt apple-trees rot." + +<HW>Apple-berry</HW>, <i>n</i>. the fruit of an Australian +shrub, <i>Billardiera scandens</i>, Smith, +N.O. <i>Pittosporeae</i>, called by children "dumplings." + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' pp. 1, 3: + +"<i>Billardiera scandens</i>. Climbing Apple Berry. . . . +The name Billardiera is given it in honour of James Julian la +Billardiere, M.D., F.M.L.S., now engaged as botanist on board +the French ships sent in search of M. de la Peyrouse." + +<hw>Apple-gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Apple-scented gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Apteryx</hw>, <i>n</i>. [Grk. <i>'a</i> privative and +<i>pterux</i>, a wing.] A New Zealand bird about the size of +a domestic fowl, with merely rudimentary wings.See <i>Kiwi</i>. + +1813. G. Shaw, `Naturalist's Miscellany.' c. xxiv. p. 1058 +(`O.E.D.'): + +"The Southern Apteryx." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 137: + +"The present Apterix or wingless bird of that country (New +Zealand)." + +1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 300 [Letter from Rev. W. Colenso, +Waitangi, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, Sept. 4, 1850: + +"You enquire after an <i>Apteryx</i>. How delighted should I +be to succeed in getting you one. Three years ago Owen +expressed a similar wish, and I have repeatedly tried, but +failed. Yet here they still are in the mountain forests, +though, doubtless, fast hastening towards extinction. I saw +one in its wild state two years ago in the dense woods of the +interior; I saw it clearly. . . . Two living specimens were +lately taken by the Acheron, steamer, to Sydney, where they +died; these were obtained at the Bay of Islands, where also I +once got three at one time. Since then I have not been able to +obtain another, although I have offered a great price for one. +The fact is, the younger natives do not know how to take them, +and the elder ones having but few wants, and those fully +supplied, do not care to do so. Further, they can only be +captured by night, and the dog must be well trained to be of +service." + +1874. F. P. Cobbe, in `Littell's Age,' Nov. 7, p. 355 +(`Standard'): + +"We have clipped the wings of Fancy as close as if she were +an Apteryx.' + +<hw>Arbutus, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wax-Cluster</i>. + +<hw>Ardoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Nardoo</i>. + +<hw>Artichoke</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the plant +<i>Astelia Alpina</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. + +<hw>Ash</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name, with various epithets, is +applied to the following different Australasian trees-- + +Black Ash-- + <i>Nephelium semiglaucum</i>, F. v. M., + <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>; called also <i>Wild Quince</i>. + +Black Mountain A.-- <i>Eucalyptus leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M., + <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Blue A.-- + <i>Elaeodendron australe</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Celastrinae</i>. + +Blueberry A.-- <i>Elaeocarpus holopetalus</i>, F. v. M., + <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +Brush Apple-- <i>Acronychia baueri</i>, Schott. (of Illawarra, + N.S.W.). + +Crow's A.-- + <i>Flindersia australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. + +Elderberry A. (of Victoria)-- + <i>Panax sambucifolius</i>, Sieb., <i>N.O. Araliaceae</i>. + +Illawarra A.-- + <i>Elaeocarpus kirtonia</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +Moreton Bay A.-- + <i>Eucalyptus tessellaris</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Mountain A. (see <i>Mountain Ash</i>). + +New Zealand A. (see <i>Titoki</i>). + +Pigeonberry A.-- + <i>Elaeocarpus obovatus</i>, G. Don., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +Red A.-- + <i>Alphitonia excelsa</i>, Reiss, <i>N.O. Rhamnaceae</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 75: + +"The Moreton Bay Ash (a species of <i>Eucalyptus</i>). ..was +here also very plentiful." + +<hw>Assigned</hw>, <i>past part</i>. of <i>verb</i> to assign, +to allot. Used as <i>adj</i>. of a convict allotted to a +settler as a servant. Colloquially often reduced to "signed." + +1827. `Captain Robinson's Report,' Dec. 23: + +"It was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their +assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to +their dress; which very much assisted the crime of +`bush-ranging.'" + +1837. J. D. Lang, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 31 + +"The assigned servant of a respectable Scotch family residing +near Sydney." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 75: + +"Of the first five persons we saw to Van Diemen's Land, four +were convicts, and perhaps the fifth. These were the assigned +servants of the pilot." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324: + +"Under the old practice, the convicts, as soon as they arrived +from Britain, were assigned among the various applicants. The +servant thus assigned was bound to perform diligently, from +sunrise till sunset, all usual and reasonable labour." + +<hw>Assignee</hw>, <i>n</i>. a convict assigned as a servant. The +word is also used in its ordinary English sense. + +1843. `Penny Cyclopaedia,' vol. xxv. p. 139, col. 2: + +"It is comparatively difficult to obtain another +assignee,--easy to obtain a hired servant." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324: + +"Any instance of gross treatment disqualified him for the +future as an assignee of convict labour." + +<hw>Assignment</hw>, <i>n</i>. service as above. + +1836. C. Darwin, `Journal of Researches' (1890), +c. xix. p. 324: + +"I believe the years of assignment are passed away with +discontent and unhappiness." + +1852. John West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 126: + +"That form of service, known as assignment, was established by +Governor King in 1804." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 117: + +"The assignment system was then in operation, and such as +obtained free grants of land were allowed a certain proportion +of convicts to bring it into cultivation." + +<hw>Asthma</hw> Herb, Queensland, <i>n. Euphorbia +pilulifera</i>, Linn. As the name implies, a remedy for asthma. +The herb is collected when in flower and carefully dried. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 183: + +"This plant, having obtained some reputation in Australasia in +certain pulmonary complaints, has acquired the appellation to +the Colonies of `Queensland Asthma Herb'. Nevertheless, it is +by no means endemic in Australasia, for it is a common tropical +weed." + +<hw>Aua</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand fish, +<i>Agonostoma forsteri</i>, Bleek. Another Maori name is +<i>Makawhiti</i>; also called <i>Sea-Mullet</i> and sometimes +<i>Herring</i>; (q.v.). It is abundant also in Tasmanian +estuaries, and is one of the fishes which when dried is called +<i>Picton Herring</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Maray</i> and +<i>Mullet</i>. <i>Agonostoma</i> is a genus of the family +<i>Mugilidae</i> or <i>Grey-Mullets</i>. + +<hw>Aurora australis</hw>, <i>n.</i> the Southern equivalent +for <i>Aurora borealis</i>. + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 214: + +"Sept. 5, 1788. About half after six in the evening, we saw an +<i>Aurora Australis</i>, a phenomenon uncommon in the southern +hemisphere." + +<hw>Austral</hw>, <i>adj</i>. "Belonging to the South, +Southern. Lat. <i>Australis</i>, from <i>auster</i>, +south-wind." (`O.E.D.') The word is rarely used in Australasia +in its primary sense, but now as equivalent to Australian or +Australasian. + +1823. Wentworth's Cambridge poem on `Australasia': + +"And grant that yet an Austral Milton's song, +Pactolus-like, flow deep and rich along, +An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page +To Nature true may charm in every age; +And that an Austral Pindar daring soar, +Where not the Theban Eagle reach'd before." + +1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,' Motto in +Geographical Memoir of New South Wales, p. 485: + +"I first adventure. Follow me who list; +And be the second Austral harmonist." +<i>Adapted from Bishop Hall</i>. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 184: + +"For this, midst Austral wilds I waken + Our British harp, feel whence I come, +Queen of the sea, too long forsaken, +Queen of the soul, my spirit's home."--Alien Song. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"Every servant in this Austral Utopia thinks himself a +gentleman." + +1868. C. Harpur, `Poems' (ed. 1883), p. 215: + +"How oft, in Austral woods, the parting day +Has gone through western golden gates away." + +1879. J. B. O'Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 127: + +"What though no weird and legendary lore +Invests our young, our golden Austral shore +With that romance the poet loves too well, +When Inspiration breathes her magic spell." + +1894. Ernest Favenc [Title]: + +"Tales of the Austral Tropics." + +1896. [Title]: + +"The Austral Wheel--A Monthly Cycling Magazine, No. 1, Jan." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 53 + +"Our Austral Spring." [Title of an article describing Spring in +Australia.] + +<hw>Australasia</hw>, <i>n</i>. (and its adjectives), name +"given originally by De Brosses to one of his three divisions +of the alleged <i>Terra australis</i>." (`O.E.D.') Now used as +a larger term than Australian, to include the continent of +Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and islands. For +peculiar use of the name for the Continent in 1793, see +<i>Australia</i>. + +1756. Charles de Brosses, `Histoire des Navigations aux Terres +Australes,' tom. i. p. 80: + +"On peut de meme diviser le monde austral inconnu en trois +portions. .. .L'une dans l'ocean des Indes au sud de l'Asie que +j'appellerai par cette raison australasie." + +1766. Callander, `Terra Australis,' i. p. 49 (Translation of +de Brosses)(`O.E.D.): + +"The first [division] in the Indian Ocean, south of Asia, which +for this reason we shall call Australasia." + +1802. G. Shaw, `Zoology,' iii. p. 506 (`O.E.D.'): + +"Other Australasian snakes." + +1823. Subject for English poem at Cambridge University: + +`Australasia.' + +[The prize (Chancellor's Medal) was won by Winthrop Mackworth +Praed. William Charles Wentworth stood second.] The concluding +lines of his poem are: + +"And Australasia float, with flag unfurl'd, +A new Britannia in another world." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 77: + +"How far had these ideas been acted upon by the Colonists of +Austral Asia?" [sic.] + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. 1. p. 109: + +"`The Austral-Asiatic Review,' by Murray, also made its +appearance [in Hobart] in February, 1828." + +1855. Tennyson, `The Brook,' p. 194: + +" Katie walks +By the long wash of Australasian seas +Far off, and holds her head to other stars, +And breathes in converse seasons." + +[Altered in Edition of 1894 to "breathes in April-autumns."] + +1857. Daniel Bunce [Title]: + +"Australasiatic reminiscences." + +1864. `The Australasian,' Oct. 1, First Number [Title]: + +"The Australasian." + +1880. Alfred R. Wallace [Title]: + +"Australasia." [In Stanford's `Compendium of Geography and +Travel.'] + +1881. David Blair [Title]: + +"Cyclopaedia of Australasia." + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `Bride from the Bush,' p. 29: + +"It was neither Cockney nor Yankee, but a nasal blend of both: +it was a lingo that declined to let the vowels run alone, but +trotted them out in ill-matched couples, with discordant and +awful consequences; in a word, it was Australasiatic of the +worst description." + +1890. `Victorian Consolidated Statutes,' Administration and +p.obate Act, Section 39: + +"`Australasian Colonies,' shall mean all colonies for the time +being on the main land of Australia. ..and shall also include +the colonies of New Zealand, Tasmania and Fiji and any other +British Colonies or possessions in Australasia now existing or +hereafter to be created which the Governor in Council may from +time to time declare to be Australasian Colonies within the +meaning of this Act." + +1895. Edward Jenks [Title]: + +"History of the Australasian Colonies." + +1896. J. S. Laurie [Title]: + +"The Story of Australasia." + +<hw>Australia</hw>, <i>n</i>., and <hw>Australian</hw>, +<i>adj</i>. As early as the 16th century there was a belief in +a <i>Terra australis</i> (to which was often added the epithet +<i>incognita</i>), literally "southern land," which was +believed to be land lying round and stretching outwards from +the South Pole. + +In `Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of +Australasia,' Sydney, Jan. 1892, is printed a paper read at the +Geographical Congress at Berne, by E. Delmar Morgan, on the +`Early Discovery of Australia.' This paper is illustrated by +maps taken from `Nordenskiold's Atlas.' In a map by Orontius +Finoeus, a French cosmographer of Provence, dated 1531, the +<i>Terra australis</i> is shown as "Terra Australis recenter +inventa, sed nondum plene cognita." In Ortelius' Map, 1570, it +appears as "Terra Australis nondum cognita." In Gerard +Mercator's Map, 1587, as "Terra Australis" simply. + +In 1606 the Spaniard Fernandez de Quiros gave the name of +<i>Terra Australis del Espiritu Santo</i> to land which he +thought formed part of the Great Southland. It is in fact one +of the New Hebrides. + +The word "<i>Australian</i> " is older than "<i>Australia</i>" +(see quotations, 1693 and 1766). The name <i>Australia</i> was +adapted from the Latin name <i>Terra Australis</i>. The +earliest suggestion of the word is credited to Flinders, who +certainly thought that he was inventing the name. (See +quotation, 1814.) Twenty-one years earlier, however, the word +is found (see quotation, 1793); and the passage containing it +is the first known use of the word in print. Shaw may thus be +regarded as its inventor. According to its title-page, the +book quoted is by two authors, the <i>Zoology</i>, by Shaw and +the <i>Botany</i> by Smith. The <i>Botany</i>, however, was +not published. Of the two names--<i>Australia</i> and +<i>Australasia</i>--suggested in the opening of the quotation, +to take the place of New Holland, Shaw evidently favoured +<i>Australia</i>, while Smith, in the `Transactions of the +Linnaean Society,' vol. iv. p. 213 (1798), uses +<i>Australasia</i> for the continent several times. Neither +name, however, passed then into general use. In 1814, Robert +Brown the Botanist speaks of "<i>Terra Australis</i>," not of +"<i>Australia</i>." "Australia" was reinvented by Flinders. + +<i>Quotations for " Terra Australis"</i>-- + +1621. R. Burton, `Anatomy of Melancholy' (edition 1854), p. 56: + +"For the site, if you will needs urge me to it, I am not fully +resolved, it may be in <i>Terra Australis incognita</i>, there +is room enough (for of my knowledge, neither that hungry +Spaniard nor Mercurius Britannicus have yet discovered half of +it)." + +Ibid. p. 314: + +"<i>Terra Australis incognita</i>. ..and yet in likelihood it +may be so, for without all question, it being extended from the +tropic of Capricorn to the circle Antarctic, and lying as it +doth in the temperate zone, cannot choose but yield in time +some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages, as America did +unto the Spaniards." + +Ibid. p. 619: + +"But these are hard-hearted, unnatural, monsters of men, +shallow politicians, they do not consider that a great part of +the world is not yet inhabited as it ought, how many colonies +into America, <i>Terra Australis incognita</i>, Africa may be +sent?" + +<i>Early quotations for "Australian</i>" + +1693. `Nouveau Voyage de la Terre Australe, contenant les +Coutumes et les Moeurs des Australiens, etc.' Par Jaques +Sadeur [Gabriel de Foigny]. + +[This is a work of fiction, but interesting as being the first +book in which the word <i>Australiens</i> is used. The next +quotation is from the English translation.] + +1693. `New Discovery, Terra Incognita Australis,' p. 163 + (`O.E.D.'): + +"It is easy to judge of the incomparability of the Australians +with the people of Europe." + +1766. Callander, `Terra Australis' (Translation of De Brosses), +c. ii. p. 280: + +"One of the Australians, or natives of the Southern World, +whom Gonneville had brought into France." + +<i>Quotations for "Australia</i>" + +1793. G. Shaw and I. E. Smith, `Zoology and Botany of New +Holland,' p. 2: + +"The vast Island or rather Continent of Australia, Australasia, +or New Holland, which has so lately attracted the particular +attention of European navigators and naturalists, seems to +abound in scenes of peculiar wildness and sterility; while the +wretched natives of many of those dreary districts seem less +elevated above the inferior animals than in any other part of +the known world; Caffraria itself not excepted; as well as less +indued with the power of promoting a comfortable existence by +an approach towards useful arts and industry. It is in these +savage regions however that Nature seems to have poured forth +many of her most highly ornamented products with unusual +liberality." + +1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Introduction, +p. iii. and footnote: + +"I have . . . ventured upon the readoption of the <i>original +Terra Australis</i>, and of this term I shall hereafter make +use, when speaking of New Holland [<i>sc</i>. the West] and New +South Wales, in a collective sense; and when using it in the +most extensive signification, the adjacent isles, including +that of Van Diemen, must be understood to be comprehended." +[Footnote]: "Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the +original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; +as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the +names of the other great portions of the earth." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. i. p. 9: + +"New South Wales (or Australia, as we colonials say)." + +1839. C. Darwin, `Naturalist's Voyage' (ed. 1890), p. 328: + +"Farewell, Australia! You are a rising child, and doubtless +some day will reign a great princess in the South; but you are +too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for +respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or regret." + +1852. A Liverpool Merchant [Title]: + +"A Guide to Australia and the Gold Regions." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. viii. (new +ed.) p. 152: + +"The colonies are determined to be separate. Australia is a +term that finds no response in the patriotic feeling of any +Australian. . . . But this will come to an end sooner or later. +The name of Australia will be dearer, if not greater, to +Australian ears than the name of Great Britain." + +[Mr. Trollope's prophecy has come true, and the name of +Australia is now dearer to an Australian than the name of his +own separate colony. The word "Colonial" as indicating +Australian nationality is going out of fashion. The word +"Australian" is much preferred.] + +1878. F. P. Labilliere, `Early History of the Colony of +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 184: + +"In a despatch to Lord Bathurst, of April 4th, 1817, Governor +Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Captain Flinders's charts +of `Australia.' This is the first time that the name of +Australia appears to have been officially employed. The +Governor underlines the word. . . . In a private letter to +Mr. Secretary Goulbourn, M.P., of December 21st, 1817, [he]says +. . . `the Continent of Australia, which, I hope, will be the +name given to this country in future, instead of the very +erroneous and misapplied name hitherto given it of New Holland, +which, properly speaking, only applies to a part of this +immense Continent.'" + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 64: + +"It is pleasant to reflect that the name Australia was selected +by the gallant Flinders; though, with his customary modesty, he +suggested rather than adopted it." + +1895. H. M. Goode, `The Argus,' Oct. 15, p. 7, col. 4: + +"Condemning the absurd practice of using the word `Colonial' in +connection with our wines, instead of the broader and more +federal one, `Australian.' In England our artists, cricketer, +scullers, and globe-trotters are all spoken of and acknowledged +as Australians, and our produce, with the exception of wine, is +classed as follows:--Australian gold and copper, Australian +beef and mutton, Australian butter, Australian fruits, &c." + +Ibid. p. 14: + +"Merops or Bee-Eater. A tribe [of birds] which appears to be +peculiarly prevalent in the extensive regions of Australia." + +<hw>Australian</hw> flag, <i>n</i>. Hot climate and country +work have brought in a fashion among bushmen of wearing a belt +or leather strap round the top of trousers instead of braces. +This often causes a fold in the shirt protruding all round from +under the waistcoat, which is playfully known as "the +Australian flag." Slang. + +<hw>Australioid</hw> and <hw>Australoid</hw>, <i>adj</i>. like +Australian, sc. aboriginal--a term used by ethnologists. See +quotations. + +1869. J. Lubbock, `Prehistoric Times,' vol. xii. p. 378: + +"The Australoid type contains all the inhabitants of Australia +and the native races of the Deccan." + +1878. E. B. Tylor, `Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. ii. p. 112: + +"He [Professor Huxley] distinguishes four principal types of +mankind, the Australioid, Negroid, Mongoloid, and Xanthochroic, +adding a fifth variety, the Melanochroic. The special points +of the Australioid are a chocolate-brown skin, dark brown or +black eyes, black hair (usually wavy), narrow (dolichocephalic) +skull, brow-ridges strongly developed, projecting jaw, coarse +lips and broad nose. This type is best represented by the +natives of Australia, and next to them by the indigenous tribes +of Southern India, the so-called coolies." + +<hw>Austral Thrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Port-Jackson +Thrush</i>. + +<hw>Avocet</hw>, <i>n</i>. a well-known European bird-name. +The Australian species is the Red-necked A., <i>Recurvirostra +nova-hollandiae</i>, Vieill. + +<hw>Aweto</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a +vegetable-caterpillar of New Zealand. See quotation. + +1889. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 81: + +". . . the <i>aweto</i>, or vegetable-caterpillar, called by +the naturalists <i>Hipialis virescens</i>. It is a perfect +caterpillar in every respect, and a remarkably fine one too, +growing to a length in the largest specimens of three and a +half inches and the thickness of a finger, but more commonly to +about a half or two-thirds of that size. . . . When +full-grown, it undergoes a miraculous change. For some +inexplicable reason, the spore of a vegetable fungus +<i>Sphaeria Robertsii</i>, fixes itself on its neck, or between +the head and the first ring of the caterpillar, takes root and +grows vigorously . . . exactly like a diminutive bulrush from 6 +to 10 inches high without leaves, and consisting solely of a +single stem with a dark-brown felt-like head, so familiar in +the bulrushes . . . always at the foot of the <i>rata</i>." + +1896. A. Bence Jones, in `Pearson's Magazine,' Sept., p. 290: + +"The dye in question was a solution of burnt or powdered resin, +or wood, or the aweto, the latter a caterpillar, which, +burrowing in the vegetable soil, gets a spore of a fungus +between the folds of its neck, and unable to free itself, the +insect's body nourishes the fungus, which vegetates and +occasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling the +interior of the body with its roots, always preserving its +perfect form. When properly charred this material yielded a +fine dark dye, much prized for purposes of moko." [See +<i>Moko</i>.] + +<hw>Axe-breaker</hw>, <i>n</i>. name of a tree, <i>Notelaea +longifolia</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 579: + +"Axe-breaker. Wood hard, close-grained and firm. Its +vernacular name emphasizes its hardness." + + +B + +<hw>Baal</hw>, or <hw>Bail</hw>, <i>interj</i>. and <i>adv</i>. +"An aboriginal expression of disapproval." (Gilbert Parker, +Glossary to `Round the Compass in Australia,' 1888.) It was +the negative in the Sydney dialect. + +1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 271, quoting from `The +Atlas' (circa 1845): + +"Traces, however, of the Egyptian language are discoverable +among the present inhabitants, with whom, for instance, the +word `Bale' or `Baal' is in continual use . . . ." [Evidently +a joke.] + +<hw>Babbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. In Europe, "name +given, on account of their harsh chattering note, to the +long-legged thrushes." (`O.E.D.') The group "contains a great +number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has +been called the ornithological waste-basket." (`Century.') The +species are-- + +The Babbler-- + <i>Pomatostomus temporalis</i>, V. and H. + +Chestnut-crowned B.-- + <i>P. ruficeps</i>, Hart. + +Red-breasted B.-- + <i>P. rubeculus</i>, Gould. + +White-browed B.-- + <i>P. superciliosus</i>, V. and H. + +<hw>Back-blocks</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The far interior of +Australia, and away from settled country. Land in Australia is +divided on the survey maps into blocks, a word confined, in +England and the United States, to town lands. + +(2) The parts of a station distant from the <i>frontage</i> + (q.v.). + +1872. Anon. `Glimpses of Life in Victoria,' p. 31: + +". . . we were doomed to see the whole of our river-frontage +purchased. . . . The back blocks which were left to us were +insufficient for the support of our flocks, and deficient in +permanent water-supply. . . ." + +1880. J. Mathew, Song--`The Bushman': + +"Far, far on the plains of the arid back-blocks +A warm-hearted bushman is tending his flocks. +There's little to cheer in that vast grassy sea: +But oh! he finds pleasure in thinking of me. +How weary, how dreary the stillness must be! +But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me." + +1890. E. W. Horning, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 298: + +"`Down in Vic' you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres +to the sheep up here in the `backblocks.'" + +1893. M. Gaunt, `English Illustrated, `Feb., p. 294: + +"The back-blocks are very effectual levellers." + +1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian +Life,' p. 33 + +"In the back-blocks of New South Wales he had known both hunger +and thirst, and had suffered from sunstroke." + +1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 302, col. 1: + +"Although Kara is in the back-blocks of New South Wales, the +clothes and boots my brother wears come from Bond Street." + +<hw>Back-block</hw>, <i>adj</i>. from the interior. + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydneyside Saxon,' vol. xii. p. 215: + +"`What a nice mare that is of yours!' said one of the +back-block youngsters." + +<hw>Back-blocker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a resident in the back-blocks. + +1870. `The Argus,' March 22, p. 7, col. 2 + +"I am a bushman, a back blocker, to whom it happens about once +in two years to visit Melbourne." + +1892. E. W. Hornung, `Under Two Skies,' p. 21: + +"As for Jim, he made himself very busy indeed, sitting on his +heels over the fire in an attitude peculiar to back-blockers." + +<hw>Back-slanging</hw>, <i>verbal n</i>. In the back-blocks +(q.v.) of Australia, where hotels are naturally scarce and +inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality at the +<i>stations</i> (q.v.) on his route, where he is always made +welcome. There is no idea of anything underhand on the part of +the traveller, yet the custom is called <i>back-slanging</i>. + +<hw>Badger</hw>, <i>n</i>. This English name has been +incorrectly applied in Australia, sometimes to the Bandicoot, +sometimes to the Rock-Wallaby, and sometimes to the Wombat. In +Tasmania, it is the usual bush-name for the last. + +1829. `The Picture of Australia,' p. 173: + +"The <i>Parameles</i>, to which the colonists sometimes give +the name of badger. . . ." + +1831. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 265: + +"That delicious animal, the wombat (commonly known at that +place [Macquarie Harbour] by the name of <i>badger</i>, hence +the little island of that name in the map was so called, from +the circumstance of numbers of that animal being at first found +upon it)." + +1850. James Bennett Clutterbuck, M.D., `Port Phillip in 1849,' +p. 37: + +"The rock Wallaby, or Badger, also belongs to the family of the +Kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is +three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown." + +1875. Rev. J. G. Wood, `Natural History,' vol. i. p. 481: + +"The Wombat or Australian Badger as it is popularly called by +the colonists. . . ." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 8: + +"With the exception of wombats or `badgers,' and an occasional +kangaroo . . . the intruder had to rely on the stores he carried +with him." + +ibid. p. 44: + +"Badgers also abound, or did until thinned out by hungry +prospectors." + +<hw>Badger-box</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang name for a roughly- +constructed dwelling. + +1875. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' +September, p. 99 [`Port Davey in 1875,' by the Hon. James Reid +Scott, M.L.C.]: + +"The dwellings occupied by the piners when up the river are of +the style known as `Badger-boxes,' in distinction from huts, +which have perpendicular walls, while the Badger-box is like an +inverted V in section. They are covered with bark, with a +thatch of grass along the ridge, and are on an average about 14 +x 10 feet at the ground, and 9 or 10 feet high." + +<hw>Bail</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A framework for securing the head of +a cow while she is milked." (`O.E.D.') + +This word, marked in `O.E.D.' and other Dictionaries as +Australian, is provincial English. In the `English Dialect +Dictionary,' edited by Joseph Wright, Part I., the word is +given as used in "Ireland, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, +Hampshire and New Zealand." It is also used in Essex. + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 83: + +"In every milking yard is an apparatus for confining a cow's +head called a `bail.' This consists of an upright standiron, +five feet in height, let into a framework, and about six inches +from it another fixed at the heel, the upper part working +freely in a slit, in which are holes for a peg, so that when +the peg is out and the movable standiron is thrown back, there +is abundance of room for a cow's head and horns, but when +closed, at which time the two standirons are parallel to each +other and six inches apart, though her neck can work freely up +and down, it is impossible for her to withdraw her head . . ." + +1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 225: + +"The former bovine female was a brute to manage, whom it would +have been impossible to milk without a `bail.' To what man or +country the honour of this invention belongs, who can tell? It +is in very general use in the Australian colonies; and my +advice to any one troubled with a naughty cow, who kicks like +fury during the process of milking, is to have a bail +constructed in their cow-house." + +<hw>Bail up</hw>, <i>v</i>. (1) To secure the head of a cow in a +bail for milking. + +(2) By transference, to stop travellers in the bush, used of +bushrangers. The quotation, 1888, shows the method of +transference. It then means generally, to stop. Like the +similar verb, <i>to stick up</i> (q.v.), it is often used +humorously of a demand for subscriptions, etc. + +1844. Mrs. Chas. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South +Wales,' p. 132: + +"The bushrangers . . . walk quickly in, and `bail up,' i.e. +bind with cords, or otherwise secure, the male portion." + +1847. Alex. Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p. 72: + +". . . there were eight or ten bullock-teams baled up by three +mounted bushrangers. Being baled up is the colonial phrase for +those who are attacked, who are afterwards all put together, +and guarded by one of the party of the bushrangers when the +others are plundering." + +1855 W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 309: + +"So long as that is wrong, the whole community will be wrong,-- +in colonial phrase, `bailed up' at the mercy of its own +tenants." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria,' +p. 192: + +"`Come, sir, immediately,' rejoined Murphy, rudely and +insultingly pushing the master; `bail up in that corner, and +prepare to meet the death you have so long deserved.'" + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 112: + +"She bailed me up and asked me if I was going to keep my +promise and marry her." + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 36: + +"His troutship, having neglected to secure a line of retreat, +was, in colonial parlance, `bailed up.'" + +1880. G. Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p.133: + + +"The Kelly gang . . . bailed up some forty residents in the local +public house." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 76: + +"Did I ever get stuck-up? Never by white men, though I have +been bailed up by the niggers." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 105: + +"A little further on the boar `bailed up' on the top of a +ridge." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 368: + +"One of the young cows was a bit strange with me, so I had to +shake a stick at her and sing out `Bail up' pretty rough before +she'd put her head in. Aileen smiled something like her old +self for a minute, and said, `That comes natural to you now, +Dick, doesn't it ?' I stared for a bit and then burst out +laughing.It was a rum go, wasn't it? The same talk for cows +and Christians. That's how things get stuck into the talk in a +new country. Some old hand like father, as had been assigned +to a dairy settler, and spent all his mornings in the cow-yard, +had taken to the bush and tried his hand at sticking up people. +When they came near enough of course he'd pop out from behind a +tree, with his old musket or pair of pistols, and when he +wanted `em to stop, `Bail up, d-- yer,' would come a deal +quicker and more natural-like to his tongue than `Stand.' So +`bail up' it was from that day to this, and there'll have to be +a deal of change in the ways of the colonies, and them as come +from `em before anything else takes its place between the man +that's got the arms and the man that's got the money." + +<hw>Bailing-up Pen</hw>, <i>n</i>. place for fastening up cattle. + +1889. R. M. Praed, `Romance of Station,' vol. i. c. ii. +[`Eng. Dial. Dict.']: + +"Alec was proud of the stockyard and pointed out . . . the +superior construction of the `crush,' or branding lane, and the +bailing-up pen." + +<hw>Bald-Coot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, <i>Porphyrio +melanotus</i>, Temm.; Blue, <i>P. bellus</i>, Gould. The +European bald-coot is <i>Fulica atra</i>. + +<hw>Ballahoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied to the +<i>Garfish</i> (q.v.) by Sydney fishermen. The word is West +Indian, and is applied there to a fast-sailing schooner; also +spelled <i>Bullahoo</i> and <i>Ballahou</i>. + +<hw>Balloon-Vine</hw> <i>n</i>. Australian name for the common +tropical weed, <i>Cardiospermum halicacabum</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>: called also <i>Heart-seed, +Heart-pea</i>, and <i>Winter-cherry</i>. It is a climbing +plant, and has a heart-shaped scar on the seed. + +<hw>Balsam of Copaiba Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied +to the Australian tree, <i>Geijera salicifolia</i>, Schott, +<i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>, because the bark has the odour of the +drug of that name. + +<hw>Bamboo-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian cane-like grass, +<i>Glyceria ramigera</i>, F. v. M. ; also called <i>Cane +Grass</i>. Largely used for thatching purposes. Stock eat the +young shoots freely. + +<hw>Banana</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are three species native to +Queensland, of which the fruit is said to be worthless-- + + <i>Musa Banksii</i>, F. v. M. + <i>M. Hillii</i>, F. v. M. + <i>M. Fitzalani</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Scitamineae</i>. + +The <i>Bananas</i> which are cultivated and form a staple +export of Queensland are acclimatized varieties. + +<hw>Banana-land</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang name for Queensland, +where bananas grow in abundance. + +<hw>Banana-lander</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang for a Queenslander (see +above). + +<hw>Banded Ant-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a small +terrestrial and ant-eating marsupial, <i>Myrmecobius +fasciatus</i>, Waterh, found in West and South Australia. It +is the only species of the genus, and is regarded as the most +closely allied of all living marsupials to the extinct +marsupials of the Mesozoic Age in Europe. It receives its name +banded from the presence along the back of a well-marked series +of dark transverse bands. + +1871. G. Krefft, `Mammals of Australia': + +"The <i>Myrmecobius</i> is common on the West Coast and in the +interior of New South Wales and South Australia: the +Murrumbidgee River may be taken as its most eastern boundary." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' p. 340: + +"Thus we have here [W. Australia] alone the curious little +banded ant-eater (<i>Myrmecobius fasciatus</i>), which presents +the nearest approach in its dentition to the most ancient known +mammals whose remains are found in the oolite and Trias of the +Mesozoic epoch." + +<hw>Banded-Kangaroo</hw>, i.q. <i>Banded-Wallaby</i>. See +<i>Lagostrophus</i> and <i>Wallaby</i>. + +<hw>Banded-Wallaby</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes called +<i>Banded-Kangaroo</i>. See <i>Lagostrophus</i> and +<i>Wallaby</i>. + +<hw>Bandicoot</hw>, <i>n</i>. an insect-eating marsupial +animal; family, <i>Peramelidae</i>; genus, <i>Perameles</i>. +"The animals of this genus, commonly called <i>Bandicoots</i> +in Australia, are all small, and live entirely on the ground, +making nests composed of dried leaves, grass and sticks, in +hollow places. They are rather mixed feeders; but insects, +worms, roots and bulbs, constitute their ordinary diet." +(`Encyclopaedia Britannica,' 9th edit., vol. xv. p. 381.) The +name comes from India, being a corruption of Telugu +<i>pandi-kokku</i>, literally "pig-dog," used of a large rat +called by naturalists <i>Mus malabaricus</i>, Shaw, <i>Mus +giganteus</i>, Hardwicke; <i>Mus bandis coota</i>, Bechstein. +The name has spread all over India. The Indian animal is very +different from the Australian, and no record is preserved to +show how the Anglo-Indian word came to be used in Australia. +The Bandicoots are divided into three genera--the <i>True +Bandicoots</i> (genus <i>Perameles</i>, q.v.), the <i>Rabbit +Bandicoots</i> (genus <i>Peragale</i>, q.v.), and the +<i>Pig-footed Bandicoots</i> (q.v.) (genus <i>Choeropus</i>, +q.v.). The species are-- + +Broadbent's Bandicoot-- + <i>Perameles broadbenti</i>, Ramsay. + +Cockerell's B.-- + <i>P. cockerelli</i>, Ramsay. + +Common Rabbit B.-- + <i>Peragale lagotis</i>, Reid. + +Desert B.-- + <i>P. eremiana</i>, Spencer. + +Doria's B.-- + <i>Perameles dorerana</i>, Quoy & Gaim. + +Golden B.-- + <i>P. aurata</i>, Ramsay. + +Gunn's B.-- + <i>P. gunni</i>, Gray. + +Less Rabbit B.-- + <i>Peragale minor</i>, Spencer. + +Long-nosed B.-- + <i>Perameles nasuta</i>, Geoffr. + +Long-tailed B.-- + <i>P. longicauda</i>, Peters & Doria. + +North-Australian B.-- + <i>P. macrura</i>, Gould. + +Port Moresby B.-- + <i>P. moresbyensis</i>, Ramsay. + +Raffray's B.-- + <i>P. rafrayana</i>, Milne-Edw. + +Short-nosed B.-- + <i>P. obesula</i>, Shaw. + +Striped B.-- + <i>P. bougainvillii</i>, Quoy & Gaim. + +White-tailed Rabbit B.-- + <i>P. lesicura</i>. Thomas. + +Pig-footed B.-- + <i>Choeropus castanotis</i>, Gray. + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales', +vol. ii. p. 188 (Bass's Diary at the Derwent, January 1799): + +"The bones of small animals, such as opossums, squirrels, +kangooroo rats, and bandicoots, were numerous round their +deserted fire-places." + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description o New South Wales,' p. 3: + +"The animals are, the kangaroo, native dog (which is a smaller +species of the wolf), the wombat, bandicoot, kangaroo-rat, +opossum, flying squirrel, flying fox, etc. etc." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 316 + +"The bandicoot is about four times he size of a rat, without +a tail, and burrows in the ground or in hollow trees." + +1832. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 28: + +"The bandicoot is as large as a rabbit. There are two kinds, +the rat and the rabbit bandicoot." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 233: + +"The common people are not destitute of what Wordsworth calls +`the poetry of common speech,' many of their similes being very +forcibly and naturally drawn from objects familiarly in sight +and quite Australian. `Poor as a bandicoot,' `miserable as a +shag on a rock.'" + +Ibid. p. 330: + +"There is also a rat-like animal with a swinish face, covered +with ruddy coarse hair, that burrows in the ground--the +bandicoot. It is said to be very fine eating." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 26: + +"The bandicoot is the size of a large rat, of a dark brown +colour; it feeds upon roots, and its flesh is good eating. +This animal burrows in the ground, and it is from this habit, +I suppose, that when hungry, cold, or unhappy, the Australian +black says that he is as miserable as the bandicoot." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 92: + +"The bandicoots are good eating even for Europeans, and in my +opinion are the only Australian mammals fit to eat. They +resemble pigs, and the flesh tastes somewhat like pork." + +<hw>Bangalay</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Sydney workmen's name for the +timber of <i>Eucalyptus botrioides</i>, Smith. (See +<i>Gum</i>.) The name is aboriginal, and by workmen is always +pronounced <i>Bang Alley</i>. + +<hw>Bangalow</hw>, <i>n</i>. an ornamental feathery-leaved +palm, <i>Ptychosperma elegans</i>, Blume, <i>N.O. Palmeae</i>. + +1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p.229 + +"The Bangalo, which is a palm. . . The germ, or roll of young +leaves in the centre, and near the top, is eaten by the +natives, and occasionally by white men, either raw or boiled. +It is of a white colour, sweet and pleasant to the taste." + +1884. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany,' p. 23: + +"The aborigines of New South Wales and Queensland, and +occasionally the settlers, eat the young leaves of the cabbage +and bangalo palms." + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 193: + +You see he was bred in a bangalow wood, +And bangalow pith was the principal food +His mother served out in her shanty." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 592: + +"Bangalow. . . . The small stems sometimes go under the name +of `Moreton Bay Canes.' It is a very ornamental, +feathery-leaved palm." + +<hw>Bang-tail muster</hw>. See quotation. + +1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, `The New Churn in the Queensland Bush,' +p. 61: + +"Every third or fourth year on a cattle station, they have what +is called a `bang tail muster'; that is to say, all the cattle +are brought into the yards, and have the long hairs at the end +of the tail cut off square, with knives or sheep-shears. . . +The object of it is. . .to find out the actual number of +cattle on the run, to compare with the number entered on the +station books." + +<hw>Banker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a river full up to the top of the +banks. Compare Shakspeare: "Like a proud river, peering o'er +his bounds." (`King John,' III. i. 23.) + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol, iii. p. 175 + +"The Murrumbidgee was running a `banker'--water right up to the +banks." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. vii. p. 52: + +"The driver stated that he had heard the river was `a banker.'" + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 45: + +"The creeks were bankers, and the flood + Was forty miles round Bourke." + +Ibid. p. 100: + +"Till the river runs a banker, + All stained with yellow mud." + +<hw>Banksia</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A genus of Australian shrubs with +umbellate flowers,--now cultivated as ornamental shrubs in +Europe." (`O.E.D.') Called after Mr. Banks, naturalist of the +<i>Endeavour</i>, afterwards Sir Joseph Banks. The so-called +<i>Australian Honeysuckle</i> (q.v.). See also +<i>Bottle-brush</i>. + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 221: + +"The different species of banksia. The finest new genus +hitherto found in New Holland has been destined by Linnaeus, +with great propriety, to transmit to posterity the name of Sir +Joseph Banks, who first discovered it in his celebrated voyage +round the world." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 557: + +"A few berries, the yam and fern root, the flowers of the +different banksia, and at times some honey, make up the whole +vegetable catalogue." + +1829. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 312: + +"Scrubs where the different species of banksia are found, the +flowers of which I (Mr. Caley) have reason to think afford it +sustenance during winter." + +1833. C. Sturt, `South Australia,' vol. ii. c. ii. p. 30: + +"Some sandhills . . . crowned by banksias." + +1845. J. Q. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39: + +"Many different species of banksia grow in great plenty in the +neighbourhood of Sydney, and from the density of their foliage +are very ornamental." + +1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 331: + +"The table-land is covered by forests of stringy-bark, of +melaleuca-gum, and banksia." + +1851. `Quarterly Review,' Dec., p. 40: + +"In this they will find an extremely rich collection of +bottle-brush-flowered, zigzag-leaved, grey-tinted, odd-looking +things, to most eyes rather strange than beautiful, +notwithstanding that one of them is named <i>Banksia +speciosa</i>. They are the `Botany Bays' of old-fashioned +gardeners, but are more in the shrub and tree line than that of +flowering pots. <i>Banksia Solandei</i> will remind them to +turn to their `Cook's Voyages' when they get home, to read how +poor Dr. Solander got up a mountain and was heartily glad to get +down again." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 46: + +"The banksias are of historic interest, inasmuch as the genus +was dedicated already by the younger Linne in 1781 to Sir +Joseph Banks, from whom the Swedish naturalist received +branchlets of those species, which in Captain Cook's first +voyage more than 100 years ago (1770) were gathered by Banks at +Botany-Bay and a few other places of the east coast of +Australia." + +1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of the Wool Trade,' p. 228: + +"A banksia plain, with its collection of +bottle-brush-like-flowers, may have its charms for a botanist, +but its well-known sandy ground forbids the hope of good +grasses." + +<hw>Baobab</hw>, <i>n. a</i> tree, native of Africa, +<i>Adansonia digitata</i>. The name is Ethiopian. It has been +introduced into many tropical countries. The Australian +species of the genus is <i>A. gregorii</i>, F. v. M., called also +<i>Cream of Tartar</i> or <i>Sour Gourd-tree</i>, +<i>Gouty-stem</i> (q.v.), and <i>Bottle-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Barber</hw>, or <hw>Tasmanian Barber</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name +for the fish <i>Anthias rasor</i>, Richards., family +<i>Percidae</i>; also called <i>Red-Perch</i>. See +<i>Perch</i>. It occurs in Tasmania, New Zealand, and Port +Jackson. It is called <i>Barber</i> from the shape of the +<i>praeoperculum</i>, one of the bones of the head. See +quotation. + +1841. John Richardson, `Description of Australian Fish,' p. 73: + +"<i>Serranus Rasor</i>.-- Tasmanian Barber. . . . The +serrature of the preoperculum is the most obvious and general +character by which the very numerous Serrani are connected with +each other . . . The Van Diemen's Land fish, which is described +below, is one of the `Barbers,' a fact which the specific +appellation <i>rasor</i> is intended to indicate; the more +classical word having been previously appropriated to another +species. . . Mr. Lempriere states that it is known locally as +the `red perch or shad.'" + +[Richardson also says that Cuvier founded a subdivision of the +<i>Serrani</i> on the characters of the scales of the jaws, +under the name of `les Barbiers,' which had been previously +grouped by Block under the title <i>Anthias</i>.] + +<hw>Barcoo-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian grass, +<i>Anthistiria membranacea</i>, Lindl. One of the best pasture +grasses in Queensland, but growing in other colonies also. + +<hw>Barcoo Rot</hw>, <i>n.</i> a disease affecting inhabitants +of various parts of the interior of Australia, but chiefly +bushmen. It consists of persistent ulceration of the skin, +chiefly on the back of the hands, and often originating in +abrasions. + +It is attributed to monotony of diet and to the cloudless +climate, with its alternations of extreme cold at night and +burning heat by day. It is said to be maintained and +aggravated by the irritation of small flies. + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 46: + +"Land scurvy is better known in Queensland by local names, +which do not sound very pleasant, such as `Barcoo rot,' +`Kennedy rot,' according to the district it appears in. There +is nothing dangerous about it; it is simply the festering of +any cut or scratch on one's legs, arms or hands. . . They take +months to heal. . . Want of vegetables is assigned as the +cause." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 58: + +"In Western Queensland people are also subject to bad sores on +the hand, called Barcoo-rot." + +<hw>Barcoo Vomit</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sickness occurring in +inhabitants of various parts of the high land of the interior +of Australia. It is characterized by painless attacks of +vomiting, occurring immediately after food is taken, followed +by hunger, and recurring as soon as hunger is satisfied. + +The name <i>Barcoo</i> is derived from the district traversed +by the river Barcoo, or Cooper, in which this complaint and the +<i>Barcoo Rot</i> are common. See Dr. E. C. Stirling's `Notes +from Central Australia,' in `Intercolonial Quarterly Journal of +Medicine and Surgery,' vol. i. p. 218. + +<hw>Bargan</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name of the Come-back +<i>Boomerang</i> (q.v.). (Spelt also <i>barragan</i>.) + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 70: + +"The `come-back' variety (of boomerang) is not a fighting +weapon. A dialect name for it is bargan, which word may be +explained in our language to mean `bent like a sickle or +crescent moon.'" + +<hw>Barking Owl</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird not identified, and not +in Gould (who accompanied Leichhardt). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 47: + +"The glucking-bird and the barking-owl were heard throughout +the moonlight night." + +<hw>Barrack</hw>, <i>v</i>. to jeer at opponents, to interrupt +noisily, to make a disturbance; with the preposition "for," to +support as a partisan, generally with clamour. An Australian +football term dating from about 1880. The verb has been ruled +unparliamentary by the Speaker in the Victorian Legislative +Assembly. It is, however, in very common colloquial use. It +is from the aboriginal word <i>borak</i> (q.v.), and the sense +of jeering is earlier than that of supporting, but jeering at +one side is akin to cheering for the other. Another suggested +derivation is from the Irish pronunciation of "Bark," as +(according to the usually accepted view) "Larrikin" from +"larking." But the former explanation is the more probable. +There is no connection with soldiers' "barracks;" nor is it +likely that there is any, as has been ingeniously suggested, +with the French word <i>baragouin</i>, gibberish. + +1890. `Melbourne Punch,' Aug. 14, p. 106, col. 3: + +"To use a football phrase, they all to a man `barrack' for the +British Lion." + +1893. `The Age,' June 17, p. 15, col. 4: + +"[The boy] goes much to football matches, where he barracks, +and in a general way makes himself intolerable." + +1893. `The Argus,' July 5, p. 9, col. 4, Legislative Assembly: + +"<i>Mr. Isaacs</i>:. . . He hoped this `barracking' would not +be continued." [Members had been interrupting him.] + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Sept. 9, p. 1, col. 6: + +"He noticed with pleasure the decrease of disagreeable +barracking by spectators at matches during last season. +Good-humoured badinage had prevailed, but the spectators had +been very well conducted." + +<hw>Barracker</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who barracks (q.v.). + +1893. `The Age,' June 27, p. 6, col. 6: + +"His worship remarked that the `barracking' that was carried on +at football matches was a mean and contemptible system, and was +getting worse and worse every day. Actually people were afraid +to go to them on account of the conduct of the crowd of +`barrackers.' It took all the interest out of the game to see +young men acting like a gang of larrikins." + +1894. `"The Argus,' Nov. 29, p. 4, col. 9: + +"The `most unkindest cut of all' was that the Premier, who was +Mr. Rogers's principal barracker during the elections, turned +his back upon the prophet and did not deign to discuss his +plan." + +<hw>Barracks</hw>, <i>n</i>. a building on a station with rooms +for bachelors. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 100 + +"A roomy, roughly-finished building known as the `barracks.' +. . . . Three of the numerous bedrooms were tenanted by young +men, . . . neophytes, who were gradually assimilating the love +of Bush-land." + +<hw>Barracouta</hw>, or <hw>Barracoota</hw>, <i>n</i>. The +name, under its original spelling of <i>Barracuda</i>, was +coined in the Spanish West Indies, and first applied there to a +large voracious fish, <i>Sphyraena pecuda</i>, family +<i>Sphyraenidae</i>. In Australia and New Zealand it is +applied to a smaller edible fish, <i>Thyrsites atun</i>, +Cuv. and Val., family <i>Trichiuridae</i>, called <i>Snook</i> +(q.v.) at the Cape of Good Hope. It is found from the Cape of +Good Hope to New Zealand. + +1845. `Voyage to Port Philip,' p. 40: + +"We hook the barracuda fish." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fishes of New South Wales,' +p. 69: + +"<i>Sphyrenidae</i>. The first family is the barracudas, or +sea-pike." [Footnote]: "This name is no doubt the same as +Barracouta and is of Spanish origin. The application of it to +<i>Thyrsites atun</i> in the Southern seas was founded on some +fancied resemblance to the West Indian fish, which originally +bore the name, though of course they are entirely different." + +(2) The word is used as a nickname for an inhabitant of Hobart; +compare <i>Cornstalk</i>. + +<hw>Barramunda</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish, i.q. <i>Burramundi</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Basket-Fence</hw>, <i>n.</i> Local name for a stake-hedge. +See quotation. + +1872. G. S. Baden-Powell, `New Homes for the Old Country,' p. 208: + +"For sheep, too, is made the `basket fence.' Stakes are driven +in, and their pliant `stuff' interwoven, as in a stake hedge in +England." + +<hw>Bastard Dory</hw> and <hw>John Dory</hw> (q.v.), spelt also +<HW>Dorey</HW>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish, <i>Cyttus australis</i>, +family <i>Cyttidae</i>; the Australian representative of +<i>Zeus faber</i>, the European "John Dory," and its close +relative, is called <i>Bastard Dorey</i> in New Zealand, and +also <i>Boar-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 387: + +"<i>Histiopterus</i>. . . .The species figured attains to a +length of twenty inches, and is esteemed as food. It is known +at Melbourne by the names of `Boar-fish' or `Bastard Dorey' +(fig.), <i>Histiopterus recurvirostris</i>." + +<hw>Bastard Trumpeter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. See <i>Morwong, +Paper-fish</i>, and <i>Trumpeter</i>. In Sydney it is +<i>Latris ciliaris</i>, Forst., which is called <i>Moki</i> in +New Zealand; in Victoria and Tasmania, <i>L. forsteri</i>, +Casteln. + +1883. `Royal Commission on the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 35: + +"The bastard trumpeter (<i>Latris Forsteri</i>). . . .Scarcely +inferior to the real trumpeter, and superior to it in abundance +all the year round, comes the bastard trumpeter. . . This fish +has hitherto been confounded with <i>Latris ciliaris</i> +(Forst.); but, although the latter species has been reported as +existing in Tasmanian waters, it is most probably a mistake: +for the two varieties (the red and the white), found in such +abundance here, have the general characters as shown +above. . . They must be referred to the <i>Latris Forsteri</i> +of Count Castelnau, which appears to be the bastard trumpeter +of Victorian waters." + +<hw>Bat-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name in England is given to a +fish of the family <i>Maltheidae</i>. It is also applied to +the Flying Gurnard of the Atlantic and to the Californian +Sting-ray. In Australia, and chiefly in New South Wales, it is +applied to <i>Psettus argenteus</i>, Linn., family +<i>Carangidae</i>, or Horse Mackerels. Guenther says that the +"Sea Bats," which belong to the closely allied genus +<i>Platax</i>, are called so from the extraordinary length of +some portion of their dorsal and anal fins and of their +ventrals. + +<hw>Bathurst Bur</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotation. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 261: + +"The Bathurst bur (<i>Xanthium spinosuzn</i>), a plant with +long triple spines like the barbary, and burs which are ruinous +to the wool of the sheep--otherwise, itself very like a +chenopodium, or good-fat-hen." + +<hw>Bats-wing-coral</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Australian wood +<i>Erythrina vespertilio</i>, Bentham, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 426: + +"Batswing Coral. . . .The wood is soft, and used by the +aborigines for making their `heilamans,' or shields. It is +exceedingly light and spongy, and of the greatest difficulty to +work up to get anything like a surface for polishing." + +<hw>Bauera</hw>, <i>n</i>. a shrub, <i>Bauera rubioides</i>, +Andr., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>, the <i>Scrub Vine</i>, or +<i>Native Rose</i>; commonly called in Tasmania "Bauera,"and +celebrated for forming impenetrable thickets in conjunction +with "cutting grass," <i>Cladium psittacorum</i>, Labill. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 70: + +"Bauera rubiaefolia. Madder leaved Bauera. A pretty little +plant with pink flowers. This genus is named after the +celebrated German draughtsman, whose splendid works are yet +unrivalled in the art, especially of the Australian plants +which he depicted in his voyage round New Holland with +Capt. Flinders in the Investigator." + +1888. R. M. Johnston, `Geology of Tasmania,' Intro. p. vi.: + +"The Bauera scrub . . . is a tiny, beautiful shrub . . . Although +the branches are thin and wiry, they are too tough and too much +entangled in mass to cut, and the only mode of progress often +is to throw one's self high upon the soft branching mass and +roll over to the other side. The progress in this way is slow, +monotonous, and exhausting." + +1891. `The Australasian,' April 4, p. 670, col. 2: + +"Cutting-grass swamps and the bauera, where a dog can't hardly + go, +Stringy-bark country, and blackwood beds, and lots of it broken + by snow." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 7: + +"Interposing the even more troublesome Bauera shrub; whose +gnarled branches have earned for it the local and expressive +name of `tangle-foot' or `leg ropes.' [It] has been named by +Spicer the `Native Rose.'" + +<hw>Beal</hw>, <hw>Bool</hw>, or <hw>Bull</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sweet +aboriginal drink. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.: + +"A good jorum of <i>bull</i> (washings of a sugar bag)" [given +to aborigines who have been working]. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 288: + +"The flowers are gathered, and by steeping them a night in +water the natives made a sweet beverage called `bool.'" + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 210: + +"In the flowers of a dwarf species of banksia +(<i>B. ornata</i>) there is a good deal of honey, and this was +got out of the flowers by immersing them in water. The water +thus sweetened was greedily swallowed by the natives. The +drink was named <i>beal</i> by the natives of the west of +Victoria, and was much esteemed." + +<hw>Beal</hw> (2), <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Belar</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bean, Queensland</hw>, or <hw>Leichhardt</hw>, or +<hw>Match-box</hw>, <i>n. Entada scandens</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. Though this bean has two Australian +names, it is really widely distributed throughout the tropics. +A tall climbing plant; the seeds are used for match-boxes. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 425: + +"The seeds are about two inches across, by half-an-inch thick, +and have a hard woody and beautifully polished shell, of a dark +brown or purplish colour. These seeds are converted into +snuff-boxes, scent-bottles, spoons, etc., and in the Indian +bazaars they are used as weights. (`Treasury of Botany.') In +the colonies we usually see the beans of this plant mounted +with silver, as match-boxes. The wood itself is soft, fibrous, +and spongy." + +<hw>Bean-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Moreton Bay +Chestnut, Castanospermum australe</i>, Cunn. and Fraser, +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; a tall tree with red flowers and large +seed-pods. The timber of young specimens has beautiful dark +clouding. + +<hw>Bear, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. the colonists' name for an +animal called by the aborigines Koala, Koolah, Kool-la, and +Carbora (<i>Phascolarctus cinereus</i>). It is a tree-climbing +marsupial, about two feet in length, like a small bear in its +heavy build. Its food is the young leaves of the Eucalyptus, +and it is said that the Native Bear cannot be taken to England +because it would die on board ship, owing to there being no +fresh gum leaves. The writers are incorrect who call the +animal a sloth. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 317 + +"Our coola (sloth or native bear) is about the size of an +ordinary poodle dog, with shaggy, dirty-coloured fur, no tail, +and claws and feet like a bear, of which it forms a tolerable +miniature. It climbs trees readily and feeds upon their +leaves." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 57: + +"The bear (phascolomys) of the colonists is in reality a +species of sloth, and partakes of all the characteristics of +that animal; it is of the marsupial order, and is found chiefly +in the neighbourhood of thickly timbered high land; its flesh +is used by the aborigines for food, but is tough and +unpalatable; its usual weight is from eight to twelve pounds." +[Note: <i>Phascolomys</i> is the name of the Wombat, not the +Bear.] + +1854. G. H. Hayden, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 126: + +"The luckless <i>carbora</i> fell crashing through the +branches." [Footnote] "The native name of an animal of the +sloth species, but incorrectly called by the colonists a bear." + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society of +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 68: + +"The koala or karbor (<i>Phascolarctus cinereus</i>) frequents +very high trees, and sits in places where it is most sheltered +by the branches. . . . Its fur is of the same colour as the +bark . . . like the cat has the power of contracting and +expanding the pupil of the eye . . . . Its skin is remarkably +thick . . . dense woolly fur . . . . The natives aver that the +koala never drinks water." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 448: + +"They were soon entirely out of provisions, but found a sort of +substitute by living on the native bear (<i>Phascolarctus +cinereus</i>), which was plentiful even in the forests." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 214: + +"Look, high up in the branches of that tall tree is a native +bear! It sits motionless. It has something the appearance of +a solemn old man. How funny his great ears and Roman nose +look! He sits on the branch as if it was a chair, holding with +hand-like claws the surrounding twigs." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 9: + +"We learned that a koala or native bear (<i>Phascolarctus +cinereus</i>) was sitting on a tree near the but of a +shepherd . . . not a dangerous animal. It is called `native +bear,' but is in no wise related to the bear family. It is an +innocent and peaceful marsupial, which is active only at night, +and sluggishly climbs the trees, eating leaves and sleeping +during the whole day. As soon as the young has left the pouch, +the mother carries it with her on her back. The Australian +bear is found in considerable numbers throughout the eastern +part of the continent, even within the tropical circle." + +<hw>Bearded Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Jew Lizard</i>. + +<hw>Beardie</hw>, or <hw>Beardy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. In +Scotland the name is applied to the Bearded Loach, +<i>Nemachilus barbatus</i>, of Europe; in New South Wales the +name is given to the fish <i>Lotella marginata</i>, Macl., of +the family <i>Gadidae</i>, or Cod-fishes, which is also called +<i>Ling</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Beaver-rat</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aquatic rodent, something +like the English water-rat, genus <i>Hydromys</i>. + +1864. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land' +[paper by Morton Allport], p. 62: + +"Common to both fresh and brackish water is the yellow bellied +beaver-rat or musk-rat (<i>Hydromys chrysogaster</i>)." + +<hw>Beech</hw>, <i>n</i>. There is only one true Beech in +Australia, <i>Fagus cunninghamii</i>, Hook, +<i>N.O. Cupuliferae</i>; but the name is applied to many other +kinds of Australian trees, viz.-- + +(1) Simply to + +<i>Cryptocarya glaucescens</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Laurineae</i>, +called also Black Sassafras, White Laurel, She Beech, and Black +Beech. + +<i>Flindersia australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>, +called also Flindosa Ash, Crow's Ash, and Rasp-pod, and +invariably Myrtle to Tasmania. + +Gmelina leichhardtii, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Verbenaceae</i>. + +<i>Monotoca elliptica</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +<i>Phyllanthus ferdinandi</i>, Muell. and Arg., <i>N.O. +Euphorbiaceae</i>, called also Pencil Cedar in Southern +New South Wales. + +<i>Schizomeria ovata</i>, D. Don, <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>, +called also Corkwood, Light-wood, Coachwood, and White Cherry. + +<i>Trochocarpa laurina</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae, +called</i> also Brush Cherry, and Brush Myrtle. + +(2) With various epithets the name is also used as follows-- + +Evergreen Beech-- + +<i>Fagus cunninghamii</i>, Hook, <i>N.O. Cupuliferae</i>, +called also Myrtle and Negro-head Beech. + +Flindosy B.-- + +<i>Flindersia schottiana</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>, +called also Ash and Stave-wood. + +Indian B.-- + +<i>Pongamia glabra</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, B. Fl. + +Mountain B.-- + +<i>Lomatia longifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +Native B.-- + +<i>Callicoma serratifolia</i>, Andr., <i>N.O. Saxifragiae</i>, +"one of the trees called by the early colonists `Black Wattle,' +from the fancied resemblance of the flowers to those of some of +the wattles." (Maiden, p. 389.) + +Negro-head B., i.q. Evergreen B. (q.v. supra). + +Queensland B.-- + +<i>Gmelina leichhardtii</i> , F. v. M., <i>N.O. Verbenaceae</i>, +a tall valuable timber-tree. + +Red B.-- + +<i>Tarrietia trifoliata</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>. + +She B.-- + +<i>Cryptocazya obovata</i>, R. Br., <i>H.0. Laurineae</i>, B. Fl., +called also Bastard Sycamore. + +White B.-- + +<i>Elaeocarpus kirtoni</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>, +called also Mountain Ash. + +(3) In New Zealand, there are six species of true beeches, which +according to Kirk are as follows-- + +Blair's B.-- + +<i>Fagus blairii</i>, T. Kirk. + +Entire-leaved B.-- + +<i>F. solandri</i>, Hook. f. + +Mountain B.-- + +<i>F. cliffortioides</i>, Hook. f. + +Pointed-leaved B.-- + +<i>F. apiculata</i>, Colenso. + +Silver B.-- + +<i>F. Menziesii</i>, Hook. f. + +Tooth-leaved B.-- + +<i>F. fusca</i>, Hook. f. + +All these, however, are commonly called <i>Birches</i>. + +See also the words <i>Ash, Myrtle, Sassafras</i>. + +<hw>Bee-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. The European +Bee-eater is <i>Merops apiaster</i>; the Australian species is +<i>Merops ornatus</i>, Lath. The bird was called +"<i>M. phrygius</i>, the Embroidered Merops," by Shaw. + +1793. G. Shaw, `Zoology [and Botany] of New Holland,' p. 14: + +"Specific character.--Black Merops varied with yellow. The +bird figured in its natural size on the present plate is a +species of Merops or Bee-eater; a tribe which appears to be +peculiarly prevalent in the extensive regions of Australia, +since more birds of this genus have been discovered than of any +other, except the very numerous one of Psittacus." + +[The birds, however, have been since this date further +differentiated, and are now all classed in other genera, except +the present species.] + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 144: + +"The wattled bee-eater, of which a plate is annexed, fell in +our way during the course of the day. . . . Under the eye, +on each side, is a kind of wattle of an orange colour. . . +This bird seems to be peculiar to New Holland." + +Ibid. p. 190: + +"We this day shot a knob-fronted bee-eater (see plate annexed). +This is about the size of a black-bird." [Description follows.] + +<hw>Beef-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. the timber of various Australian +trees, especially of the genus <i>Casuarina</i>, and some of +the Banksias; often used as a synonym of <i>She-oak</i> (q.v.). +The name is taken from the redness of the wood. + +1826. J. Atkinson, `Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales,' +p. 31: + +"The wood is well known in England by the names of Botany Bay +wood, or beef wood.The grain is very peculiar, but the wood is +thought very little of in the colony; it makes good shingles, +splits, in the colonial phrase, from heart to bark . . ." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 22: + +"They seemed to be covered with cypresses and beef-wood." + +1846. C. Holtzapffel, `Turning,' vol. i. p. 74: + +"Beef wood. Red-coloured woods are sometimes thus named, but +it is generally applied to the Botany-Bay oak." + +1852. G. C. Munday, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219: + +"A shingle of the beef-wood looks precisely like a raw +beef-steak." + +1856. Capt. H. Butler Stoney, `A Residence in Tasmania,' p. 265: + +"We now turn our attention to some trees of a very different +nature, <i>Casuarina stricta</i> and <i>quadrivalvis</i>, +commonly called He and She oak, and sometimes known by the name +of beef-wood, from the wood, which is very hard and takes a +high polish, exhibiting peculiar maculae spots and veins +scattered throughout a finely striated tint . . ." + +1868. Paxton's `Botanical Dictionary,' p. 116: + +"Casuarinaceae,or Beefwoods. Curious branching, leafless trees +or shrubs, with timber of a high order, which is both hard and +heavy, and of the colour of raw beef, whence the vulgar name." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants.' (See `Index of +vernacular names.') + +<hw>Belar</hw>, <i>n</i>. (various spellings, <i>Belah, billa, +beela, beal</i>), an aboriginal name for the tree <i>Casuarina +glauca</i>. The colonists call the tree Bull-oak, probably +from this native name. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 18: + +"A voice in the beela grows wild in its wail." + +1868. J. A. B., `Meta,' p. 19: + +"With heartfelt glee we hail the camp, +And blazing fire of beal." + +[Footnote]: "Aboriginal name of the gum-tree wood." + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110: + +"These scrubs . . . sometimes crown the watersheds as `belar.'" + +<hw>Bell-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to several birds, +from +their note, like the tinkling of a bell. In Australia, +a Honey-eater, <i>Myzantha melanophrys</i>, Gould ('Birds of +Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 80), the `Australian Bell-bird' (the +same bird as <i>Myzantha flavirostris</i>, V. and H.), chiefly +found in New South Wales; also <i>Oreoica gutturalis</i>, Gould +(vol. ii. pl. 81), the `Bell-bird' of Western Australia; and +<i>Oreoica cristata</i>, Lewin. In New Zealand, <i>Anthornis +melanura</i>, Sparrm., chief Maori names, <i>Korimako</i> +(q.v.) in North, and <i>Makomako</i> in South. Buller gives +ten Maori names. The settlers call it <i>Moko</i> (q.v.). +There is also a Bell-bird in Brazil. + +1774. J. Hawkesworth, `Voyages,' vol. ii. p. 390 [Journal of +Jan. 17, 1770): + +"In the morning we were awakened by the singing of the birds; +the number was incredible, and they seemed to strain their +throats in emulation of each other. This wild melody was +infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same +kind; it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned, +and perhaps the distance, and the water between, might be no +small advantage to the sound. Upon enquiry we were informed +that the birds here always began to sing about two hours after +midnight, and continuing their music till sunrise were, like +our nightingales, silent the rest of the day." + +[This celebrated descriptive passage by Dr. Hawkesworth is +based upon the following original from `Banks's Journal,' which +now, after an interval of 122 years, has just been published in +London, edited by Sir J. D. Hooker.] + +1770. J. Banks, `Journal,' Jan. 17 (edition 1896): + +"I was awakened by the singing of the birds ashore, from whence +we are distant not a quarter of a mile. Their numbers were +certainly very great. They seemed to strain their throats with +emulation, and made, perhaps, the most melodious wild music I +have ever heard, almost imitating small bells, but with the +most tunable silver sound imaginable, to which, maybe, the +distance was no small addition. On inquiring of our people, I +was told that they had observed them ever since we had been +here, and that they began to sing about one or two in the +morning, and continue till sunrise, after which they are silent +all day, like our nightingales." + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' +c. viii. p. 84: + +"The cry of the bell-bird seems to be unknown here." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 319: + +"Mr. Caley thus observes on this bird: `Dell-bird or Bell-bird. +So called by the colonists. It is an inhabitant of bushes, +where its disagreeable noise (disagreeable at least to me) [but +not to the poets] may be continually heard; but nowhere more so +than on going up the harbour to Paramatta, when a little above +the Flats.'" + +1835. T. B. Wilson, `Voyage Round the World,' p. 259: + +"During the night, the bell bird supplied, to us, the place of +the wakeful nightingale . . . a pleasing surprise, as we had +hitherto supposed that the birds in New Holland were not formed +for song." + +1839. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' p. 23: + +"Every bough seemed to throng with feathered musicians: the +melodious chimes of the bell-bird were specially distinct." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 102: + +"Look at the bell-bird's nest, admire the two spotted salmon +coloured eggs." + +Ibid. ('Verses written whilst we lived in tents'), p. 171: + +"Through the Eucalyptus shade, +Pleased could watch the bell-bird's flutter, +Blending with soft voice of waters +The delicious tones they utter." + +1846. Lady Martin, `Bush journey, 1846, Our Maoris,' p. 93: + +"We did hear the birds next morning as Captain Cook had +described --first the bell-bird gave its clear, full note, and +then came such a jargoning as made one's heart glad." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 81: + +"<i>Oreoica gutturalis</i>, Gould. Crested Oreoica. +<i>Bell-bird</i>, Colonists of Swan River [Western +Australia]. . . I find the following remarks in my note-book-- +`Note, a very peculiar piping whistle, sounding like +<i>weet-weet-weet-weet-oo</i>, the last syllable fully drawn +out and very melodious. . . . In Western Australia, where the +real Bell-bird is never found, this species has had that +appellation given to it,--a term which must appear ill-applied +to those who have heard the note of the true Bell-bird of the +brushes of New South Wales, whose tinkling sound so nearly +resembles that of a distant sheep-bell as occasionally to +deceive the ears of a practised shepherd." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 93: + +"Every now and then we stood, by common consent, silent and +almost breathless, to listen to the bell-bird, a dingy little +fellow, nearly as large as a thrush with the plumage of a +chaffinch, but with such a note! How can I make you hear its +wild, sweet, plaintive tone, as a little girl of the party said +`just as if it had a bell in its throat;' but indeed it would +require a whole peal of silver bells to ring such an exquisite +chime." + +1868. F. Napier Broome, `Canterbury Rhymes,' second edition, p. 108: + +"Where the bell-bird sets solitudes ringing, +Many times I have heard and thrown down +My lyre in despair of all singing." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 21: + +"Listen to the bell-bird. Ping, ping, sounds through the vast +hushed temple of nature." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 81: + +"The bell-bird, with metallic but mellow pipe, warns the +wanderer that he is near water in some sequestered nook." + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 8: + +"And softer than slumber and sweeter than singing, +The notes of the bell-bird are running and ringing." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 85: + +"<i>Anthornis melanura</i>. Chatham Island Bell-bird +(<i>A. Melanocephala</i>), the Bell-bird--so-called from the +fanciful resemblance of one of its notes to the distant tolling +of a bell." + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' p. 119: + +"Bell-bird, Korimako,or Makomako (<i>Anthornis melanura</i>), +is still common in many parts of the South Island--e.g. in the +neighbourhood of Dunedin; but has almost disappeared from the +North Island. Its song is remarkably fine." + +1893. W. P. Reeves, `The Passing of the Forest,' `Review of +Reviews,' Feb. 1893, p. 45: + +"Gone are the forest birds, arboreal things, +Eaters of honey, honey-sweet in song; +The tui, and the bell-bird--he who sings +That brief rich music one would fain prolong.' + +1896. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Part II., Zoology, <i>Aves</i>, p. 74: + +"In the north they [Oreoica] are frequently called +`Bell-birds,' but bear no resemblance to <i>Manorhina +melanophrys</i> in plumage, shape, or note. The Oreoica is +such an accomplished ventriloquist that it is difficult to +find." + +<hw>Bell-bottomed</hw>, <i>adj</i>. a particular fashion of +trouser affected by the <i>larrikin</i> (q.v.). + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 5, p. 13, col. 2: + +"Can it be that the pernicious influence of the House is +gradually tingeing the high priests of the bell-bottomed +ballottee with conservatism!" + +<hw>Bell-Frog, Golden</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Golden Bell-Frog</i>. + +<hw>Bell-topper</hw>, <i>n</i>. The ordinary Australian name +for the tall silk-hat. + +1860. W. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' p. 268 [Footnote]: + +"Bell-topper was the derisive name given by diggers to old +style hat, supposed to indicate the dandy swell." + +<hw>Benjamin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a husband, in Australian +pigeon-English. + +1870. Chas. H. Allen, `A Visit to Queensland and her Goldfields,' +p. 182: + +"There are certain native terms that are used by the whites +also as a kind of colonial slang, such as `yabber,' to talk; +`budgeree,' good; `bale,' no; `yan,' to go; `cabon,' much; and +so on. + +"With the black people a husband is now called a `benjamin,' +probably because they have no word to their own language to +express this relationship." + +<hw>Benjamin-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called <i>Weeping +Fig</i> in Queensland, Ficus benjaminea, Linn., +<i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>. + +<hw>Bent-grass</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Grass</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 65: + +<i>"Agrostis virginica</i>. Virginian Agrostis, or Bent-grass. +. . . Many species of this genus go under the general name of +Bent-grass. Their roots spread along among light and sandy +soil in which they generally grow with joints like the Squitch +or Couch grass of England." + +<hw>Berigora</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a bird of +genus <i>Falco</i>, from <i>beri</i>, claw, and <i>gora</i>, +long. See <i>Hawk</i> + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. +xv. p. 185: + +"The native name of this bird which we have adopted as its +specific name, is <i>Berigora</i>. It is called by the +settlers <i>Orange-speckled Hawk</i>." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' I. i. pl. 11: + +"<i>Hieracidea berigora</i>. Brown Hawk. Berigora, Aborigines +of New South Wales. Orange-speckled Hawk of the Colonists." + +<hw>Berley</hw>, <i>n</i>. term used by Australian fishermen +for ground bait. It is probably of aboriginal origin. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, +`Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales,' p. 75: + +"With hook and line along the rocks of our sea-coast these +fishes are caught, but the bait should be crabs. It is usual +to wrench legs and shell off the back, and cast them out for +Berley." + +1896. `Badminton Magazine,' August, p. 201: + +"I would signal to the sharks by opening and washing out a few +of the largest fish at the boat's head, sometimes adding bait +chopped small to serve for what Australian fishermen call +Berley." + +<hw>Betcherrygah</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name, <i>Melopsittacus +undulatus</i>, Shaw. See Budgerigar. + +<hw>Bettongia</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +of Prehensile-tailed <i>Kangaroo-Rats</i>, whose aboriginal name +is <i>Bettong</i>. They are the only ground-dwelling +marsupials with prehensile tails, which they use for carrying +bunches of grasses and sticks. See <i>Kangaroo-Rat</i>. + +<hw>Biddy-biddy</hw>, or <hw>Biddybid</hw>, <i>n</i>. a +corruption of Maori name <i>piripiri</i>. It is a kind of bur. + +1880. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open, `New Zealand Country Journal,' +vol. xii. p. 95: + +"Piri-piri (<i>acaena sanguisorbe</i>) by settlers has been +converted or corrupted into biddy-biddy; a verb has been formed +on it, which is in very constant use for a good part of the +year at least. To biddy, is to rid one of burrs, as `I'll just +biddy my clothes before I come in.' Small birds are +occasionally found in a wretched state of discomfort in which +they appear a moving mass of burrs. Parroquets, pipets, and +the little white-eyes, have been found victims suffering from +these tenacious burrs of the piri-piri, just moving little +brown balls unable to fly till picked up and released from +their bonds." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, vol. ii. p. 36: + +"Yes, biddybids detract very materially from the value of the +wool, and the plant should not be allowed to seed where sheep +are depastured. They are not quite so bad as the Bathurst +burr, but they are certainly in the same category." + +<hw>Biddy</hw>, <i>v</i>. See <i>Biddy-biddy, n</i>. + +<hw>Bidgee Widgee</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a Tasmanian +<i>Bur</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bidyan Ruffe</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fresh-water fish of New +South Wales, <i>Therapon richardsonii</i>, Castln., family +<i>Percidae</i>. Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby, Assistant Zoologist at +the Australian Museum, Sydney, says in a letter "The Bidyan +Ruffe of Sir Thomas Mitchell is our <i>Therapon ellipticus</i>, +Richards (<i>T. richardsonii</i>, Castln.). Found in all the +rivers of the Murray system, and called <i>Kooberry</i> by the +natives." It is also called the <i>Silver Perch</i> and +sometimes <i>Bream</i>. + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 95 [Note]: + +"Bidyan is the aboriginal name." + +Ibid. vol. i. p. 135: + +"Abundance of that which the men commonly called bream +(<i>Cernua bidyana</i>), a very coarse but firm fish, which +makes a groaning noise when taken out of the water." + +<hw>Big-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. The name is used locally +for various fishes; in Australia it is <i>Eleotris +nudiceps</i>, Castln., family <i>Gobiidae</i>, a river fish. +Of the genus <i>Eleotris</i>, Guenther says that as regards +form they repeat almost all the modifications observed among +the Gobies, from which they differ only in having the ventral +fins non-coalescent. See <i>Bull-head</i> (2). + +<hw>Billabong</hw>, <i>n</i>. an effluent from a river, +returning to it, or often ending in the sand, in some cases +running only in flood time. + +In the Wiradhuri dialect of the centre of New South Wales, East +coast, <i>billa</i> means a river and <i>bung</i> dead. See +<i>Bung. Billa</i> is also a river in some Queensland +dialects, and thus forms part of the name of the river +Belyando. In the Moreton Bay dialect it occurs in the form +<i>pill</i> , and in the sense of `tidal creek.' In the +`Western Australian Almanack' for 1842, quoted in J. Fraser's +`Australian Language,' 1892, Appendix, p. 50, <i>Bilo</i> is +given for <i>River</i>. + +<i> Billabong</i> is often regarded as a synonym for +<i>Anabranch</i> (q.v.); but there is a distinction. From the +original idea, the <i>Anabranch</i> implies rejoining the +river; whilst the <i>Billabong</i> implies continued separation +from it; though what are called <i>Billabongs</i> often do +rejoin. + +1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' p. 30: + +"A dried-up tributary of the Gregory, which I named the +Macadam." + +[Footnote]: "In the south, such a creek as the Macadam is +termed a <i>billy-bonn</i> [sic], from the circumstance of the +water carrier returning from it with his pitcher (<i>billy</i>) +empty (<i>bong</i>, literally dead)." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 298: + +"What the Major calls, after the learned nomenclature of +Colonel Jackson, in the `Journal of the Geographical Society,' +anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels +coming out of a stream and returning into it again." + +1880. P. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting on the Warrego:' + +"In yon great range may huddle billabongs." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 25: + +"What a number of swallows skim about the `billabongs' along +the rivers in this semi-tropical region." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 1: + +"Let's make a start at once, d'ye hear; I want to get over to +the billabong by sunrise." + +<hw>Billet</hw>, <i>n</i>. an appointment, a position; a very +common expression in Australia, but not confined to Australia; +adapted from the meaning, "an official order requiring the +person to whom it is addressed to provide board and lodging for +the soldier bearing it." (`O.E.D.') + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 267: + +"If ever she went back to Australia, she'd remember my young +man, and get him a good billet." + +<hw>Billy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tin pot used as a bushman's kettle. +The word comes from the proper name, used as abbreviation for +William. Compare the common uses of `Jack,' `Long Tom,' +`Spinning Jenny.' It came into use about 1850. It is not used +in the following. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 48: + +"He then strikes a light and makes a fire to boil his kettle +and fry his bacon." + +About 1850, the billy superseded the <i>quart-pot</i> (q.v.), +chiefly because of its top-handle and its lid. Another +suggested derivation is that billy is shortened from +<i>billycan</i>, which is said to be bully-can (sc. +Fr. <i>bouili</i>). In the early days "<i>boeuf bouilli</i>" +was a common label on tins of preserved meat in ship's stores. +These tins, called "bully-tins," were used by diggers and +others as the modern billy is (see quotation 1835). A third +explanation gives as the origin the aboriginal word +<i>billa</i> (river or water). + +1835. T. B. Wilson, `Voyage Round the World,' p. 238: + +"An empty preserved meat-canister serving the double purpose of +tea-kettle and tea-pot." + +[The word <i>billy</i> is not used, but its origin is +described.] + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 202: + +"A tin pan bearing the familiar name of a billy." + +1871 J. J. Simpson, `Recitations,' p. 5: + +"He can't get a billy full for many a mile round." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 41: + +"A billy (that is a round tin pitcher with a lid) in his hand." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 69: + +"A tin can, which the connoisseurs call for some reason or +other a `billy.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 24: + +"A very black camp-kettle, or billy, of hot tea." + +1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 4: + +"How we praised the simple supper + (we prepared it each in turn), +And the tea! Ye gods! 'twas nectar. + Yonder billy was our urn." + + +<hw>Billy-can</hw>, <i>n.</i> a variation of the above, more +used by townsmen than bushmen. + +1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 4: + +"But I said, `Dear friend and brother, yonder billy-can is +mine; You may confiscate the washing that is hanging on the +line, You may depredate the larder, take your choice of pot and +pan; But, I pray thee, kind sundowner, spare, oh spare, my +billy-can.'" + +<hw>Bingy</hw> [<i>g</i> soft], <i>n</i>. stomach or belly. +Aboriginal. The form at Botany Bay was <i>bindi</i>; at Jervis +Bay, <i>binji</i>. + +1851. Rev. David Mackenzie, `Ten Years in Australia,' p. 140: + +"They lay rolling themselves on the ground, heavily groaning in +pain, and with their hands rubbing their bellies, exclaiming, +`Cabonn buggel along bingee' (that is, I am very sick in the +stomach)." + +<hw>Birch</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, the trees called +birches are really <i>beeches</i> (q.v.), but the term birch is +used very vaguely; see quotation 1889. In Tasmania, the name is +applied to <i>Dodonaea ericifolia</i>, Don., <i>N.O. +Sapindaceae</i>. + +1853. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125: + +"White-birch of Nelson and Otago (from colour of bark), +Black-heart Birch of Wellington, <i>Fagus solandri</i>, Hook, a +lofty, beautiful ever-green tree, 100 feet high. Black-birch +(Tawhai) of Auckland and Otago (from colour of bark), Red-birch +of Wellington and Nelson (from colour of timber), <i>Fagus +fusca, N.O. Cupuliferae</i>, a noble tree 60 to 90 feet high." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 91: + +"Like all small-leaved forest trees it [<i>Fagus solandri</i>, +Hook. f.] is termed `birch' by the bushman. . . . It is not +too much to say that the blundering use of common names in +connection with the New Zealand beeches, when the timber has +been employed in bridges and constructive works, has caused +waste and loss to the value of many thousands of pounds." + +<hw>Bird-catching Plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand shrub or +tree, <i>Pisonia brunoniana</i>, Endl., +<i>N.O. Nyctagineae</i>; Maori name, <i>Parapara</i>. + +1883. R. H. Govett, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xvi. Art. xxviii. p. 364:: + +"A Bird-killing Tree. . . . In a shrub growing in my father's +garden at New Plymouth, two Silver-eyes (<i>Zosterops</i>) and +an English Sparrow had been found with their wings so glued by +the sticky seed-vessels that they were unable to move, and +could only fly away after having been carefully washed." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 293: + +"It is sometimes termed the `birdcatching plant' by settlers +and bushmen . . . It will always be a plant of special +interest, as small birds are often found captured by its viscid +fruits, to which their feathers become attached as effectively +as if they were glued." + +<hw>Bird's-nest fungus</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small fungus of the +genus <i>Cyathus</i>, four species of which occur in +Queensland. + +<hw>Bitter-Bark</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Petalostigma quadrilo</i> culare, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Euphorbiacea</i>. Called also <i>Crab-tree, Native +Quince, Emu apple</i>, and <i>Quinine-tree</i>. The bark +contains a powerful bitter essence, which is used medicinally. +The name is also applied to <i>Tabernaemontana orientalis</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Apocyneae</i>, and to <i>Alstonia +constricta</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Aporynacece</i>, which is also +called Feverbark. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 204: + +"Bitter Bark. This small tree has an intensely bitter bark, +and a decoction of it is sometimes sold as `bitters." + +<hw>Bitter-Leaf</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Native Hop</i>. See <i>Hops</i> and <i>Hopbush</i>. + +<hw>Bittern</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name well known in England. +The Australian species are-- + +The Bittern-- + +<i>Botaurus paeciloptilus</i>, Wagl. + +Black B.-- + +<i>Butoroides flavicollis</i>, Lath. + +Green B.-- + +<i>B. javanica</i>, Horsfield. + +Little B.-- + +<i>Ardetta pusilla</i>, Vieill. + +<hw>Blackberry, Native</hw>, or <hw>Bramble</hw>, <i>n</i>. +called also <i>Raspberry</i>. Three species of the genus +<i>Rubus</i> occur in Queensland--<i>Rubus moluccanus</i>, +Linn., <i>R. parvifolius</i>, Linn., <i>R. + +rosifolius</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i> See also +<i>Lawyer</i>. + +<hw>Blackbird</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A cant name for a captive negro, +or Polynesian, on board a slave or pirate ship." (`O.E.D.') But +no instance is given of its use for a negro. + +1871. `Narrative of the Voyage of the Brig Carl' [pamphlet] + +"They were going to take a cruise round the islands +`black-bird' catching." + +1872. `The Argus,' Dec. 21, Supplement, p. 2, col. 1 [Chief +Justice's charge in the case of the `Carl Outrage']: + +"They were not going pearl-fishing but blackbird-hunting. It +is said you should have evidence as to what blackbird-hunting +meant. I think it is a grievous mistake to pretend to +ignorance of things passing before our eyes everyday. We may +know the meaning of slang words, though we do not use them. Is +there not a wide distinction between blackbird-hunting and a +legitimate labour-trade, if such a thing is to be carried on? +What did he allude to? To get labourers honestly if they could, +but, if not, any way?" + +1881. `Chequered Career,' p.188 (`O.E.D.') + +"The white men on board know that if once the `blackbirds' +burst the hatches . . . they would soon master the ship." + +<hw>Black-birding</hw>, <i>n</i>. kidnapping natives of South +Sea islands for service in Queensland plantations. + +1871. `Narrative of the Voyage of the Brig Carl' [pamphlet]: + +"All the three methods, however, of obtaining labour in the +South Seas--that which was just and useful, that which was of +suspicious character, and that which was nothing, more or less, +than robbery and murder--were in use the same time, and all +three went by the same general slang term of `blackbirding,' or +`blackbird catching.'" + +1872. Rev. H. S. Fagan, `The Dark Blue' (Magazine), June, +p. 437: + +"Well, you see how it is that C is not safe, even though he is +a missionary bishop, after A has made the name of missionary an +offence by his ingenious mode of `black-birding.'" + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 78: + +"In the early days of sugar-planting there may have been +black-birding, but it was confined to a very few, and it is +done away with altogether now." + +<hw>Black-birding</hw>, <i>adj</i>. + +1883. `The Academy,' Sept. 8, p. 158 (`O.E.D.') + +"[He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of reprisal for the +atrocities of some black-birding crew." + +<hw>Blackboy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a grass-tree. Name applied to all +species of the genus <i>Xanthorroea</i>, but especially to +<i>X. preissii</i>, Endl., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. Compare +<i>Maori-head</i>. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' ii. 4, 132: + +"Black Boy . . . gum on the spear, resin on the trunk." + +Ibid. ii. 12, 280 [Note] + +"These trees, called blackboys by the colonists, from the +resemblance they bear in the distance to natives." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 92: + +"Gas admirably fitted for domestic purposes had been extracted +from the shrub called the `blackboy.' I regret to state that +the gas . . . is not . . . at present known in the colony." + +1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 15: + +"The common grass-tree or `blackboy,' so called from its long +dark stem and dark seed head (when dry)." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Feb. 15, p. 313 (with an +Illustration): + +"The Blackboy trees are a species of grass-tree or +<i>Xanthorrhoea</i>, exuding a gummy substance used by the +blacks for fastening glass and quartz-barbs to their spears. +Many years ago, when coal was scarce in Western Australia, an +enterprising firm . . . erected a gas-making plant, and +successfully lit their premises with gas made from the +Blackboy." + +1896. Modern: + +A story is told of a young lady saying to a naval officer:-- +"I was this morning watching your ship coming into harbour, +and so intently that I rode over a young blackboy." The officer +was shocked at her callousness in expressing no contrition. + +<hw>Black-Bream</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish, +<i>Chrysophrys australis</i>, Gunth., family <i>Sparidae</i>, +or Sea-Breams; called in Tasmania <i>Silver-Bream</i>, the fish +there called <i>Black-Bream</i> being another of the +<i>Sparidae</i>, <i>Girella tricuspidata</i>, Cuv. and Val. +See <i>Tarwhine</i> and <i>Black-fish</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 42: + +"<i>Chrysophrys</i> comprises the tarwhine and black-bream of +the Sydney fishermen. . . . We have two species in +Australia. . . . The black-bream, <i>C. australis</i>, +Gunth., and the tarwhine, <i>C. sarba</i>, Forsk. . . . +The Australian bream is as common on the south as on the east +coast. It affords excellent sport to anglers in Victoria." + +<hw>Blackbutt</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Eucalyptus pilularis</i>, Smith, +Victoria; <i>E. regnans</i>, F. v. M., New South Wales; a timber +tree, a gum. Another name is <i>Flintwood</i>. The lower part +of the trunk is black. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 49: + +"The range . . . having with the exception of the Blackbutt all +the trees . . . of Moreton Bay." + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among Gum-trees,' p. 86: + +"'Tis there the `blackbut' rears its head." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 30: + +"A tree of considerable size. . . The bark smooth and falling +off in flakes upward, and on the branches." + +1897. `The Age,' Feb. 22, p. 5, col. 3: + +"Mr. Richards stated that the New South Wales black butt and +tallow wood were the most durable and noiseless woods for +street-paving, as well as the best from a sanitary point of +view." + +<hw>Black-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand fish, <i>Notothenia +angustata</i>. + +<hw>Blackfellow</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal Australian. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' i. 4, 74: + +"The native Miago . . . appeared delighted that these `black +fellows,' as he calls them, have no throwing sticks." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 9: + +"The well-known tracks of blackfellows are everywhere visible." + +1871. Dingo, `Australian Rhymes,' p. 14: + +"Wurragaroo loved Wangaraday + In a blackfellow's own peculiar way." + +<hw>Black-Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Tasmanian species so called +is <i>Athyrium australe</i>, Presl., <i>N.O. Polypodeae</i>. + +<hw>Black-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given, especially in +Sydney, to the sea-fishes <i>Girella simplex</i>, Richards (see +<i>Ludrick</i>), and <i>Girella tricuspidata</i>, Cuv. and +Val.; also to a fresh-water fish all over Australia, +<i>Gadopsis marmoratus</i>, Richards. <i>G. marmoratus</i> is +very common in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and +parts of Tasmania. There are local varieties. It is much +esteemed as a food fish, but is, like all mud fishes, rich and +oily. <i>Girella</i> belongs to the family <i>Sparida</i>, or +Sea-Breams, and <i>Gadopsis</i> to the <i>Gadopsidae</i>, a +family allied to that containing the Cod fishes. The name was +also formerly applied to a whale. + +1853. C. St. Julian and E. K. Silvester, `Productions, +Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' p. 115: + +"There is a species of whale called by those engaged in the +south sea fishing the <i>Black-fish</i> or <i>Black-whale</i>, +but known to the naturalist as the Southern Rorqual, which the +whalemen usually avoid." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 100 + +"Nothing is better eating than a properly cooked black-fish. +The English trout are annihilating them, however." + +<hw>Black-Line</hw>. See <i>Black-War</i>. + +<hw>Black-Perch</hw>, <i>n.</i> a river fish of New South Wales. +<i>Therapon niger</i>, Castln., family <i>Percidae</i>. +A different fish from those to which the name is applied +elsewhere. See <i>Perch</i>. + +<hw>Black-and-white Ringed Snake</hw>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Black Rock-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish, chiefly +of New South Wales, <i>Serranus daemeli</i>, Gunth.; a +different fish from the <i>Rock-Cod</i> of the northern +hemisphere. The Serrani belong to the family <i>Percidae</i>, +and are commonly called "Sea-perches." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 33: + +"The genus <i>Serranus</i> comprises most of the fishes known +as `rock cod.'. . . One only is sufficiently useful as an +article of food to merit notice, and that is the `black rock +cod' (<i>Serranus damelii</i>, Guenther), without exception the +very best of all our fishes." + +<hw>Black-Snake.</hw> See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Black-Swan.</hw> See <i>Swan</i>. + +<hw>Black Thursday</hw>, the day of a Victorian conflagration, +which occurred on Feb. 6, 1851. The thermometer was 112 +degrees in the shade. Ashes from the fire at Macedon, 46 miles +away, fell in Melbourne. The scene forms the subject of the +celebrated picture entitled "Black Thursday," by William +Strutt, R.B.A. + +1859. Rev. J. D. Mereweather, `Diary of a Working Clergyman in +Australia,' p. 81: + +"Feb. 21 . . . Dreadful details are reaching us of the great +bush fires which took place at Port Phillip on the 6th of this +month . . . . Already it would seem that the appellation of +`Black Thursday' has been given to the 6th February, 1851, for +it was on that day that the fires raged with the greatest +fury." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillman, `Australian Life,' p. 39: + +"The old colonists still repeat the most terrible stories of +Black Thursday, when the whole country seemed to be on fire. +The flames leaped from tree to tree, across creeks, hills, and +gullies, and swept everything away. Teams of bullocks in the +yoke, mobs of cattle and horses, and even whole families of +human beings, in their bush-huts, were completely destroyed, +and the charred bones alone found after the wind and fire had +subsided." + +<hw>Black-Tracker</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal employed in +tracking criminals. + +1867. `Australia as it is,' pp. 88-9: + +"The native police, or `black trackers,' as they are sometimes +called, are a body of aborigines trained to act as policemen, +serving under a white commandant--a very clever expedient for +coping with the difficulty . . . of hunting down and discovering +murderous blacks, and others guilty of spearing cattle and +breaking into huts . . ." + +1870. `The Argus,' March 26, p. 5, col. 4: + +"The troopers, with the assistance of two black trackers, +pursued the bushrangers . . ." + +1870. Ibid. April 13, p. 6, col. 7: + +. . . two members of the police force and a black tracker . . . +called at Lima station . . ." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xvii. p. 165: + +"Get the black-trackers on the trail." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 3 . + +"Only three weeks before he had waddied his gin to death for +answering questions put to her by a blacktracker, and now he +advanced to Charlie . . . and said,. . . `What for you come alonga +black fella camp?'" + +1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9: + +"About one hundred and fifty horsemen have been out to-day in +addition to the local police. The black-trackers arrived by +the train last night, and commenced work this morning." + +<hw>Black-Trevally</hw>. See <i>Trevally</i>. + +<hw>Black-War</hw>, or <hw>Black-Line</hw>, a military +operation planned in 1830 by Governor Arthur for the capture +of the Tasmanian aborigines. A levy <i>en masse</i> of the +colonists was ordered. About 5000 men formed the "black line," +which advanced across the island from north to south-east, with +the object of driving the tribes into Tasman's Peninsula. The +operation proved a complete failure, two blacks only being +captured at a cost to the Government of L 30,000. + +1835. H. Melville, `History of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 103: + +"The parties forming the `black line,' composed, as they were, +of a curious melange of masters and servants, took their +respective stations at the appointed time. As the several +parties advanced, the individuals along the line came closer +and closer together --the plan was to keep on advancing slowly +towards a certain peninsula, and thus frighten the Aborigines +before them, and hem them in." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol, ii. p. 54: + +"Thus closed the Black War. This campaign of a month supplied +many adventures and many an amusing tale, and, notwithstanding +the gravity of his Excellency, much fun and folly . . . . Five +thousand men had taken the field. Nearly L 30,000 had been +expended, and probably not much less in time and outlay by the +settlers, and two persons only were captured." + +<hw>Black Wednesday</hw>, <i>n</i>. a political phrase for a +day in Victoria (Jan. 9, 1878), when the Government without +notice dismissed many Civil Servants, including heads of +departments, County Court judges and police magistrates, on the +ground that the Legislative Council had not voted the money for +their salaries. + +1878. `Melbourne Punch,' May 16, vol. xlvi. p. 195 [Title of +Cartoon]: + +"In Memoriam. Black Wednesday, 9th January 1878." + +1896. `The Argus,' [Sydney telegram] Aug. 18, p. 6, col. 4: + +"The times in the public service at present reminded him of +Black Wednesday in Victoria, which he went through. That +caused about a dozen suicides among public servants. Here it +had not done so yet, but there was not a head of a department +who did not now shake in his shoes." + +<hw>Blackwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, <i>Acacia +melanoxylon</i>, R. Br.; often called <i>Lightwood</i>; it is +dark in colour but light in weight. + +1828. `Report of Van Diemen's Land Company,' Bischoff, `Van +Diemen's Land, 1832,' p. 118 + +"Without a tree except a few stumps of blackwood." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' p. 21: + +"Grassy slopes thickly timbered with handsome Blackwood trees." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 359: + +"Called `Blackwood' on account of the very dark colour of the +mature wood." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 4: + +"Blackwood, Lightwood--rather frequent on many rich river-flats +. . . .It is very close-grained and heavy, and is useful for +all purposes where strength and flexibility are required." + +<hw>Bladder Saltbush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland shrub, +<i>Atriplex vesicarium</i>, Heward, <i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>. +The Latin and vernacular names both refer to "the bladdery +appendage to fruiting perianth." (Bailey.) See +<i>Saltbush</i>. + +<hw>Blandfordia</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +<i>Gordon-Lily</i> (see under <i>Lily</i>). The plant was +named after George, Marquis of Blandford, son of the second +Duke of Marlborough. The Tasmanian aboriginals called the +plant <i>Remine</i>, which name has been given to a small port +where it grows in profusion on the west coast. + +<hw>Bleeding-Heart</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Kennedya</i> (q.v.). + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 53: + +"The trailing scarlet kennedyas, aptly called the `bleeding- +heart' or `coral-pea,' brighten the greyness of the sandy +peaty wastes." + +<hw>Blight</hw>. See <i>Sandy-blight</i>. + +<hw>Blight-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name in New Zealand for +the <i>Zosterops</i> (q.v.). Called also <i>Silver-eye</i> +(q.v.), <i>Wax-eye</i>, and <i>White-eye</i> (q.v.). It is +called Blight-bird because it eats the blight on trees. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 130: + +"The white-eye or blight-bird, with cheerful note, in crowded +flocks, sweeps over the face of the country, and in its +progress clears away multitudes of small insect pests." + +1885. A. Hamilton, `Native Birds of Petane, Hawke's Bay,' +`Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xviii. p. 125: + +"<i>Zosterops lateralis</i>, white-eye, blight-bird. One of +our best friends, and abundant in all parts of the district." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' (2nd ed.) + vol. i. p. 82: + +"By the settlers it has been variously designated as Ring-eye, +Wax-eye, White-eye, or Silver-eye, in allusion to the beautiful +circlet of satiny-white feathers which surrounds the eyes; and +quite as commonly the `Blightbird' or `Winter-migrant.' . . . +It feeds on that disgusting little aphis known as American +blight, which so rapidly covers with a fatal cloak of white the +stems and branches of our best apple-trees; it clears our early +cabbages of a pestilent little insect, that left unchecked +would utterly destroy the crop; it visits our gardens and +devours another swarming parasite that covers our roses." + +<hw>Blind Shark</hw>, or <hw>Sand Shark</hw>, +<i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Shovel-nose</i> (q.v.). + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods `Fish and Fisheries of New +South Wales, p. 97: + +"<i>Rhinobatus granulatus</i> or shovel-nose, which is properly +speaking a Ray, is called here the blind or sand shark, though, +as Mr. Hill remarks, it is not blind. He says `that it +attains the length of from 6 to 7 feet, and is also harmless, +armed only with teeth resembling small white beads secured +closely upon a cord; it however can see tolerably well, and +searches on sandy patches for crustaceae and small shell fish.'" + +1886. J. Douglas-Ogilby, `Catalogue of the Fishes of New South +Wales,' p. 5: + +"Rhinobatus Granulatus . . . I have not seen a New South Wales +example of this fish, which appears to have been confounded +with the following by writers on the Australian fauna. +<i>Rhinobatus Bongainvillei</i>, Muell and Heule, +<i>Habitat</i> Port Jackson. <i>Shovel-nosed Ray of</i> Sydney +fishermen." + +<hw>Blind-your-Eyes</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Milky Mangrove</i>. See <i>Mangrove</i>. + +, doing the</hw>, <i>v</i>. lounging in the +fashionable promenade. In Melbourne, it is Collins Street, +between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets. In Sydney, "The Block" +is that portion of the city bounded by King, George, Hunter, +and Pitt Streets. It is now really two blocks, but was all in +one till the Government purchased the land for the present Post +Office, and then opened a new street from George to Pitt +Street. Since then the Government, having purchased more land, +has made the street much wider, and it is now called Martin's +Place. + +1869. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher,' (in an Essay on +`Doing the Block') (reprint), p. 13: + +"If our Victorian youth showed their appreciation for domestic +virtues, Victorian womanhood would `do the Block' less +frequently." + +1872. `Glimpses of Life in Victoria by a Resident,' p. 349: + +"A certain portion of Collins street, lined by the best +drapers' and jewellers' shops, with here and there a bank or +private office intervening, is known as `the Block,' and is the +daily resort of the belles and beaux. . . ." + +1875. R. and F. Hill, `What We Saw in Australia,' p. 267: + +"To `do the block' corresponds in Melbourne to driving in Hyde +Park." + +1876. Wm. Brackley Wildey, `Australasia and the Oceanic Region,' +p. 234: + +"The streets are thronged with handsome women, veritable +denizens of the soil, fashionably and really tastefully +attired, `doing the block,' patrolling Collins-street, or +gracefully reclining in carriages. . . ." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 126: + +"You just do as I tell you, and we'll go straight off to town +and `do the block.'" + +1894. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Oct. 6, p. 6, col. 1: + +"But the people doing the block this morning look very nice." + +<hw>Block, on the</hw>.(1) On the promenade above referred to. + +1896. `The Argus,' July 17, p. 4. col. 7: + +" We may slacken pace a little now and again, just as the busy +man, who generally walks quickly, has to go slowly in the crowd +on the Block." + +(2) Term in mining, fully explained in `The Miner's Right,' +chapters vii. and viii. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 86: + +"I declare the Liberator Lead to be `on the block.'" + +`Extract from Mining Regulation 22' (Ibid. p. 77): + +"The ground shall be open for taking up claims in the block +form." + +<hw>Blood-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the <i>Sanguineous +Honey-eater</i>. See <i>Honey-eater</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 63: + +<i>"Myzomela sanguinolenta</i>, Sanguineous Honey-eater. +Blood-bird of the Colonists of New South Wales." + +<hw>Blood-sucker</hw>, <i>n</i>. popular name for certain +species of Lizards belonging to the genus <i>Amphibolurus +(Grammatophora</i>). Especially applied to <i>A. muricata</i>, +Shaw. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 37: + +"Another description of lizard is here vulgarly called the +`bloodsucker.' " + +1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Natural History of Victoria,' +Dec. 12, pl. cxi.: + +"Why the popular name of `Bloodsucker' should be so universally +given to this harmless creature by the Colonists (except on the +locus a non lucendo principle) I cannot conceive." + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian Association +for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 70: + +"Two species of `blood sucker' so absurdly designated." + +<hw>Blood-wood</hw>, or <hw>Blood-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name +applied, with various epithets, to many of the <i>Gum-trees</i> +(q.v.), especially to--(1) <i>Eucalyptus corymbosa</i>, Smith, +sometimes called Rough-barked bloodwood; (2) <i>E. eximia</i>, +Schauer, Mountain or Yellow bloodwood; (3) <i>Baloghia +lucida</i>, Endl., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>, called Brush +Bloodwood. The sap is blood-red, running copiously when cut +across with a knife. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 271: + +"The natives tell me it breeds in the winter in Mun'ning-trees +or Blood-trees of the colonists (a species of <i>Eucalyptus</i>)." + +1847. L.Leichhardt,' Overland Expedition,' p. 292: + +"The bergue was covered with fine bloodwood trees, +stringy-bark, and box." + +1892. A. J. North, `Proceedings of Linnaean Society,' New South +Wales, vol. vii. series 2, p. 396: + +"I traced her to a termite nest in a bloodwood tree +(<i>Eucalyptus corymbosa</i>)." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' 448: + +"It [<i>E. eximia</i>] is called `bloodwood,' partly because +kino exudes in the concentric circles of the wood . . . partly +because its fruits are in shape very similar to those of +<i>E. corymbosa</i>." + +<hw>Blow</hw>, <i>n</i>. stroke of the shears in sheep-shearing. + +1890. `The Argus,' September 20, p. 13, col. 7: + +"The shearers must make their clip clean and thorough. If it +be done so incompetently that a `second blow' is needed, the +fleece is hacked." + +<hw>Blow,/2/</hw> <i>n</i>. braggadocio, boasting. + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' viii. p. 71: + +"Is there not very much that the Australian may well be proud +of, and may we not commend him for a spice of blow?" + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-Side Saxon,' p. 77: + +"He can walk as fast as some horses can trot, cut out any beast +that ever stood on a camp, and canter round a cheese-plate. +This was a bit of blow." + +1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 102, col. 1: + +"Now Digby Holland will think it was mere Australian blow." + +<hw>Blow</hw>, <i>v</i>. to boast; abbreviated from the phrase +"to blow your own trumpet." The word is not Australian though +often so regarded. It is common in Scotland and in the United +States. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 387: + +"The blast of the trumpet as heard in Victoria is louder than +all the blasts--and the Melbourne blast beats all the other +blowing of that proud colony. My first, my constant, my +parting advice to my Australian cousins is contained in two +words, `don't blow.'" + +<hw>Blower</hw>, <i>n</i>. a boaster. (See <i>Blow, v</i>.) + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood,' A Colonial Reformer,' p. 411: + +"A regular Sydney man thinks all Victorians are blowers and +speculators." + +<hw>Blowing</hw>, <i>verbal n</i>. boasting. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 387: + +"A fine art much cultivated in the colonies, for which the +colonial phrase of `blowing' has been created." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 9: + +"Blowing (that is, talking loudly and boastingly on any and +every subject)." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 45: + +"He was famous for `blowing' in Australian parlance . . . +of his exploits." + +<hw>Bluebell</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in Tasmania +to the flower <i>Wahlenbergia gracilis</i>, De C., <i>N.O. +Campanulaceae</i>. + +<hw>Blueberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Currant</i> +(q.v.). The name is also given to <i>Dianella longifolia</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. + +<hw>Blueberry Ash</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Victorian tree, +<i>Elaeocarpus holopetalus</i>, F. v. M. + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 15: + +"Blueberry Ash or Prickly Fig. A noble tree, attaining a +height of 120 feet. Wood pale, fine-grained; exquisite for +cabinet work." + +<hw>Blue-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian forage plant, +a kind of Salt-bush, <i>Kochia pyrainidata</i>, Benth, +<i>N.O. Chenopodiaceae</i>. + +1876. W. Harcus. `South Australia,' p. 124: + +"[The country] would do splendidly for sheep, being thickly +grassed with short fine grass, salt and blue bush, and geranium +and other herbs." + +<hw>Blue-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a New Zealand fish, +<i>Percis colias</i>, family <i>Trachinidae</i>. Called also +in New Zealand <i>Rock-Cod</i> (q.v.). The fish is of a +different family from the <i>Cod</i> of the northern +hemisphere. + +<hw>Blue-creeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the creeper, +<i>Comesperma volubile</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Campanulaceae</i>. + +<hw>Blue-eye</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird name. <i>The Blue faced +Honey-eater</i> (q.v.). + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 68: + +"<i>Entomyza cyanotis</i>, Swains. Blue-faced <i>Entomyza</i>. +Blue-eye of the colonists." + +<hw>Blue-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Sydney to +<i>Girella cyanea</i>, of the family <i>Sparidae</i>, or +Sea-Breams. It is different from the <i>Blue-fish</i> of the +American coasts, which is of the family <i>Carangidae</i>. + +<hw>Blue-Groper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales and +Tasmania, <i>Cossyphus gouldii</i>, one of the <i>Labridae</i> +or Wrasses, often called <i>Parrot-Fish</i> in Australia. +Called also <i>Blue-head</i> in Tasmania. Distinct from the +fish called the <i>Groper</i> (q.v). + +<hw>Blue-gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Gum</i>. It is an +increasing practice to make a single word of this compound, and +to pronounce it with accent on the first syllable, as +`wiseman,' `goodman.' + +<hw>Blue-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for the fish +called the <i>Blue-Groper</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Blue Lobelia</hw>, <i>n</i>. The indigenous species in +Tasmania which receives this name is <i>Lobelia gibbosa</i>, +Lab., <i>N.O. Campanulaceae</i>. + +<hw>Blue-pointer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given in New South +Wales to a species of Shark, <i>Lamna glauca</i>, Mull. and +Heule, family <i>Lamnidae</i>, which is not confined to +Australasia. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 95: + +"On the appearance of a `blue pointer' among boats fishing for +schnapper outside, the general cry is raised, `Look out for the +blue pointer.' . . . These are high swimming fishes, and may +be readily seen when about pushing their pursuits; the +beautiful azure tint of their back and sides, and independent +manner they have of swimming rapidly and high among the boats +in search of prey, are means of easy recognition, and they +often drive the fishermen away." + +<hw>Bluestone</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of dark stone of which many +houses and public buildings are built. + +1850. `The Australasian' (Quarterly), Oct. [Footnote], p. 138: + +"The ancient Roman ways were paved with polygonal blocks of a +stone not unlike the trap or bluestone around Melbourne." + +1855. R. Brough Smyth, `Transactions of Philosophical Society, +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 25: + +"The basalt or `bluestone,' which is well adapted to structural +purposes, and generally obtains where durability is desired." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 62: + +"Basalts, locally called `bluestones,' occur of a quality +useful for road-metal, house-blocks, and ordinary rubble +masonry." + +1890. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' p. xx. +[Letter from Mr. S. H. Wintle]: + +"The newer basalts, which in Victoria have filled up so +extensively Miocene and Pliocene valleys, and river channels, +are chiefly vesicular Zeolitic <i>dolerites</i> and +<i>anaemesites</i>, the former being well represented by the +light-coloured Malmsbury `bluestone' so extensively employed in +buildings in Melbourne." + +<hw>Blue-tongued Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to +<i>Tiliqua nigroluteus</i>, Gray, a common Australian and +Tasmanian lizard belonging to the family <i>Scincidae</i>. +The name is derived from its blue-coloured tongue, and on +account of its sluggish habits it is also often called the +Sleepy lizard. + +1887. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Dec. 14, +pl. 131: + +"Not uncommon about Melbourne, where it is generally called the +`Blue-tongued Lizard,' or `Sleepy Lizard.'" + +<hw>Blue-wing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sportsman's name (as in England) +for the bird called the <i>Shoveller</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bluey</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A blue blanket commonly used by +swagmen in Australia. He wraps his bundle in it, and the whole +is called a <i>Swag</i> (q.v.). <i>To hump bluey</i> means to +go on the tramp, carrying a swag on the back. + +(2) In the wet wildernesses of Western Tasmania a rough shirt +or blouse is made of this material, and is worn over the coat +like an English smock-frock. Sailors and fishermen in England +call it a "Baltic shirt." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 13, col. 2: + +"We shall have to hump bluey again." + +1891. R. Wallace, `Rural Economy and Agriculture of Australia +and New Zealand,' p. 73: + +"`Humping bluey' is for a workman to walk in search of work." + +1891. W. Tilley, `The Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 29: + +"Leehan presents an animated scene . . . . Heavily laden +drays, pack-horses and mules, form constant processions +journeying from Dundas or Trial; miners with their swags, +surveyors in their `blueys' . . . all aid effectively in the +panorama." + +<hw>Board</hw>, <i>n</i>. term used by shearers. See quotation. + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1: + +"`The board' is the technical name for the floor on which the +sheep are shorn." + +<i>With a full board</i>, with a full complement of shearers. + +1894. `The Herald,' Oct. 6, p. 1. Col. 2: + +"The secretary of the Pastoralists' Association . . . reports +that the following stations have started shearing with full +boards." + +<hw>Boar-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied in England to +various dissimilar fishes which have projecting snouts. +(`Century.') In New Zealand it is given to <i>Cyttus +australis</i>, family <i>Cyttidae</i>, which is related to the +<i>John Dory</i> (q.v.). This name is sometimes applied to it, +and it is also called <i>Bastard Dory</i> (q.v.). In Melbourne +the <i>Boar-fish</i> is <i>Histiopterus recurvirostris</i>, +family <i>Percidae</i>, and <i>Pentaceropsis +recurvirostris</i>, family <i>Pentacerotidae</i>. +Mrs. Meredith, in `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' 1880 (pl. vi.), +figures <i>Histiopterus recurvirostris</i> with the vernacular +name of <i>Pig-faced Lady</i>. It is a choice edible fish. + +<hw>Boil down</hw>, <i>v</i>. to reduce a statement to its +simplest form; a constant term amongst pressmen. Over the +reporters' table in the old `Daily Telegraph' office +(Melbourne) there was a big placard with the words-"Boil it +down." The phrase is in use in England. `O.E.D.' quotes +`Saturday Review,' 1880. The metaphor is from the numerous +boiling-down establishments for rendering fat sheep into +tallow. See quotation, 1878. + +1878. F. P. Labilliere, `Early History of the Colony of +Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 330: + +"The first step which turned the tide of ill-fortune was the +introduction of the system of boiling down sheep. When stock +became almost worthless, it occurred to many people that, when +a fleece of wool was worth from half-a-crown to three shillings +in England, and a sheep's tallow three or four more, the value +of the animal in Australia ought to exceed eighteenpence or two +shillings. Accordingly thousands of sheep were annually boiled +down after shearing . . . until . . . the gold discovery; and +then `boiling down,' which had saved the country, had to be +given up. . . . The Messrs. Learmonth at Buninyong . . . found +it answered their purpose to have a place of their own, instead +of sending their fat stock, as was generally done, to a public +`boiling down' establishment." + +1895. `The Argus,' Aug. 17, p. 8, col. 2: + +"Boiled down, the matter comes to this." + +<hw>Bonduc Nuts</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name in Australia for the +fruit of the widely distributed plant <i>Caesalpina +bonducella</i>, Flem., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. Called +<i>Molucca Beans</i> in Scotland and <i>Nicker Nuts</i> +elsewhere. + +<hw>Bonito</hw>, <i>n</i>. Sir Frederick McCoy says that the +<i>Tunny</i>, the same fish as the European species <i>Thynnus +thynnus</i>, family <i>Scombridae</i>, or Mackerels, is called +<i>Bonito</i>, erroneously, by the colonists and fishermen. The +true <i>Bonito</i> is <i>Thynnus pelamys</i>, Linn., though the +name is also applied to various other fishes in Europe, the +United States, and the West Indies. + +<hw>Bony-Bream</hw>, i.q. <i>Sardine</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Boobook</hw>, <i>n</i>. an owl. <i>Ninox boobook</i> (see +<i>Owl</i>); <i>Athene boobook</i> (Gould's `Birds of +Australia,' vol.i. pl. 32)." From cry or note of bird. In the +Mukthang language of Central Gippsland, BawBaw, the mountain in +Gippsland, is this word as heard by the English ear." +(A. W. Howitt.) In South Australia the word is used for a +<i>mopoke</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 188: + +"The native name of this bird, as Mr. Caley informs us, is +Buck'buck. It may be heard nearly every night during winter, +uttering a cry, corresponding with that word. . . .The lower +order of the settlers in New South Wales are led away by the +idea that everything is the reverse in that country to what it +is in England : and the cuckoo, as they call this bird, singing +by night, is one of the instances which they point out." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"In most cases--it may not be in all--the familiar call, which +is supposed to sound like `More-pork,' is not the mopoke (or +podargus) at all, but the hooting of a little rusty red +feather-legged owl, known as the Boobook. Its double note is +the opposite of the curlew, since the first syllable is dwelt +upon and the second sharp. An Englishman hearing it for the +first time, and not being told that the bird was a `more-pork,' +would call it a night cuckoo." + +<hw>Booby</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. Used in Australia +for the <i>Brown-Gannet</i>. See <i>Gannet</i>. + +<hw>Boobyalla</hw>, or <hw>Boobialla</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +aboriginal name for the tree <i>Acacia longifolia</i>, Willd., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, also called <i>Native Willow</i>. A +river in Tasmania bears the name of Boobyalla, the tree being +plentiful on the coast. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p63: + +<i>"Acacia sophora</i>. Sophora podded Acacia or Booby-aloe. +This species forms a large shrub on the sand-hills of the +coast." + +1843. J. Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies,' p. 59: + +"The sandbanks at the mouth of Macquarie Harbour are covered +with Boobialla, a species of <i>Acacia</i>, the roots of which +run far in the sand." + +1855. J. Milligan, `Vocabulary of Dialects of the Aboriginal +Tribes of Tasmania,' `Proceedings of the Royal Society of +Tasmania,' vol. iii. p. 238: + +"Wattle tree--seaside. (<i>Acacia Maritinia</i>) Boobyallah." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' vol. ii. p. 62: + +"Boobyalla bushes lay within the dash of the ceaseless spray." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 359: + +"Boobyalla . . . an excellent tree for binding coast-sands." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 4: + +"On the coast it is known by the native name, Boobyalla." + +<hw>Boomah</hw>, or <hw>Boomer</hw>, <i>n</i>. name of a very +large kangaroo, <i>Macropus giganteus</i>, Shaw. The spelling +"boomah" seems due to a supposed native origin. See +quotation, 1872, the explanation in which is probably +erroneous. It is really from the verb to boom, to rush with +violence. + +1830. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 110: + +"Snapped the boomah's haunches, and he turned round to offer +battle." + +1833. Lieut. Breton, `Excursions in New South Wales, Western +Australia, and Van Diemen's Land,' p. 251: + +"Boomah. Implies a large kangaroo." + +Ibid. p. 254: + +"The flying gin (gin is the native word for woman or female) +is a boomah, and will leave behind every description of dog." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 244: + +"The Great or Forest Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), the +`Forester' of the Colonists. . . .The oldest and heaviest male +of the herd was called a `Boomer,' probably a native term." + +1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 325: + +"The forester (<i>Macropus major</i>, Shaw), the male being +known by the name of `boomer,' and the young female by that of +`flying doe,' is the largest and only truly gregarious +species." + +1854. G. H. Haydon, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 124: + +"It was of an old man kangaroo,a regular boomer." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 169: + +"An officer from Van Diemen's Land told me that he had once +killed in that colony a kangaroo of such magnitude, that, being +a long way from home, he was unable, although on horseback, to +carry away any portion except the tail, which alone weighed +thirty pounds. This species is called the boomah, and stands +about seven feet high." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 47: + +"Sometimes starting a grand boomah, or great red kangaroo." + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. v. p. 124: + +"Some of the male kangaroos, called `boomers,' were described +as being four or five feet high." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55: + +"The Boomer starts, and ponders + What kind of beasts we be." + +1867. W. Richardson, `Tasmanian Poems,' p. 26: + +"The dogs gather round a `boomer' they've got." + +1872. Mrs. E. Millett, `An Australian Parsonage,' p. 195: + +"A tall old <i>Booma</i>, as the natives call the male +kangaroo, can bring his head on a level with the face of a man +on horseback. . . . A kangaroo's feet are, in fact, his +weapons of defence with which, when he is brought to bay, he +tears his antagonists the dogs most dreadfully, and instances +are not wanting of even men having been killed by a large old +male. No doubt this peculiar method of disposing of his +enemies has earned him the name of <i>Booma</i>, which in the +native language signifies to strike." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 16: + +"As he plunged into the yellow waters, the dogs were once more +by his side, and again the `boomer' wheeled, and backed against +one of the big trees that stud these hollows." + +Applied generally to something very large. + +1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76: + +"When the shades of evening come, + I choose a boomer of a gum." + +<hw>Boomerang</hw>, <i>n</i>. a weapon of the Australian +aborigines, described in the quotations. The origin of the +word is by no means certain. One explanation is that of +Mr. Fraser in quotation, 1892. There may perhaps be an +etymological connection with the name <i>woomera</i> (q.v.), +which is a different weapon, being a throwing stick, that is, +an instrument with which to throw spears, whilst the +<i>boomerang</i> is itself thrown; but the idea of throwing is +common to both. In many parts the word is pronounced by the +blacks bummerang. Others connect it with the aboriginal word +for "wind," which at Hunter River was <i>burramaronga</i>, also +<i>boomori</i>. In New South Wales and South Queensland there +is a close correspondence between the terms for wind and +boomerang. + +1827. Captain P. P. King, `Survey of Intertropical and West +Coasts of Australia,' vol. i. p. 355: + +"Boomerang is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may +be retained for want of a more descriptive name." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 108: + +"We gambolled all the way up, throwing small pieces of bark at +each other, after the manner of the native youths, who practise +this with a view of strengthening their arms, and fitting them +for hurling a curious weapon of war called a `bomering,' which +is shaped thus:" + \ + \ + / + / + +Ibid. p. 280: + +"Around their loins was the opossum belt, in one side of which +they had placed their waddies, with which they meant to break +the heads of their opponents, and on the other was the +bomering, or stick, with which they threw their spears." + +[This is a confusion between <i>boomerang</i> and +<i>woomera</i> (q.v.). Perhaps Mr. Dawson wrote the second +word, and this is a misprint.] + +1839. Major T. L. `Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the +Interior of Eastern Australia,' vol. ii. p. 348: + +"The bommereng, or their usual missile, can be thrown by a +skilful hand, so as to rise upon the air, and thus to deviate +from the usual path of projectiles, its crooked course being, +nevertheless, equally under control." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 186: + +"The admirable dexterity with which they fling the bomerangs. +To our thinking the thrower was only sending the instrument +along the ground, when suddenly, after spinning along it a +little way, it sprung up into the air, performing a circle, its +crescent shape spinning into a ring, constantly spinning round +and round, until it came and fell at his feet." + +1845. O. Wendell Holmes, `Modest Request' (in Poems): + +"Like the strange missile which the Australian throws, + Your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 39: + +"This instrument, called a bommereng, is made of wood, and is +much like the blade of a scimitar. I believe it has been +introduced into England as a plaything for children." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 57: + +"The boomerang is an extraordinary missile, formed in the shape +of a crescent, and when propelled at an object, apparently +<i>point blank</i>, it turns in any direction intended by the +thrower, so that it can actually be directed in this manner +against a person standing by his side. The consummate art +visible in its unnatural-looking progression greatly depends +upon the manner in which it is made to rebound from the ground +when thrown." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 107; + +"He [Sir Thomas Mitchell] applied to the screw propeller the +revolving principle of the boomerang of the Australian +natives." + +1867. G. G. McCrae, `Balladeadro,' p. 25: + +"While circling thro' the air there sang + The swift careering boomerang." + +1888. A. Seth, `Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xxiv. p. 530, +col. 2: + +"He [Archbishop Whately] was an adept in various savage sports, +more especially in throwing the boomerang." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' p. 49: + +"Boomerang: a thin piece of wood, having the shape of a +parabola, about eighteen inches or two feet long from point to +point, the curve being on the thin side. Of the broad sides of +the missile one is slightly convex, the other is flat. The +thin sides are worked down finely to blunt edges. The peculiar +curve of the missile gives it the property of returning to the +feet of the thrower. It is a dangerous instrument in a melee. +Of course the wood from which it is made is highly seasoned by +fire. It is therefore nearly as hard as flint." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 49: + +[A full description of the use of the boomerang is given, +with illustrations.] + +"The boomerang is a curved, somewhat flat, and slender weapon, +made from a hard and heavy wood, Brigalow (<i>Acacia +excelsa</i>), or Myall (<i>Acacia pendula</i>), but the best +one I found was made of a lighter kind of wood. The curving of +the boomerang, which often approaches a right angle, must be +natural, and in the wood itself. One side is perfectly flat, +and the other slightly rounded. The ends are pointed." + +1890. G. W. Rusden, `Proceedings, Royal Colonial Institute,' vol. +xxii. p. 62: + +"You hardly ever see an allusion in the English Press to the +boomerang which does not refer to it as a weapon of war which +returns to the thrower, whereas the returning boomerang is not +a weapon of war, and the boomerang which is a weapon of war +does not return to the thrower. There are many kinds of +boomerang--some for deadly strife, some for throwing at game, +and the returning boomerang, which is framed only for +amusement. If a native had no other missile at hand, he would +dispatch it at a flight of ducks. Its circular course, +however, makes it unfit for such a purpose, and there is a +special boomerang made for throwing at birds. The latter keeps +a straight course, and a native could throw it more than two +hundred yards." + +1892. J. Fraser, `The Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 69: + +"The name bumarang has always hitherto been written boomerang; +but, considered etymologically, that is wrong, for the root of +it is buma--strike, fight, kill; and -ara, -arai, -arang, are +all of them common formative terminations." + +1893. `The Argus,' July 1, p. 8, col. 7: + +"`I tell you, sir,' said Mr. Healy at an Irish political +meeting, `that there are at the present moment crystallizing +in this city precedents which will some day come home to +roost like a boomerang.'" + +<hw>Boongary</hw>, <i>n</i>. the tree-kangaroo of North +Queensland, a marsupial tree-climber, about the size of a large +wallaby, <i>Dendrolagus lumholtzii</i>, Collett. A native +name. <i>Bangaray</i> = Red Kangaroo, in Governor Hunter's +vocabulary of the Port Jackson dialect (1793). + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 226: + +"The tree-kangaroo is without comparison a better-proportioned +animal than the common kangaroo. The fore-feet, which are +nearly as perfectly developed as the hind-feet, have large +crooked claws, while the hind-feet are somewhat like those of a +kangaroo, though not so powerful. The sole of the foot is +somewhat broader and more elastic on account of a thick layer +of fat under the skin. In soft ground its footprints are very +similar to those of a child. The ears are small and erect, and +the tail is as long as the body of the animal. The skin is +tough, and the fur is very strong and beautiful. . . . Upon +the whole the boongary is the most beautiful mammal I have seen +in Australia. It is a marsupial, and goes out only in the +night. During the day it sleeps in the trees, and feeds on the +leaves." + +<hw>Bora</hw>, <i>n</i>. a rite amongst the aborigines of +eastern Australia; the ceremony of admitting a young black to +the rights of manhood. Aboriginal word. + +The word <i>bur</i>, given by Ridley, means not only girdle but +`circle.' In the man-making ceremonies a large circle is made +on the ground, where the ceremonies take place. + +1875. W. Ridley, `Kamilaroi,' p. 24: + +"Girdle--bor or bur. Hence Bora, the ceremony of initiation +into manhood, where the candidate is invested with the belt of +manhood." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 24: + +"The great mystery of the Blacks is the Bora--a ceremony at +which the young men found worthy receive the rank of warriors." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 6: + +"These ceremonies are . . . called the Bora." + +<hw>Borage, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a plant, <i>Pollichia +zeylanica</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Boragineae</i>. The so-called +<i>Native Borage</i> is not endemic to Australia. In India it +is used as a cure for snake bites. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 124: + +"The native borage (<i>Trichodesina zeylanica</i>, R. Br.)." + +<hw>Borak</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word of New South Wales, +meaning banter, chaff, fun at another's expense. (See +quotation, 1845.) Prior to 1870 the word was much in use on +the stations in New South Wales. About 1870 Victorian farmers' +sons took shearing work there, and brought back the word with +them. It was subsequently altered to <i>barrack</i> (q.v.). + +1845. C. Griffith, `Present State and Prospects of the Port +Phillip District of New South Wales,' p. 162: + +"The following is a specimen of such eloquence:--`You +pilmillally jumbuck, plenty sulky me, plenty boom, borack +gammon,' which, being interpreted, means--`If you steal my +sheep I shall be very angry, and will shoot you and no +mistake.'" + +1856. W. W. Dobie, `Recollections of a Visit to Port Phillip, +Australia, in 1852-55' p. 93: + +". . . he gravely assured me that it was `merrijig' (very +good), and that `blackfellow doctor was far better than +whitefellow doctor.' In proof of which he would say, `Borak +you ever see black fellow with waddie (wooden) leg. +Bungalallee white fellow doctor cut him leg, borak black +fellow stupid like it that." + +1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 75: + +"On telling him my adventures, how Bob in my misery had `poked +borack' at me. . . ." + +1888. Alfred J.Chandler,' Curley' in `Australian Poets,' +1788-1888, ed. Sladen, p. 100: + +"Here broke in Super Scotty, `Stop + Your borak, give the bloomin' man a show.'" + +1893. `The Argus,' Aug. 26, p. 13, col. 1: + +"It does not do for a man whose mission it is to wear stuff and +a horse-hair wig to `poke borak' at that venerable and +eminently respectable institution--the law, and still worse is +it for a practising barrister to actually set to work, even in +the most kindly spirit, to criticise the judges, before whom at +any moment he may be called upon to plead." + +<hw>Borboby</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Corrobbery</i> (q.v.), but +the word is rare. + +1890. Carl Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals' [Title of illustration], +p. 122: + +"A warrior in great excitement just before Borboby commences." + +<hw>Boree</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the tree +<i>Acacia pendula</i>, A. Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; a +variety of <i>Myall</i>, probably from Queensland aboriginal +word <i>Booreah</i>, fire. It would be preferred by black or +white man as firewood over any other timber except +<i>giddea</i> (q.v.). + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 363: + +"Weeping, or true myall. It is sometimes called bastard gidgee +in Western New South Wales. Called boree by aboriginals, and +often boree, or silver-leaf boree, by the colonists of Western +New South Wales. Nilyah is another New South Wales name." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' iii. p. 30: + +"Myall and boree belts of timbers." + +1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 6o: + +"The timber, of course, when seen close at hand is strange. +Boree and gidyah, coolibah and whitewood, brigelow, mulgah, and +myall are the unfamiliar names by which you learn to recognise +the commonest varieties." + +<hw>Borer</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to an Australian insect. +See quotation. + +1876. W. Harcus, `South Australia,' p. 110: + +"There is another destructive insect called the `borer,' not +met with near the sea-coast, but very active and mischievous +inland, its attacks being chiefly levelled against timber. +This creature is about the size of a large fly." + +<hw>Boronia</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific and vernacular name of a +genus of Australian plants, certain species of which are noted +for their peculiar fragrance. The genus is especially +characteristic of West Australia, to which out of fifty-nine +species thirty-three are confined, while only five are known in +Tasmania. Boronia belongs to the <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 72: + +<i>"Boronia variabilis</i>. A beautiful little heath-like +plant growing about the Cascade and other hills round about +Hobart Town. . . . This genus is named after Borone, an +Italian servant of the late Dr. Sibthorp, who perished at +Athens. . . .Another species found in Van Diemen's Land is the +Lemon plant of the mountains." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' vol. xxii., No. 3, August 28, p. 53: + +"Winter does not last for ever, and now at each street corner +the scent of boronia and the odour of wattle-blossom greet us +from baskets of the flower-girl." + +<hw>Boss-cockie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slang name in the bush for a +farmer, larger than a Cockatoo (see <i>Cockatoo, n</i>. 2), who +employs other labour as well as working himself. + +<hw>Botany Bay</hw>, <i>n</i>. lying to the south of the +entrance to Port Jackson, New South Wales, the destination of +the first two shiploads of convicts from England. As a matter +of fact, the settlement at Botany Bay never existed. The +"First Fleet," consisting of eleven sail under Governor +Phillip, arrived at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788. The +Governor finding the place unsuitable for a settlement did not +land his people, but on January 25 removed the fleet to Port +Jackson. On the next day (January 26) he landed his people at +Sydney Cove, and founded the city of Sydney. The name, +however, citing to popular imagination, and was used sometimes +as the name of Australia. Seventy years after Governor +Phillip, English schoolboys used "go to Botany Bay" as an +equivalent to "go to Bath." Captain Cook and his naturalists, +Banks and Solander, landed at Botany Bay, and the name was +given (not at first, when the Bay was marked Stingray, but a +little later) from the large number of plants collected there. + +1770. `Captain Cook's Original Journal,' ed. by Wharton, 1893, +p. 247: + +"6 May. . . .The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. +Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the Name +of Botany Bay." + +1789. [Title]: + +"The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay," published in +London. + +1789. Captain Watkin Tench [Title]: "A Narrative of the +Expedition to Botany Bay," published in London. + +1793 G. Barrington [Title]: + +"Voyage to Botany Bay," [published in London.] + +This was the popular book on the new settlement, the others +being high priced. As Lowndes says, "A work of no authority, +but frequently printed." Barrington, the pickpocket, whose +name it bears, had nothing to do with it. It was pirated from +Phillip, Collins, etc. It went through various editions and +enlargements to 1810 or later. After 1795 the name was altered +to `Voyage to New South Wales.' + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of the English Colony in New South +Wales,' vol. i. p. 502: + +"The word `Botany Bay' became a term of reproach that was +indiscriminately cast on every one who resided in New South +Wales." + +1840. Thos. Hood, `Tale of a Trumpet: + + "The very next day +She heard from her husband at Botany Bay." + +1851. Rev. David Mackenzie, `Ten Years in Australia,' p. 50: + +". . . a pair of artificially black eyes being the Botany Bay +coat of arms." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' Vol. ii. p. 91: + +"Some gentlemen, on a visit to a London theatre, to draw the +attention of their friends in an opposite box, called out +<i>cooey</i>; a voice in the gallery answered `Botany Bay!'" + +1894. `Pall Mall Budget,' May 17, p. 20, col. 1: + +"The owner of the ship was an ex-convict in Sydney--then called +Botany Bay--who had waxed wealthy on the profits of rum, and +the `shangai-ing' of drugged sailors." + +<hw>Botany-Bay Greens</hw>, <i>n</i>. a vegetable common to all +the colonies, <i>Atriplex cinereum</i>, Poir, <i>N.O. +Salsolaceae</i>. + +1810. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 263: + +"Botany Bay greens are abundant; they much resemble sage in +appearance; and are esteemed a very good dish by the +Europeans." + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134: + +"I do not think it necessary to enter upon any description of +the Barilla shrubs (<i>Atriplex halimus, Rhagodur +billardiera</i>; and <i>Salicornia arbuscula</i>), which, with +some others, under the promiscuous name of Botany Bay greens, +were boiled and eaten along with some species of seaweed, by +the earliest settlers, when in a state of starvation." + +1835. Ibid. p. 69: + +"Atriplex Halimus. Barrilla. Botany Bay Greens. This is the +plant so common on the shores of Cape Barren and other islands +of the Straits, from which the alkaline salt is obtained and +brought up in boats to the soap manufactory at Hobart Town. It +has been set down as the same plant that grows on the coast of +Spain and other parts of Europe." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 9: + +"Once used as a pot-herb in New South Wales. Leichhardt used a +species of <i>Atriplex</i> as a vegetable, and spoke very +highly of it." + +<hw>Botany-Bay Oak</hw>, or <hw>Botany-Bay Wood</hw>, +<i>n</i>. a trade name in England for the timber of +<i>Casuarina</i>. See <i>Beef-wood</i>. + +<hw>Bottle-brush</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to various species +of <i>Callistemon</i> and <i>Melaleuca</i>, +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; the <i>Purple Bottle-brush</i> is +<i>Melaleuca squamea</i>, Lab. The name is also more rarely +given to species of <i>Banksia</i>, or <i>Honeysuckle</i> +(q.v.). The name <i>bottle-brush</i> is from the resemblance +of the large handsome blossoms to the brush used to clean out +wine-bottles. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 359: + +"Red Bottle-brush. The flowers of some species of +<i>Callistemon</i> are like bottle-brushes in shape." + +<hw>Bottle-Gourd</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian plant, +<i>Lagenaria vulgaris</i>, Ser., <i>N.O. Cucurbitaceae</i>. + + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 192: + +"Bottle Gourd. This plant, so plentiful along the tropical +coast of Queensland, is said to be a dangerous poison. It is +said that some sailors were killed by drinking beer that had +been standing for some time in a bottle formed of one of these +fruits. (F. M. Bailey.)" + +<hw>Bottle-Swallow</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular name for the bird +<i>Lagenoplastis ariel</i>, otherwise called the <i>Fairy +Martin</i>. See <i>Martin</i>. The name refers to the bird's +peculiar retort shaped nest. <i>Lagenoplashs</i> is from the +Greek <i>lagaenos</i>, a flagon, and <i>plautaes</i>, a modeller. +The nests are often constructed in clusters under rocks or the +eaves of buildings. The bird is widely distributed in +Australia, and has occurred in Tasmania. + +<hw>Bottle-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, various +species of <i>Sterculia</i>, i.q. <i>Kurrajong</i> (q.v.). So +named from its appearance. See quotations. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 264: + +"The sterculia, or bottle-tree, is a very singular curiosity. +It generally varies in shape between a soda-water and port-wine +bottle, narrow at the basis, gradually widening at the middle, +and tapering towards the neck." + +1848. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland, by J. D. Lang, +p. 91: + +"The most interesting tree of this Rosewood Brush is the true +bottle-tree, a strange-looking unseemly tree, which swells +slightly four to five feet high, and then tapers rapidly into a +small diameter; the foliage is thin, the crown scanty and +irregular, the leaves lanceolate, of a greyish green; the +height of the whole tree is about forty-five feet." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 127: + +"It was on this range (Lat. 26 degrees, 42') that Mitchell saw +the bottle-tree for the first time. It grew like an enormous +pear-shaped turnip, with only a small portion of the root in +the ground." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 60: + +"A `Kurrajong.' The `Bottle-tree' of N.E. Australia, and also +called `Gouty-stem,' on account of the extraordinary shape of +the trunk. It is the `Binkey' of the aboriginals. + +"The stem abounds in a mucilaginous substance resembling pure +tragacanth, which is wholesome and nutritious, and is said to +be used as an article of food by the aborigines in cases of +extreme need. A similar clear jelly is obtainable by pouring +boiling water on chips of the wood." + +<hw>Bottom</hw>, <i>n</i>. in gold-mining, the old river-bed +upon which the wash-dirt rests, and upon which the richest +alluvial gold is found; sometimes called the gutter. + +1887. H. H. Hayter, `Christmas Adventure,' p. 5: + +"We reached the bottom, but did not find gold." + +<hw>Bottom</hw>, <i>v</i>. to get to the bedrock, or clay, +below which it was useless to sink (gold-mining). + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. xv. p. 219: + +"In their anxiety to bottom their claims, they not seldom threw +away the richest stuff." + +<hw>Boundary-rider</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man who rides round the +fences of a station to see that they are in order. + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 279: + +"A boundary-rider is not a `boss' in the Bush, but he is an +important personage in his way. He sees that the sheep in his +paddock draw to the water, that there is water for them to draw +to, and that the fences and gates are in order. He is paid +fairly, and has a fine, free, solitary life." + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 147: + +"The manager's lieutenants are the `boundary-riders,' whose +duty it is to patrol the estate and keep him informed upon +every portion of it." + +<hw>Bower-bird</hw> <i>n</i>. Australian bird. See quotation, +1891. See <i>Ptilonorhynchinae</i>. The following are the +varieties--- + +Fawn-breasted Bower-bird-- + <i>Chlamydoderea cerviniventris</i>, Gould. + +Golden B.-- + + <i>Prionodura newtoniana</i>, De Vis. + +Great B.-- + + <i>Chlambydodera nuchalis</i>, Gould (`Birds of Australia,' +vol.iv. pl. 9). + +Queensland B.-- + + <i>C. orientalis</i>, Gould. + +Satin B.-- + + <i>Ptilonorhynchus violaceus</i>, Vieillot. + +Spotted B.-- + + <i>Chlamydodera maculata</i>, Gould (ibid. pl. 8). + +Yellow-spotted B.-- + + <i>C. gutttata</i>, Gould. + +And the <i>Regent-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 140: + +"The same person had the last season found, to his surprise, +the playhouse, or bower, of the Australian satin bower-bird." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 28: + +"Any shred of glass or metal which arrests the eye or reflects +the rays of the sun is a gem in the bower-bird's collection, +which seems in a sense to parody the art decorations of a +modern home." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"In one is a representation of the playing place of the spotted +bowerbird. These bowers are quite independent of the birds' +nests, which are built on neighbouring trees. They first +construct a covered passage or bower about three feet long, and +near it they place every white or bright object they can find, +such as the bleached bones of animals, pieces of white or +coloured stone, feathers, shells, etc., etc.; the feathers they +place on end. When these curious playing places were first +discovered, they were thought to be made by the native women +for the amusement of their children. More than a bushel of +small pieces of bleached bones or shells are often found at one +of these curious sporting places. Sometimes a dozen or more +birds will assemble, and they delight in chasing each other +through the bower and playing about it." + +<hw>Box</hw>, <hw>Box-tree</hw>, <hw>Box-gum</hw>, +<i>n</i>. The name is applied to many <i>Eucalypts</i>, and to +a few trees of the genus <i>Tristania</i>, as given below, all +of the <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, chiefly from the qualities of +their timber, which more or less resembles "Boxwood." Most of +these trees also bear other vernacular names, and the same tree +is further often described vernacularly as different kinds of +<i>Box. China-, Heath</i>-, and <i>Native-Box</i> (q.v. below) +are of other Natural Orders and receive their names of +<i>Box</i> from other reasons. The following table is compiled +from Maiden:-- + +Bastard Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. largiflorens</i>, F. v. M. (called also <i>Cooburn</i>); + <i>E. longifolia</i>, Link.; <i>E. microtheca</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. polyanthema</i>, F. v. M.; <i>E. populifolia</i>, + Hook. (called also Bembil or Bimbil Box and Red Box); + <i>Tristania conferta</i>, R. Br.; + <i>T. laurana</i>, R. Br., all of the <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Black Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus obliqua</i>, L'Herit.; + <i>E. largiflorens</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. microtheca</i>, F. v. M. + +Brisbane Box--- + <i>Tristania conferta</i>, R. Br. + +Broad-leaved Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus acmenoides</i>, Schau. + +Brown Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus polyanthema</i>, Schau. + +Brush Box-- + <i>Tristania conferta</i>, R. Br. + +China Box-- <i>Murraya exotica</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i> + (not a tree, but a perfume plant, which is found also in India + and China). + +Dwarf, or Flooded Box-- <i>Eucalyptus microtheca</i>, + F. v. M. (Also called Swamp Gum, from its habit of growing on + land inundated during flood time. An aboriginal name for the + same tree is <i>goborro</i>.) + +Grey Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. hemiphloia</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. largiflorens</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. polyanthema</i>, Schau.; + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith. + +Gum-topped Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus hemiphloia</i>, F. v. M. + +Heath Box-- <i>Alyxia buxifolia</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Apocyneae</i> (called also <i>Tonga-beanwood</i>, +owing to its scent) + +Iron-bark Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus obliqua</i>, L'Herit. + +Narrow-leaved Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus microtheca</i>, F. v. M. + +Native Box-- <i>Bursaria spinosa</i>, Cav., + <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. (Called also <i>Box-thorn</i> + and <i>Native-Olive</i>. It is not a timber-tree but a forage- +plant. See quotation, 1889.) + +Poplar Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus populifolia</i>, Hook. + +Red Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus populifolia</i>, Hook.; + <i>E. polyanthema</i>, Schau.; + <i>Tristania +conferta</i>, R. Br. + +Thozet's Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus raveretiana</i>, F. v. M. + +White Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus hemiphloia</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. odorata</i>, Behr.; + <i>E. populifolia</i>, Hook.; + <i>Tristania conferta</i>, R. Br. + +Yellow Box-- + <i>Eucalyptus hemiphloia</i>, F. v. M. + <i>E. largiflorens</i>, F. v. M. + <i>E. melliodora</i>, A. Cunn. + +1820. John Oxley, `Two Expeditions,' p. 126: + +"The country continued open forest land for about three miles, +the cypress and the bastard-box being the prevailing timber; +of the former many were useful trees." + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 55: + +"The small kind of tree . . . which Mr. Oxley, I believe, terms +the dwarf-box, grows only on plains subject to inundation +. . . . It may be observed, however, that all permanent waters +are invariably surrounded by the `yarra.' These peculiarities +are only ascertained after examining many a hopeless hollow, +where grew the `goborro' only; and after I had found my sable +guides eagerly scanning the `yarra' from afar, when in search +of water, and condemning any view of the `goborro' as hopeless +during that dry season." + +[See <i>Yarra</i>, a tree.] + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 6: + +"Belts of open forest land, principally composed of the +box-tree of the colonists, a species of eucalyptus (in no +respect resembling the box of Europe)." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 15: + +"The Honey-Eucalypt (<i>Eucalyptus melliodora</i>). This tree +passes by the very unapt vernacular name Yellow Box-tree, +though no portion of it is yellow, not even its wood, and +though the latter resembles the real boxwood in no way +whatever. Its systematic specific name alludes to the odour of +its flowers, like that of honey, and as the blossoms exude much +nectar, like most eucalypts, sought by bees, it is proposed to +call it the small-leaved Honey-Eucalypt, but the Latin name +might as easily be conveyed to memory, with the advantage of +its being a universal one, understood and used by all nations." + +1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 46: + +"Poor country, covered with ti-tree, box, and iron-bark +saplings, with here and there heavy timber growing on +sour-looking ridges." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 7: + +"The clumps of box-gums clinging together for sympathy." + +1888. J. Howlett Ross, `Laureate of the Centaurs,' p. 41: + +"Box shrubs which were not yet clothed with their creamy-white +plumes (so like the English meadowsweet)." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' +p. 59: + +"These spears are principally made from a tall-growing box (one +of the eucalypts) which often attains to an altitude of over +100 feet; it is indigenous to the north-western portion of the +colony, and to Riverina; it has a fine wavy grain, consequently +easily worked when in a green state. When well seasoned, +however, it is nearly as hard as ebony." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 121: + +"Native box is greedily eaten by sheep, but its thorny +character preserves it from extinction upon sheep-runs: usually +a small scrub, in congenial localities it developes into a +small tree." + +<hw>Box</hw>, <i>n</i>. See succeeding <i>verb</i>. + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 67: + +"Great care must of course be taken that no two flocks come +into collision, for a `box,' as it is technically called, +causes an infinity of trouble, which is the reason that the +stations are so far apart." + +<hw>Box</hw>, <i>v</i>. to mix together sheep that ought to be +kept separate apparently from "to box" in the sense of to shut +up in narrow limits (`O.E.D.' v. i. 5); then to shut up +together and so confuse the classification; then the sense of +shutting up is lost and that of confusion remains. + +1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 253: + +"All the mobs of different aged lambs which had been hitherto +kept apart were boxed up together." + +1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 356: + +"After they'd got out twenty or thirty they'd get boxed, like a +new hand counting sheep, and have to begin all over again." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 84: + +"At nightfall, the fifteen flocks of sheep were all brought in, +and `boxed,' or mixed together, to Ernest's astonishment." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 166: + +"He must keep tally when the sheep are being counted or +draughted, I'm not sure which, and swear--no, he needn't +swear--when they get boxed." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 54: + +"But the travelling sheep and the Wilga sheep were boxed on the + Old Man Plain. + 'Twas a full week's work ere they drafted out and hunted them off + again." + +<hw>Boxer</hw>, <i>n</i>. This word means in Australia the +stiff, low-crowned, felt hat, called a <i>billy-cock</i> or +<i>bowler</i>. The silk-hat is called a <i>bell-topper</i> +(q.v.). + +1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 9, p. 14, col. 2: + +"And will you wear a boxer that is in a battered state ? + I wonder, will you--now that you're a knight?" + +<hw>Box-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand wood, <i>Olea +lanceolata</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Jasminea</i> (Maori name, +<i>Maire</i>). Used by the `Wellington Independent' (April 19, +1845) for woodcuts, and recommended as superior to box-wood for +the purpose. See also <i>Box, n</i>. + +<hw>Boyla</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word for a sorcerer. + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 384: + +"The absolute power of boylas or evil sorcerers . . . he +chanted gloomily:-- + + Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles? + Now boylas storm and thunder make. + Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles ?" + +<hw>Bramble, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Blackberry</i>. + +<hw>Bread, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of fungus. "The +sclerotium of <i>Polyporus mylitta</i>, C. et M. Until quite +recently the sclerotium was known, but not the fructification. +It was thought probable that its fruit would be ascomycetous, +and on the authority of Berkeley it was made the type of a +genus as <i>Mylitta Australis</i>. It is found throughout +Eastern Australia and Tasmania. The aborigines ate it, but to +the European palate it is tough and tasteless, and probably as +indigestible as leather." (L. Rodway.) + +1843. James Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies,' p. 40: + +"Natural Order. Fungi. . . . <i>Mylitta Australis</i>. Native +Bread. This species of tuber is often found in the Colony, +attaining to the size of a child's head: its taste somewhat +resembles boiled rice. Like the heart of the Tree-fern, and +the root of the Native Potato, cookery produces little change." + +1848. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 157: + +"11th October, 1848 . . . Specimens of the <i>fungus</i> known +as `native bread,' <i>Mylitta Australis</i>, lay upon the +table. A member observed that this substance, grated and made +into a pudding with milk alone, had been found by him very +palatable. Prepared in the same way, and combined with double +its weight of rice or sago, it has produced a very superior +dish. It has also been eaten with approval in soup, after the +manner of <i>truffle</i>, to which it is nearly allied." + +1857. Dr. Milligan, in Bishop Nixon's `Cruise of the Beacon,' +p. 27: + +"But that which afforded the largest amount of solid and +substantial nutritious matter was the <i>native bread</i>, a +fungus growing in the ground, after the manner of the truffle, +and generally so near the roots of trees as to be reputed +parasitical." + +1896. `Hobart Mercury,' Oct. 30, p. 2, last col.: + +"A large specimen of `native bread,' weighing 12 lb., has been +unearthed on Crab Tree farm in the Huon district, by +Mr. A. Cooper. It has been brought to town, and is being +examined with interest by many at the British Hotel. It is one +of the fungi tribe that forms hard masses of stored food for +future use." + +<hw>Breadfruit-tree</hw>, name given by the explorer Leichhardt +to the Queensland tree, <i>Gardenia edulis</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>. + +<hw>Breakaway</hw>, <i>n</i>.(1) A bullock that leaves the +herd. + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4: + +"The smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within +whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky +beast, took the chance." + +(2) The panic rush of sheep, cattle, or other animals at the +sight or smell of water. + +1891: "The Breakaway," title of picture by Tom Roberts at +Victorian Artists' Exhibition. + +<hw>Bream</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied in Australia to +various species of <i>Chrysophrys</i>, family <i>Sparidae</i>, +and to other fishes of different families. The +<i>Black-Bream</i> (q.v.) is <i>C. australis</i>, Gunth. +The <i>Bony-Bream</i> is also called the <i>Sardine</i> (q.v.). +The <i>Silver-Bream</i> (q.v.) or <i>White-Bream</i> is +<i>Gerres ovatus</i>, Gunth., family <i>Percidae</i>. The +<i>Red-Bream</i> is a Schnapper (q.v.) one year old. The +popular pronunciation is <i>Brim</i>, and the fishes are all +different from the various fishes called <i>Bream</i> in the +northern hemisphere. See also <i>Tarwhine</i> and +<i>Blue-fish</i>. + +<hw>Brickfielder</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Originally a Sydney name +for a cold wind, blowing from the south and accompanied by +blinding clouds of dust; identical with the later name for the +wind, the <i>Southerly Buster</i> (q.v.). The brickfields lay +to the south of Sydney, and when after a hot wind from the west +or north-west, the wind went round to the south, it was +accompanied by great clouds of dust, brought up from the +brickfields. These brickfields have long been a thing of the +past, surviving only in "Brickfield Hill," the hilly part of +George Street, between the Cathedral and the Railway Station. +The name, as denoting a cold wind, is now almost obsolete, and +its meaning has been very curiously changed and extended to +other colonies to denote a very hot wind. See below (Nos. 2 +and 3), and the notes to the quotations. + +1833. Lieut. Breton, R.N., `Excursions in New South Wales and +Van Diemen's Land,' p. 293: + +"It sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind +to a `brickfielder,' on which occasions the thermometer has +been known to fall, within half an hour, <i>upwards of fifty +degrees</i>! That is to say, from above 100 degrees to 50 +degrees! A brickfielder is a southerly wind, and it takes its +local name from the circumstances of its blowing over, and +bringing into town the flames [sic] of a large brick-field: it +is nearly as detestable as a hot wind." + +[Lieut. Breton must have had a strong imagination. The +brickfields, at that date, were a mile away from the town, and +the bringing in of their <i>flames</i> was an impossibility. +Perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for <i>fumes</i>; yet +even then this earliest quotation indicates part of the source +of the subsequent confusion of meaning. The main +characteristic of the true brickfielder was neither +<i>flames</i> nor <i>fumes</i>,--and certainly not heat,--but +choking dust.] + +1839. W. H. Leigh, `Reconnoitering Voyages, Travels, and +Adventures in the new Colony of South Australia,' etc., p. 184: + +"Whirlwinds of sand come rushing upon the traveller, half +blinding and choking him,--a miniature sirocco, and decidedly +cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at Cape +Town. The inhabitants call these miseries `Brickfielders,' but +why they do so I am unable to divine; probably because they are +in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are +made." + +[This writer makes no allusion to the temperature of the wind, +whether hot or cold, but lays stress on its especial +characteristic, the dust. His comparison with the sirocco +chiefly suggests the clouds of sand brought by that wind from +the Libyan Desert, with its accompanying thick haze and +darkness (`half blinding and choking'), rather than its +relaxing warmth.] + +1844. John Rae, `Sydney Illustrated,' p. 26: + +"The `brickfielder' is merely a colonial name for a violent +gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes +in to supply the vacuum and equalises the temperature of the +atmosphere; and when its baneful progress is marked, sweeping +over the city in thick clouds of brick-coloured dust (from the +brickfields), it is time for the citizens to close the doors +and windows of their dwellings, and for the sailor to take more +than half his canvas in, and prepare for a storm." + +[Here the characteristic is again <i>dust</i> from the +brickfields, as the origin of the name, with cold as an +accompaniment.] + +1844. Mrs.Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' +p. 44: + +"These dust winds are locally named `brickfielders,' from the +direction in which they come" [i.e. from neighbouring +sandhills, called the brickfields]. + +[Here <i>dust</i> is the only characteristic observed, with the +direction of the wind as the origin of its name.] + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 4: + +"The greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by +colonists a brickfielder. This wind has all the +characteristics of a sirocco in miniature . . . . Returning +home, he discovers that the house is full of sand; that the +brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of +his books; at dinner he will probably find that his favourite +fish has been spoiled by the brickfielder. Nor is this all; +for on retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder has +intruded even within the precincts of his musquito curtains." + +[Here again its <i>dust</i> is noted as the distinguishing +feature of the wind, just as sand is the distinguishing feature +of the `sirocco' in the Libyan Desert, and precipitated +sand,--`blood rain' or `red snow,'--a chief character of the +sirocco after it reaches Italy.] + +1847. Alex. Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p. 61: + +"The hot winds which resemble the siroccos in Sicily are, +however, a drawback . . . but they are almost invariably +succeeded by what is there called a `brickfielder,' which is a +strong southerly wind, which soon cools the air, and greatly +reduces the temperature." + +[Here the cold temperature of the brickfielder is described, +but not its <i>dust</i>, and the writer compares the hot wind +which precedes the brickfielder with the sirocco. He in fact +thinks only of the heat of the sirocco, but the two preceding +writers are thinking of its sand, its thick haze, its quality +of <i>blackness</i> and its suffocating character,--all which +applied accurately to the true <i>brickfielder</i>.] + +1853. Rev. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 +and 1853,' p. 228: + +"After the languor, the lassitude, and enervation which some +persons experience during these hot blasts, comes the +`Brickfielder,' or southerly burster." + +[Cold temperature noticed, but not <i>dust</i>.] + +1853. `Fraser's Magazine,' 48, p. 515: + +"When the wind blows strongly from the southward, it is what +the Sydney people call a `brickfielder'; that is, it carries +with it dense clouds of red dust or sand, like brick dust, +swept from the light soil which adjoins the town on that side, +and so thick that the houses and streets are actually hidden; +it is a darkness that may be felt." + +[Here it is the <i>dust</i>, not the temperature, which +determines the name.] + +(2) The very opposite to the original meaning,--a severe hot +wind. In this inverted sense the word is now used, but not +frequently, in Melbourne and in Adelaide, and sometimes even in +Sydney, as the following quotations show. It will be noted +that one of them (1886) observes the original prime +characteristic of the wind, its <i>dust</i>. + +1861. T. McCombie,' Australian Sketches,' p. 79: + +"She passed a gang of convicts, toiling in a broiling +`brickfielder.'" + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia with Notes by the Way,' p. 155: + +"The `brickfielders' are usually followed, before the day +closes, with `south-busters' [sic.]." + +1886. F. Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch': + +"The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; +and red-hot Simoom." + +This curious inversion of meaning (the change from cold to hot) +may be traced to several causes. It may arise-- + +(a) From the name itself. People in Melbourne and Adelaide, +catching at the word <i>brickfielder</i> as a name for a +<i>dusty</i> wind, and knowing nothing of the origin of the +name, would readily adapt it to their own severe hot north +winds, which raise clouds of dust all day, and are described +accurately as being `like a blast from a furnace,' or `the +breath of a brick-kiln.' Even a younger generation in Sydney, +having received the word by colloquial tradition, losing its +origin, and knowing nothing of the old brickfields, might apply +the word to a hot blast in the same way. + +(b) From the peculiar phenomenon.--A certain cyclonic change of +temperature is a special feature of the Australian coastal +districts. A raging hot wind from the interior desert (north +wind in Melbourne and Adelaide, west wind in Sydney) will blow +for two or three days, raising clouds of dust; it will be +suddenly succeeded by a `<i>Southerly Buster'</i> from the +ocean, the cloud of dust being greatest at the moment of +change, and the thermometer falling sometimes forty or fifty +degrees in a few minutes. The Sydney word <i>brickfielder</i> +was assigned originally to the latter part--the <i>dusty</i> +cold change. Later generations, losing the finer distinction, +applied the word to the whole dusty phenomenon,and ultimately +specialized it to denote not so much the extreme dustiness of +its later period as the more disagreeable extreme heat of its +earlier phase. + +(c) From the apparent, though not real, confusion of terms, by +those who have described it as a `sirocco.'--The word +<i>sirocco</i> (spelt earlier <i>schirocco</i>, and in Spanish +and other languages with the <i>sh</i> sound, not the <i>s</i>) +is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root <i>sharaga</i>, +`it rose.' The name of the wind, <i>sirocco</i>, alludes in +its original Arabic form to its rising, with its cloud of sand, +in the desert high-lands of North Africa. True, it is defined +by Skeat as `a hot wind,' but that is only a part of its +definition. Its marked characteristic is that it is +<i>sand-laden</i>, densely hazy and black, and therefore +`choking,' like the <i>brickfielder</i>. The not unnatural +assumption that writers by comparing a <i>brickfielder</i> with +a <i>sirocco</i>, thereby imply that a <i>brickfielder</i> is a +hot wind, is thus disposed of by this characteristic, and by +the notes on the passages quoted. They were dwelling only on +its choking <i>dust</i>, and its suffocating qualities,--`a +miniature sirocco.' See the following quotations on this +character of the sirocco:-- + +1841. `Penny Magazine,' Dec. 18, p. 494: + +"The Islands of Italy, especially Sicily and Corfu, are +frequently visited by a wind of a remarkable character, to +which the name of sirocco, scirocco, or schirocco, has been +applied. The thermometer rises to a great height, but the air +is generally thick and heavy . . . . People confine themselves +within doors; the windows and doors are shut close, to prevent +as much as possible the external air from entering; . . . but a +few hours of the <i>tramontane</i>, or north wind which +generally succeeds it, soon braces them up again. [Compare this +whole phenomenon with (b) above.] There are some peculiar +circumstances attending the wind. . . . Dr. Benza, an Italian +physician, states:--`When the sirocco has been impetuous and +violent, and followed by a shower of rain, the rain has carried +with it to the ground an almost impalpable red micaceous sand, +which I have collected in large quantities more than once in +Sicily. . . . When we direct our attention to the island of +Corfu, situated some distance eastward of Sicily, we find the +sirocco assuming a somewhat different character. . . . The +more eastern sirocco might be called a refreshing breeze +[sic]. . . . The genuine or black sirocco (as it is called) +blows from a point between south-east and south-south-east.'" + +1889. W. Ferrell, `Treatise on Winds,' p. 336: + +"The dust raised from the Sahara and carried northward by the +sirocco often falls over the countries north of the +Mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture +and the sand falling together. . . .The temperature never rises +above 95 degrees." + +1889. `The Century Dictionary,' s.v. Sirocco: + +"(2) A hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing from the highlands of +Africa to the coasts of Malta, Sicily and Naples. . . . During +its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze." + +(3) The illustrative quotations on <i>brickfielder</i>, up to +this point, have been in chronological consecutive order. The +final three quotations below show that while the original true +definition and meaning, (1), are still not quite lost, yet +authoritative writers find it necessary to combat the modern +popular inversion, (2). + +1863. Frank Fowler, `The Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1: + +"The `brickfielder' is not the hot wind at all; it is but +another name for the cold wind, or southerly buster, which +follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive +sweep of sandhills called the Brickfields, semi-circling +Sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or `brickfielder') +across the city." + +[The writer is accusing Dr. Jobson (see quotation 1862, above) +of plagiarism from his book `Southern Lights and Shadows.'] + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' vol. ii. p. 11: + +"A dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere. +This is generally known as a `brickfielder.'" + +1896. `Three Essays on Australian Weather,' `On Southerly +Buster,' by H. A. Hunt, p. 17: + +"In the early days of Australian settlement, when the shores of +Port Jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the +region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great +part of the Haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from +which Brickfield Hill takes its name. When a `Southerly +Burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always +heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in +consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of +`brickfielder.' The brickfields have long since vanished, and +with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind +continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern +name of `Southerly Burster." + +<hw>Bricklow</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete form of <i>Brigalow</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Brigalow</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. Spellings various. +Native name, <i>Buriargalah</i>. In the Namoi dialect in New +South Wales, <i>Bri</i> or <i>Buri</i> is the name for +<i>Acacia pendula</i>, Cunn.; <i>Buriagal</i>, relating to the +<i>buri; Buriagalah</i> == place of the <i>buri</i> tree. Any +one of several species of <i>Acacia</i>, especially +<i>A. harpophylla</i>, F. v. M., <i>H.O. Leguminosae</i>. J. H. +Maiden (`Useful Native Plants,' p. 356, 1889) gives its uses +thus: + +"Wood brown, hard, heavy, and elastic; used by the natives for +spears, boomerangs, and clubs. The wood splits freely, and is +used for fancy turnery. Saplings used as stakes in vineyards +have lasted twenty years or more. It is used for building +purposes, and has a strong odour of violets.' + +1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' +p. 312: + +"Almost impassable bricklow scrub, so called from the bricklow +(a species of acacia)." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 4: + +"The Bricklow Acacia, which seems to be identical with the +Rosewood Acacia of Moreton Bay; the latter, however, is a fine +tree, 50 to 60 feet high, whereas the former is either a small +tree or a shrub. I could not satisfactorily ascertain the +origin of the word Bricklow, but as it is well understood and +generally adopted by all the squatters between the Severn River +and the Boyne, I shall make use of the name. Its long, +slightly falcate leaves, being of a silvery green colour, give +a peculiar character to the forest, where the tree +abounds."--[Footnote]: "<i>Brigaloe</i> Gould." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 79: + +"Good-bye to the Barwan and brigalow scrubs." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 190: + +"Now they pass through a small patch of Brigalow scrub. Some +one has split a piece from a trunk of a small tree. What a +scent the dark-grained wood has!" + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia;' vol. iv. p. 69: + +"There exudes from the Brigalow a white gum, in outward +appearance like gum-arabic, and even clearer, but as a +`sticker' valueless, and as a `chew-gum' disappointing." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 23: + +"The glare of a hard and pitiless sky overhead, the infinite +vista of saltbush, brigalow, stay-a-while, and mulga, the +creeks only stretches of stone, and no shelter from the +shadeless gums." + +<hw>Brill</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small and very bony rhomboidal fish +of New Zealand, <i>Pseudorhombus scaphus</i>, family +<i>Pleuronectidae</i>. The true <i>Brill</i> of Europe is +<i>Rhombus levis</i>. + +<hw>Brisbane Daisy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Daisy, Brisbane</i>. + +<hw>Bristle-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to certain +Australian Reed-warblers. They are--<i>Sphenura +brachyptera</i>, Latham; Long-tailed +B.--<i>S. longirostris</i>, Gould; Rufous-headed +B.--<i>S. broadbentii</i>, McCoy. See <i>Sphenura</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 232: + +"He (Mr. Caley) calls it in his notes `Bristle Bird.'" + +<hw>Broad-leaf</hw>, <i>n</i>. a settlers' name for +<i>Griselinia littoralis</i>, Raoul; Maori name, +<i>Paukatea</i>. + +1879. W. N. Blair, `Building Materials of Otago,' p. 155: + +"There are few trees in the [Otago] bush so conspicuous or so +well known as the broad-leaf. . . . It grows to a height of +fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of from three to six; the +bark is coarse and fibrous, and the leaves a beautiful deep +green of great brilliancy." + +1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xii. Art. 49, p. 328: + +"The broadleaf (<i>Griselinia littoralis</i>) is abundant in +the district [of Banks' Peninsula], and produces a hard red +wood of a durable nature." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 103: + +"The rough trunks and limbs of the broadleaf." + +<hw>Broker</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian slang for a man +completely ruined, stonebroke. + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014: + +"We're nearly `dead brokers,' as they say out here. Let's +harness up Eclipse and go over to old Yamnibar." + +<hw>Bronze-wing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird with a lustrous +shoulder, <i>Phaps chalcoptera</i>, Lath. Called also +<i>Bronze-wing Pigeon</i>. + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 145: + +"One of the gold-winged pigeons, of which a plate is annexed. +[Under plate, Golden-winged Pigeon.] This bird is a curious +and singular species remarkable for having most of the feathers +of the wing marked with a brilliant spot of golden yellow, +changing, in various reflections of light, to green and +copper-bronze, and when the wing is closed, forming two bars of +the same across it." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 31: + +"The pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island; +they are called bronze-winged pigeons." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 57: + +"Mr. Fitzpatrick followed his kangaroo hounds, and shot his +emus, his wild turkeys, and his bronze-wings." + +1865. `Once a Week.' `The Bulla-Bulla Bunyip.' + +"Hours ago the bronze-wing pigeons had taken their evening +draught from the coffee-coloured water-hole beyond the +butcher's paddock, and then flown back into the bush to roost +on `honeysuckle' and in heather." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122: + +"Another most beautiful pigeon is the `bronze-wing,' which is +nearly the size of the English wood-pigeon, and has a +magnificent purply-bronze speculum on the wings." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 33: + +"Both the bronze-wing and Wonga-Wonga pigeon are hunted so +keenly that in a few years they will have become extinct in +Victoria." + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 6: + +"Those who care for museum studies must have been interested in +tracing the Australian quail and pigeon families to a point +where they blend their separate identities in the partridge +bronze-wing of the Central Australian plains. The eggs mark +the converging lines just as clearly as the birds, for the +partridge-pigeon lays an egg much more like that of a quail +than a pigeon, and lays, quail fashion, on the ground." + +<hw>Brook-Lime</hw>, <i>n</i>. English name for an aquatic +plant, applied in Australia to the plant <i>Gratiola +pedunculata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Scrophularinae</i>. Also +called <i>Heartsease</i>. + +<hw>Broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to the plant +<i>Calycothrix tetragona</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<hw>Broom, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, +<i>Viminaria denudala</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 612: + +"Native broom. Wood soft and spongy." + +<hw>Broom, Purple</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for +<i>Comesperma retusum</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Polygaleae</i>. + +<hw>Brown Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Brown-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name for the <i>Tasmanian +Tit</i>. See <i>Tit</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii, pl. 54: + +"<i>Acanthiza Diemenensis</i>, Gould. Brown-tail, colonists of +Van Diemen's Land." + +<hw>Brown Tree-Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. of New Zealand, +<i>Naultinus pacificus</i>. + +<hw>Browny</hw> or <hw>Brownie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of +currant loaf. + +1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White kangaroo,' p. 57: + +"Cake made of flour, fat and sugar, commonly known as +`Browny.'" + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 57: + +"Four o'clock. `Smoke O!' again with more bread and brownie +(a bread sweetened with sugar and currants)." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass,' p. 36: + +"Roast mutton and brownie are given us to eat." + +<hw>Brumby, Broombie</hw> (spelling various), <i>n</i>. a wild +horse. The origin of this word is very doubtful. Some claim +for it an aboriginal, and some an English source. In its +present shape it figures in one aboriginal vocabulary, given in +Curr's `Australian Race' (1887), vol. iii. p. 259. At p. 284, +<i>booramby</i> is given as meaning "wild" on the river Warrego +in Queensland. The use of the word seems to have spread from +the Warrego and the Balowne about 1864. Before that date, and +in other parts of the bush ere the word came to them, wild +horses were called <i>clear-skins</i> or <i>scrubbers</i>, +whilst <i>Yarraman</i> (q.v.) is the aboriginal word for a +quiet or broken horse. A different origin was, however, given +by an old resident of New South Wales, to a lady of the name of +Brumby, viz. "that in the early days of that colony, a +Lieutenant Brumby, who was on the staff of one of the +Governors, imported some very good horses, and that some of +their descendants being allowed to run wild became the +ancestors the wild horses of New South Wales and Queensland." +Confirmation of this story is to be desired. + +1880. `The Australasian,' Dec. 4, p. 712, col. 3: + +"Passing through a belt of mulga, we saw, on reaching its edge, +a mob of horses grazing on the plains beyond. These our guide +pronounced to be `brumbies,' the bush name here [Queensland] +for wild horses." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 176: + +"The wild horses of this continent known all over it by the +Australian name of `brumbies.'" + +Ibid. p. 178: + +"The untamed and `unyardable' scrub brumby." + +1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 160: + +"Juggling about the country, with an Australian larrikin; a +`brumby' with as much breed as the boy. . . . People who lost +money on him called him a `brumby.'" + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms.' p. 67: + +"The three-cornered weed he rode that had been a `brumbee.'" + +1895. `Chambers' Journal,' Nov. 2, Heading `Australian Brumbie +Horses': + +"The brumbie horse of Australia, tho' not a distinct equine +variety, possesses attributes and qualities peculiar to itself, +and, like the wild cattle and wild buffaloes of Australia, is +the descendant of runaways of imported stock." + +1896. `Sydney Morning Herald,' (Letter from `J. F. G.,' dated +Aug. 24): + +"Amongst the blacks on the Lower Balonne, Nebine, Warrego, and +Bulloo rivers the word used for horse is `baroombie,' the `a' +being cut so short that the word sounds as `broombie,' and as +far as my experience goes refers more to unbroken horses in +distinction to quiet or broken ones (`yarraman')." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 156: + +"Yet at times we long to gallop where the reckless bushman rides + In the wake of startled brumbies that are flying for their + hides." + +<hw>Brush</hw>, <i>n</i>. at first undergrowth, small trees, as +in England; afterwards applied to larger timber growth and +forest trees. Its earlier sense survives in the compound +words; see below. + +1820. Oxley, `New South Wales' (`O.E.D.'): + +"The timber standing at wide intervals, without any brush or +undergrowth." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' (2nd ed.) vol. i. p. 62: + +"We journeyed . . . at one time over good plains, at another +through brushes." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. Introd. p. 77: + +"Jungle, or what in New South Wales would be called brush." + +Ibid. vol. v. Pl. 59: + +"Those vast primeval forests of New South Wales to which the +colonists have applied the name of brushes." + +1853. Chas. St. Julian and Edward K. Silvester, `The +Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' +p. 20: + +"What the colonists term `brush' lands are those covered with +tall trees growing so near each other and being so closely +matted together by underwood, parasites, and creepers, as to be +wholly impassable." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67, +note: + +"Brush was allotted to the growth of large timber on alluvial +lands, with other trees intermixed, and tangled vines. The +soil was rich, and `brushland' was well understood as a +descriptive term. It may die away, but its meaning deserves to +be pointed out." + +<hw>Brush-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>Brush-Bloodwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bloodwood</i>. + +<hw>Brush-Cherry</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Trochocarpa laurina</i>, R. Br., and <i>Eugenia +myrtifolia</i>, Simms. Called also <i>Brush-Myrtle</i>. + +<hw>Brush-Deal</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slender Queensland tree, +<i>Cupania anacardioides</i>, A. Richard. See <i>Brush</i>, +above. + +<hw>Brusher</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Bushman's name, in certain parts, +for a small wallaby which hops about in the bush or scrub with +considerable speed. "To give brusher," is a phrase derived +from this, and used in many parts, especially of the interior +of Australia, and implies that a man has left without paying +his debts. In reply to the question "Has so-and-so left the +township? "the answer, "Oh yes, he gave them brusher," would +be well understood in the above sense. + +<hw>Brush-Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Wallaby</i> (q.v.). + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. viii. +p. 273: + +"A place . . . thickly inhabited by the small brush-kangaroo." + +1830. `Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,' i. 29: + +"These dogs . . . are particularly useful in catching the +bandicoots, the small brush kangaroo, and the opossum." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 28: + +"The brush-kangaroo . . . frequents the scrubs and rocky hills." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 24: + +"Violet was so fast that she could catch the brush-kangaroo +(the wallaby) within sight." + +<hw>Brush-Myrtle</hw>, i.q. <i>Brush-Cherry</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Brush-Turkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Brush-Turpentine</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the tree +<i>Syncarpia leptopetala</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +called also <i>Myrtle</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bubrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wonga</i> and <i>Raupo</i>. + +<hw>Buck</hw>, <i>v</i>. Used "intransitively of a horse, to +leap vertically from the ground, drawing the feet together like +a deer, and arching the back. Also transitively to buck off." +(`O.E.D.') Some say that this word is not Australian, but all +the early quotations of <i>buck</i> and cognate words are +connected with Australia. The word is now used freely in the +United States; see quotation, 1882. + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 193: + +"Having gained his seat by a nimble spring, I have seen a man +(a Sydney native) so much at his ease, that while the horse has +been `bucking a hurricane,' to use a colonial expression, the +rider has been cutting up his tobacco and filling his pipe, +while several feet in the air, nothing to front of him +excepting a small lock of the animal's mane (the head being +between its legs), and very little behind him, the stern being +down; the horse either giving a turn to the air, or going +forward every buck." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 131: + +"`Well,' said one, `that fellow went to market like a bird.' +`Yes,' echoed another, `Bucked a blessed hurricane.' `Buck a +town down,' cried a third. `Never seed a horse strip himself +quicker,' cried a fourth." + +1882. Baillie-Grohman, `Camps in the Rockies,' ch. iv. p. 102 +('Standard'): + +"There are two ways, I understand, of sitting a bucking horse +. . . one is `to follow the buck,' the other `to receive the +buck.'" + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 55: + +"The performance is quite peculiar to Australian horses, and no +one who has not seen them at it would believe the rapid +contortions of which they are capable. In bucking, a horse +tucks his head right between his fore-legs, sometimes striking +his jaw with his hind feet. The back meantime is arched like a +boiled prawn's; and in this position the animal makes a series +of tremendous bounds, sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways +and backwards, keeping it up for several minutes at intervals +of a few seconds." + +<hw>Buck</hw>, <i>n</i>. See preceding verb. + +1868. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 224: + +"I never saw such bucks and jumps into the air as she [the +mare] performed." + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 206: + +"For, mark me, he can sit a buck + For hours and hours together; + And never horse has had the luck + To pitch him from the leather." + +<hw>Bucker</hw>, <hw>Buck-jumper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a horse given +to bucking or buck-jumping. + +1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and +1853,' [Footnote] p. 143: + +"A `bucker' is a vicious horse, to be found only in Australia." + +1884. `Harper's Magazine,' July, No. 301, p. 1 (`O.E.D.'): + +"If we should . . . select a `bucker,' the probabilities are +that we will come to grief." + +1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' +p. 64: + +"No buck jumper could shake him off." + +1893. Ibid. p. 187: + +"`Were you ever on a buck-jumper?' I was asked by a friend, +shortly after my return from Australia." + +<hw>Buck-jumping</hw>, <hw>Bucking</hw>, <i>verbal nouns</i>. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"At length it shook off all its holders, and made one of those +extraordinary vaults that they call <i>buck-jumping</i>." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 212: + +"That same bucking is just what puzzles me utterly." + +1859. Rev. J. D. Mereweather, `Diary of a Working Clergyman in +Australia and Tasmania, kept during the years 1850-1853,' +p. 177: + +"I believe that an inveterate buckjumper can be cured by +slinging up one of the four legs, and lunging him about +severely in heavy ground on the three legs. The action they +must needs make use of on such an occasion somewhat resembles +the action of bucking; and after some severe trials of that +sort, they take a dislike to the whole style of thing. An +Irishman on the Murrumbidgee is very clever at this schooling. +It is called here `turning a horse inside out.'" + +1885. Forman (Dakota), item 26, May 6, 3 (`O.E.D.'): + +"The majority of the horses there [in Australia] are vicious +and given to the trick of buck jumping." [It may be worth while +to add that this is not strictly accurate.] + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 94: + +"`I should say that buck jumping was produced in this country +by bad breaking,' said Mr. Neuchamp oracularly. `Don't you +believe it, sir. Bucking is like other vices--runs in the +blood.'" + +<hw>Buck-shot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a settlers' term for a +geological formation. See quotation. + +1851. `The Australasian Quarterly,' p. 459: + +"The plain under our feet was everywhere furrowed by <i>Dead +men's graves</i>, and generally covered with the granulated +lava, aptly named by the settlers <i>buck-shot</i>, and found +throughout the country on these trappean `formations. +<i>Buck-shot</i> is always imbedded in a sandy alluvium, +sometimes several feet thick." + +<hw>Buddawong</hw>, <i>n</i>. a variation of <i>Burrawang</i> +(q.v.). + +1877. Australie, `The Buddawong's Crown,' `Australian Poets,' +1788-1888, ed. Sladen, p. 39: + +"A Buddawong seed-nut fell to earth, + In a cool and mossy glade, + And in spring it shot up its barbed green swords, + Secure 'neath the myrtle's shade. +. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + And the poor, poor palm has died indeed. + But little the strangers care, + `There are zamias in plenty more,' they say, + But the crown is a beauty rare." + +<hw>Budgeree</hw>, <i>adj</i>. aboriginal word for good, which +is common colloquially in the bush. See <i>Budgerigar</i>. + +1793. J.Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 195: + +"They very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would +apply to us . . . for marks of our approbation . . . which we +never failed to give by often repeating the word +<i>boojery</i>, good; or <i>boojery caribberie</i>, a good +dance." + +<hw>Budgerigar</hw>, or <hw>Betcherrygah</hw>, <i>n</i>. +aboriginal name for the bird called by Gould the <i>Warbling +Grass-parrakeet</i>; called also <i>Shell-parrot</i> and +<i>Zebra- Grass-parrakeet</i>. In the Port Jackson dialect +<i>budgeri</i>, or <i>boodgeri</i>, means good, excellent. In +`Collins' Vocabulary' (1798), boodjer-re = good. In New South +Wales <i>gar</i> is common as first syllable of the name for +the white cockatoo, as <i>garaweh</i>. See <i>Galah</i>. In +the north of New South Wales <i>kaar</i>= white cockatoo. The +spelling is very various, but the first of the two above given +is the more correct etymologically. In the United States it is +spelt <i>beauregarde</i>, derived by `Standard' from French +<i>beau</i> and <i>regarde</i>, a manifest instance of the law +of <i>Hobson -Jobson</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 297: + +"The betshiregah (<i>Melopsittacus Undulatus</i>, Gould) were +very numerous." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. Pl. 44: + +"<i>Melopsittacus Undulatus</i>. Warbling Grass-Parrakeet. +Canary Parrot--colonists. <i>Betcherrygah</i>--natives of +Liverpool Plains." + +1857. Letter, Nov.17, in `Life of Fenton J. A. Hort' (1896), vol. +i. p. 388: + +"There is also a small green creature like a miniature +cockatoo, called a Budgeragar, which was brought from +Australia. He is quaint and now and then noisy, but not +on the whole a demonstrative being." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 48: + +"Young paroquets, the green leeks, and the lovely speckled +budgregores." + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 7: + +"I saw several pairs of those pretty grass or zebra parroquets, +which are called here by the very inharmonious name of +`budgereghars.'" + +2890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 127: + +"The tiny budgeriegar, sometimes called the shell parrot." + +<hw>Bugle</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the Australian plant +<i>Ajuga australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Labiatae</i>. + +<hw>Bugler</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given in Tasmania to the fish +<i>Centriscus scolopax</i>, family <i>Centriscidae</i>; called +in Europe the <i>Trumpet-fish</i>, <i>Bellows-fish</i>, the +latter name being also used for it in Tasmania. The structure +of the mouth and snout suggests a musical instrument, or, +combined with the outline of the body, a pair of bellows. The +fish occurs also in Europe. + +<hw>Bugong</hw>, or <hw>Bogong</hw>, or <hw>Bougong</hw>, +<i>n</i>. an Australian moth, <i>Danais limniace</i>, or<i> +Agrotis spina</i>, eaten by the aborigines. + +1834. Rev. W. B. Clarke, `Researches in the Southern Gold Fields +of New South Wales' (second edition), p. 228: + +"These moths have obtained their name from their occurrence on +the `Bogongs' or granite mountains. They were described by my +friend Dr. Bennett in his interesting work on `New South +Wales,' 1832-4, as abundant on the Bogong Mountain, Tumut +River. I found them equally abundant, and in full vigour, in +December, coming in clouds from the granite peaks of the +Muniong Range. The blacks throw them on the fire and eat +them." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 355: + +"The westward range is called the Bougongs. The blacks during +summer are in the habit of coming thus far to collect and feed +on the great grey moths (bougongs) which are found on the +rocks." + +1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660: + +"The Gibbs Land and Murray districts have been divided into the +following counties: . . . Bogong (native name of grubs and +moths)." + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' +vol. i. p. 207 + +"The moths--the Bugong moths(<i>Agrolis suffusa</i>) are +greedily devoured by the natives; and in former times, when +they were in season, they assembled in great numbers to eat +there, and they grew fat on this food." [Also a long footnote.] + +1890. Richard Helms, `Records of the Australian Museum,' +vol. i. No. 1: + +"My aim was to obtain some `Boogongs,' the native name for the +moths which so abundantly occur on this range, and no doubt +have given it its name." + +1896. `Sydney Mail,' April 4, Answers to Correspondents: + +"It cannot be stated positively, but it is thought that the +name of the moth `bogong' is taken from that of the mountain. +The meaning of the word is not known, but probably it is an +aboriginal word." + +<hw>Bull-a-bull</hw>, or <hw>Bullybul</hw>, <i>n</i>. a child's +corruption of the Maori word <i>Poroporo</i> (q.v.), a +flowering shrub of New Zealand. It is allied to the +<i>Kangaroo-Apple</i> (q.v.). + +1845. `New Plymouth's National Song,' in Hursthouse's `New +Zealand,' p. 217: + +"And as for fruit, the place is full + Of that delicious bull-a-bull." + +<hw>Bullahoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ballahoo</i>. + +<hw>Bull-ant</hw>, <i>n</i>. contracted and common form of the +words <i>Bull-dog Ant</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bull-dog Ant</hw>, <i>n</i>. (frequently shortened to +<i>Bull-dog</i> or <i>Bull-ant</i>), an ant of large size with +a fierce bite. The name is applied to various species of the +genus <i>Myrmecia</i>, which is common throughout Australia and +Tasmania. + +1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Long Years in Australia,' p. 93: + +"Busy colonies of ants (which everywhere infest the +country). . . One kind is very warlike--the `bull-dog': +sentinels stand on the watch, outside the nest, and in case of +attack disappear for a moment and return with a whole army of +the red-headed monsters, and should they nip you, will give you +a remembrance of their sting never to be forgotten." + +1888. Alleged `Prize Poem,' Jubilee Exhibition: + +"The aborigine is now nearly extinct, + But the bull-dog-ant and the kangaroo rat + Are a little too thick--I think." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 142: + +"Where the wily free-selector walks in armour-plated pants, + And defies the stings of scorpion and the bites of bull-dog + ants." + +<hw>Bull-dog Shark</hw>, i.q. <i>Bull-head</i> (1) (q.v.). + +<hw>Bull-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied to many +fishes of different families in various parts of the world, +none of which are the same as the following two. (1) A shark +of Tasmania and South Australia of small size and harmless, +with teeth formed for crushing shells, <i>Heterodontus +phillipi</i> , Lacep., family <i>Cestraciontidae</i>; also +called the <i>Bull-dog Shark</i>, and in Sydney, where it is +common, the <i>Port-Jackson Shark</i> : the aboriginal name was +<i>Tabbigan</i>. (2) A freshwater fish of New Zealand, +<i>Eleotris gobioides</i>, Cuv.and Val., family +<i>Gobiidae</i>. See <i>Bighead</i>. + +<hw>Bulln-Bulln</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal name for the +Lyre-bird (q.v.). This native name is imitative. The most +southerly county in Victoria is called <i>Buln-Buln</i>; it is +the haunt of the Lyre-bird. + +1857. D. Bunce, `Travels with Leichhardt in Australia,' p. 70: + +"We afterwards learned that this was the work of the Bullen +Bullen, or Lyre-bird, in its search for large worms, its +favourite food." + +1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660: + +"The Gipps Land and Murray districts have been divided into the +following counties: . . . Buln Buln (name of Lyre-bird)." + +<hw>Bull-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Bullocky</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a bullockdriver." +In the bush all the heavy hauling is done with bullock-drays. +It is quite a common sight up the country to see teams of a +dozen and upwards." (B. and L.) + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xii. p. 121: + +"By George, Jack, you're a regular bullocky boy." + +<hw>Bull-puncher</hw>, or <hw>Bullock-puncher</hw>, +<i>n</i>. slang for a bullockdriver. According to Barrere and +Leland's `Slang Dictionary,' the word has a somewhat different +meaning in America, where it means a drover. See <i>Punch</i>. + +1872. C. N. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 49: + +"The `bull-puncher,' as bullock-drivers are familiarly called." + +1873. J. Mathew, song `Hawking,' in `Queenslander,' Oct. 4: + +"The stockmen and the bushmen and the shepherds leave the station, + And the hardy bullock-punchers throw aside their occupation." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 143: + +"These teams would comprise from five to six pairs of bullocks +each, and were driven by a man euphoniously termed a +`bull-puncher.' Armed with a six-foot thong, fastened to a +supple stick seven feet long. . . ." + +<hw>Bull-rout</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales, +<i>Centropogon robustus</i>, Guenth., family +<i>Scorpaenidae</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 48: + +"It emits a loud and harsh grunting noise when it is +caught. . . . The fisherman knows what he has got by the noise +before he brings his fish to the surface. . . . When out of the +water the noise of the bull-rout is loudest, and it spreads its +gills and fins a little, so as to appear very formidable. . . . +The blacks held it in great dread, and the name of bull-rout +may possibly be a corruption of some native word." + +<hw>Bull's-eye</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales, +<i>Priacanthus macracanthus</i>, Cuv.and Val. +<i>Priacanthus</i>, says Guenther, is a percoid fish with short +snout, lower jaw and chin prominent, and small rough scales all +over them and the body generally. The eye large, and the +colour red, pink, or silvery. + +1884. E. P. Ramsay, `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' vol. v. +p. 311: + +"Another good table-fish is the `bull's-eye,' a beautiful +salmon-red fish with small scales. . . . At times it enters +the harbours in considerable numbers; but the supply is +irregular." + +<hw>Bulls-wool</hw>, <i>n</i>. colloquial name for the inner +portion of the covering of the <i>Stringybark-tree</i> (q.v.). +This is a dry finely fibrous substance, easily disintegrated by +rubbing between the hands. It forms a valuable tinder for +kindling a fire in the bush, and is largely employed for that +purpose. It is not unlike the matted hair of a bull, and is +reddish in colour, hence perhaps this nickname, which is common +in the Tasmanian bush. + +<hw>Bully</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian fish, <i>Blennius +tasmanianus</i>, Richards., family <i>Blennidae</i>. + +<hw>Bulrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wonga</i> and <i>Raupo</i>. + +<hw>Bung, to go</hw>, <i>v</i>. to fail, to become bankrupt. +This phrase of English school-boy slang, meaning to go off with +an explosion, to go to smash (also according to Barrere and +Leland still in use among American thieves), is in very +frequent use in Australia. In Melbourne in the times that +followed the collapse of the land-boom it was a common +expression to say that Mr. So-and-so had "gone bung," sc. filed +his schedule or made a composition with creditors; or that an +institution had "gone bung," sc. closed its doors, collapsed. +In parts of Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland, the +word "bung" is an aboriginal word meaning "dead," and even +though the slang word be of English origin, its frequency of +use in Australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal +word, which forms the last syllable in <i>Billabong</i> (q.v.), +and in the aboriginal word <i>milbung</i> blind, literally, +eye-dead. + +(a) The aboriginal word. + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 430: + +"A place called Umpie Bung, or the dead houses." +[It is now a suburb of Brisbane, Humpy-bong.] + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 175 +[in Blacks' pigeon English]: + +"Missis bail bong, ony cawbawn prighten. (Missis not dead, +only dreadfully frightened.)" + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 73: + +"But just before you hands 'im [the horse] over and gets +the money, he goes bong on you" (i.e. he dies). + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p: 142: + +"Their [the blacks'] ordinary creed is very simple. `Directly +me bung (die) me jump up white feller,' and this seems to be +the height of their ambition." + +1895. `The Age,' Dec. 21, p. 13, col. 6: + +"`Then soon go bong, mummy,' said Ning, solemnly. + +`Die,' corrected Clare. You mustn't talk blacks' language.' + +`Suppose you go bong,' pursued Ning reflectively, `then you go +to Heaven.'" + +(b) The slang word. + +1885. `Australian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 40: + +"He was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had +`gone bung,' probably from over-indulgence in confectionery." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 15 (by Oriel), p. 13, col. 2: + +"Still change is humanity's lot. It is but the space of a day + Till cold is the damask cheek, and silent the eloquent tongue, + All flesh is grass, says the preacher, like grass it is withered + away, + And we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn + 'tis bung." + +1893. Professor Gosman, `The Argus,' April 24, p. 7, col. 4: + +"Banks might fail, but the treasures of thought could never go +`bung.'" + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), April 25, p. 2, col. 4: + +"Perhaps Sydney may supply us with a useful example. One +member of the mischief-making brotherhood wrote the words `gone +bung' under a notice on the Government Savings Bank, and he was +brought before the Police Court charged with damaging the +bank's property to the extent of 3d. The offender offered the +Bench his views on the bank, but the magistrates bluntly told +him his conduct was disgraceful, and fined him L 3 with costs, +or two months' imprisonment." + +<hw>Bunga</hw> or <hw>Bungy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand +settlers' corruption of the Maori word <i>punga</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Bunt</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland fungus growing on wheat, +fetid when crushed. <i>Tilletia caries</i>, Tul., +<i>N.O. Fungi</i>. + +<hw>Bunya-Bunya</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word. [<i>Bunyi</i> +at heads of Burnett, Mary, and Brisbane rivers, Queensland; +<i>baanya</i>, on the Darling Downs.] An Australian tree, +<i>Araucaria bidwillii</i>, Hooker, with fruit somewhat like +<i>Bertholletia excelsa</i>, <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. +Widgi-Widgi station on the Mary was the head-quarters for the +fruit of this tree, and some thousands of blacks used to +assemble there in the season to feast on it; it was at this +assembly that they used to indulge in cannibalism ; every third +year the trees were said to bear a very abundant crop. The +Bunya-Bunya mountains in Queensland derive their name from this +tree. + +1843. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland, by J. D. Lang, +p. 82: + +"The bunya-bunya tree is noble and gigantic, and its +umbrella-like head overtowers all the trees of the bush." + +1844. Ibid. p. 89: + +"The kernel of the Bunya fruit has a very fine aroma, +and it is certainly delicious eating." + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 25: + +"The Bunya-Bunya or <i>Araucaria</i> on the seeds of which +numerous tribes of blacks are accustomed to feed." + +1879. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' p. 58: + +"A splendid timber tree of South Queensland, where it forms +dense forests, one of the finest of the Araucaria tribe, +attaining an approximate height of 200 feet. The Bunya-Bunya +withstands drought better than most of the genus, and +flourishes luxuriantly in and around Melbourne." + +1887. J. Mathew, in Curr's `Australian Race,' vol. iii. p. 161: + +[A full account.] "In laying up a store of bunyas, the blacks +exhibited an unusual foresight. When the fruit was in season, +they filled netted bags with the seeds, and buried them." + +1889. Hill, quoted by J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 7: + +"The cones shed their seeds, which are two to two and a half +inches long by three-quarters of an inch broad; they are sweet +before being perfectly ripe, and after that resemble roasted +chestnuts in taste. They are plentiful once in three years, +and when the ripening season arrives, which is generally in the +month of January, the aborigina&ls assemble in large numbers +from a great distance around, and feast upon them. Each tribe +has its own particular set of trees, and of these each family +has a certain number allotted, which are handed down from +generation to generation with great exactness. The bunya is +remarkable as being the only hereditary property which any of +the aborigines are known to possess, and it is therefore +protected by law. The food seems to have a fattening effect on +the aborigines, and they eat large quantities of it after +roasting it at the fire." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 377: + +"The `Bunya-bunya' of the aboriginals--a name invariably +adopted by the colonists." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 50: + +"The Bunya-bunya tree, in the proper season, bears a fir cone +of great size--six to nine inches long-and this, when roasted, +yields a vegetable pulp, pleasant to eat and nutritious." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 19, p. 7, col. 1: + +"There is a beautiful bunya-bunya in a garden just beyond, its +foliage fresh varnished by the rain, and toning from a rich +darkness to the very spring tint of tender green." + +<hw>Bunyip</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) the aboriginal name of a +fabulous animal. See quotations. For the traditions of the +natives on this subject see Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 435. + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 391: + +"Certain large fossil bones, found in various parts of +Australia Felix, have been referred by the natives, when +consulted on the subject by the colonists, to a huge animal of +extraordinary appearance, called in some districts the Bunyup, +in others the Kianpraty, which they assert to be still alive. +It is described as of amphibious character, inhabiting deep +rivers, and permanent water-holes, having a round head, an +elongated neck, with a body and tail resembling an ox. These +reports have not been unattended to, and the bunyup is said to +have been actually seen by many parties, colonists as well as +aborigines. . . .[A skull which the natives said was that of a +`piccinini Kianpraty' was found by Professor Owen to be that of +a young calf. The Professor] considers it all but impossible +that such a large animal as the bunyup of the natives can be +now living in the country. [Mr. Westgarth suspects] it is only +a tradition of the alligator or crocodile of the north." + +1849. W. S. Macleay, `Tasmanian journal,' vol. iii. p. 275: + +"On the skull now exhibited at the Colonial Museum of Sydney as +that of the Bunyip." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 214: + +"Did my reader ever hear of the Bunyip (fearful name to the +aboriginal native!) a sort of `half-horse, half-alligator,' +haunting the wide rushy swamps and lagoons of the interior?" + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 258: + +"The river is too deep, child, and the Bunyip lives in the +water under the stones." + +1865. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, The Bulla Bulla Bunyip': + +"Beyond a doubt, in `Lushy Luke's' belief, a Bunyip had taken +temporary lodgings outside the town. This <i>bete noire</i> of +the Australian bush Luke asserted he had often seen in bygone +times. He described it as being bigger than an elephant, in +shape like a `poley' bullock, with eyes like live coals, and +with tusks like a walrus's. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +"What the Bunyip is, I cannot pretend to say, but I think it is +highly probable that the stories told by both old bushmen and +blackfellows, of some bush beast bigger and fiercer than any +commonly known in Australia, are founded on fact. Fear and the +love of the marvellous may have introduced a considerable +element of exaggeration into these stories, but I cannot help +suspecting that the myths have an historical basis." + +1872. C. Gould, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society +of Tasmania,' 1872, p. 33: + +"The belief in the Bunyip was just as prevalent among the +natives in parts hundreds of miles distant from any stream in +which alligators occur. . . . Some other animal must be sought +for." . . . [Gould then quotes from `The Mercury' of April 26, +1872, an extract from the `Wagga Advertiser']: "There really is +a Bunyip or Waa-wee, actually existing not far from us . . . in +the Midgeon Lagoon, sixteen miles north of Naraudera . . . I +saw a creature coming through the water with tremendous +rapidity . . . . The animal was about half as long again as an +ordinary retriever dog, the hair all over its body was jet +black and shining, its coat was very long." [Gould cites other +instances, and concludes that the Bunyip is probably a seal.] + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 202: + +"In the south-eastern part of Australia the evil spirit of the +natives is called <i>Bunjup</i>, a monster which is believed to +dwell in the lakes. It has of late been supposed that this is +a mammal of considerable size that has not yet been discovered +. . . is described as a monster with countless eyes and +ears. . . . He has sharp claws, and can run so fast that it is +difficult to escape him. He is cruel, and spares no one either +young or old." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"The hollow boom so often heard on the margin of reedy swamps +--more hollow and louder by night than day--is the mythical +bunyip, the actual bittern." + +(2) In a secondary sense, a synonym for an impostor. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 214: + +"One advantage arose from the aforesaid long-deferred discovery +--a new and strong word was adopted into the Australian +vocabulary: Bunyip became, and remains a Sydney synonoyme for +<i>impostor, pretender, humbug</i>, and the like. The black +fellows, however, unaware of the extinction, by superior +authority, of their favourite <i>loup-garou</i>, still continue +to cherish the fabulous bunyip in their shuddering +imagination." + +1853. W. C. Wentworth--Speech in August quoted by Sir Henry +Parkes in `Fifty Years of Australian History' (1892), +vol. i. p. 41: + +"They had been twitted with attempting to create a mushroom, a +Brummagem, a bunyip aristocracy; but I need scarcely observe +that where argument fails ridicule is generally resorted to for +aid." + +<hw>Burnet, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in +Australia to the plant <i>Acaena ovina</i>, Cunn., +<i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>. + +<hw>Burnett Salmon</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the names given to +the fish <i>Ceratodus forsteri</i>, Krefft. See +<i>Burramundi</i>. + +<hw>Burnt-stuff</hw>, <i>n</i>. a geological term used by miners. +See quotation. + +1853. Mrs. Chas. Clancy, `Lady's Visit to Gold Diggings,' p. 112: + +"The top, or surface soil, for which a spade or shovel is used, +was of clay. This was succeeded by a strata almost as hard as +iron--technically called `burnt-stuff'--which robbed the pick +of its points nearly as soon as the blacksmith had steeled them +at a charge of 2s. 6d. a point." + +<hw>Bur</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Tasmania the name is applied to +<i>Acaena rosaceae</i>, Vahl., <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>. + +<hw>Burramundi</hw>, or <hw>Barramunda</hw>, <i>n</i>. a +fresh-water fish, <i>Osteoglossum leichhardtii</i>, Guenth., +family <i>Osteoglossidae</i>, found in the Dawson and Fitzroy +Rivers, Queensland. The name is also incorrectly applied by +the colonists to the large tidal perch of the Fitzroy River, +Queensland, <i>Lates calcarifer</i>, Guenth., a widely +distributed fish in the East Indies, and to <i>Ceratodus +forsteri</i>, Krefft, family <i>Sirenidae</i>, of the Mary and +Burnett Rivers, Queensland. Burramundi is the aboriginal name +for <i>O. leichhardtii</i>. The spelling <i>barramunda</i> is +due to the influence of <i>barracouta</i> (q.v.). See +<i>Perch</i>. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' +vol. i. p. 189: + +"There is a fish too at Rockhampton called the burra mundi,-- +I hope I spell the name rightly,--which is very commendable." + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 357: + +"<i>Ceratodus</i>. . . . Two species, <i>C. forsteri</i> and +<i>C. miolepis</i>, are known from fresh-waters of +Queensland. . . . Locally the settlers call it `flathead,' +`Burnett or Dawson salmon,' and the aborigines `barramunda,' a +name which they apply also to other largescaled fresh-water +fishes, as the <i>Osteoglossum leichhardtii</i>. . . . The +discovery of <i>Ceratodus</i> does not date farther back than +the year 1870." + +1882. W. Macleay, `Descriptive Catalogue of Australian fishes' +('Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' +vol. vi. p. 256): + +"<i>Osteoglossum leichhardtii</i>, Gunth. Barramundi of the +aborigines of the Dawson River." + +1892. Baldwin Spencer, `Proceedings of the Royal Society +of Victoria,' vol. iv. [Note on the habits of <i>Ceratodus +forsterii</i>] + +"It has two common names, one of which is the `Burnett Salmon' +and the other the `Barramunda" . . . the latter name . . . is +properly applied to a very different form, a true teleostean +fish (<i>Osteoglossum leichhardtii</i>) which is +found . . . further north . . . in the Dawson and +Fitzroy . . . Mr. Saville Kent states that the Ceratodus is much +prized as food. This is a mistake, for, as a matter of fact, +it is only eaten by Chinese and those who can afford to get +nothing better." + +<hw>Burrawang</hw>, or <hw>Burwan</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian +nut-tree, <i>Macrozamia spiralis</i>, Miq. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 221: + +"The burwan is a nut much relished by our natives, who prepare +it by roasting and immersion in a running stream, to free it +from its poisonous qualities." + +1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 238 + +"The Burrowan, which grows in a sandy soil, and produces +an inedible fruit, resembling the pine-apple in appearance." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 41: + +"Burrawang nut, so called because they used to be, and are to +some extent now, very common about Burrawang, N.S.W. The nuts +are relished by the aboriginals. An arrowroot of very good +quality is obtained from them." + +<hw>Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. Not originally an Australian +application. "Recent, and probably a direct adoption of the +Dutch <i>Bosch</i>, in colonies originally Dutch" (`O.E.D.'), +[quoting (1780) Forster, in `Phil. Trans.' lxxi. 2, "The common +Bush-cat of the Cape;" and (1818) Scott, `Tapestr. Chamber,' +"When I was in the Bush, as the Virginians call it"]. +"Woodland, country more or less covered with natural wood +applied to the uncleared or untitled districts in the British +Colonies which are still in a state of nature, or largely so, +even though not wooded; and by extension to the country as +opposed to the towns." (`O.E.D.') + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 48: + +"I have spent a good deal of my time in the woods, or bush, as +it is called here.' + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 85: + +"With the exception of two or three little farms, comprising +about 20 or 30 acres of cultivation, all was `bush' as it is +colonially called. The undergrowth was mostly clear, being +covered only with grass or herbs, with here and there some low +shrubs." + +1837. J. D. Lang, `New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 253: + +"His house was well enough for the bush, as the country is +generally termed in the colony." + +1855. From a letter quoted in Wathen's `The Golden Colony,' +p. 117: + +"`The Bush,' when the word is used in the towns, means all the +uninclosed and uncultivated country . . . when in the country, +`the Bush' means more especially the forest. The word itself +has been borrowed from the Cape, and is of Dutch origin." + +1857. `The Argus,' Dec. 14, p. 5, col. 7: + +"`Give us something to do in or about Melbourne, not away in +the bush,' says the deputation of the unemployed." + +1861. T. McCombie,' Australian Sketches,' p. 123: + +"At first the eternal silence of the bush is oppressive, but a +short sojourn is sufficient to accustom a neophyte to the new +scene, and he speedily becomes enamoured of it." + +1865. J. F. Mortlock, `Experiences of a Convict,' p. 83: + +"The `bush,' a generic term synonymous with `forest' or +`jungle,' applied to all land in its primaeval condition, +whether occupied by herds or not." + +1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra and Manaro,' p. 113: + +"All the advantages of civilized life have been surrendered +for the bush, its blanket and gunyah." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' +vol. i. p. 250: + +"The technical meaning of the word `bush.' The bush is the +gum-tree forest, with which so great a part of Australia is +covered, that folk who follow a country life are invariably +said to live in the bush. Squatters who look after their own +runs always live in the bush, even though their sheep are +pastured on plains. Instead of a town mouse and a country +mouse in Australia, there would be a town mouse and a bush +mouse; but mice living in the small country towns would still +be bush mice." + +Ibid. c. xx. p. 299: + +"Nearly every place beyond the influence of the big towns is +called `bush,' even though there should not be a tree to be +seen around." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67, n.: + +"Bush was a general term for the interior. It might be thick +bush, open bush, bush forest, or scrubby bushterms which +explain themselves." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40: + +"The first thing that strikes me is the lifeless solitude of +the bush. . . . There is a deep fascination about the freedom +of the bush." + +1890. E. W. Hornung [Title]: + +"A Bride from the Bush." + +1896. `Otago Daily Times,' Jan. 27, p. 2, col. 5: + +"Almost the whole of New South Wales is covered with bush. +It is not the bush as known in New Zealand. It is rather +a park-like expanse, where the trees stand widely apart, +and where there is grass on the soil between them." + +<hw>Bush</hw>, <i>adj</i>. or <i>in composition</i>, not always +easy to distinguish, the hyphen depending on the fancy of the +writer. + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 75: + +"The round trundling of our cart wheels, it is well known, does +not always improve the labours of Macadam, much less a bush +road." + +1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's `Church +in Victoria, during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,'p. 75: + +"A hard bush sofa, without back or ends." + +1849. J. Sidney, `Emigrants' Journal, and Travellers' +Magazine,' p. 40 (Letter from Caroline Chisholm): + +"What I would particularly recommend to new settlers is +`<i>Bush Partnership'</i>--Let two friends or neighbours agree +to work together, until three acres are cropped, dividing the +work, the expense, and the produce--this partnership will grow +apace; I have made numerous bush agreements of this kind . . . +I never knew any quarrel or bad feeling result from these +partnerships, on the contrary, I believe them calculated to +promote much neighbourly good will; but in the association of a +large number of strangers, for an indefinite period, I have no +confidence." + +1857. W. Westgarth, `Victoria,' c. xi. p. 250: + +"The gloomy antithesis of good bushranging and bad bush-roads." + +[Bush-road, however, does not usually mean a made-road through +the bush, but a road which has not been formed, and is in a +state of nature except for the wear of vehicles upon it, and +perhaps the clearing of trees and scrub.] + +1864. `The Reader,' April 2, p. 40, col. 1 (`O.E.D.'): + +"The roads from the nascent metropolis still partook mainly of +the random character of `bush tracks.'" + +1865. W. Hewitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 211: + +"Dr. Wills offered to go himself in the absence of any more +youthful and, through bush seasoning, qualified person." + +1880. `Blackwood's Magazine,' Feb., p. 169 [Title]: + +"Bush-Life in Queensland." + +1881. R. M. Praed, `Policy and Passion,' c. i. p. 59: + +"The driver paused before a bush inn." + +[In Australia the word "inn" is now rare. The word "hotel" +has supplanted it.] + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv.p. 3: + +"Not as bush roads go. The Australian habit is here followed +of using `bush' for country, though no word could be more +ludicrously inapplicable, for there is hardly anything on the +way that can really be called a bush." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (exact date lost): + +"Canada, Cape Colony, and Australia have preserved the old +significance of Bush--Chaucer has it so--as a territory on +which there are trees; it is a simple but, after all, a kindly +development that when a territory is so unlucky as to have no +trees, sometimes, indeed, to be bald of any growth whatever, +it should still be spoken of as if it had them." + +1896. Rolf Boldrewood, in preface to `The Man from Snowy +River': + +"It is not easy to write ballads descriptive of the bushland +of Australia, as on light consideration would appear." + +1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 104: + +"About Byrock we met the bush liar in all his glory. He was +dressed like--like a bush larrikin. His name was Jim." + +<hw>Bush-faller</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who cuts down timber in the +bush. + +1882. `Pall Mall Gazette,' June 29, p. 2, col. 1: + +"A broken-down, deserted shanty, inhabited once, perhaps, by +rail-splitters or bush-fallers." [`O.E.D.,' from which this +quotation is taken, puts (?) before the meaning; but "To fall" +is not uncommon in Australia for "to fell."] + +<hw>Bush-fire</hw>, <i>n</i>. forests and grass on fire in hot +summers. + +1868. C. Dilke, `Greater Britain,' vol. ii. part iii. c. iii. +p. 32: + +"The smoke from these bush-fires extends for hundreds of miles +to sea." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxii. p. 156: + +"A reserve in case of bush-fires and bad seasons." + +<hw>Bush-lawyer</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A Bramble. +See <i>Lawyer</i>. + +(2) Name often used for a layman who fancies he knows all about +the law without consulting a solicitor. He talks a great deal, +and `lays down the law.' + +1896. H. G. Turner, `Lecture on J. P. Fawkner': + +"For some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for +rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in +Tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, +and under the exceptional circumstances of the Colony, was not +restricted to members of the legal profession, and the term +Bush Lawyer probably takes its origin from the practice of this +period." + +<hw>Bush-magpie</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, more +commonly called a <i>Magpie</i> (q.v.). + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 235: + +". . . the omnipresent bush-magpie. Here he may warble all the +day long on the liquid, mellifluous notes of his Doric flute, +fit pipe indeed for academic groves . . . sweetest and brightest, +most cheery and sociable of all Australian birds." + +<hw>Bushman</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Settler in the bush. +Used to distinguish country residents from townsfolk. + +1852. `Blackwood's Magazine,' p. 522 (`O.E.D.'): + +"Where the wild bushman eats his loathly fare." + +1880. J. Mathew, song, `The Bushman:' + +"How weary, how dreary the stillness must be! + But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me." + +1886. Frank Cowan: `Australia; a Charcoal Sketch': + +"The bushman . . . <i>Gunyah</i>, his bark hovel; <i>Damper</i>, +his unleavened bread baked in the ashes; <i>Billy</i>, his +tea-kettle, universal pot and pan and bucket; <i>Sugar-bag</i>, +his source of saccharine, a bee-tree; <i>Pheasant</i>, his +facetious metaphoric euphism for Liar, quasi Lyre-bird; <i>Fit +for Woogooroo</i>, for Daft or Idiotic; <i>Brumby</i>, his +peculiar term for wild horse; <i>Scrubber</i>, wild ox; +<i>Nuggeting</i>, calf-stealing; <i>Jumbuck</i>, sheep, in +general; an <i>Old-man</i>, grizzled wallaroo or kangaroo; +<i>Station, Run</i>, a sheep- or cattle-ranch; and +<i>Kabonboodgery</i>--an echo of the sound diablery for ever in +his ears, from dawn to dusk of Laughing Jackass and from dusk +to dawn of Dingo--his half-bird -and-beast-like vocal +substitute for Very Good. . . ." + +1896. H.Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 71: + +"He was a typical bushman, . . . and of the old bush school; +one of those slight active little fellows, whom we used to see +in cabbage-tree hats, Crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and +elastic-side boots." + +(2) One who has knowledge of the bush, and is skilled in its +ways. A "good bushman" is especially used of a man who can +find his way where there are no tracks. + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' pp. 78, 79: + +"It is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as Mr. Batman +would venture upon such an expedition had he not been well. +In fact a better bushman at this time could not be met with." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 3: + +"The worst bushman had to undertake the charge of the camp, +cook the provisions, and look after the horses, during the +absence of the rest on flying excursions." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40: + +"Very slight landmarks will serve to guide a good bushman, +for no two places are really exactly alike." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 78: + +"One of the best bushmen in that part of the country: the men +said he could find his way over it blindfold, or on the darkest +night that ever was." + +(3) Special sense. See quotation. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 80: + +"Some were what is termed, <i>par excellence</i>, bushmen--that +is, men who split rails, get posts, shingles, take contracts +for building houses, stockyards, etc.--men, in fact, who work +among timber continually, sometimes felling and splitting, +sometimes sawing." + +<hw>Bushmanship</hw>, <i>n</i>. knowledge of the ways of the +bush. + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 261: + +"A good laugh at the bushmanship displayed." + +<hw>Bushranger</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who ranges or traverses the +bush, far and wide; an Australian highwayman; in the early days +usually an escaped convict. Shakspeare uses the verb `to +range' in this connection. + +"Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen + In murders and in outrage, boldly here." + (`Richard II.,' III. ii. 39.) + +"Ranger" is used in modern English for one who protects +and not for one who robs; as `the Ranger' of a Park. + +1806. May 4, `Sydney Gazette' or `New South Wales Advertiser, +given in `History of New South Wales,' p. 265: + +"Yesterday afternoon, William Page, the bushranger repeatedly +advertised, was apprehended by three constables." + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' +p. 166: + +[The settlements in Van Diemen's Land have] "been infested for +many years past by a banditti of runaway convicts, who have +endangered the person and property of every one. . . . These +wretches, who are known in the colony by the name of +bushrangers. . ." + +1820. Lieut. Chas. Jeffreys, `Van Dieman's [sic] Land,' p. 15: + +"The supposition . . . rests solely on the authority of the Bush +Rangers, a species of wandering brigands, who will be elsewhere +described." + +1838. T. L. `Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 9: + +"Bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which happily +can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted +police." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 81: + +"This country [Van Diemen's Land] is as much infested as New +South Wales with robbers, runaway convicts, or, as they are +termed, Bush-rangers." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 77: + +"The whole region was infested by marauding bands of +bush-rangers, terrible after nightfall." + +1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 252: + +"Whilst he was engaged in this duty in Victoria, a band +of outlaws--'bushrangers' as they are colonially termed-- +who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career +of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in +the mountain ranges." + +<hw>Bush-ranging</hw>, <i>n</i>. the practice of the Bushranger +(q.v.). + +1827. `Captain Robinson's Report,' Dec. 23 + +"It was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their +assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to +their dress; which very much assisted the crime of +`bush-ranging.'" + +<hw>Bush-scrubber</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bushman's word for a boor, +bumpkin, or slatternly person. See <i>Scrubber</i>. + +1896. Modern. Up-country manservant on seeing his new +mistress: + +"My word! a real lady! she's no bush-scrubber!" + +<hw>Bush-telegraph</hw>, <i>n</i>. Confederates of bushrangers +who supply them with secret information of the movements of the +police. + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 507: + +"The police are baffled by the false reports of the +confederates and the number and activity of the bush +telegraphs." + +1893. Kenneth Mackay, `Out Back,' p. 74: + +"A hint dropped in this town set the bush telegraphs riding in +all directions." + +<hw>Bushwoman</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation. + +1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 1: + +"But who has championed the cause of the woman of the bush-- +or, would it be more correct to say bushwoman, as well as +bushman?--and allowed her also a claim to participate in the +founding of a nation?" + +<hw>Bush-wren</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wren</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 108: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>Bushed</hw>, <i>adj., quasi past participle</i>, +lost in the bush; then, lost or at a loss. + +1661. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 115: + +"I left my seat to reach a shelter, which was so many miles +off, that I narrowly escaped being `bushed.'" + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 283: + +"The poor youth, new to the wilds, had, in the expressive +phrase of the colonials, got bushed, that is, utterly +bewildered, and thus lost all idea of the direction that he +ought to pursue." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 29: + +"I get quite bushed in these streets." + +1896. `The Argus,' Jan. 1, p. 4, col. 9: + +"The Ministry did not assume its duty of leading the House, and +Mr. Higgins graphically described the position of affairs by +stating that the House was `bushed;' while Mr. Shiels compared +the situation to a rudderless ship drifting hither and +thither." + +<hw>Bustard</hw>, <i>n</i>. "There are about twenty species, +mostly of Africa, several of India, one of Australia, and three +properly European." (`Century.') The Australian variety is +<i>Eupodotis australis</i>, Gray, called also <i>Wild +Turkey</i>, <i>Native Turkey</i>, and <i>Plain Turkey</i>. See +<i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Buster, Southerly</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is a corruption +of `burster,' that which bursts. A sudden and violent squall +from the south. The name, used first in Sydney, has been +adopted also in other Australian cities. See <i>Brickfielder</i>. + +1863. F. Fowler, in `Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1: + +"The cold wind or southerly buster which . . . carries a thick +cloud of dust . . . across the city." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 587: + +"<i>Southerly Busters</i> by `Ironbark.'" + +1886. F. Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch': + +"The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; +and red-hot Simoom." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 40: + +"Generally these winds end in what is commonly called a +`southerly buster.' This is preceded by a lull in the hot +wind; then suddenly (as it has been put) it is as though a +bladder of cool air were exploded, and the strong cool +southerly air drives up with tremendous force. However +pleasant the change of temperature may be it is no mere pastime +to be caught in a `southerly buster,' but the drifting rain +which always follows soon sets matters right, allays the dust, +and then follows the calm fresh bracing wind which is the more +delightful by contrast with the misery through which one has +passed for three long dreary days and nights." + +1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 302, col. 1: + +"You should see him with Commodore Jack out in the teeth +of the `hard glad weather,' when a southerly buster sweeps +up the harbour." + +1896. H. A.Hunt, in `Three Essays on Australian Weather' +(Sydney), p. 16: + +An Essay on Southerly Bursters, . . . with Four Photographs +and Five Diagrams." + +[Title of an essay which was awarded the prize of L 25 offered +by the Hon. Ralph Abercrombie.] + +<hw>Butcher</hw>, <i>n</i>. South Australian slang for a long +drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a +certain butchery in Adelaide used this refreshment regularly; +cf. "porter" in England, after the drink of the old London +porters. + +<hw>Butcher-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is in use elsewhere, +but in Australia it is applied to the genus <i>Cracticus</i>. +The varieties are-- + +The Butcher-bird-- + <i>Cracticus torquatus</i>, Lath.; formerly + <i>C. destructor</i>, Gould. + +Black B.-- + <i>C. quoyi</i>, Less. + +Black-throated B.-- + <i>C. nigrigularis</i>, Gould. + +Grey B. (Derwent Jackass)-- + <i>C. cinereus</i>, Gould (see <i>Jackass</i>). + +Pied B.-- + <i>C. picatus</i>, Gould. + +Rufous B.-- + <i>C. rufescens</i>, De Vis. + +Silver-backed B.-- + <i>C. argenteus</i>, Gould. + +Spalding's B.-- + <i>C. spaldingi</i>, Masters. + +White-winged B.-- + <i>C. leucopterus</i>, Cav. + +The bird is sometimes called a <i>Crow-shrike</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 213: + +"Mr. Caley observes--Butcher-bird. This bird used frequently +to come into some green wattle-trees near my house, and in wet +weather was very noisy; from which circumstance it obtained the +name of `Rain-bird.'" + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. Pl. 52: + +"<i>Cracticus Destructor</i>. Butcher Bird, name given by +colonists of Swan River, a permanent resident in New South +Wales and South Australia. I scarcely know of any Australian +bird so generally dispersed." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 50: + +"Close to the station one or two butcher-birds were piping +their morning song, a strange little melody with not many +notes, which no one who has heard it will ever forget." + +<hw>Buttercup</hw>, <i>n</i>. The familiar English flower is +represented in Australia and Tasmania by various species of +<i>Ranunculus</i>, such as <i>R. lappaceus</i>, Sm., +<i>N.O. Ranunculaceae</i>. + +<hw>Butter-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given in Australia to +<i>Oligorus mitchellii</i>, Castln. (see <i>Murray Perch</i>); +in Victoria, to <i>Chilodactylus nigricans</i>, Richards. (see +<i>Morwong</i>); in New Zealand, to <i>Coridodax pullus</i>, +Forst., called also <i>Kelp-fish</i>. The name is in allusion +to their slippery coating of mucus. See <i>Kelp-fish</i>. + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' vol. iii. p. 44: + +"In the bay are large quantities of . . . butter-fish." + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 533: + +"The `butter-fish,' or `kelp-fish' of the colonists of New +Zealand (<i>C. pullus</i>), is prized as food, and attains to a +weight of four or five pounds." + +<hw>Butterfly-conch</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for a marine +univalve mollusc, <i>Voluta papillosa</i>, Swainson. + +<hw>Butterfly-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand sea-fish, +<i>Gasterochisma melampus</i>, Richards., one of the +<i>Nomeidae</i>. The ventral fins are exceedingly broad and +long, and can be completely concealed in a fold of the abdomen. +The New Zealand fish is so named from these fins; the European +Butterfly-fish, <i>Blennius ocellaris</i>, derives its name +from the spots on its dorsal fin, like the eyes in a peacock's +tail or butterfly's wing. + +<hw>Butterfly-Lobster</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marine crustacean, so +called from the leaf-like expansion of the antennae. It is +"the highly specialized macrourous decapod <i>Ibacus +Peronii</i>." (W. A. Haswell.) + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 248: + +"Those curious crustaceans that I have heard called `butterfly +lobsters'. . . the shell of the head and body (properly known +as the carapace) expands into something like wing-forms, +entirely hiding the legs beneath them." + +<hw>Butterfly-Plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small flowering plant, +<i>Utricularia dichotoma</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Leutibularina</i>. + +<hw>Button-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Schaenus +sphaerocephalus</i>, Poiret, <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>. The grass +is found covering barren boggy land in Tasmania, but is not +peculiar to Tasmania. So called from the round shaped flower +(capitate inflorescence), on a thin stalk four or five feet +long, like a button on the end of a foil. + +<hw>Buzzard</hw>, <i>n</i>. an English bird-name applied in +Australia to <i>Gypoictinia melanosternon</i>, Gould, the +Black-breasted Buzzard. + + + +C + + +<hw>Cabbage Garden</hw>, a name applied to the colony of +Victoria by Sir John Robertson, the Premier of New South Wales, +in contempt for its size. + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 30: + +"`The cabbage garden,' old cynical Sir John Robertson, of New +South Wales, once called Victoria, but a garden +notwithstanding. Better at any rate `the cabbage garden' than +the mere sheep run or cattle paddock." + +<hw>Cabbage-Palm</hw>, <i>n.</i> same as <i>Cabbage-tree</i> +(1) (q.v.). + +<hw>Cabbage-tree</hw>, <i>n</i> (1)Name given to various palm +trees of which the heart of the young leaves is eaten like the +head of a cabbage. In Australia the name is applied to the fan +palm, <i>Livistona inermis</i>, R. Br., and more commonly to +<i>Livistona australis</i>, Martius. In New Zealand the name +is given to various species of Cordyline, especially to +<i>Cordyline indivisa</i>. See also <i>Flame-tree</i> (2). + +1769. `Capt. Cook's Journal,' ed. Wharton (1893), p. 144: + +"We likewise found one Cabage Tree which we cut down for the +sake of the cabage." + +1802. G.Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 60: + +"Even the ships crews helped, except those who brought the +cabbage trees." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. +p. 132: + +"Cabbage-tree . . . grew in abundance." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 72: + +"Several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the +cabbage-palm." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 414: + +"Clumps of what the people of King George's Sound call +cabbage-trees." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 240: + +"There stands an isolated `cabbage-tree' (Ti of the natives; +<i>Cordyline Australis</i>) nearly thirty feet high, with +ramified branches and a crown of luxuriant growth." + +(2) A large, low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, made out of the +leaves of the Cabbage-tree (<i>Livistona</i>). + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' 335: + +"This hat, made of white filaments of the cabbage-tree, +seemed to excite the attention of the whole party." + +1852. G. F. P., `Gold Pen and Pencil Sketches,' xv.: + +"With scowl indignant flashing from his eye, + As though to wither each unshaven wretch, + Jack jogs along, nor condescends reply, + As to the price his cabbage-tree might fetch." + +1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, The Bulla Bulla Bunyip': + +"Lushy Luke endeavoured to sober himself by dipping his head in +the hollowed tree-trunk which serves for the water-trough of an +up-country Australian inn. He forgot, however, to take off his +`cabbage-tree' before he ducked, and angry at having made a +fool of himself, he gave fierce orders, in a thick voice, for +his men to fall in, shoulder arms, and mark time." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 160, 161: + +"The cabbage-palm was also a new species, called by Mr. Brown +the <i>Livistonia inermis</i>. It was abundant; but the +cabbage (the heart of the young budding leaves) too small to be +useful as an article of food, at least to a ship's company. +But the leaves were found useful. These dried and drawn into +strips were plaited into hats for the men, and to this day the +cabbage-tree hat is very highly esteemed by the Australians, as +a protection from the sun, and allowing free ventilation." +[Note]: "A good cabbage-tree hat, though it very much resembles +a common straw hat, will fetch as much as L3." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 527: + +". . . trousers, peg-top shaped, and wore a new cabbage-tree +hat." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 33: + +"A brand-new cabbage-tree hat protected his head." + +<hw>Cabbage-tree Mob</hw>, and <hw>Cabbagites</hw>, obsolete +Australian slang for modern <i>Larrikins</i> (q.v)., because +wearing cabbage-tree hats. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes `(edition 1855), p. 17: + +"There are to be found round the doors of the Sydney Theatre a +sort of `loafers' known as the <i>Cabbage-tree mob</i>,--a +class who, in the spirit of the ancient tyrant, one might +excusably wish had but one nose in order to make it a bloody +one. . . . Unaware of the propensities of the cabbagites he +was by them furiously assailed." + +<hw>Cad</hw>, <i>n</i>. name in Queensland for the <i>Cicada</i> +(q.v.). + +1896. `The Australasian,' Jan. 11, p. 76, col. 1: + +"From the trees sounds the shrill chirp of large green cicada +(native cads as the bushmen call them)." + +<hw>Caddie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bush name for the slouch-hat or +wide-awake. In the Australian bush the brim is generally +turned down at the back and sometimes all round. + +<hw>Cadet</hw>, <i>n</i>. term used in New Zealand, +answering to the Australian <i>Colonial Experience</i>, +or <i>jackaroo</i> (q.v.). + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 68: + +"A cadet, as they are called--he is a clergyman's son learning +sheepfarming under our auspices." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 6: + +"The military designation of cadet was applied to any young +fellow who was attached to a sheep or cattle station in the +same capacity as myself. He was `neither flesh nor fowl nor +good red herring,' neither master nor man. He was sent to work +with the men, but not paid." + +<hw>Caloprymnus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus called the <i>Plain Kangaroo-Rat</i>. +(Grk. <i>kalos</i>, beautiful, and <i>prumnon</i>, hinder +part.) It has bright flanks. See <i>Kangaroo-Rat</i>. + +<hw>Camp</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A place to live in, generally +temporary; a rest. + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' pp. 46, 47: + +" I was shown my camp, which was a slab but about a hundred +yards away from the big house. . . . I was rather tired, and +not sorry for the prospect of a camp." + +(2) A place for mustering cattle. + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 64: + +"All about the run, at intervals of fire or six miles, are +cattle-camps, and the cattle that belong to the surrounding +districts are mustered on their respective camps." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 26: + +"There was never his like in the open bush, + And never his match on the cattle-camps." + +(3) In Australia, frequently used for a camping-out expedition. +Often in composition with "out," a <i>camp-out</i>. + +1869. `Colonial Monthly,' vol. iv.p. 289: + +"A young fellow with even a moderate degree of sensibility must +be excited by the novelty of his first `camp-out' in the +Australian bush." + +1880. R. H. Inglis, `Australian Cousins,' p. 233: + +"We're going to have a regular camp; we intend going to Port +Hocking to have some shooting, fishing, and general diversion." + +(4) A name for Sydney and for Hobart, now long obsolete, +originating when British military forces were stationed there. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 70: + +"It is the old resident--he who still calls Sydney, with its +population of twelve thousand inhabitants, <i>the +camp</i>,--that can appreciate these things: he who still +recollects the few earth-huts and solitary tents scattered +through the forest brush surrounding Sydney Cove (known +properly then indeed by the name of `The Camp')." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 193: + +"Living during the winter in Hobarton, usually called `the +camp,' in those days." + +<hw>Camp</hw>, <i>v</i>. (1) Generally in composition with +"out," to sleep in the open air, usually without any covering. +Camping out is exceedingly common in Australia owing to the +warmth of the climate and the rarity of rain. + +1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 125: + +"I like to hear of benighted or belated travellers when they +have had to `camp out,' as it is technically called." + +1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we saw in Australia,' p. 208: + +"So the Bishop determined to `camp-out' at once where a good +fire could be made." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 43: + +"There is room here for fifty, rolled up on the floor; and +should that fail them, there is no end of other places; or the +bush, as a fall back, where, indeed, some of them prefer +camping as it is." + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 14, p. 963, col. 1: `A Lady in +the Kermadecs': + +"For three months I `camped out' there alone, shepherding a +flock of Angoras." + +(2) By extension, to sleep in any unusual place, or at an +unusual time. + +1893. `Review of Reviews' (Australasian ed. ), March, p. 51: + +"The campaign came to an abrupt and somewhat inglorious close, +Sir George Dibbs having to `camp' in a railway carriage, and +Sir Henry Parkes being flood-bound at Quirindi." + +1896. Modern: + +"Visitor,--`Where's your Mother?' `Oh, she's camping.'" [The +lady was enjoying an afternoon nap indoors.] + +(3) To stop for a rest in the middle of the day. + +1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,' +p. 180: + +"We'll have lunch first before we investigate the caves--if +it's agreeable to you. I will take the horses out, and we'll +find a nice place to camp before they come." + +(4) To floor or prove superior to. <i>Slang</i>. + +1886. C. H. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 207: + +"At punching oxen you may guess + There's nothing out can camp him. + He has, in fact, the slouch and dress, + Which bullock-driver stamp him." + +<hw>Camphor-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber; the wood +of <i>Callitris (Frenea) robusta</i>, Cunn., +<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. Called also <i>Light, Black, White, +Dark</i>, and <i>Common Pine</i>, as the wood varies much in +its colouring. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Canajong</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian aboriginal name for +the plants called <i>Pig-faces</i> (q.v.). + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 44: + +"Pig-faces. It was the <i>canajong</i> of the Tasmanian +aboriginal. The fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: +the leaves are eaten baked." + +<hw>Canary</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A bird-name used in New Zealand +for <i>Clitonyx ochrocephala</i>, called also the +<i>Yellow-head</i>. Dwellers in the back-blocks of Australia +apply the name to the <i>Orange-fronted Ephthianura +(E. aurifrons</i>, Gould), and sometimes to the +<i>White-throated Gerygone (Gerygone albigularis</i>). + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 56: + +"<i>Clitonyx Ochrocephala</i>. Yellow-head. `Canary' of the +colonists." + +(2) Slang for a convict. See quotations. As early as 1673, +`canary-bird' was thieves' English for a gaol-bird. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 117: + +"Convicts of but recent migration are facetiously known by the +name of <i>canaries</i>, by reason of the yellow plumage in +which they are fledged at the period of landing." + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. ii. p. 72: + +"The prisoners were dressed in yellow-hence called `canary +birds.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. vi. p. 49: + +"Can't you get your canaries off the track here for about +a quarter of an hour, and let my mob of cattle pass ?" + +<hw>Candle-nut</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in Queensland +to the fruit of <i>Aleurites moluccana</i>, Willd., +<i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. The nuts are two or more inches +diameter. The name is often given to the tree itself, which +grows wild in Queensland and is cultivated in gardens there +under the name of <i>A. triloba</i>, Forst. It is not endemic +in Australia, but the vernacular name of <i>Candle-nut</i> is +confined to Australia and the Polynesian Islands. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 472: + +"Candle-nut. The kernels when dried and stuck on a reed are +used by the Polynesian Islanders as a substitute for candles, +and as an article of food in New Georgia. These nuts resemble +walnuts somewhat in size and taste. When pressed they yield a +large proportion of pure palatable oil, used as a drying-oil +for paint, and known as country walnut-oil and artists' oil." + +<hw>Cane-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Bamboo-grass</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Cape-Barren Goose</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Goose</i>. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 114, +[Footnote]: + +"The `Cape Barren Goose' frequents the island from which it +takes its name, and others in the Straits. It is about the +same size as a common goose, the plumage a handsome mottled +brown and gray, somewhat owl-like in character." + +[Cape Barren Island is in Bass Strait, between Flinders Island +and Tasmania. Banks Strait flows between Cape Barren Island +and Tasmania. The easternmost point on the island is called +Cape Barren.] + +<hw>Cape-Barren Tea</hw>, <i>n</i>. a shrub or tree, <i>Correa +alba</i>, Andr., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134: + +"<i>Leptospermum lanigerum</i>, hoary tea-tree; <i>Acacia +decurrens</i>, black wattle; <i>Correa alba</i>, Cape Barren +tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea +in the colony." + +<hw>Cape Lilac</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Lilac</i>. + +<hw>Cape Weed</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Europe, <i>Roccella +tinctoria</i>, a lichen from the Cape de Verde Islands, from +which a dye is produced. In New Zealand, name given to the +European cats-ear, <i>Hypaechoris radicata</i>. In Australia +it is as in quotation below. See `Globe Encyclopaedia,' 1877 +(s.v.). + +1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' +p. 60: + +"Cape Weed. <i>Cryptostemma Calendulaceum</i>. (Natural +Order, <i>Compositae</i>.) This weed, which has proved such +a pest in many parts of Victoria, was introduced from the Cape +of Good Hope, as a fodder plant. It is an annual, flowering +in the spring, and giving a bright golden hue to the fields. +It proves destructive to other herbs and grasses, and though +it affords a nutritious food for stock in the spring, it dies +off in the middle of summer, after ripening its seeds, leaving +the fields quite bare." + +<hw>Caper-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian tree of this name +is <i>Capparis nobilis</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Capparideae</i>. +The <i>Karum</i> of the Queensland aboriginals. The fruit is +one to two inches in diameter. Called also <i>Grey Plum</i> or +<i>Native Pomegranate</i>. The name is also given to +<i>Capparis Mitchelli</i>, Lindl. The European caper is +<i>Capparis spinosa</i>, Linn. + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 10: + +"Native Caper Tree or Wild Pomegranate. Natural Order, +<i>Capparideae.</i> Found in the Mallee Scrub. A small tree. +The wood is whitish, hard, close-grained, and suitable for +engraving, carving, and similar purposes. Strongly resembles +lancewood." + +<hw>Captain Cook</hw>, or <hw>Cooker</hw>, <i>n</i>. New +Zealand colonists' slang. First applied to the wild pigs of +New Zealand, supposed to be descended from those first +introduced by Captain Cook; afterwards used as term of reproach +for any pig which, like the wild variety, obstinately refused +to fatten. See <i>Introduction</i>. + +1879. W. Quin, `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. iii. p. 55: + +"Many a rare old tusker finds a home in the mountain gorges. +The immense tusks at Brooksdale attest the size of the wild +boars or Captain Cooks, as the patriarchs are generally named." + +1894. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 85: + +"The leanness and roughness of the wild pig gives it quite a +different appearance from the domesticated variety; and hence a +gaunt, ill-shaped, or sorry-looking pig is everywhere called in +derision a `Captain Cook.'" + +<hw>Carbora</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for (1) the +<i>Native Bear</i>. See <i>Bear</i>. + +(2) A kind of water worm that eats into timber between high and +low water on a tidal river. + +<hw>Cardamom</hw>, <i>n</i>. For the Australian tree of this +name, see quotation. + +1890. C. Lumholtz,' Among Cannibals,' p. 96: + +"The Australian cardamom tree." [Footnote]: "This is a +fictitious name, as are the names of many Australian plants and +animals. The tree belongs to the nutmeg family, and its real +name is <i>Myristica insipida</i>. The name owes its +existence to the similarity of the fruit to the real cardamom. +But the fruit of the <i>Myristica has</i> not so strong and +pleasant an odour as the real cardamom, and hence the tree is +called <i>insipida</i>." + +<hw>Carp</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English fish is of the family +<i>Cyprinidae</i>. The name is given to different fishes in +Ireland and elsewhere. In Sydney it is <i>Chilodactylus +fuscus</i>, Castln., and <i>Chilodactylus macropterus</i>, +Richards.; called also <i>Morwong</i> (q.v.). The <i>Murray +Carp</i> is <i>Murrayia cyprinoides</i>, Castln., a percoid +fish. <i>Chilodactylis</i> belongs to the family +<i>Cirrhitidae</i>, in no way allied to <i>Cyprinidae</i>, +which contains the European carps. <i>Cirrhitidae</i>, says +Guenther, may be readily recognized by their thickened +undivided lower pectoral rays, which in some are evidently +auxiliary organs of locomotion, in others, probably, organs of +touch. + +<hw>Carpet-Shark</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Wobbegong</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Carpet-Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large Australian snake with +a variegated skin, <i>Python variegata</i>, Gray. In +Whitworth's `Anglo-Indian Dictionary,' 1885 (s.v.), we are told +that the name is loosely applied (sc. in India) to any kind of +snake found in a dwelling-house other than a cobra or a dhaman. +In Tasmania, a venomous snake, <i>Hoplocephalus curtus</i>, +Schlegel. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Carrier</hw>, <i>n</i>. a local name for a water-bag. + +1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated,' Feb., p. 321: + +"For the water-holders or `carriers' (made to fit the bodies of +the horses carrying them, or to `ride easily' on +pack-saddles)." + +<hw>Carrot, Native</hw>, (1) <i>Daucus brachiatus</i>, Sieb., +<i>N.O. Umbelliferae</i>. Not endemic in Australia. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 64: + +"The native carrot . . . was here withered and in seed." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 124: + +"Native carrot. Stock are very fond of this plant when young. +Sheep thrive wonderfully on it where it is plentiful. It is a +small annual herbaceous plant, growing plentifully on sandhills +and rich soil; the seeds, locally termed `carrot burrs,' are +very injurious to wool, the hooked spines with which the seeds +are armed attaching themselves to the fleece, rendering +portions of it quite stiff and rigid. The common carrot +belongs, of course, to this genus, and the fact that it is +descended from an apparently worthless, weedy plant, indicates +that the present species is capable of much improvement by +cultivation." + +(2) In Tasmania <i>Geranium dissectum</i>, Linn., is also +called "native carrot." + +<hw>Cascarilla, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, +<i>Croton verreauxii</i>, Baill., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 408: + +"Native cascarilla. A small tree; wood of a yellowish colour, +close-grained and firm." + +<hw>Cassowary</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is Malay, the genus +being found in "the Islands in the Indian Archipelago." +(`O.E.D.') The Australian variety is <i>Casuarius +australis</i>, Waller. The name is often erroneously applied +(as in the first two quotations), to the Emu (q.v.), which is +not a Cassowary. + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' c. xxii. p. 271: + +"New Holland Cassowary. [Description given.] This bird is not +uncommon to New Holland, as several of them have been seen +about Botany Bay, and other parts. . . . Although this bird +cannot fly, it runs so swiftly that a greyhound can scarcely +overtake it. The flesh is said to be in taste not unlike +beef." + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' +c. xi. p. 438: + +"The cassowary of New South Wales is larger in all respects +than the well-known bird called the cassowary." + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement): + +"<i>Casuarius Australis</i>, Wall., Australian Cassowary, +sometimes called Black Emu." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 73: + +"One day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, +although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, +like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick +brushwood. The Australian cassowary is found in Northern +Queensland from Herbert river northwards, in all the large +vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high +mountains of the coasts." + +Ibid. p. 97. + +"The proud cassowary, the stateliest bird of Australia +. . . this beautiful and comparatively rare creature.'" + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"The Australian cassowary. . . . They are somewhat shorter +and stouter in build than the emu." + +<hw>Casuarina</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a large +group of trees common to India, and other parts lying between +India and Australasia, but more numerous in Australia than +elsewhere, and often forming a characteristic feature of the +vegetation. They are the so-called <i>She-oaks</i> (q.v.). The +word is not, however, Australian, and is much older than the +discovery of Australia. Its etymology is contained in the +quotation, 1877. + +1806. `Naval Chronicles,' c. xv. p. 460: + +"Clubs made of the wood of the Casuarina." + +1814. R. Brown, `Botany of Terra Australis,' in M. Flinders' +`Voyage to Terra Australis,' vol. ii. p. 571: + +"Casuarinae. The genus <i>Casuarina</i> is certainly not +referable to any order of plants at present established +. . . it may be considered a separate order. . . . The maximum +of Casuarina appears to exist in Terra Australis, where it +forms one of the characteristic features of the vegetation." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 160: + +"The dark selvage of casuarinas fringing its bank." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 10: + +"The vegetation assumed a new character, the eucalyptus and +casuarina alternating with the wild cherry and honeysuckle." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 34: + +"The scientific name of these well-known plants is as +appropriate as their vernacular appellation is odd and +unsuited. The former alludes to the cassowary (Casuarius), the +plumage of which is comparatively as much reduced among birds, +as the foliage of the casuarinas is stringy among trees. Hence +more than two centuries ago Rumph already bestowed the name +Casuarina on a Java species, led by the Dutch colonists, who +call it there the Casuaris-Boom. The Australian vernacular +name seems to have arisen from some fancied resemblance of the +wood of some casuarinas to that of oaks, notwithstanding the +extreme difference of the foliage and fruit; unless, as +Dr. Hooker supposes, the popular name of these trees and shrubs +arose from the Canadian `Sheack.'" + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 397: + +"From a fancied resemblance of the wood of casuarinas to that +of oak, these trees are called `oaks,' and the same and +different species have various appellations in various parts." + +1890. C. Lumholtz; `Among Cannibals,' p. 33: + +"Along its banks (the Comet's) my attention was drawn to a +number of casuarinas--those leafless, dark trees, which always +make a sad impression on the traveller; even a casual observer +will notice the dull, depressing sigh which comes from a grove +of these trees when there is the least breeze.'" + +<hw>Cat-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. In America the name is given to +<i>Mimus carolinensis</i>, a mocking thrush, which like the +Australian bird has a cry resembling the mewing of a cat. The +Australian species are-- + +The Cat-bird-- + <i>Ailuraedus viridis</i>, Lath. + +Spotted C.-- + <i>Ailuraedus maculosus</i>, Ramsay. + <i>Pomatostomus rubeculus</i>, Gould. + +Tooth-billed C.-- + <i>Scenopaeus dentirostris</i>, Ramsay. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 11: + +"Its loud, harsh and extraordinary note is heard; a note which +differs so much from that of all other birds, that having been +once heard it can never be mistaken. In comparing it to the +nightly concert of the domestic cat, I conceive that I am +conveying to my readers a more perfect idea of the note of this +species than could be given by pages of description. This +concert, like that of the animal whose name it bears, is +performed either by a pair or several individuals, and nothing +more is required than for the hearer to shut his eyes from the +neighbouring foliage to fancy himself surrounded by London +grimalkins of house-top celebrity." + +1888. D.Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 36: + +"One of the most peculiar of birds' eggs found about the Murray +is that of the locally-termed `cat-bird,' the shell of which is +veined thickly with dark thin threads as though covered with a +spider's web." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals.' p. 96: + +"The cat-bird (<i>AEluraedus maculosus</i>), which makes its +appearance towards evening, and has a voice strikingly like the +mewing of a cat." + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25: + +"Another quaint caller of the bush is the cat-bird, and its +eggs are of exactly the colour of old ivory." + +1896. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +pt. ii. Zoology, p. 92: + +"Their habit of mewing like a cat has gained for them the local +cognomen of cat-birds." + +<hw>Cat-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied in the Old +World to various fishes of the family <i>Siluridae</i>, and +also to the Wolf-fish of Europe and North America. It arises +from the resemblance of the teeth in some cases or the +projecting "whiskers" in others, to those of a cat. In +Victoria and New South Wales it is a fresh-water fish, +<i>Copidoglanis tandanus</i>, Mitchell, brought abundantly to +Melbourne by railway. It inhabits the rivers of the Murray +system, but not of the centre of the continent. Called also +<i>Eel-fish</i> and <i>Tandan</i> (q.v.). In Sydney the same +name is applied also to <i>Cnidoglanis megastoma</i>, Rich., +and in New Zealand <i>Kathetostoma monopterygium</i>. +<i>Cnidoglanis</i> and <i>Cnidoglanis</i> are Siluroids, and +<i>Kathetostoma</i> is a"stargazer," i.e. a fish having eyes +on the upper surface of the head, belonging to the family +<i>Trachinidsae</i>. + +1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 207: + +"The Cat-fish, which I have frequently caught in the McLeay, +is a large and very ugly animal. Its head is provided with +several large tentacatae, and it has altogether a disagreeable +appearance. I have eat its flesh, but did not like it." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 213 + [Footnote]: + +"Mr. Frank Buckland . . . writing of a species of rock-fish, +says--`I found that it had a beautiful contrivance in the +conformation of its mouth. It has the power of prolongating +both its jaws to nearly the extent of half-an-inch from their +natural position. This is done by a most beautiful bit of +mechanism, somewhat on the principle of what are called `lazy +tongs.' The cat-fish possesses a like feature, but on a much +larger scale, the front part of the mouth being capable of +being protruded between two and three inches when seizing +prey.'" + +<hw>Cat, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small carnivorous marsupial, +of the genus <i>Dasyurus</i>. The so-called native cat is not +a cat at all, but a marsupial which resembles a very large rat +or weasel, with rather a bushy tail. It is fawn-coloured or +mouse-coloured, or black and covered with little white spots; a +very pretty little animal. It only appears at night, when it +climbs fences and trees and forms sport for moonlight shooting. +Its skin is made into fancy rugs and cloaks or mantles. + +The animal is more correctly called a <i>Dasyure</i> (q.v.). +The species are-- + +Black-tailed Native Cat + <i>Dasyurus geoffroyi</i>, Gould. + +Common N.C. (called also <i>Tiger Cat</i>, q.v.)-- + <i>D. viverrimus</i>, Shaw. + +North Australian N.C.-- + <i>D. hallucatus</i>, Gould. + +Papuan N.C.-- + <i>D. albopienetatus</i>, Schl. + +Slender N.C.-- + <i>D. gracilis</i>, Ramsay. + +Spotted-tailed N.C. (called also Tiger Cat)-- + <i>D. maculatus</i>, Kerr. + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 67: + +"The native cat is similar [to the Tiger Cat; q.v.] but +smaller, and its for is an ashy-grey with white spots. +We have seen two or three skins quite black, spotted with white, +but these are very rare." + +1885. H. H.Hayter, `Carboona,' p. 35: + +"A blanket made of the fur-covered skins of the native cat." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"The voices of most of our night animals are guttural and +unpleasing. The 'possum has a throaty half-stifled squeak, +the native cat a deep chest-note ending with a hiss and easily +imitated." [See <i>Skirr</i>.] + +<hw>Catholic Frog</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to a frog living +in the inland parts of New South Wales, <i>Notaden +bennettii</i>, Guenth., which tides over times of drought in +burrows, and feeds on ants. Called also "Holy Cross Toad." +The names are given in consequence of a large cross-shaped +blackish marking on the back. + +1801. J. J. Fletcher, `Proceedings of the Linnaean Society, +New South Wales,' vol. vi. (2nd series), p. 265: + +"<i>Notaden bennettii</i>, the Catholic frog, or as I have +heard it called the Holy Cross Toad, I first noticed in January +1885, after a heavy fall of rain lasting ten days, off and on, +and succeeding a severe drought." + +<hw>Cat's Eyes</hw>, <i>n</i>. Not the true <i>Cat's-eye</i>, +but the name given in Australia to the opercula of <i>Turbo +smaragdus</i>, Martyn, a marine mollusc. The operculum is the +horny or shelly lid which closes the aperture of most spiral +shell fish. + +<hw>Cat's-head Fern</hw>, <i>n. Aspidium aculeatum</i>, Sw.: + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 220: + +"The cat's-head fern; though why that name was given to it I +have not the remotest idea. . . . It is full of beauty--the +pinnules so exquisitely formed and indented, and gemmed beneath +with absolute constellations of <i>Spori Polystichum +vestitum</i>." + +<hw>Catspaw</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant, <i>Trichinium +spathulatum</i>, Poir., <i>N.O. Amarantaceae</i>. + +<hw>Cat's Tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wonga</i>. + +<hw>Cattle-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, <i>Atalaya +hemiglauca</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Sapindacea</i>. +It is found in South Australia, New South Wales, +and Queensland, and is sometimes called <i>Whitewood</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 117: + +"Cattle-bush . . . The leaves of this tree are eaten by stock, +the tree being frequently felled for their use during seasons +of drought." + +<hw>Cattle-duffer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man who steals cattle +(usually by altering their brands). See also <i>Duffer</i>. + +1886. `Melbourne Punch,' July 15, Cartoon Verses: + +"Cattle-duffers on a jury may be honest men enough, + But they're bound to visit lightly sins in those + who cattle duff." + +<hw>Cattle-racket</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotation. + +1852. `Settlers and Convicts; or Recollections of Sixteen +Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 294: + +"A Cattle-racket. The term at the head of this chapter was +originally applied in New South Wales to the agitation of +society which took place when some wholesale system of plunder +in cattle was brought to light. It is now commonly applied to +any circumstance of this sort, whether greater or less, and +whether springing from a felonious intent or accidental." + +<hw>Caustic-Creeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to <i>Euphorbia +drummondii</i>, Boiss., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 127: + +"Called `caustic-creeper' in Queensland. Called `milk-plant' +and `pox-plant' about Bourke. This weed is unquestionably +poisonous to sheep, and has recently (Oct. 1887) been reported +as having been fatal to a flock near Bourke, New South +Wales. . . . When eaten by sheep in the early morning, before +the heat of the sun has dried it up, it is almost certain to be +fatal. Its effect on sheep is curious. The head swells to an +enormous extent, becoming so heavy that the animal cannot +support it, and therefore drags it along the ground; the ears +suppurate. (Bailey and Gordon.)" + +<hw>Caustic-Plant</hw>, or <hw>Caustic-Vine</hw>, +<i>n</i>. <i>Sarcostemma australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. +Asclepiadea</i>. Cattle and sheep are poisoned by eating it. + +<hw>Cavally</hw>, <i>n</i>. the original form of the Australian +fish-name <i>Trevally</i> (q.v.). The form <i>Cavally</i> is +used to Europe, but is almost extinct in Australia; the form +<i>Trevally</i> is confined to Australia. + +<hw>Cedar</hw>,</hw> n</i>. The true Cedar is a Conifer +(<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>) of the genus <i>Cedrus</i>, but the +name is given locally to many other trees resembling it in +appearance, or in the colour or scent of their wood. The New +Zealand <i>Cedar</i> is the nearest approach to the true +<i>Cedar</i>, and none of the so-called Australian +<i>Cedars</i> are of the order <i>Coniferae</i>. The following +are the trees to which the name is applied in Australia:-- + +Bastard Pencil Cedar-- + <i>Dysoxylon rfum</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. + +Brown C.-- + <i>Ehretia acuminata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Asperifoliae</i>. + +Ordinary or Red C.-- <i>Cedrela australis</i>, F. v. M. + <i>Cedrela toona</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. +[<i>C. toona</i> is the "Toon" tree of India: its timber is +known in the English market as Moulmein Cedar; but the Baron +von Mueller doubts the identity of the Australian Cedar with +the "Toon" tree; hence his name <i>australis</i>.] + +Pencil C.-- + <i>Dysoxylon Fraserianum</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. + +Scrub White C.-- <i>Pentaceras australis</i>, Hook. and Don., + <i>N.O. Rutacea</i>. + +White C.-- + <i>Melia composita</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. + +Yellow C.-- + <i>Rhus rhodanthema</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Anacardiacae</i>. + +In Tasmania, three species of the genus <i>Arthrotaxis</i> are +called Cedars or Pencil Cedars; namely, <i>A. cupressoides</i>, +Don., known as the King William Pine; <i>A. laxifolza</i>, +Hook., the Mountain Pine; and <i>A. selaginoides</i>, Don., the +Red Pine. All these are peculiar to the island. + +In New Zealand, the name of Cedar is applied to <i>Libocedrus +bidwillii</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>; Maori name, +<i>Pahautea</i>. + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 328: + +"The cedar of the colony (<i>Cedrela toona</i>, R. Br.), which +is to be found only in some rocky gullies of the coast range." + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 63: + +"Besides being valuable as a timber-producing tree, this red +cedar has many medicinal properties. The bark is spoken of as +a powerful astringent, and, though not bitter, said to be a +good substitute for Peruvian bark in the cure of remitting and +intermitting fevers." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 123: + +"Pahautea, Cedar. A handsome conical tree sixty to eighty feet +high, two to three feet in diameter. In Otago it produces a +dark-red, freeworking timber, rather brittle . . . frequently +mistaken for totara." + +<hw>Celery, Australian</hw>, or <hw>Native</hw>, +<i>n</i>. <i>Apium australe</i>, Thon. Not endemic +in Australia. In Tasmania, <i>A. prostratum</i>, Lab., +<i>N.O. Umbelliferae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 7: + +"Australian Celery. This plant may be utilised as a culinary +vegetable. (Mueller.) It is not endemic in Australia." + +<hw>Celery-topped Pine</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. The +tree is so called from the appearance of the upper part of the +branchlets, which resemble in shape the leaf of the garden +celery. + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 9: + +"The tanekaha is one of the remarkable `celery-topped pines,' +and was discovered by Banks and Solander during Cook's first +voyage." + +<hw>Centaury, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a plant, <i>Erythraea +australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Gentianeae</i>. In New South +Wales this Australian Centaury has been found useful in +dysentery by Dr. Woolls. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 175: + +"Native centaury . . . is useful as a tonic medicine, especially +in diarrhoea and dysentery. The whole plant is used and is +pleasantly bitter. It is common enough in grass-land, and +appears to be increasing in popularity as a domestic remedy." + +<hw>Centralia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a proposed name for the colony +<i>South Australia</i> ,(q.v.). + +1896. J. S. Laurie, `Story of Australasia,' p. 299: + +"For telegraphic, postal, and general purposes one word is +desirable for a name--e.g. why not Centralia; for West +Australia, Westralia; for New South Wales, Eastralia?" + +<hw>Cereopsis</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the genus +of the bird peculiar to Australia, called the <i>Cake Barren +Goose</i>. See <i>Goose</i>. The word is from Grk. +<i>kaeros</i>, wax, and <i>'opsis</i>, face, and was given +from the peculiarities of the bird's beak. The genus is +confined to Australia, and <i>Cereopsis novae-hollandiae</i> +is the only species known. The bird was noticed by the early +voyagers to Australia, and was extraordinarily tame when first +discovered. + +<hw>Channel-Bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a bird +resembling a large cuckoo, <i>Scythrops novae-hollandiae</i>, +Lath. See <i>Scythrops</i>. + +<hw>Cheesewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, so-called in Victoria (it +is also called <i>Whitewood</i> and <i>Waddywood</i> in Tasmania), +<i>Pittosporum bicolor</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 588: + +"Cheesewood is yellowish-white, very hard, and of uniform +texture and colour. It was once used for clubs by the +aboriginals of Tasmania. It turns well, and should be tested +for wood engraving. (`Jurors' Reports, London International +Exhibition of 1862.') It is much esteemed for axe-handles, +billiard-cues, etc." + +<hw>Cherry, Herbert River</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland tree, +<i>Antidesma dallachyanum</i>, Baill., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. +The fruit is equal to a large cherry in size, and has a sharp acid +flavour. + +<hw>Cherry, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Exocarpus cupressiformis</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Santalaceae</i>. + +1801. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 242: + +"Of native fruits, a cherry, insipid in comparison of the +European sorts, was found true to the singularity which +characterizes every New South Wales production, the stone being +on the outside of the fruit." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 411: + +"The shrub which is called the native cherry-tree appears like +a species of cyprus, producing its fruit with the stone united +to it on the outside, the fruit and the stone being each about +the size of a small pea. The fruit, when ripe, is similar in +colour to the Mayduke cherry, but of a sweet and somewhat +better quality, and slightly astringent to the palate, +possessing, upon the whole, an agreeable flavour." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1851, p. 219: + +"The cherry-tree resembles a cypress but is of a tenderer +green, bearing a worthless little berry, having its stone or +seed outside, whence its scientific name of <i>exocarpus</i>." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 33: + +"We also ate the Australian cherry, which has its stone, not on +the outside, enclosing the fruit, as the usual phrase would +indicate, but on the <i>end</i> with the fruit behind it. The +stone is only about the size of a sweet-pea, and the fruit only +about twice that size, altogether not unlike a yew-berry, but +of a very pale red. It grows on a tree just like an arbor +vitae, and is well tasted, though not at all like a cherry in +flavour." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 40: + +"The principal of these kinds of trees received its generic +name first from the French naturalist La Billardiere, during +D'Entrecasteaux's Expedition. It was our common <i>Exocarpus +cupressiformis</i>, which he described, and which has been +mentioned so often in popular works as a cherry-tree, bearing +its stone outside of the pulp. That this crude notion of the +structure of the fruit is erroneous, must be apparent on +thoughtful contemplation, for it is evident at the first +glance, that the red edible part of our ordinary exocarpus +constitutes merely an enlarged and succulent fruit-stalklet +(pedicel), and that the hard dry and greenish portion, +strangely compared to a cherry-stone, forms the real fruit, +containing the seed." + +1889. J. H. `Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 30: + +"The fruit is edible. The nut is seated on the enlarged +succulent pedicel. This is the poor little fruit of which so +much has been written in English descriptions of the +peculiarities of the Australian flora. It has been likened to +a cherry with the stone outside (hence the vernacular name) by +some imaginative person." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 19, p. 7, col. 1: + +"Grass-trees and the brown brake-fern, whips of native cherry, +and all the threads and tangle of the earth's green russet +vestment hide the feet of trees which lean and lounge between +us and the water, their leaf heads tinselled by the light." + +<hw>Cherry-picker</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name. See quotation. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. p. 70: + +"<i>Melithreptus Validirostris</i>, Gould. Strong-billed +Honey-eater [q.v.]. Cherry-picker, colonists of Van Diemen's +Land." + +<hw>Chestnut Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Chewgah-bag</hw>, <i>n</i>. Queensland aboriginal +pigeon-English for <i>Sugar-bag</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Chinkie</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang for a Chinaman. "John," +short for John Chinaman, is commoner. + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 233: + +"The pleasant traits of character in our colonialised `Chinkie,' +as he is vulgarly termed (with the single variation `Chow')." + +<hw>Chock-and-log</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a particular +kind of fence much used on Australian stations. The +<i>Chock</i> is a thick short piece of wood laid flat, at +right-angles to the line of the fence, with notches in it to +receive the <i>Logs</i>, which are laid lengthwise from +<i>Chock</i> to <i>Chock</i>, and the fence is raised in four +or five layers of this <i>chock-and-log</i> to form, as it +were, a wooden wall. Both chocks and logs are rough-hewn or +split, not sawn. + +1872. G. S. Baden-Powell,'New Homes for the Old Country,' p. 207: + +"Another fence, known as `chock and log,' is composed of long +logs, resting on piles of chocks, or short blocks of wood." + +1890. `The Argus.' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 5: + +"And to finish the Riverine picture, there comes a herd of +kangaroos disturbed from their feeding-ground, leaping through +the air, bounding over the wire and `chock-and-log' fences like +so many india-rubber automatons." + +<hw>Choeropus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for the genus +of Australian marsupial animals with only one known species, +called the <i>Pigfooted-Bandicoot</i> (q.v.), and see +<i>Bandicoot</i>. (Grk. <i>choiros</i>, a pig, +and <i>pous</i>, foot.) The animal is about the size +of a rabbit, and is confined to the inland parts of Australia. + +<hw>Christmas</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. As Christmas +falls in Australasia at Midsummer, it has different +characteristics from those in England, and the word has +therefore a different connotation. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' p. 184: + +"Sheep-shearing in November, hot midsummer weather at +Christmas, the bed of a river the driest walk, and corn +harvest in February, were things strangely at variance +with my Old-World notions." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 164: + +"One Christmas time when months of drought + Had parched the western creeks, + The bush-fires started in the north + And travelled south for weeks." + +<hw>Christmas-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Ceratopetalum gummiferum</i>, Smith, +<i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. Called also <i>Christmas-tree</i> +(q.v.), and <i>Officer-bush</i>. + +1888. Mrs. McCann, `Poetical Works,' p. 226: + +"Gorgeous tints adorn the Christmas bush with a crimson blush." + +<hw>Christmas-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, it is the same +as <i>Christmas-bush</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand, it is +<i>Metrosideros tomentosa</i>, Banks, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; +Maori name, <i>Pohutukawa</i> (q.v.). + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 240: + +"Some few scattered Pohutukaua trees (<i>Metrosideros +tomentosa</i>), the last remains of the beautiful vegetation +. . . About Christmas these trees are full of charming purple +blossoms; the settler decorates his church and dwelling with +its lovely branches, and calls the tree `Christmas-tree'! " + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 186: + +"The Christmas-tree is in a sense the counterpart of the holly +of the home countries. As the scarlet berry gives its ruddy +colour to Christmas decorations in `the old country,' so here +the creamy blossoms of the Christmas-tree are the only shrub +flowers that survive the blaze of midsummer." + +1889. E. H. and S. Featon, `New Zealand Flora,' p. 163: + +"The Pohutukawa blossoms in December, when its profusion of +elegant crimson-tasselled flowers imparts a beauty to the +rugged coast-line and sheltered bays which may fairly be called +enchanting. To the settlers it is known as the +`Christmas-tree,' and sprays of its foliage and flowers are +used to decorate churches and dwellings during the festive +Christmastide. To the Maoris this tree must possess a weird +significance, since it is related in their traditions that at +the extreme end of New Zealand there grows a Pohutukawa from +which a root descends to the beach below. The spirits of the +dead are supposed to descend by this to an opening, which is +said to be the entrance to `Te Reinga.'" + +<hw>Chucky-chucky</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal Australian name +for a berry; in Australia and New Zealand, the fruit of species +of <i>Gaultheria</i>. See <i>Wax Cluster</i>. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 146: + +"To gather chucky-chuckies--as the blacks name that most +delicious of native berries." + +1891. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' `New Zealand Country +Journal,' vol. xv. p. 198: + +"When out of breath, hot and thirsty, how one longed for a +handful of chuckie-chucks. In their season how good we used to +think these fruits of the <i>gaultheria</i>, or rather its +thickened calyx. A few handfuls were excellent in quenching +one's thirst, and so plentifully did the plant abound that +quantities could soon be gathered. In these rude and simple +days, when housekeepers in the hills tried to convert carrots +and beet-root into apricot and damson preserves, these notable +women sometimes encouraged children to collect sufficient +chuckie-chucks to make preserve. The result was a jam of a +sweet mawkish flavour that gave some idea of a whiff caught in +passing a hair-dresser's shop." + +<hw>Chum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>New Chum</i>. + +<hw>Chy-ack</hw>, <i>v</i>. simply a variation of the English +slang verb, <i>to cheek</i>. + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Adamanta,' Act ii. sc. ii. p. 27: + +"I've learnt to chi-ike peelers." + +[Here the Australian pronunciation is also caught. Barere and +Leland give "chi-iked (tailors), chaffed unmercifully," but +without explanation.] + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 742 : + +"The circle of frivolous youths who were yelping at and +chy-acking him." + +1894. E. W. Hornung, `Boss of Taroomba,' p. 5: + +"It's our way up here, you know, to chi-ak each other and our +visitors too." + +<hw>Cicada</hw>, <i>n</i>. an insect. See <i>Locust</i>. + +1895. G. Metcalfe, `Australian Zoology,' p. 62: + +"The Cicada is often erroneously called a locust. . . . It is +remarkable for the loud song, or chirruping whirr, of the males +in the heat of summer; numbers of them on the hottest days +produce an almost deafening sound." + +<hw>Cider-Tree</hw>, or </hw>Cider-Gum, <i>n</i>. name given +in Tasmania to <i>Eucalyptus gunnii</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +1830. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 119: + +"Specimens of that species of eucalyptus called the cider-tree, +from its exuding a quantity of saccharine liquid resembling +molasses. . . . When allowed to remain some time and to +ferment, it settles into a coarse sort of wine or cider, rather +intoxicating if drank to any excess." + +<hw>City</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Great Britain and Ireland the word +City denotes "a considerable town that has been, +(a) an episcopal seat, +(b) a royal burgh, or +(c) created to the dignity, like Birmingham, Dundee, and Belfast, +by a royal patent. In the United States and Canada, a +municipality of the first class, governed by a mayor and +aldermen, and created by charter." (`Standard.') +In Victoria, by section ix. of the Local Government Act, 1890, +54 Victoria, No. 1112, the Governor-in-Council may make orders, +#12: + +"To declare any borough, including the city of Melbourne and +the town of Geelong, having in the year preceding such +declaration a gross revenue of not less than twenty thousand +pounds, a city." + +<hw>Claim</hw>, <i>n</i>. in mining, a piece of land +appropriated for mining purposes: then the mine itself. +The word is also used in the United States. See also +<i>Reward-claim</i> and <i>Prospecting-claim</i>. + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. xiv. p. 213: + +"A family named Cavanagh . . . entered a half-worked claim." + +1863. H. Fawcett, `Political Economy,' pt. iii. c. vi. +p. 359 (`O.E.D.'): + +"The claim upon which he purchases permission to dig." + +1887. H. H. Hayter, `Christmas Adventure,' p. 3: + +"I decided . . . a claim to take up." + +<hw>Clay-pan</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given, especially in the dry +interior of Australia, to a slight depression of the ground +varying in size from a few yards to a mile in length, where the +deposit of fine silt prevents the water from sinking into the +ground as rapidly as it does elsewhere. + +1875. John Forrest, `Explorations in Australia,' p. 260: + +"We travelled down the road for about thirty-three miles over +stony plains; many clay-pans with water but no feed." + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +Narrative, vol. i. p. 17: + +"One of the most striking features of the central area and +especially amongst the loamy plains and sandhills, is the +number of clay-pans. These are shallow depressions, with no +outlet, varying in length from a few yards to half a mile, +where the surface is covered with a thin clayey material, which +seems to prevent the water from sinking as rapidly as it does +in other parts." + +<hw>Clean-skins</hw>, or <hw>Clear-skins</hw>, +<i>n</i>. unbranded cattle or horses. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 206: + +"These clean-skins, as they are often called, to distinguish +them from the branded cattle." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xv. p. 109: + +"Strangers and pilgrims, calves and clear-skins, are separated +at the same time." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 82: + +"`Clear-skins,' as unbranded cattle were commonly called, were +taken charge of at once." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p.4, col. 4: + +"As they fed slowly homeward bellowing for their calves, and +lowing for their mates, the wondering clean-skins would come up +in a compact body, tearing, ripping, kicking, and moaning, +working round and round them in awkward, loblolly canter." + +<hw>Clearing lease</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotation. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. c. x. +p. 321: + +"[They] held a small piece of land on what is called a clearing +lease--that is to say, they were allowed to retain possession +of it for so many years for the labour of clearing the land." + +<hw>Clematis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific and vernacular name +of a genus of plants belonging to the +<i>N.O. Ranunculaceae</i>. The common species in Australia is +<i>C. aristata</i>, R. Br. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 124: + +"The beautiful species of <i>clematis</i> called +<i>aristata</i>, which may be seen in the months of November +and December, spreading forth its milk-white blossoms over the +shrubs . . . in other places rising up to the top of the highest +gum-trees." + +<hw>Clianthus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for an +Australasian genus of plants, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, +containing only two species--in Australia, <i>Sturt's Desert +Pea</i> (q.v.), <i>C. dampieri</i>; and in New Zealand, the +<i>Kaka-bill</i> (q.v.), <i>C. puniceus</i>. Both species are +also called <i>Glory-Pea</i>, from Grk. <i>kleos</i>, glory, +and <i>anthos</i>, a flower. + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov.24, `Native Trees': + +"Hooker says the genus <i>Clianthus</i> consists of the +Australian and New Zealand species only, the latter is +therefore clearly indigenous. `One of the most beautiful +plants known' (Hooker). Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solandel +found it during Cook's first voyage." + +<hw>Climbing-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Hopping-fish</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Climbing-Pepper</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pepper</i>. + +<hw>Clitonyx</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus of +New Zealand birds, including the <i>Yellow-head</i> (q.v.) and +the <i>White-head</i> (q.v.); from Greek <i>klinein</i>, root +<i>klit</i>, to lean, slant, and <i>'onux</i>, claw. The genus +was so named by Reichenbach in 1851, to distinguish the New +Zealand birds from the Australian birds of the genus +<i>Orthonyx</i> (q.v.), which formerly included them both. + +<hw>Clock-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Laughing +Jachass</i>. See <i>Jackass</i>. + +<hw>Clock, Settlers'</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Clock-bird</i>, +(q.v.) + +<hw>Cloudy-Bay Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand name for the +<i>Ling</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Cod</i>. + +<hw>Clover-Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the plant +called <i>Nardoo</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Clover, Menindie</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fodder +plant, <i>Trigonella suavissima</i>, Lind., +<i>N.O. Leguminoseae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 143: + +`From its abundance in the neighbourhood of Menindie, it is +often called Menindie-clover.' It is the `Australian shamrock' +of Mitchell. This perennial, fragrant, clover-like plant is a +good pasture herb." + +<hw>Clover-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian tree, called also +<i>Native Laburnun</i>. See under <i>Laburnum</i>. + +<hw>Coach</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bullock used as a decoy to catch +wild cattle. This seems to be from the use of coach as the +University term for a private tutor. + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110: + +"To get them [sc. wild cattle] a party of stockmen take a small +herd of quiet cattle, `coaches.'" + +<hw>Coach</hw>, <i>v</i>. to decoy wild cattle or horses with +tame ones. + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 121: + +"Here he [the wild horse] may be got by `coaching' like wild +cattle." + +<hw>Coach-whip Bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Psophodes crepitans</i>, +V. and H. (see Gould's `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 15); +Black-throated C.B., <i>P. nigrogularis</i>, Gould. Called also +<i>Whipbird</i> and <i>Coachman</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 330: + +"This bird is more often heard than seen. It inhabits bushes. +The loud cracking whip-like noise it makes (from whence the +colonists give it the name of coachwhip), may be heard from a +great distance." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 158: + +"If you should hear a coachwhip crack behind, you may +instinctively start aside to let <i>the mail</i> pass; but +quickly find it is only our native coachman with his spread-out +fantail and perked-up crest, whistling and cracking out his +whip-like notes as he hops sprucely from branch to branch." + +1844. Mrs. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' +p. 137: + +"Another equally singular voice among our feathered friends was +that of the `coachman,' than which no title could be more +appropriate, his chief note being a long clear whistle, with a +smart crack of the whip to finish with." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 177: + +"The bell-bird, by the river heard; + The whip-bird, which surprised I hear, + In me have powerful memories stirred + Of other scenes and strains more dear; + Of sweeter songs than these afford, + The thrush and blackbird warbling clear." + --Old Impressions. + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 71: + +"The coach-whip is a small bird about the size of a sparrow, +found near rivers. It derives its name from its note, a slow, +clear whistle, concluded by a sharp jerking noise like the +crack of a whip." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 76: + +"The whip-bird, whose sharp wiry notes, even, are far more +agreeable than the barking of dogs and the swearing of +diggers." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 24: + +"That is the coach-whip bird. There again. +Whew-ew-ew-ew-whit. How sharply the last note sounds." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. vi. p. 54: + +"The sharp st--wt of the whip-bird . . . echoed through the +gorge." + +1888. James Thomas, `May o' the South,' `Australian Poets +1788-1888' (ed. Sladen), p. 552: + +"Merrily the wagtail now + Chatters on the ti-tree bough, + While the crested coachman bird +`Midst the underwood is heard." + +<hw>Coast</hw>, <i>v</i>. to loaf about from station to +station. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' xxv. 295: + +"I ain't like you, Towney, able to coast about without a job +of work from shearin' to shearin'." + +<hw>Coaster</hw>, <i>n</i>. a loafer, a <i>Sundowner</i> +(q.v.). + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' viii. 75: + +"A voluble, good-for-nothing, loafing impostor, a regular +`coaster.'" + +<hw>Cobb</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes used as equivalent to a +coach. "I am going by Cobb." The word is still used, though +no Mr. Cobb has been connected with Australian coaches for many +years. See quotation. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 184: + +"Mr. Cobb was an American, and has returned long ago to his +native country. He started a line of conveyances from +Melbourne to Castlemaine some time after the gold discoveries. +Mr. Cobb had spirit to buy good horses, to get first-class +American coaches, to employ good Yankee whips, and in a couple +of years or so he had been so extensively patronised that he +sold out, and retired with a moderate fortune." [But the +Coaching Company retained . . . the style of Cobb & Co.] + +1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song': + +"Hurrah for the Roma Railway! + Hurrah for Cobb and Co.! + Hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse + To carry me Westward Ho!" + +<hw>Cobbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The last sheep, an Australian +shearing term. (2) Another name for the fish called the +<i>Fortescue</i> (q.v.) + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1: + +"Every one might not know what a `cobbler' is. It is the last +sheep in a catching pen, and consequently a bad one to shear, +as the easy ones are picked first. The cobbler must be taken +out before `Sheep-ho' will fill up again. In the harvest field +English rustics used to say, when picking up the last sheaf, +`This is what the cobbler threw at his wife.' `What?' `The +last,' with that lusty laugh, which, though it might betray `a +vacant mind,' comes from a very healthy organism." + +<hw>Cobblers-Awl</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name. The word is a +provincial English name for the <i>Avocet</i>. In Tasmania, +the name is applied to a <i>Spine-Bill</i> (q.v.) from the +shape of its beak. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 61: + +"<i>Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris</i>, Lath., Slender-billed +Spine-bill. <i>Cobbler's Awl</i>, Colonists of Van Diemen's +Land. <i>Spine-bill</i>, Colonists of New South Wales." + +<hw>Cobbler's Pegs</hw>, name given to a tall erect annual +weed, <i>Erigeron linifolius</i>, Willd., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i> and to <i>Bidens pilosus</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Cobbra</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word for head, skull. +[<i>Kabura</i> or <i>Kobbera</i>, with such variations as +Kobra, Kobbera, Kappara, Kopul, from Malay Kapala, head: one of +the words on the East Coast manifestly of Malay +origin.--J. Mathew. Much used in pigeon converse with +blacks. `Goodway cobra tree' = `Tree very tall.'] Collins, +`Port Jackson Vocabulary,' 1798 (p. 611), gives `Kabura, +ca-ber-ra.' Mount Cobberas in East Gippsland has its name from +huge head-like masses of rock which rise from the summit. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 31: + +"The black fellow who lives in the bush bestows but small +attention on his cobra, as the head is usually called in the +pigeon-English which they employ." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 134: + +"I should be cock-sure that having an empty cobbra, as the +blacks say, was on the main track that led to the grog-camp." + +<hw>Cock-a-bully</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular name for the New +Zealand fish <i>Galaxias fasciatus</i>, Gray, a corruption of +its Maori name <i>Kokopu</i> (q.v.). + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 3: + +"During my stay in New Zealand my little girl caught a fish +rather larger than an English minnow. Her young companions +called it a `cock-a bully.' It was pretty obvious to scent +a corruption of a Maori word, for, mark you, cock-a-bully has +no meaning. It looks as if it were English and full of meaning. +Reflect an instant and it has none. The Maori name for the +fish is `kokopu'" + +<hw>Cockatiel</hw>, <hw>-eel</hw>, <i>n</i>. an arbitrary +diminutive of the word Cockatoo, and used as another name for +the Cockatoo-Parrakeet, <i>Calopsitta novae-hollandiae</i>, +and generally for any Parrakeet of the genus <i>Calopsitta</i>. +(`O.E.D.') + +<hw>Cockatoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Bird-name. The word is Malay, +<i>Kakatua</i>. (`O.E.D.') The varieties are-- + +Banksian Cockatoo-- + <i>Calyptorhynchus banksii</i>, Lath. + +Bare-eyed C.-- + <i>Cacatua gymnopis</i>, Sclater. + +Black C.-- + <i>Calyptorhynchus funereus</i>, Shaw. + +Blood-stained C.-- + <i>Cacatua sanguinea</i>, Gould. + +Dampier's C.-- + <i>Licmetis pastinator</i>, Gould. + +Gang-gang C.-- <i>Callocephalon galeatum</i>, Lath. [See + <i>Gang-gang</i>.] + +Glossy C.-- + <i>Calyptorhynchus viridis</i>, Vieill. + +Long-billed C.-- + <i>Licmetis nasicus</i>, Temm. [See <i>Corella</i>.] + +Palm C.-- + <i>Microglossus aterrimus</i>, Gmel. + +Pink C.-- + <i>Cacatua leadbeateri</i>, V. & H. (Leadbeater, q.v.). + +Red-tailed C.-- + <i>Calyptorhynchus stellatus</i>, Wagl. + +Rose-breasted C.-- <i>Cacatua roseicapilla</i>, Vieill. [See + <i>Galah</i>. Gould calls it <i>Cocatua eos</i>. + +White C.-- + <i>Cacatua galerita</i>, Lath. + +White-tailed C.-- + <i>Calyptorhynchus baudinii</i>, Vig. + +See also <i>Parrakeet</i>. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 62: + +"We saw to-day for the first time on the Kalare, the redtop +cockatoo (Plyctolophus Leadbeateri)." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' c. viii. p. 272: + +"The rose-breasted cockatoo (<i>Cocatua eos</i>, Gould) visited +the patches of fresh burnt grass." + +Ibid. p. 275: + +"The black cockatoo (<i>Calyptorhynchus Banksii</i>) has been +much more frequently observed of late." + +1857. Daniel Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 175: + +"Dr. Leichhardt caught sight of a number of cockatoos; and, +by tracking the course of their flight, we, in a short time, +reached a creek well supplied with water." + +1862. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' +c. ix. p. 331: + +"White cockatoos and parroquets were now seen." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes, Game Act, Third Schedule': + +"Black Cockatoos. Gang-gang Cockatoos. [Close season.] From +the 1st day of August to the 10th day of December next +following in each year." + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p.4, col. 6: + +"The egg of the blood-stained cockatoo has not yet been +scientifically described, and the specimen in this collection +has an interest chiefly in that it was taken [by Mr. A. J. +Campbell] from a tree at Innamincka waterholes, not far from +the spot where Burke the explorer died." + +(2) A small farmer, called earlier in Tasmania a +<i>Cockatooer</i> (q.v.). The name was originally given in +contempt (see quotations), but it is now used by farmers +themselves. Cocky is a common abbreviation. Some people +distinguish between a <i>cockatoo</i> and a +<i>ground-parrot</i>, the latter being the farmer on a very +small scale. Trollope's etymology (see quotation, 1873) will +not hold, for it is not true that the cockatoo scratches the +ground. After the gold fever, <i>circa</i> 1860, the selectors +swarmed over the country and ate up the substance of the +squatters; hence they were called <i>Cockatoos</i>. The word +is also used adjectivally. + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum-trees,' +p. 154: + +"Oi'm going to be married + To what is termed a Cockatoo-- + Which manes a farmer." + +1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 110: + +"These small farmers are called cockatoos in Australia by the +squatters or sheep-farmers, who dislike them for buying up the +best bits on their runs; and say that, like a cockatoo, the +small freeholder alights on good ground, extracts all he can +from it, and then flies away, to `fresh fields and pastures +new.' . . . However, whether the name is just or not, it is a +recognised one here; and I have heard a man say in answer to a +question about his usual `occupation, `I'm a cockatoo.'" + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' +vol. ii. p. 135: + +"The word cockatoo in the farinaceous colony has become so +common as almost to cease to carry with it the intended +sarcasm. . . . It signifies that the man does not really +till his land, but only scratches it as the bird does." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 32: + +"It may possibly have been a term of reproach applied to the +industrious farmer, who settled or perched on the resumed +portions of a squatter's run, so much to the latter's rage and +disgust that he contemptuously likened the farmer to the +white-coated, yellow-crested screamer that settles or perches +on the trees at the edge of his namesake's clearing." + +1889. `Cornhill Magazine,' Jan., p. 33: + +"`With a cockatoo' [Title]. Cockatoo is the name given +to the small, bush farmer in New Zealand." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xliii. p. 377: + +"The governor is a bigoted agriculturist; he has contracted +the cockatoo complaint, I'm afraid." + +1893, `The Argus,' June 17, p. 13, col. 4: + +"Hire yourself out to a dairyman, take a contract with a +rail-splitter, sign articles with a cockatoo selector; +but don't touch land without knowing something about it." + +<hw>Cockatoo</hw>, <i>v. intr</i>. (1) To be a farmer. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xx. p. 245: + +"Fancy three hundred acres in Oxfordshire, with a score or two +of bullocks,and twice as many black-faced Down sheep. Regular +cockatooing." + +(2) A special sense--to sit on a fence as the bird sits. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 224: + +"The correct thing, on first arriving at a drafting-yard, is to +`cockatoo,' or sit on the rails high above the tossing +horn-billows." + +<hw>Cockatooer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a variant of <i>Cockatoo</i> +(q.v.), quite fallen into disuse, if quotation be not a nonce +use. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 137: + +"A few wretched-looking huts and hovels, the dwellings of +`cockatooers,' who are not, as it might seem, a species of +bird, but human beings; who rent portions of this forest +. . . on exorbitant terms . . . and vainly endeavour to exist +on what they can earn besides, their frequent compulsory +abstinence from meat, when they cannot afford to buy it, even +in their land of cheap and abundant food, giving them some +affinity to the grain-eating white cockatoos." + +<hw>Cockatoo Fence</hw>, <i>n</i>. fence erected by small +farmers. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxii. p. 155: + +"There would be roads and cockatoo fences . . . in short, all +the hostile emblems of agricultural settlement." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 120: + +"The fields were divided by open rails or cockatoo fences, i.e. +branches and logs of trees laid on the ground one across the +other with posts and slip-rails in lieu of gates." + +<hw>Cockatoo Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Currant</i> +(q.v). + +<hw>Cockatoo Orchis</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +Orchid, <i>Caleya major</i>, R. Br. + +<hw>Cock-eyed Bob</hw>, a local slang term in Western Australia +for a thunderstorm. + +1894. `The Age,' Jan. 20, p. 13, col. 4: + +"They [the natives of the northwest of Western Australia] are +extremely frightened of them [sc. storms called <i>Willy +Willy</i>, q.v.], and in some places even on the approach of an +ordinary thunderstorm or `Cock-eyed Bob,' they clear off to the +highest ground about." + +<hw>Cockle</hw>, <i>n</i>. In England the name is given to a +species of the familiar marine bivalve mollusc, <i>Cardium</i>. +The commonest Australian species is <i>Cardium +tenuicostatum</i>, Lamarck, present in all extra-tropical +Australia. The name is also commonly applied to members of the +genus <i>Chione</i>. + +<hw>Cock-Schnapper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish; the smallest kind of +<i>Schnapper</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Count-fish</i>. + +1882. Rev. I. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 41: + +"The usual method of estimating quantity for sale by the +fisherman is, by the schnapper or count-fish, the school-fish, +and squire, among which from its metallic appearance is the +copper head or copper colour, and the red bream. Juveniles +rank the smallest of the fry, not over an inch or two in +length, as the cock-schnapper. The fact, however, is now +generally admitted that all these are one and the same genus, +merely in different stages of growth." + +<hw>Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English name of the +<i>Gadus morrhua</i> is applied to many fishes in Australia of +various families, Gadoid and otherwise. In Melbourne it is +given to <i>Lotella callarias</i>, Guenth., and in New South +Wales to several fishes of the genus <i>Serranus</i>. +<i>Lotella</i> is a genus of the family <i>Gadidae</i>, to +which the European Cod belongs; <i>Serranus</i> is a Sea perch +(q.v.). See <i>Rock Cod, Black Rock Cod, Red Rock Cod, Black +Cod, Elite Cod, Red Cod, Murray Cod, Cloudy Bay Cod, Ling, +Groper, Hapuku, and Haddock</i>. + +<hw>Coffee-Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a settlers' name for the New +Zealand tree the <i>Karamu</i> (q.v.). Sometimes called also +</hw>Coffee-plant. + +<hw>Coffer-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Trunk-fish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Coffee Plant</hw>, or <hw>Coffee Berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. name +given in Tasmania to the Tasmanian <i>Native Holly</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Colonial Experience</hw>, <i>n</i>. and used as +<i>adj</i>. same as <i>cadet</i> (q.v.) in New Zealand; +a young man learning squatting business, gaining his colonial +experience. Called also <i>jackaroo</i> (q.v.). + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 95: + +"You're the first `colonial experience' young fellow that it +ever occurred to within my knowledge." + +<hw>Colonial Goose</hw>, <i>n</i>. a boned leg of mutton +stuffed with sage and onions. In the early days the sheep was +almost the sole animal food. Mutton was then cooked and served +in various ways to imitate other dishes. + +<hw>Colour</hw>, <i>n</i>. sc. of gold. It is sometimes used +with `good,' to mean plenty of gold: more usually, the `colour' +means just a little gold, enough to show in the dish. + +1860. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 222: + +". . . they had not, to use a current phrase, `raised the +colour.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood. `Miner's Right,' c. xiv. p. 149: + +"This is the fifth claim he has been in since he came here, +and the first in which he has seen the colour." + +1891. W. Lilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 14: + +"After spending a little time there, and not finding more than +a few colours of gold, he started for Mount Heemskirk." + +<hw>Convictism</hw>, <i>n</i>. the system of transportation of +convicts to Australia and Van Diemen's Land, now many years +abolished. + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 309: + +"May it remain nailed to the mast until these colonies are +emancipated from convictism." + +1864. `Realm,' Feb. 24, p.4 (`O.E.D.'): + +"No one who has not lived in Australia can appreciate the profound +hatred of convictism that obtains there." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 16: + +"They preferred to let things remain as they were, convictism +included." + +<hw>Coobah</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal name for the tree +<i>Acacia salicina</i>, Lindl., <i>N.O.Leguminosae</i>. See +<i>Acacia</i>. The spellings vary, and sometimes begin with a K. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' v. 46: + +"A deep reach of the river, shaded by couba trees and +river-oaks." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxviii. p. 400: + +"The willowy coubah weeps over the dying streamlet." + +<hw>Coo-ee</hw>, or <hw>Cooey</hw>, <i>n</i>. and +<i>interj</i>. spelt in various ways. See quotations. A call +borrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by one +wishing to find or to be found by another. In the vocabulary +of native words in `Hunter's Journal,' published in 1790, we +find "Cow-ee = to come." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 23: + +"In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use +of the word <i>Coo-ee</i>, as we do the word <i>Hollo</i>, +prolonging the sound of the <i>coo</i>, and closing that of the +<i>ee</i> with a shrill jerk. . . . [It has] become of general +use throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring an +individual to call another back, soon learns to say +`<i>Coo-ee'</i> to him, instead of Hollo to him." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 162: + +"He immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire." + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 84: + +"There yet might be heard the significant `<i>cooy'</i> or +`quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 46: + +"Although Mr. Brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'" +[See also p. 87, note.] + +1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia from Port Macquarie to +Moreton Bay,' p. 28: + +"We suddenly heard the loud shrill <i>couis</i> of the natives." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 231: + +"Their cooieys are not always what we understand by the word, +viz., a call in which the first note is low and the second +high, uttered after sound of the word cooiey. This is a note +which congregates all together and is used only as a simple +`Here.'" + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 91: + +"Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each other +from a great distance by the <i>cooey</i>; a word meaning `come +to me.' The Sydney blacks modulated this cry with successive +inflexions; the Tasmanian uttered it with less art. It is a +sound of great compass. The English in the bush adopt it: the +first syllable is prolonged; the second is raised to a higher +key, and is sharp and abrupt." + +1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' [Footnote] +p. 24: + +"<i>Coo-oo-oo-y</i> is a shrill treble cry much used in the +bush by persons wishful to find each other. On a still night +it will travel a couple of miles, and it is thus highly +serviceable to lost or benighted travellers." + +1869. J. F. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155: + +"The jingling of bells round the necks of oxen, the cooey of +the black fellow . . . constituted the music of these desolate +districts." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 82: + +"Hi! . . . cooey! you fella . . . open 'im lid." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 183: + +"A particular `cooee' . . . was made known to the young men +when they were initiated." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of the Goldfields,' p. 40: + +"From the woods they heard a prolonged cooee, which evidently +proceeded from some one lost in the bush." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 276: + +"Two long farewell coo-ees, which died away in the silence of +the bush." + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 184: + +"The bride encircled her lips with her two gloved palms, +and uttered a cry that few of the hundreds who heard it ever +forgot--`coo-ee!' That was the startling cry as nearly as +it can be written. But no letters can convey the sustained +shrillness of the long, penetrating note represented by the +first syllable, nor the weird, die-away wail of the second. +It is the well-known bushcall,the `jodel' of the black fellow." + +<hw>Cooee, within</hw>, <i>adv</i>. within easy distance. + +1887. G. L. Apperson, in `All the Year Round,' July 30, p. 67, +col. 1 (`O.E.D.'): + +"A common mode of expression is to be `within cooey' of a +place. . . . Now to be `within cooey' of Sydney is to be +at the distance of an easy journey therefrom." + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), June 26, p. 2, col. 6: + +"Witness said that there was a post-office clock `within +coo-ee,' or within less than half-a-mile of the station." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 80: + +"Just to camp within a cooey of the Shanty for the night." + +<hw>Cooee</hw>, <i>v.intr</i>. to utter the call. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 81: + +"Our sable guides `cooed' and `cooed' again, in their usual +tone of calling to each other at a distance." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 115: + +"Brown cooyed to him, and by a sign requested him to wait for +us." + + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Phillipsland,' p. 85 [Footnote]: + +"Cooey is the aboriginal mode of calling out to any person at a +distance, whether visible or not, in the forest. The sound is +made by dwelling on the first syllable, and pronouncing the +second with a short, sharp, rising inflexion. It is much +easier made, and is heard to a much greater distance than the +English <i>holla</i>! and is consequently in universal use +among the colonists. . . . There is a story current in the +colony of a party of native-born colonists being in London, one +of whom, a young lady, if I recollect aright, was accidentally +separated from the rest, in the endless stream of pedestrians +and vehicles of all descriptions, at the intersection of Fleet +Street with the broad avenue leading to Blackfriars Bridge. +When they were all in great consternation and perplexity at the +circumstance, it occurred to one of the party to <i>cooey</i>, +and the well-known sound, with its ten thousand Australian +associations, being at once recognised and responded to, a +reunion of the party took place immediately, doubtless to the +great wonderment of the surrounding Londoners, who would +probably suppose they were all fit for Bedlam." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 90: + +"They [the aborigines] warily entered scrubs, and called out +(cooyed) repeatedly in approaching water-holes, even when yet +at a great distance." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 91: + +"A female, born on this division of the globe, once stood at +the foot of London Bridge, and cooyed for her husband, of whom +she had lost sight, and stopped the passengers by the novelty +of the sound; which however is not unknown in certain +neighbourhoods of the metropolis. Some gentlemen, on a visit +to a London theatre, to draw the attention of their friends in +an opposite box, called out cooey; a voice in the gallery +answered `Botany Bay!'" + +1880 (circa). `Melbourne Punch,' [In the days of long trains]: + +"George, there's somebody treading on my dress; cooee to the +bottom of the stairs." + +<hw>Coo-in-new</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for "a useful +verbenaceous timber-tree of Australia, <i>Gmelina +leichhardtii</i>, F. v. M. The wood has a fine silvery grain, +and is much prized for flooring and for the decks of vessels, +as it is reputed never to shrink after a moderate seasoning." +(`Century.') Usually called <i>Mahogany-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Coolaman</hw> or <hw>Kooliman</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal +word, Kamilaroi Dialect of New South Wales. [W. Ridley, +`Kamilaroi,' p. 25, derives it from <i>Kulu</i>, seed, but it +is just as likely from <i>Kolle</i>, water.--J. Mathew.] A +hollowed knot of a tree, used as a seed vessel, or for holding +water. The word is applied to the excrescence on the tree as +well as to the vessel; a bush hand has been heard to speak of a +hump-backed man as `cooliman-backed.' + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 269: + +"Three koolimans (vessels of stringy bark) were full of honey +water, from one of which I took a hearty draught." + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum-trees,' +p. 37: + +"And the beautiful Lubrina + Fetched a Cooliman of water." + +[In Glossary.] Cooliman, a hollow knot of a tree for holding +water. + +186. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. ii. p. 24: + +"Koolimans, water vessels. . . The koolimans were made of the +inner layer of the bark of the stringy-bark tree." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 185: + +"Coolaman, native vessel for holding water." + +1885. Mrs. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 76: + +"Cooliman, a vessel for carrying water, made out of the bark +which covers an excrescence peculiar to a kind of gum-tree." + +<hw>Cooper's-flag</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name in New Zealand +for <i>Raupo</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Coopers-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. the timber of an Australian +tree, <i>Alphitonia excelsa</i>, Reiss, <i>N.O. Rhamneae</i>. +The wood becomes dark with age, and is used for coopers' staves +and various purposes. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 373: + +"Variously called Mountain-ash, Red-ash, Leather-jacket, +and Coopers-wood." + +<hw>Coordaitcha</hw>. See <i>Kurdaitcha</i>. + +<hw>Coot</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English birdname; the +Australian species is <i>Fulica australis</i>, Gould. +See also <i>Bald-Coot</i>. + +<hw>Copper-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Copper Maori</hw>. This spelling has been influenced by +the English word <i>Copper</i>, but it is really a corruption +of a Maori word. There is a difference of opinion amongst +Maori scholars what this word is. Some say <i>Kapura</i>, a +common fire used for cooking, in contradistinction to a +`chief's fire,' at which he sat, and which would not be allowed +to be defiled with food. Others say <i>Kopa</i>. The Maori +word <i>Kopa</i> was (1) <i>adj</i>. meaning <i>bent</i>, (2) +<i>n</i>. <i>angle</i> or <i>corner</i>, and (3) the native +oven, or more strictly the hole scooped out for the oven. + +1888. T. Pine, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' `A +local tradition of Raukawa,' vol. xxi. p. 417: + +"So they set to work and dug holes on the flat, each hole about +2 ft. across and about 1 1/2 ft. deep, and shaped something +like a Kopa Maori." + +1889. H. D. M. Haszard, ibid. `Notes on some Relics of +Cannibalism,' vol. xxii. p. 104: + +"In two distinct places, about four chains apart, there were a +number of <i>Kapura Maori</i>, or native ovens, scattered about +within a radius of about forty feet." + +<hw>Coprosma</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific and vernacular +name fora large genus of trees and shrubs of the order +<i>Rubiaceae</i>. From the Greek <i>kopros</i>, dung, +on account of the bad smell of some of the species. +See quotation. The Maori name is <i>Karamu</i> (q.v.). +Various species receive special vernacular names, +which appear in their places in the Dictionary. + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 110: + +"<i>Corosma</i> comprises about forty species, of which at +least thirty are found in New Zealand, all of which are +restricted to the colony except <i>C. pumila</i>, which extends +to Australia. Five species are found in Australia, one of +which is <i>C. pumila</i> mentioned above. A few species occur +in the Pacific, Chili, Juan Fernandez, the Sandwich Islands, +&c." + +<hw>Coral</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Batswing-Coral</i>. + +<hw>Coral-Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Victoria to +<i>Gleichenia circinata</i>, Swartz, called in Bailey's list +<i>Parasol-Fern</i>. See <i>Fern</i>. + +<hw>Coral-Flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. a plant, <i>Epacris</i> +(q.v.), <i>Epacris microphylla</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +<hw>Coral-Pea</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Kennedya</i> +(q.v.). + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 53: + +"The trailing scarlet kennedyas, aptly called the +`bleeding-heart' or `coral pea,' brighten the greyness of the +sandy, peaty wastes." + + +<hw>Coranderrk</hw>, <i>n</i>. the aboriginal name for the +Victorian <i>Dogwood</i> (q.v.). An "aboriginal station," or +asylum and settlement for the remaining members of the +aboriginal race of Victoria, is called after this name because +the wood grew plentifully there. + +<hw>Cordage-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to a +<i>Kurrajong</i> (q.v.). The name <i>Sida pulchella</i> has +been superseded by <i>Plagianthus sidoides</i>, Hook. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 108: + +"Sida pulchella. Handsome Sida. Currijong or cordage tree of +Hobart Town. . . . The bark used to be taken for tying up post +and rail fences, the rafters of huts, in the earlier periods of +the colony, before nails could be so easily procured." + +<hw>Corella</hw>, <i>n</i>. any parrot of the genus +<i>Nymphicus</i>; the word is dim. of late Lat. <i>cora = +korh</i>, a girl, doll, etc. The Australian Corella is +<i>N. novae-hollandiae</i>, and the name is also given to +<i>Licmetus nasicus</i>, Temm, the <i>Long-billed Cockatoo</i> +(q.v.). It is often used indiscriminately by bird-fanciers for +any pretty little parrot, parrakeet, or cockatoo. + +<hw>Cork-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Bat's-wing Coral</i>. + +<hw>Corkwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree, <i>Entelea +arborescens</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. Maori name, +<i>Whau</i>. + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 45: + +"The whau . . . is termed corkwood by the settlers on account +of its light specific gravity." + +<hw>Cormorant</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +In Australia the name is applied to the following birds:-- + +Black Cormorant-- + <i>Graculus novae-hollandiae</i>, Steph. + +Little C.-- + <i>G. melanoleucus</i>, Vieill. + +Little-black C.-- + <i>G. stictocephalus</i>, Bp. . + +Pied C.-- + <i>G. varius</i>, Gm. + +White-breasted Cormorant-- + <i>G. leucogaster</i>, Gould. + +White-throated C.-- + <i>G. brevirostris</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Cornstalk</hw>, <i>n</i>. a young man or a girl born +and bred in New South Wales, especially if tall and big. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 116: + +"The colonial-born, bearing also the name of cornstalks (Indian +corn), from the way in which they shoot up." + +1834. Geo. Benett, `Wanderings in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 341: + +"The Australian ladies may compete for personal beauty and +elegance with any European, although satirized as `Cornstalks,' +from the slenderness of their forms." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 68: + +"Our host was surrounded by a little army of `cornstalks.'. . . +The designation `cornstalk' is given because the young people +run up like the stems of the Indian corn." + +1869. W. R. Honey, `Madeline Clifton,' Act III. sc. v. p. 30: + +"Look you, there stands young cornstalk." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 526: + +"If these are the heroes that my cornstalk friends worship +so ardently, they must indeed be hard up for heroes." + +1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' +p. 217: + +"While in the capital I fell in with several jolly cornstalks, +with whom I spent a pleasant time in boating, fishing, and +sometimes camping out down the harbour." + +<hw>Correa</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus of +Australian plants of the <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>, so named after +Correa de Serra, a Portuguese nobleman who wrote on rutaceous +plants at the beginning of the century. They bear scarlet or +green and sometimes yellowish flowers, and are often called +Native Fuchsias (q.v.), especially <i>C. speciosa</i>, Andrews, +which bears crimson flowers. + +1827. R. Sweet, `Flora Australasica,' p. 2: + +"The genus was first named by Sir J. E. Smith in compliment to +the late M. Correa de Serra, a celebrated Portuguese botanist." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 384: + +"The scarlet correa lurked among the broken quartz." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 70: + +"With all wish to maintain vernacular names, which are not +actually misleading, I cannot call a correa by the common +colonial name `native fuchsia,' as not the slightest structural +resemblance and but little habitual similarity exists between +these plants; they indeed belong to widely different orders." + +Ibid.: + +"All Correas are geographically restricted to the south-eastern +portion of the Australian continent and Tasmania, the genus +containing but few species." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 23: + +"I see some pretty red correa and lilac." [Footnote]: "<i>Correa +speciosa</i>, native fuchsia of Colonies." + +<hw>Corrobbery</hw>, <i>n</i>. This spelling is nearest to the +accepted pronunciation, the accent falling on the second +syllable. Various spellings, however, occur, +viz.--<i>Corobbery, Corrobery, Corroberry, Corroborree, +Corrobbory, Corroborry, Corrobboree, Coroboree, Corroboree, +Korroboree, Corroborri, Corrobaree</i>, and <i>Caribberie</i>. +To these Mr. Fraser adds <i>Karabari</i> (see quotation, 1892), +but his spelling has never been accepted in English. The word +comes from the Botany Bay dialect. + +[The aboriginal verb (see Ridley's `Kamilaroi and other +Australian Languages,' p. 107) is korobra, to dance; in the +same locality boroya or beria means to sing; probably koro is +from a common Australian word for emu.--J. Mathew.] + +(1) An aboriginal name for a dance, sacred, festive, or +warlike. + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Port Jackson, p. 195: + +"They very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would +apply to us . . . for marks of our approbation . . . which we +never failed to give by often repeating the word <i>boojery</i>, +good; or <i>boojery caribberie</i>, a good dance." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 280: + +"Dancing with their corrobery motion." + +Ibid. p. 311: + +"With several corrobery or harlequin steps." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. 55: + +"They hold their corrobbores (midnight ceremonies)." + +1836. C. Darwin, `Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle' (ed. 1882), +c. xix. p. 450: + +"A large tribe of natives, called the white cockatoo men, +happened to pay a visit to the settlement while we were there. +These men as well as those of the tribe belonging to King +George's Sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs of rice +and sugar were persuaded to hold a `corrobery' or great dancing +party." [Description follows.] + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 4: + +"There can be little doubt that the corrobboree is the medium +through which the delights of poetry and the drama are enjoyed +in a limited degree, even by these primitive savages of New +Holland." + +1844. Mrs. Meredith. `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' +p. 91: + +"Great preparations were made, as for a grand corrobory, or +festival, the men divesting themselves of even the portions of +clothing commonly worn, and painting their naked black bodies +in a hideous manner with pipe-clay. After dark, they lit their +fires, which are small, but kept blazing with constant +additions of dry bark and leaves, and the sable gentry +assembled by degrees as they completed their evening toilette, +full dress being painted nudity. A few began dancing in +different parties, preparatory to the grand display, and the +women, squatting on the ground, commenced their strange +monotonous chant, each beating accurate time with two +boomerangs. Then began the grand corrobory, and all the men +joined in the dance, leaping, jumping, bounding about in the +most violent manner, but always in strict unison with each +other, and keeping time with the chorus, accompanying their +wild gesticulations with frightful yells, and noises. The +whole `tableau' is fearfully grand! The dark wild forest +scenery around--the bright fire-light gleaming upon the savage +and uncouth figures of the men, their natural dark hue being +made absolutely horrible by the paintings bestowed on them, +consisting of lines and other marks done in white and red +pipe-clay, which gives them an indescribably ghastly and +fiendish aspect--their strange attitudes, and violent +contortions and movements, and the unearthly sound of their +yells, mingled with the wild and monotonous wail-like chant of +the women, make altogether a very near approach to the horribly +sublime in the estimation of most Europeans who have witnessed +an assembly of the kind." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 103: + +"They have no instrument of music, the corobery's song being +accompanied by the beating of two sticks together, and by the +women thumping their opossum rugs.'" + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 447 [Footnote]: + +"These words, which were quite as unintelligible to the natives +as the corresponding words in the vernacular language of the +white men would have been, were learned by the natives, and are +now commonly used by them in conversing with Europeans, as +English words. Thus <i>corrobbory</i>, the Sydney word for a +general assembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense +at Moreton Bay; but the original word there is +<i>yanerwille</i>. <i>Cabon</i>, great; <i>narang</i>, little; +<i>boodgeree</i>, good; <i>myall</i>, wild native, etc. etc., +are all words of this description, supposed by the natives [of +Queensland] to be English words, and by the Europeans to be +aboriginal words of the language of that district." + +[The phrase "general assembly" would rise naturally in the mind +of Dr. Lang as a Presbyterian minister; but there is no +evidence of anything parliamentary about a corrobbery.] + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 78: + +"The exact object or meaning of their famous corrobboree or +native dance, beyond mere exercise and patience, has not as yet +been properly ascertained; but it seems to be mutually +understood and very extensively practised throughout Australia, +and is generally a sign of mutual fellowship and good feeling +on the part of the various tribes." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 100: + +"When our blacks visited Sydney, and saw the military paraded, +and heard the bands, they said that was `white fellows' +corrobbory.'" + +185. E. Stone Parker, `Aborigines of Australia,' p. 21: + +"It is a very great mistake to suppose . . . that there is any +kind of religious ceremony connected with the ordinary +corrobory. . . . I may also remark that the term corrobory is +not a native word." + +[It is quite certain that it is native, though not known to +Mr. E. Stone Parker.] + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 49: + +[In Tasmania] "the assembling of the tribes was always +celebrated by a grand <i>corroboree</i>, a species of bestial +<i>bal masque</i>. On such occasions they presented a most +grotesque and demon-like appearance, their heads, faces, and +bodies, liberally greased were besmeared alternately with clay +and red ochre; large tufts of bushy twigs were entwined around +their ankles, wrists, and waists; and these completed their +toilet." + +1879. J. D. Woods, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' +Introduction, pp. xxxii. and xxxiii.: + +"The principal dance is common all over the continent, and +`corrobboree' is the name by which it is commonly known. It is +not quite clear what a corrobboree is intended to signify. +Some think it a war-dance--others that it is a representation +of their hunting expeditions--others again, that it is a +religious, or pagan, observance; but on this even the blacks +themselves give no information." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 41: + +"The good fortune to witness a <i>korroboree</i>, that is a +festive dance by the natives in the neighbourhood." + +1892. J. Fraser, `The Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 21: + +"`Karabari' is an aboriginal name for those dances which our +natives often have in the forests at night. Hitherto the name +has been written corrobboree, but etymologically it should be +karabari, for it comes from the same root as `karaji,' a wizard +or medicine-man, and `bari' is a common formative in the native +languages. The karabari has been usually regarded as a form of +amusement . . . these dances partake of a semi-religious +character." + +[Mr. Fraser's etymology is regarded as far-fetched.] + +(2) The song that accompanied the dance. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 323: + +"I feared he might imagine we were afraid of his incantations, +for he sang most lamentable corroborris." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 68: + +". . . listen to the new corroborree. Great numbers arrive; +the corroborree is danced night after night with the utmost +enthusiasm. . . .These corroborrees travel for many hundreds of +miles from the place where they originated. . . .These +composers [of song and dance] pretend that the Spirit of Evil +originally manufactured their corroborree." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillman, `Australian Life,' p. 132: + +"The story was a grand joke among the blacks for many a day. +It became, no doubt, the theme for a `corroberee,' and Tommy +was always after a hero amongst his countrymen." + +(3) By transference, any large social gathering or public +meeting. + +1892. `Saturday Review,' Feb.' 13, p. 168, col. 2: + +"A corrobory of gigantic dimensions is being prepared for +[General Booth's] reception [in Australia]." (`O.E.D.') + +1895. Modern: + +"There's a big corrobbery on to-night at Government House, +and you can't get a cab for love or money." + +(4) By natural transference, a noise, disturbance, fuss +or trouble. + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Adamanta,' Act II. sc. ii. p. 27: + +"How can I calm this infantile corroboree?" + +1885. H. O. Forbes, `Naturalist's Wanderings,' p. 295: + +"Kingfishers . . . in large chattering corrobories in the tops +of high trees." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 242: + +"The boy raises the most awful corroboree of screams and howls, +enough for a whole gang of bushrangers, if they went in for +that sort of thing." + +1897. `The Herald,' Feb. 15, p. i, col. 1: + +"Latest about the Cretan corroboree in our cable messages this +evening. The situation at the capital is decidedly +disagreeable. A little while ago the Moslems threw the +Christians out and took charge. Now the last report is that +there is a large force of Christians attacking the city and +quite ready, we doubt not, to cut every Moslem throat that +comes in the way." + +<hw>Corrobbery</hw>, <i>v</i>. (1) To hold a corrobbery. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 61: + +"They began to corrobery or dance. + +(p. 206): They `corroberried,' sang, laughed, and screamed." + +1885. R. M. Pried, `Australian Life,' p. 22: + +"For some time the district where the nut [bunya] abounds +is a scene of feasting and corroboreeing." + +(2) By transference to animals, birds, insects, etc. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 257: + +"The mosquitoes from the swamps corroboreed with unmitigated +ardour." + +1871. C. Darwin, `Descent of Man' (2nd ed. 1885), p. 406: + +"The <i>Menura Alberti</i> [see <i>Lyrebird</i>] scratches for +itself shallow holes, or, as they are called by the natives, +corroborying places, where it is believed both sexes assemble." + +(3) To boil; to dance as boiling water does. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"`Look out there! `he continued; `quart-pot corroborree,' +springing up and removing with one hand from the fire one of +the quart-pots, which was boiling madly, while with the other +he dropped in about as much tea as he could hold between his +fingers and thumb." + +Ibid. p. 49: + +"They had almost finished their meal before the new quart +corroborreed, as the stockman phrased it." + +<hw>Corypha-palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. an obsolete name for +<i>Livistona inermis</i>, now called <i>Cabbage-tree</i> +(q.v.). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 49: + +"The bottle-tree and the corypha-palm were frequent." + +<hw>Cottage</hw>, <i>n</i>. a house in which all the rooms are +on the ground-floor. An auctioneer's advertisement often +runs--"large weatherboard cottage, twelve rooms, etc.," or +"double-fronted brick cottage." The cheapness of land caused +nearly all suburban houses in Australia to be built without +upper storeys and detached. + +<hw>Cotton-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to two trees +called <i>Salt-bush</i> (q.v.). (1) <i>Bassia bicornis</i>, +Lindl. (2) <i>Kochia aphylla</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>. S. Dixon (<i>apud</i> Maiden, p. 132) +thus describes it-- + +"All kinds of stock are often largely dependent on it during +protracted droughts, and when neither grass nor hay are +obtainable I have known the whole bush chopped up and mixed +with a little corn, when it proved an excellent fodder for +horses." + +1876. W. Harcus, `South Australia,' p. 126: + +"This is a fine open, hilly district, watered, well grassed, +and with plenty of herbage and cotton-bush." + +<hw>Cotton-shrub</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given in Tasmania to the +shrub <i>Pimelea nivea</i>, Lab., <i>N.O</i>. Thymeleae. + +<hw>Cotton-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, <i>Hibiscus +teliaceus</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 624: + +"The fibre of the bark [cotton-tree] is used for nets and +fishing-lines by the aborigines." + +<hw>Cotton-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. the timber of an Australian +tree, <i>Bedfordia salicina</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. +Called <i>Dog-wood</i> (q.v.) in Tasmania. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p.386: + +"The `dog-wood' of Tasmania, and the `cotton-wood' of Southern +New South Wales, on account of the abundant down on the leaves. +A hard, pale-brown, well-mottled wood, said by some to be good +for furniture. It emits a foetid smell when cut." + +<hw>Coucal</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, "mentioned probably for +the first time in Le Vaillant's `Oiseaux d'Afrique,' beginning +about 1796; perhaps native African. An African or Indian +spear-headed cuckoo: a name first definitely applied by Cuvier +in 1817 to the birds of the genus <i>Centropus</i>." +(`Century.') The Australian species is <i>Centropus +phasianellus</i>, Gould, or <i>Centropus phasianus</i>, Lath. +It is called also <i>Swamp-pheasant</i> (q.v.), and +<i>Pheasant-cuckoo</i>. + +<hw>Count-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large <i>Schnapper</i> +(q.v.). See <i>Cock-Schnapper</i>. + +1874. `Sydney Mail,' `Fishes and Fishing in New South Wales': + +"The ordinary schnapper or count fish implies that all of a +certain size are to count as twelve to the dozen, the shoal or +school-fish eighteen or twenty-four to the dozen, and the +squire, thirty or thirty-six to the dozen--the latter just +according to their size, the redbream at per bushel." + +<hw>Count-muster</hw>, <i>n</i>. a gathering, especially of +sheep or cattle in order to count them. + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 1: + +"The old man's having a regular count-muster of his sons and +daughters, and their children and off side relatives-that is, +by marriage." + +<hw>Cowdie</hw>, <i>n</i>. an early variant of <i>Kauri</i> +(q.v.), with other spellings. + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 143: + +"The native name `Kauri' is the only common name in general +use. When the timber was first introduced into Britain it was +termed `cowrie' or `kowdie-pine'; but the name speedily fell +into disuse, although it still appears as the common name in +some horticultural works." + +<hw>Cowshorns</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian orchid, +<i>Pterostylis nutans</i>, R. Br. + +<hw>Cow-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a native tree of New Zealand. +Maori name, <i>Karaka</i> (q.v.). + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 346: + +"The karaka-tree of New Zealand (<i>Corynocarpus +laevigata</i>), also called kopi by the natives, and cow-tree +by Europeans (from that animal being partial to its leaves), +grows luxuriantly in Sydney." + +<hw>Crab</hw>, <i>n</i>. Of the various Australian species of +this marine crustacean, <i>Scylla serrata</i> alone is large +enough to be much used as food, and it is seldom caught. In +Tasmania and Victoria, <i>Pseudocarcinus gigas</i>, called the +King-Crab, which reaches a weight of 20 lbs., is occasionally +brought to market. There is only one fresh-water crab known in +Australia--<i>Telphusa transversa</i>. + +1896. Spencer and Hall, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Zoology, p. 228: + +"In the case of <i>Telphusa transversa</i>, the fresh-water +crab, the banks of certain water holes are riddled with its +burrows." + +<hw>Crab-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a hole leading into a pit-like +burrow, made originally by a burrowing crayfish, and often +afterwards increased in size by the draining into it of water. +The burrows are made by crayfish belonging to the genera +<i>Engaeus</i> and <i>Astacopsis</i>, which are popularly known +as land-crabs. + +1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's `Church +in Victoria, during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 72: + +"Full of crab holes, which are exceedingly dangerous for the +horses. There are holes varying in depth from one to three +feet, and the smallest of them wide enough to admit the foot of +a horse: nothing more likely than that a horse should break its +leg in one. . . . These holes are formed by a small land-crab +and then gradually enlarged by the water draining into them." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 368: + +"This brute put his foot in a crabhole, and came down, rolling +on my leg.'' + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 49: + +"Across the creek we went . . . now tripping over tussocks, +now falling into crab holes." + +<hw>Crab-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Bitter-bark</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Cradle</hw>, <i>n</i>. common in Australia, but of +Californian origin. "A trough on rockers in which auriferous +earth or sand is shaken in water, in order to separate and +collect the gold." (`O.E.D.') + +1849. `Illustrated London News,' Nov. 17, p. 325, col. 1 +(`O.E.D.'): [This applies to California, and is before the +Australian diggings began]: + +"Two men can keep each other steadily at work, the one digging +and carrying the earth in a bucket, and the other washing and +rocking the cradle." + +1851. Letter by Mrs. Perry, quoted in Canon Goodman's `Church +in Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 171: + +"The streets are full of cradles and drays packed for the +journey." + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. xv. p. 215: + +"Cradles and tin dishes to supply the digging parties." + +1865. F. H. Nixon, `Peter Perfume,' p. 56: + +"They had cradles by dozens and picks by the score." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 154: + +"The music of the puddling mill, the cradle, and the tub." + +<hw>Cradle</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. to wash auriferous gravel in a +miner's cradle. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. 21, p. 197: + +"The laborious process of washing and `cradling' the ore." + +<hw>Crake</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. The +Australian varieties are-- + +Little Crake-- + <i>Porzana palustris</i>, Gould. + +Spotless C.-- + <i>P. tabuensis</i>, Gmel. + +Spotted C.-- + <i>P. fluminea</i>, Gould. + +White-browed C.-- + <i>P. cinereus,</i> Vieill. + +See also <i>Swamp-crake</i>. + +<hw>Cranberry, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also +<hw>Ground-berry</hw>; name given to three Australian shrubs. +(1) <i>Styphelia</i> (formerly <i>Lissanthe) humifusa</i>, +Persoon, <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +1834. J. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 133: + +"<i>Astroloma humifusum</i>. The native cranberry has a fruit +of a green, reddish, or whitish colour, about the size of a +black currant, consisting of a viscid apple-flavoured pulp +inclosing a large seed; this fruit grows singly on the trailing +stems of a small shrub resembling juniper, bearing beautiful +scarlet blossoms in autumn." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 8: + +"Commonly called `ground-berry.' In Tasmania the fruits are +often called native cranberries. The fruits of these dwarf +shrubs are much appreciated by school-boys and aboriginals. +They have a viscid, sweetish pulp, with a relatively large +stone. The pulp is described by some as being apple-flavoured, +though I have always failed to make out any distinct flavour." + +(2) <i>Styphelia sapida</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +1866. `Treasury of Botany,' p. 688 (`O.E.D.'): + +<i>"Lissanthe sapida</i>, a native of South-eastern Australia, +is called the Australian Cranberry, on account of its +resemblance both in size and colour to our European cranberry, +<i>Vaccinium Oxyconos</i>." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 39: + +"Native cranberry. The fruit is edible. It is something like +the cranberry of Europe both in size and colour, but its flesh +is thin, and has been likened to that of the Siberian crab. +[Found in] New South Wales." + +(3) <i>Pernettya tasmanica</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Ericeae</i> +(peculiar to Tasmania). + +<hw>Crane</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. In +Australia used for (1) the Native-Companion (q.v.), <i>Grus +australianus</i>, Gould; (2) various Herons, especially in New +Zealand, where the varieties are--Blue Crane (<i>Matuku</i>), +<i>Ardea sacra</i>, Gmel.; White Crane (<i>Kotuku</i>), <i>Ardea +egretta</i>, Gmel. See <i>Kotuku</i> and <i>Nankeen Crane</i>. +The Cranes and the Herons are often popularly confused. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 53: + +"<i>Ardea Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Lath., White-fronted Heron, Blue +Crane of the colonists. <i>Herodias Jugularis</i>, Blue Reef +Heron, Blue Crane, colonists of Port Essington." + +1848. Ibid. pl. 58: + +"<i>Herodias Immaculata</i>, Gould [later melanopus], Spotless +Egret, White Crane of the colonists." + +1890. `Victorian Consolidated Statutes, Game Act,' 3rd +Schedule: + +"[Close Season.] All Birds known as Cranes such as Herons, +Egrets, &c. From First day of August to Twentieth day of +December following in each year." + +<hw>Craw-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a variant of <i>Crayfish</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Crawler</hw>, <i>n</i>. that which crawls; used specially +in Australia of cattle. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 217: + +"Well-bred station crawlers, as the stockmen term them from +their peaceable and orderly habits." + +<hw>Cray-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australasian <i>Cray-fish</i> +belong to the family <i>Parastacidae</i>, the members of which +are confined to the southern hemisphere, whilst those of the +family <i>Potamobiidae</i> are found in the northern +hemisphere. The two families are distinguished from one +another by, amongst other points of structure, the absence of +appendages on the first abdominal segment in the +<i>Parastacidae</i>. The Australasian cray-fishes are +classified in the following genera--<i>Astacopsis</i>, found in +the fresh waters of Tasmania and the whole of Australia; +<i>Engaeus</i>, a land-burrowing form, found only in Tasmania +and Victoria; <i>Paranephrops</i>, found in the fresh waters of +New Zealand; and <i>Palinurus</i>, found on the coasts of +Australia and New Zealand. The species are as follows :-- + +(1) <i>The Yabber or Yabbie Crayfish</i>. Name given to the +commonest fresh-water Australian Cray-fish, <i>Astacopsis +bicarinatus</i>, Gray. This is found in waterholes, but not +usually in running streams, over the greater part of the +continent, and often makes burrows in the ground away from +water, and may also do great damage by burrowing holes through +the banks of dams and reservoirs and water-courses, as at +Mildura. It was first described as the <i>Port Essington +Crayfish</i>. + +1845. Gray, in E. J. Eyre's `Expeditions into Central +Australia,' vol. i. p. 410: + +"The Port Essington Cray fish. <i>Astacus bicarinatus</i>." + +1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Dec. 2, pl. 29: + +"They are commonly known about Melbourne by the native name of +Yabber or Yabbie." + +(2) <i>The Murray Lobster or the Spiny Cray-fish</i>. Name +given to the largest Australian fresh-water Cray-fish, +<i>Astacopsis serratus</i>, Shaw, which reaches a length of +over twelve inches, and is found in the rivers of the Murray +system, and in the southern rivers of Victoria such as the +Yarra, the latter being distinguished as a variety of the +former and called locally the <i>Yarra Spiny Cray-fish</i>. + +1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Dec. 8, pl. 160: " + +Our plate 160 illustrates a remarkable variety of the typical +<i>A. serratus</i> of the Murray, common in the Yarra and its +numerous affluents flowing southwards." + +(3) <i>The Tasmanian Cray</i>-fish. Name given to the large +fresh-water Cray-fish found in Tasmania, <i>Astacopsis +franklinii</i>; Gray. + +(4) <i>The Land-crab</i>. Name applied to the burrowing +Cray-fish of Tasmania and Victoria, <i>Engaeus fossor</i>, +Erich., and other species. This is the smallest of the +Australian Cray-fish, and inhabits burrows on land, which it +excavates for itself and in which a small store of water is +retained. When the burrow, as frequently happens, falls in +there is formed a <i>Crab-hole</i> (q.v.). + +1892. G. M. Thomson, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of +Tasmania,' p. 2: + +"Only four of the previously described forms are fresh-water +species, namely: <i>Astacopsis franklinii</i> and +<i>A. tasmanicus</i>, <i>Engaeus fossor</i> and +<i>E. cunicularius</i>, all fresh-water cray fishes." + +(5) <i>New Zealand Fresh-water Cray-fish</i>. Name applied to +<i>Paranephrops zealandicus</i>, White, which is confined to +the fresh water of New Zealand. + +1889. T. J. Parker, `Studies in Biology' (Colonial Museum and +Geological Survey Department, New Zealand), p. 5: + +"Paranephrops which is small and has to be specially collected +in rivers, creeks or lakes." + +(6) <i>Sydney Cray-fish</i>. Name given to the large +salt-water Cray-fish, rarely called Craw-fish, or Spiny +Lobster, found along the Sydney coast, <i>Palinurus +huegeli</i>, Heller. + +1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Dec. 16, pl. 159: + +"This species, which is the common Sydney Craw-fish, is easily +distinguished from the southern one, the <i>P. Lalandi</i>, +which is the common Melbourne Craw-fish." + +(7) <i>Southern Rock-Lobster or Melbourne Crayfish</i>. Name +given to the large salt-water Cray-fish, sometimes called +Craw-fish, found along the southern coast and common in the +Melbourne market, <i>Palinurus lalandi</i>, Lam. + +1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Dec. 15, pl. 150: + +"I suggest the trivial name of Southern Rock Lobster for this +species, which abounds in Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand, +as well as the Cape of Good Hope . . . does not appear to have +been noticed as far north as Sydney." + +The name <i>Craw-fish</i> is merely an ancient variant of +<i>Cray-fish</i>, though it is said by Gasc, in his French +Dictionary, that the term was invented by the London +fishmongers to distinguish the small <i>Spiny Lobster</i>, +which has no claws, from the common <i>Lobster</i>, which has +claws. The term <i>Lobster</i>, in Australia, is often applied +to the <i>Sydney Cray-fish</i> (see 7, above). + +<hw>Creadion</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name given by Vieillot +in 1816 to a genus of birds peculiar to New Zealand, from Greek +<i>kreadion</i>, a morsel of flesh, dim. of <i>kreas</i>, +flesh. Buller says, "from the angle of the mouth on each side +there hangs a fleshy wattle, or caruncle, shaped like a +cucumber seed and of a changeable bright yellow colour." +('Birds of New Zealand,' 1886, vol. i. p. 18.) The +<i>Jack-bird</i> (q.v.) and <i>Saddle-back</i> (q.v.) are the +two species. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 404: + +"Family <i>Sturnidae</i>--Tieki (<i>Creadion Carunculatus</i>). +This is a beautiful black bird with a chestnut band across the +back and wings; it has also a fleshy lappet on either side of +the head. The <i>tieki</i> is considered a bird of omen: if +one flies on the right side it is a good sign; if on the left, +a bad one." + +<hw>Cream of Tartar tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Baobab</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Creek</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small river, a brook, a branch of +a river. "An application of the word entirely unknown in Great +Britain." (`O.E.D.') The `Standard Dictionary' gives, as a use +in the United States, "a tidal or valley stream, between a +brook and a river in size." In Australia, the name brook is +not used. Often pronounced crick, as in the United States. + +Dr. J. A.H. Murray kindly sends the following note:--"Creek +goes back to the early days of exploration. Men sailing up the +Mississippi or other navigable river saw the mouths of +tributary streams, but could not tell with out investigation +whether they were confluences or mere inlets, creeks. They +called them creeks, but many of them turned out to be running +streams, many miles long--tributary rivers or rivulets. The +name <i>creek</i> stuck to them, however, and thus became +synonymous with tributary stream, brook." + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 516: + +"In the afternoon a creek obliged them to leave the banks of +the river, and go round its head, as it was too deep to cross: +having rounded the head of this creek. . ." + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 228: + +"They met with some narrow rivers or creeks." + +1809. Aug. 6, `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 327: + +"Through Rickerby's grounds upon the riverside and those of the +Rev. Mr. Marsden on the creek." + +1826. Goldie, in Bischoff's `Van Diemen's Land' (1832), p. 162: + +"There is a very small creek which I understand is never dry." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 17: + +"The creeks and rivers of Australia have in general a +transitory existence, now swollen by the casual shower, and +again rapidly subsiding under the general dryness and heat of +the climate." + +1854. `Bendigo Advertiser,' quoted in `Melbourne Morning +Herald,' May 29: + +"A Londoner reading of the crossing of a creek would naturally +imagine the scene to be in the immediate neighbourhood of the +coast, instead of being perhaps some hundreds of miles in the +interior, and would dream of salt water, perriwinkles and +sea-weed, when he should be thinking of slimy mud-holes, black +snakes and gigantic gum-trees." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 134: + +"The little rivulet, called, with that singular pertinacity for +error which I have so often noticed here, `the creek.'" + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in, New Zealand,' p. 29: + +"The creek, just like a Scotch burn, hurrying and tumbling down +the hillside to join the broader stream in the valley." + +1870. P. Wentworth, `Amos Thorne,' i. p. 11: + +"A thirsty creek-bed marked a line of green." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 39: + +"In the rivers, whether large watercourses, and dignified by +the name of `river,' or small tributaries called by the less +sounding appellation `creeks." + +1887. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. i. p. 41: + +"Generally where the English language is spoken a creek means a +small inlet of the sea, but in Australia a creek is literally +what it is etymologically, a crack in the ground. In dry +weather there is very little water; perhaps in the height of +summer the stream altogether ceases to run, and the creek +becomes a string of waterholes; but when the heavens are +opened, and the rain falls, it reappears a river." + +<hw>Creeklet</hw>, <i>n</i>. diminutive of Creek. + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 91: + +"One small creeklet day by day murmurs." + +<hw>Creeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name (sc. <i>Tree-creeper</i>) +is given to several New Zealand birds of the genus +<i>Certhiparus</i>, <i>N.O. Passeres</i>. The Maori names are +<i>Pipipi, Toitoi</i>, and <i>Mohona</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 51: + +"<i>Certhiparus Novae Zelandiae</i>, Finsch. New Zealand +Creeper." [A full description.] + +<hw>Cronk</hw>, <i>adj</i>. Derived from the German +<i>krank</i>--sick or ill. + +(1) A racing term used of a horse which is out of order and not +"fit" for the contest; hence transferred to a horse whose owner +is shamming its illness and making it "run crooked" for the +purpose of cheating its backers. + +(2) Used more generally as slang, but not recognized in Barere +and Leland's `Slang Dictionary.' + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), July 4, p. 2, col. 7: + +"He said he would dispose of the cloth at a moderate figure +because it was `cronk.' The word `cronk,' Mr. Finlayson +explained, meant `not honestly come by.'" + +<hw>Crow</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. The +Australian species is--White-eyed, <i>Corvus coronoides</i> +V. and H. In New Zealand (Maori name, <i>Kokako</i>) the name +is used for the Blue-wattled Crow, <i>Glaucopis wilsoni</i> and +for the (N. island) Orange-wattled, <i>G. cinerea</i>, Gmel. +(S. island). + +<hw>Crow-shrike</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian amalgamation of two +common English bird-names. The <i>Crow-shrikes</i> are of +three genera, <i>Strepera, Gymnorrhima</i>, and +<i>Cracticus</i>. The varieties of the genus Strepera are-- + +Black Crow-shrike-- + <i>Strepera fuliginosa</i>, Gould. + +Black-winged C.-- + <i>S. melanoptera</i>, Gould. + +Grey C.-- + <i>S. cuneicaudata</i>, Vieill. + +Hill C.-- + <i>S. arguta</i>, Gould. + +Leaden C.-- + <i>S. plumbea</i>, Gould. + +Pied C.-- + <i>S. graculina</i>, White. + +Birds of the genus <i>Gymnorrhina</i> are called <i>Magpies</i> +(q.v.). Those of the genus <i>Cracticus</i> are called +<i>Butcher-birds</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Crush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a part of a stockyard. See +quotations. + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 69: + +"A crush, which is an elongated funnel, becoming so narrow +at the end that a beast is wedged in and unable to move." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 87: + +"There were some small yards, and a `crush,' as they call it, +for branding cattle." + +<hw>Cuckoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +The Australian birds to which it is applied are-- + +Black-eared Cuckoo-- + <i>Mesocalius osculans</i>, Gould. + +Bronze C.-- + <i>Chalcoccyx plagosus</i>, Lath. + +Brush C.-- + <i>Cacomantis insperatus</i>. + [Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl.87.] + +Chestnut-breasted C.-- + <i>C. castanei-ventris</i>, Gould. + +Fantailed C.-- + <i>C. flabelliformis</i>, Lath. + +Little-bronze C.-- + <i>Chalcoccyx malayanus</i>, Raffles. + +Narrow-billed bronze C.-- + <i>C. basalis</i>, Hors. + +Oriental C.-- + <i>Cuculus intermedius</i>, Vahl. + +Pallid C.-- + <i>Cacomantis pallidus</i> and <i>C. canorus</i>, Linn. + +Square-tailed C.-- + <i>C. variolosus</i>, Hors. + +Whistling-bronze C.-- + <i>Chalcoccyx lucidus</i>, Gmel. + +In New Zealand, the name is applied to <i>Eudynamis +taitensis</i> (sc. of Tahiti) Sparm., the Long-tailed Cuckoo; +and to <i>Chrysococcyx lucidus</i>, Gmel., the Shining Cuckoo. +The name <i>Cuckoo</i> has sometimes been applied to the +<i>Mopoke</i> (q.v.) and to the <i>Boobook</i> (q.v.). See +also <i>Pheasant-cuckoo</i>. + +1855. G. W. Rusden, `Moyarra,' Notes, p. 30: + +"The Australian cuckoo is a nightjar, and is heard only by night." + +1868. W. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 19: + +"The Austral cuckoo spoke + His melancholy note, `Mopoke.'" + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 118: + +"There are two species of the Longtailed Cuckoo (<i>Eudynamis +taitensis</i>), and the beautiful Bronze or Shining Cuckoo +(<i>Chrysococcyx lucidus</i>). They are both migratory birds. +The Long-tailed Cuckoo spends its winter in some of the Pacific +islands, the Shining Cuckoo in Australia." + +<hw>Cuckoo-shrike</hw>, <i>n</i>. This combination of two +common English bird-names is assigned in Australia to the +following-- + +Barred Cuckoo-shrike + <i>Graucalus lineatus</i>, Swains. + +Black-faced C.-- + <i>G. melanops</i>, Lath. + +Ground C.-- + <i>Pteropodocys phasianella</i>, Gould. + +Little C.-- + <i>Graucalus mentalis</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Small-billed C.-- + <i>G. parvirostris</i>, Gould. + +White-bellied C.-- + <i>G. hyperleucus</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Cucumber-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Grayling</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Cucumber-Mullet</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Grayling</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Cultivation paddock</hw>, <i>n</i>. a field that has been +tilled and not kept for grass. + +1853. Chas. St. Julian and Ed. K. Silvester, `The Productions, +Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' p. 170: + +"Few stations of any magnitude are without their `cultivation +paddocks,' where grain and vegetables are raised . . ." + +1860. A Lady, `My Experiences in Australia,' p. 173: + +"Besides this large horse paddock, there was a space cleared of +trees, some twenty to thirty acres in extent, on the banks of +the creek, known as the `Cultivation Paddock,' where in former +days my husband had grown a sufficient supply of wheat for home +consumption." + +1893. `The Argus,' June 17, p. 13, col. 4: + +"How any man could have been such an idiot as to attempt to +make a cultivation paddock on a bed of clay passed all my +knowledge.' + +<hw>Curlew</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +The Australian species is <i>Numenius cyanopus</i>, Vieill. +The name, however, is more generally applied to <i>AEdicnemus +grallarius</i>, Lath. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 43: + +"They rend the air like cries of despair, + The screams of the wild curlew." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18: + +"Truly the most depressing cry I ever heard is that of the +curlew, which you take no notice of in course of time; but +which to us, wet, weary, hungry, and strange, sounded most +eerie." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes, Game Act, Third Schedule': + +"Southern Stone Plover or Curlew." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"The calling of the stone plover. It might as well be a curlew +at once, for it will always be a curlew to country people. Its +first call, with the pause between, sounds like `Curlew'--that +is, if you really want it to sound so, though the blacks get +much nearer the real note with `Koo-loo,' the first syllable +sharp, the second long drawn out." + +1896. Dr. Holden, of Hobart, `Private letter,' Jan.: + +"There is a curlew in Australia, closely resembling the English +bird, and it calls as that did over the Locksley Hall +sand-dunes; but Australians are given to calling <i>AEdicnemus +grallarius</i> Latham (our Stone Plover), the `curlew,' which +is a misnomer. This also drearily wails, and after dark." + +<hw>Currajong</hw> or <hw>Currijong</hw>, i.q. <i>Kurrajong</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Currant, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to +various shrubs and trees of the genus <i>Coprosma</i>, +especially <i>Coprosma billardieri</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Rubiare</i>(e; also to <i>Leucopogon richei</i>, Lab., +<i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>, various species of <i>Leptomeria</i>, +<i>N.O. Santalaceae</i>, and <i>Myoporum serratum</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Myoporineae</i>. The names used for +<i>M. serratum</i>, chiefly in South Australia, are +<i>Blueberry Tree</i>, <i>Native Juniper</i>, <i>Native +Myrtle</i>, <i>Palberry</i>, and <i>Cockatoo Bush</i>. + +See also <i>Native Plum</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 220: + +"Our native currants are strongly acidulous, like the +cranberry, and make an excellent preserve when mixed with +the raspberry." + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 133: + +"<i>Leucopogon lanceolatum</i>. A large bush with numerous +harsh leaves, growing along the sea shore, with some other +smaller inland shrubs of the same tribe, produces very small +white berries of a sweetish and rather herby flavour. These +are promiscuously called white or native currants in the +colony." + +["The insignificant and barely edible berries of this shrub are +said to have saved the life of the French botanist Riche, who +was lost in the bush on the South Australian coast for three +days, at the close of the last century." (Maiden.) The plant +is now called <i>L. Richei</i>.] + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 19: + +"Native Currant. . . . This plant bears a small round drupe, +about the size of a small pea. Mr. Backhouse states that (over +half a century ago) when British fruits were scarce, it was +made into puddings by some of the settlers of Tasmania, but the +size and number of the seeds were objectionable." + +<hw>Currant, Plain</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Plain Currant</i>. + +<hw>Currency</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Name given especially to early +paper-money in the Colonies, issued by private traders and of +various values, and in general to the various coins of foreign +countries, which were current and in circulation. Barrington, +in his `History of New South Wales `(1802), gives a table of +such specie. + +1824. Edward Curr, `Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land,' +p.5: + +"Much of this paper-money is of the most trifling description. +To this is often added `payable in dollars at 5s. each.' Some +. . . make them payable in Colonial currency." + +[p. 69, note]: "25s. currency is about equal to a sovereign." + +1826. Act of Geo. IV., No. 3 (Van Diemen's Land): + +"All Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes . . . as also all +Contracts and Agreements whatsoever which shall be drawn and +circulated or issued, or made and entered into, and shall be +therein expressed . . . to be payable in Currency, Current +Money, Spanish Dollars . . . shall be . . . Null and Void." + +1862. Geo. Thos. Lloyd, `Thirty-three years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 9: + +"Every man in business . . . issued promissory notes, varying +in value from the sum of fourpence to twenty shillings, payable +on demand. These notes received the appellation of paper +currency. . . . The pound sterling represented twenty-five +shillings of the paper-money." + +(2) Obsolete name for those colonially-born. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +(Table of Contents): + +"Letter XXI.--<i>Currency</i> or <i>Colonial-born</i> +population." + +Ibid. p. 33: + +"Our colonial-born brethren are best known here by the name of +<i>Currency</i>, in contradistinction to <i>Sterling</i>, or +those born in the mother-country. The name was originally +given by a facetious paymaster of the 73rd Regiment quartered +here--the pound currency being at that time inferior to the +pound sterling." + +1833. H. W. Parker, `Rise, Progress, and Present State of Van +Diemen's Land,' p. 18: + +"The Currency lads, as the country born colonists in the +facetious nomenclature of the colony are called, in +contradistinction to those born in the mother country." + +1840. Martin's `Colonial Magazine,' vol. iii. p. 35: + +"Currency lady." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 68: + +"Whites born in the colony, who are also called `the currency'; +and thus the `Currency Lass' is a favourite name for colonial +vessels." [And, it may be added, also of Hotels.] + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 6: + +"A singular disinclination to finish any work completely, is a +striking characteristic of colonial craftsmen, at least of the +`currency' or native-born portion. Many of them who are +clever, ingenious and industrious, will begin a new work, +be it ship, house, or other erection, and labour at it most +assiduously until it be about two-thirds completed, and then +their energy seems spent, or they grow weary of the old +occupation, and some new affair is set about as busily as the +former one." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 35: + +"English girls have such lovely complexions and cut out us poor +currency lasses altogether." + +Ibid. p. 342: + +"You're a regular Currency lass . . . always thinking about +horses." + +<hw>Cushion-flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Hakea laurina</i>, +R. Br. See <i>Hakea</i>. + +<hw>Cut out</hw>, <i>v</i>. (1) To separate cattle from the +rest of the herd in the open. + +1873. Marcus Clarke, `Holiday Peak, &c.,' p. 70: + +"The other two . . . could cut out a refractory bullock with +the best stockman on the plains." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. x. p. 72: + +"We . . . camped for the purpose of separating our cattle, +either by drafting through the yard, or by `cutting out' on +horse-back." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 70: + +"Drafting on the camp, or `cutting out' as it is generally +called, is a very pretty performance to watch, if it is well +done." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. ii. p. 13: + +"Tell him to get `Mustang,' he's the best cutting-out horse." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4. col. 4: + +"A Queenslander would have thought it was as simple as going on +to a cutting-out camp up North and running out the fats." + +(2) To finish shearing. + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 6: + +"When the stations `cut out,' as the term for finishing is, +and the shearers and rouseabout men leave." + +<hw>Cutting-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Cladium psittacorum</i>, +Labill., <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>. It grows very long narrow +blades whose thin rigid edge will readily cut flesh if +incautiously handled; it is often called <i>Sword-grass</i>. + +1858. T. McCombie `History of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 8: + +"Long grass, known as cutting-grass between four and five feet +high, the blade an inch and a half broad, the edges exquisitely +sharp." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 42: + +"Travelling would be almost impossible but for the button +rush and cutting grass, which grow in big tussocks out of +the surrounding bog." + +1894. `The Age,' Oct. 19, p. 5, col. 8: + +"`Cutting grass' is the technical term for a hard, tough grass +about eight or ten inches high, three-edged like a bayonet, +which stock cannot eat because in their efforts to bite it off +it cuts their mouths." + + + +D + + +<hw>Dabchick</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. The New +Zealand species is <i>Podiceps rufipectus</i>. There is no +species in Australia. + +<hw>Dacelo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Name given by "W. E. Leach, 1816. +An anagram or transposition of Lat. <i>Alcedo</i>, a +Kingfisher." (`Century.') Scientific name for the +<i>Jackass</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Dactylopsila</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +Australian genus of the Striped Phalanger, called locally the +<i>Striped Opossum</i>; see <i>Opossum</i>. It has a long bare +toe. (Grk. <i>daktulos</i>, a finger, and <i>psilos</i>, bare.) + +<hw>Daisy, Brisbane</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland and New South +Wales plant, <i>Brachycome microcarpa</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Daisy, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian flower, +<i>Brachycome decipiens</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Daisy Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. two Tasmanian trees, <i>Astur +stellulatus</i>, Lab., and <i>A. glandulosus</i>, Lab., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i>. The latter is called the +<i>Swamp-Daisy-Tree</i>. + +<hw>Dam</hw>, <i>n</i>. In England, the word means a barrier +to stop water in Australia, it also means the water so stopped, +as `O.E.D.' shows it does in Yorkshire. + +1873. Marcus Clarke, `Holiday Peak, &c.,' p. 76: + +"The dams were brimming at Quartz-borough, St. Roy reservoir +was running over." + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 141: + +"Dams as he calls his reservoirs scooped out in the hard soil." + +1893. `The Leader,' Jan. 14: + +"A boundary rider has been drowned in a dam." + +1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 68: + +"At present few stations are subdivided into paddocks smaller +than 20,000 acres apiece. If in each of these there is but one +waterhole or dam that can be relied upon to hold out in +drought, sheep and cattle will destroy as much grass in +tramping from the far corners of the grazing to the drinking +spot as they will eat. Four paddocks of 5,000 acres each, well +supplied with water, ought to carry almost double the number of +sheep." + +1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9: + +"[The murderer] has not since been heard of. Dams and +waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result." + +<hw>Dammara</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old scientific name of the +genus, including the <i>Kauri Pine</i> (q.v.). It is from the +Hindustani, <i>damar</i>, `resin.' The name was applied to the +<i>Kauri Pine</i> by Lambert in 1832, but it was afterwards +found that Salisbury, in 1805, had previously constituted the +genus <i>Agathis</i> for the reception of the <i>Kauri Pine</i> +and the Dammar Pine of Amboyna. This priority of claim +necessitated the modern restoration of <i>Agathis</i> as the +name of the genus. + +<hw>Damper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large scone of flour and water +baked in hot ashes; the bread of the bush, which is always +unleavened. [The addition of water to the flour suggests a +more likely origin than that given by Dr. Lang. See quotation, +1847.] + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 190 + +"The farm-men usually make their flour into flat cakes, which +they call <i>damper</i>, and cook these in the ashes . . ." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' +vol. ii. c. viii. p. 203: + +"I watched the distorted countenances of my humble companions +while drinking their tea and eating their damper." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketches of New South Wales,' p. 103: + +"Damper (a coarse dark bread)." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 122: + +"I must here enlighten my readers as to what `damper' is. It +is the bread of the bush, made with flour and water kneaded +together and formed into dough, which is baked in the ashes, +and after a few months keeping is a good substitute for bread." + +[The last clause contains a most extraordinary statement-- +perhaps a joke. Damper is not kept for months, but is +generally made fresh for each meal. See quotation, 1890, +Lumholtz.] + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 122: + + "A cake baked in the ashes, which in Australia is usually +styled a damper." [Footnote]: "This appellation is said to +have originated somehow with Dampier, the celebrated +navigator." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 284: + +"`Damper' is a dough made from wheat-flour and water without +yeast, which is simply pressed flat, and baked in the ashes; +according to civilized notions, rather hard of digestion, but +quite agreeable to hungry woodmen's stomachs." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 20: + +"At first we had rather a horror of eating damper, imagining it +to be somewhat like an uncooked crumpet. Experience, however, +showed it to be really very good. Its construction is simple, +and is as follows. Plain flour and water is mixed on a sheet +of bark, and then kneaded into a disc some two or three inches +thick to about one or two feet in diameter, great care to avoid +cracks being taken in the kneading. This is placed in a hole +scraped to its size in the hot ashes, covered over, and there +left till small cracks caused by the steam appear on the +surface of its covering. This is a sign that it is nearly +done, and in a few minutes the skilful chef will sound it over +with his "Wedges of damper (or bread baked in hot ashes) were +cut from time to time from great circular flat loaves of that +palatable and wholesome but somewhat compressed-looking bread." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 32: + +"Damper is the name of a kind of bread made of wheat flour and +water. The dough is shaped into a flat round cake, which is +baked in red-hot ashes. This bread looks very inviting, and +tastes very good as long as it is fresh, but it soon becomes +hard and dry." + +<hw>Damson, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also Native Plum, +an Australian shrub, <i>Nageia spinulosa</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 53: + +"Native Damson or Native Plum. This shrub possesses edible +fruit, something like a plum, hence its vernacular names. The +Rev. Dr. Woolis tells me that, mixed with jam of the Native +Currant (<i>Leptomeria acida</i>), it makes a very good +pudding." + +<hw>Dandelion, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a flowering plant, +<i>Podolepis acuminata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Daphne, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, +<i>Myoporum viscorum</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myoporineae</i>; +called also <i>Dogwood</i> and <i>Waterbush</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 575: + +"Native Daphne. . . . Timber soft and moderately light, yet +tough. It is used for building purposes. It dresses well, and +is straight in the grain." + +<HW>Darling Pea</HW>, <i>n</i>. an Australian plant, +<i>Swainsonia galegifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; +i.q. <i>Indigo Plant</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Poison-bush</i>. +The Darling Downs and River were named after General (later Sir +Ralph) Darling, who was Governor of New South Wales from +Dec. 19, 1825 to Oct. 21, 1831. The "pea" is named from one of +these. + +<hw>Darling Shower</hw>, <i>n</i>. a local name in the interior +of Australia, and especially on the River Darling, for a dust +storm, caused by cyclonic winds. + +<hw>Dart</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Plan, scheme, idea [slang]. +It is an extension of the meaning--"sudden motion." + +1887. J. Farrell, `How: he died,' p. 20: + +"Whose `dart' for the Looard + Was to appear the justest steward + That ever hiked a plate round." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 9, p. 4, col. 2: + +"When I told them of my `dart,' some were contemptuous, +others incredulous." + +1892. Rolf Boldrewood, `Nevermore,' p. 22: + +"Your only dart is to buy a staunch horse with a tip-cart." + +(2) Particular fancy or personal taste. + +1895. Modern: + +"`Fresh strawberries eh!--that's my dart,' says the bushman +when he sees the fruit lunch in Collins-street." + +<hw>Darter</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English name for birds of the +genus <i>Plotus</i>. So called from the way it "darts" upon +its prey. The Australian species is <i>Plotus novae- +hollandiae</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Dasyure</hw>, and <hw>Dasyurus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +scientific name of the genus of Australian animals called +<i>Native Cats</i>. See under <i>Cat</i>. The first form is +the Anglicized spelling and is scientifically used in +preference to the misleading vernacular name. From the Greek +<i>dasus</i>, thick with hair, hairy, shaggy, and <i>'oura</i>, +tail. They range over Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the +adjacent islands. Unlike the <i>Thylacine</i> and <i>Tasmanian +Devil</i> (q.v.), which are purely terrestrial, the +<i>Dasyurus</i> are arboreal in their habits, while they are +both carnivorous and insectivorous. + +The Thylacine, Tasmanian Devil, Pouched Mice, and Banded +Ant-eater have sometimes been incorrectly classed as +<i>Dasyures</i>, but the name is now strictly allotted to the +genus <i>Dasyurus</i>, or <i>Native Cat</i>. + +<hw>Date, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland fruit, +<i>Capparis canescens</i>, Banks, <i>N.O. Capparideae</i>. +The fruit is shaped like a pear, and about half an inch +in its largest diameter. It is eaten raw by the aborigines. + +<hw>Deadbeat</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, it means a man "down +on his luck," "stone-broke," beaten by fortune. In America, +the word means an impostor, a sponge. Between the two uses the +connection is clear, but the Australian usage is logically the +earlier. + +<hw>Dead-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, a recent slang +term, meaning "a certainty." The metaphor is from +pigeon-shooting, where the bird being let loose in front of a +good shot is as good as dead. + +<hw>Dead-finish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a rough scrubtree. + +(1)<i>Albizzia basaltica</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +(2) <i>Acacia farnesiana</i>, Willd., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. See quotation, 1889. + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia', p. 272: + +"On the eastern face of the coast range are pine, red cedar, +and beech, and on the western slopes, rose-wood, myall, +dead-finish, plum-tree, iron-wood and sandal-wood, all woods +with a fine grain suitable for cabinet-making and fancy work." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 355: + +"Sometimes called by the absurd name of `Dead Finish.' This +name given to some species of Acacia and Albizzia, is on +account of the trees or shrubs shooting thickly from the +bottom, and forming an impenetrable barrier to the traveller, +who is thus brought to a `dead finish' (stop)" + +1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 60: + +"The hawthorn is admirably represented by a brush commonly +called `dead finish.'" [p. 61]: "Little knolls are crowned +with `dead finish' that sheep are always glad to nibble." + +<hw>Dead-wood Fence</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian fence, so +called, is very different from the fence of the same name in +England. It is high and big, built of fallen timber, logs +and branches. Though still used in Australia for fencing runs, +it is now usually superseded by wire fences. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 157: + +"A `dead-wood fence,' that is, a mass of timber four or five +feet thick, and five or six high, the lower part being formed +of the enormous trunks of trees, cut into logs six or eight +feet long, laid side by side, and the upper portion consisting +of the smaller branches skilfully laid over, or stuck down and +twisted." + +1872. G. Baden-Powell, `New Homes for the Old Country,' p. 207: + +"A very common fence is built by felling trees round the space +to be enclosed, and then with their stems as a foundation, +working up with the branches, a fence of a desirable height." + +<hw>Deal, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, +<i>Nageia elata</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. +For other vernacular names see quotation. + +1869. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 589: + +"Pine, white pine, called she-pine in Queensland; native deal, +pencil cedar. This tree has an elongated trunk, rarely +cylindrical; wood free from knots, soft, close, easily worked, +good for joiners' and cabinet-work; some trees afford planks of +great beauty. (Macarthur.) Fine specimens of this timber have +a peculiar mottled appearance not easily described, and often +of surpassing beauty." + +[See also <i>Pine</i>.] + +<hw>December</hw>, <i>n</i>. a summer month in Australia. +See <i>Christmas</i>. + +1885. J. Hood, `Land of the Fern,' p. 34: + +"Warm December sweeps with burning breath + Across the bosom of the shrinking earth." + +<hw>Deepsinker</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The largest sized tumbler; +(2) the long drink served in it. The idea is taken from +deep-sinking in a mining shaft. + +1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 15, p. 6, Col 5: + +"As athletes the cocoons can run rings round the beans; they +can jump out of a tumbler--whether medium, small, or deepsinker +is not recorded." + +<hw>Deep Yellow-Wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Rhus rhodanthema</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Anacardiaceae</i>. A tree with spreading head; +timber valuable. See <i>Yellow-Wood</i>. + +<hw>Deferred Payment</hw>, <i>n</i>. a legal phrase. "Land on +deferred payment"; "Deferred payment settler"; "Pastoral +deferred payment." These expressions in New Zealand have +reference to the mode of statutory alienation of Crown lands, +known in other colonies as conditional sale, etc., i.e. sale +on time payment, with conditions binding the settler to erect +improvements, ending in his acquiring the fee-simple. The +system is obsolete, but many titles are still incomplete. + +<hw>Dell-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Bell-bird</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Dendrolagus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus of Australian marsupials called <i>Tree-Kangaroos</i> +(q.v.). (Grk. <i>dendron</i>, a tree, and <i>lagows</i>, a +hare.) Unlike the other kangaroos, their fore limbs are nearly +as long as the hinder pair, and thus adapted for arboreal life. +There are five species, three belong to New Guinea and two to +Queensland; they are the Queensland Tree-Kangaroo, +<i>Dendrolagus lumholtzi</i>; Bennett's T.-k., +<i>D. bennettianus</i>; Black T.-k., <i>D. ursinus</i> : Brown +T.-k., <i>D. inustus</i>; Doria's T.-k., <i>D. dorianus</i>. +See <i>Kangaroo</i>. + +<hw>Derry</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang. The phrase "to have a down +on" (see <i>Down</i>) is often varied to "have a derry on." +The connection is probably the comic-song refrain, "Hey derry +down derry." + +1896. `The Argus,' March 19, p. 5, col. 9: + +"Mr. Croker: Certainly. We will tender it as evidence. +(To the witness.) Have you any particular `derry' upon this +Wendouree?--No; not at all. There are worse vessels knocking +about than the Wendouree." + +<hw>Dervener</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation, +and <i>Derwenter</i>. + +1896. `The Argus,' Jan. 2, p. 3, col. 4, Letters to the +Editor: + +"`Dervener.'--An expression used in continental Australia for a +man from the Derwent in Tasmania. Common up till 1850 at +least.--David Blair." + +Ibid. Jan. 3, p. 6, col. 6: + +"With respect to `dervener,' the word was in use while the blue +shirt race existed [sc. convicts], and these people did not +become extinct until after 1860.--Cymro-Victoria." + +<hw>Derwenter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a released convict from Hobart +Town, Tasmania, which is on the River Derwent. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xx. p. 140: + +"An odd pair of sawyers, generally `Derwenters,' as the +Tasmanian expirees were called." + +<hw>Desert Lemon</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Native +Kumquat</i>, <i>Atalantia glauca</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Rutacea</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 8: + +"The native kumquat or desert lemon. The fruit is globular, +and about half an inch in diameter. It produces an agreeable +beverage from its acid juice." + +<hw>Desert-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, <i>Casuarina +decaisneana</i>, F. v. M. See <i>Casuarina</i> and <i>Oak</i>. + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Narrative, p. 49: + +"We had now amongst these sandhills come into the region of the +`Desert Oak' (<i>Casuarina Decaisneana</i>). Some of the trees +reach a height of forty or fifty feet, and growing either +singly or in clumps form a striking feature amongst the thin +sparse scrub. . . . The younger ones resemble nothing so much +as large funeral plumes. Their outlines seen under a blazing +sun are indistinct, and they give to the whole scene a curious +effect of being `out of focus.'" + +<hw>Devil, Tasmanian</hw>, <i>n</i>. an animal, <i>Sarcophilus +ursinus</i>, Harris. Formerly, but erroneously, referred to +the genus <i>Dasyurus</i> (q.v.), which includes the <i>Native +Cat</i> (see under <i>Cat</i>): described in the quotations. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 29: + +"The devil, or as naturalists term it, <i>Dasyurus ursinus</i>, +is very properly named." + +1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 323: + +"The devil (<i>Dasyurus ursinus</i>, Geoff.), about the size of +a bull terrier, is an exceedingly fierce and disgusting-looking +animal, of a black colour, usually having one white band across +the chest, and another across the back, near the tail. It is a +perfect glutton, and most indiscriminate in its feeding." + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vii. p. 186: + +"<i>Dasyurus ursinus</i>--a carnivorous marsupial. Colonists +in Tasmania, where only it exists . . . called it the `devil,' +from the havoc it made among their sheep and poultry." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"In the next division is a pair of Tasmanian devils +(<i>Dasyurus ursinus</i>); these unprepossessing-looking brutes +are hated by every one in Tasmania, their habitat, owing to +their destructiveness amongst poultry, and even sheep. They +are black in colour, having only a white band across the chest, +and possess great strength in proportion to their size." + +<hw>Devil's Guts</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in Australia +to the <i>Dodder-Laurel</i> (see <i>Laurel</i>), <i>Cassytha +filiformis</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Lauraceae</i>. In Tasmania the +name is applied to <i>Lyonsia straminea</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. +Apocyneae</i>. + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"Lyonsia (<i>Lyonsia straminea</i>, Br.). Fibres of the bark +fine and strong. The lyonsia is met with, rather sparingly, in +dense thickets, with its stems hanging like ropes among the +trees." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `useful Native Plants,' p. 14: + +"This and other species of Cassythia are called +`dodder-laurel.' The emphatic name of `devil's guts' is +largely used. It frequently connects bushes and trees by +cords, and becomes a nuisance to the traveller." [This plant +is used by the Brahmins of Southern India for seasoning their +buttermilk. (`Treasury of Botany.')] + +Ibid. p. 162: + +"It is also used medicinally." + +<hw>Devil-on-the-Coals</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Bushman's name for +a small and quickly-baked damper. + +1862. Rev. A. Polehampton, `Kangaroo Land,' p. 77: + +"Instead of damper we occasionally made what is colonially +known as `devils on the coals.' . . . They are convenient when +there is not time to make damper, as only a minute or so is +required to bake them. They are made about the size of a +captain's biscuit, and as thin as possible, thrown on the +embers and turned quickly with the hand." + +<hw>Diamond Bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. In the time of +Gould this name was only applied to <i>Pardalotus +punctatus</i>, Temm. Since that time it has been extended to +all the species of the genus <i>Pardalotus</i> (q.v.). The +broken colour of the plumage suggested a sparkling jewel. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 238: + +"We are informed by Mr. Caley that this species is called +diamond bird by the settlers, from the spots on its body. +By them it is reckoned as valuable on account of its skin." + +<hw>Diamond Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Queensland and New South +Wales, <i>Pythonon spilotes</i>, Lacep.; in Tasmania, +<i>Hoplocephalus superhus</i>, Gray, venomous. See under +<i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Digger</hw>, <i>n</i>. a gold-miner. The earliest mines +were alluvial. Of course the word is used elsewhere, but in +Australia it has this special meaning. + +1852. Title: + +"Murray's Guide to the Gold Diggings.--The Australian Gold +Diggings; where they are, and how to get at them; with letters +from Settlers and Diggers telling how to work them. London: +Stewart & Murray) 1852." + +1853. Valiant, `Letter to Council,' given in McCombie's +`History of Victoria' (1853), c. xvi. p. 248: + +"It caused the diggers, as a body, to pause in their headlong +career." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Land, Labour, and Gold,' +vol. ii. p. 148, Letter xxx: + +"Buckland River, January 29th, 1854. The diggers here are a +very quiet and civil race, at the same time that they are a +most active and laborious one. . . . The principal part of +the diggers here are from the Ovens." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 31: + +"Drink success to the digger's trade, + And break up to the squatter's." + +1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 148: + +"His Father's Mate had always been a general favourite with the +diggers and fossickers, from the days when he used to slip out +first thing in the morning and take a run across the frosty +flat in his shirt." + +<hw>Digger's Delight</hw>, <i>n</i>. a flower, <i>Veronica +perfoliata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Scrophularaneae</i>, described +in quotations. + +1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' p. 64: + +"Digger's Delight, <i>Veronica perfoliata</i>, +<i>N.O. Scrophularineae</i>. A pretty, blue-flowering shrub, +with smooth stem-clasping leaves; found in the mountainous +districts of Victoria and New South Wales, and deriving its +common name from a supposition that its presence indicated +auriferous country. It is plentiful in the elevated cold +regions of Australia." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 147: + +"Such native flowers as the wild violet, the shepherd's purse, +or the blue-flowered `digger's delight.' This latter has come, +perhaps, with the seeds from some miner's holding amongst the +iron-barks in the gold country, and was once supposed to grow +only on auriferous soils. When no one would think of digging +for gold in this field, the presence of the flower is, perhaps, +as reliable an indication of a golconda underneath as the +reports and information on the strength of which many mining +companies are floated." + +<hw>Diggerdom</hw>, <i>n</i>. collective noun, the diggers. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"Diggerdom is gloriously in the ascendant here." + +<hw>Diggeress</hw>, <i>n</i>. a digger's wife. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"The digger marching off, followed by his diggeress, a tall, +slim young woman, who strode on like a trooper. . . . Open +carriages driving about, crowded with diggers and their +diggeresses." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 36: + +"I'm tir'd of being a diggeress, + And yearn a farmer's home to grace." + +<hw>Diggings</hw>, <i>n</i>. a place where gold-mining is +carried on. The word is generally regarded as singular. +Though common in Australia, it is very old, even in the sense +of a place where digging for gold is carried on. + +1769. De Foe's `Tour of Great Britain,' i. 39 (`O.E.D.'): + +"King Henry VIII. was induced to dig for Gold. He was +disappointed, but the Diggings are visible at this Day." + +1852. J. Morgan, `Life and Adventures of William Buckley' +(published at Hobart), p. 183 [quoting from the `Victoria +Commercial Review,' published at Melbourne, by +Messrs. Westgarth, Ross, & Co., under date September 1, 1851]: + +"The existence of a `goldfield' was not ascertained until May +last. . . . Numbers of persons are daily `prospecting' +throughout this Colony and New South Wales in search of +gold. . . .In Victoria, as well as in New South Wales, regular +`diggings' are now established." + +1852. Murray, `The Australian Gold Diggings: where they are +and how to get at them,' p. 1; + +"It cannot but be acceptable to the crowds of intending +colonists and gold seekers, to present them with a picture of +the `Progress of the Diggins,' [sic] drawn by the diggers." + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. xv. p. 234: + +"Immigrants who had not means to start to the diggings." + +1870. J. O. Tucker, `The Mute,' p. 48: + +"Ye glorious diggings `neath a southern clime! + I saw thy dawn." + +[`Ye,' `thy.' Is this singular or plural?] + +1887. H. H. Hayter, `Christmas Adventure,' p. i: + +"Fryer's creek, a diggings more than 90 miles from Melbourne." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vii. p. 71: + +"It was a goldfield and a diggings in far-away Australia." + +<hw>Dilli</hw>, later <hw>Dilly-bag</hw>, <i>n</i>. an +aboriginal word, coming from Queensland, for a bag made either +of grasses or of fur twisted into cord. <i>Dhilla</i> is the +term for hair in Kabi dialect, Mary River, Queensland. +<i>Dirrang</i> and <i>jirra</i> are corresponding words in the +east of New South Wales. The aboriginal word <i>dilli</i> has +been tautologically increased to <i>dilly-bag</i>, and the word +is used by bushmen for a little bag for odds-and-ends, even +though made of calico or holland. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 90: + +"In their `dillis' (small baskets) were several roots or +tubers." + +Ibid. p. 195: + +"A basket (dilli) which I examined was made of a species of +grass." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 34: + +"I learned too at the camp to plait dilly-bags." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 210: + +"Mayboy came forward dangling a small dilly-bag." + +1896. A.J. North, `Report of Australian Museum,' p. 26: + +"Dilly-bag (partly wool and partly grass)." + +<hw>Dingle-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> a poetical name for the +Australian <i>Bell-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 30: + +"The bell-like chimings of the distant dingle-bird." + +1883. C. Harpur, `Poems,' p. 78: + +"I . . . list the tinkling of the dinglebird." + +<hw>Dingo</hw>, <i>n</i>. the native dog of Australia, <i>Canis +dingo</i>. "The aborigines, before they obtained dogs from +Europeans, kept the dingo for hunting, as is still done by +coast tribes in Queensland. Name probably not used further +south than Shoalhaven, where the wild dog is called Mirigang." +(A. W. Howitt.) + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 280: + +[A dingo or dog of New South Wales. Plate. Description by J. +Hunter.] "It is capable of barking, although not so readily as +the European dogs; is very ill-natured and vicious, and snarls, +howls, and moans, like dogs in common. Whether this is the +only dog in New South Wales, and whether they have it in a wild +state, is not mentioned; but I should be inclined to believe +they had no other; in which case it will constitute the wolf of +that country; and that which is domesticated is only the wild +dog tamed, without having yet produced a variety, as in some +parts of America." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 614 [Vocab.]: + +"Jungo---Beasts, common name. + Tein-go---Din-go. + Wor-re-gal---Dog." + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 62: + +"The native dog also, which is a species of the wolf, was +proved to be fully equal in this respect [sport] to the fox; +but as the pack was not sufficiently numerous to kill these +animals at once, they always suffered so severely from their +bite that at last the members of the hunt were shy in allowing +the dogs to follow them." + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 55: + +"Tigko---a bitch." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes `(1855), p. 153: + +"I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, does not +hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal." + +1860. William Story, `Victorian Government Prize Essays,' p. 101: + +"The English hart is so greatly superior, as an animal of +chase, to that cunning poultry thief the fox, that I trust +Mister Reynard will never be allowed to become an Australian +immigrant, and that when the last of the dingoes shall have +shared the fate of the last English wolf, Australian Nimrods +will resuscitate, at the antipodes of England, the sterling old +national sport of hart hunting, conjointly with that of African +boks, gazelles, and antelopes, and leave the fox to their +English cousins, who cannot have Australian choice." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 103: + +"In the neighbourhood of Brisbane and other large towns where +they have packs, they run the dingoes as you do foxes at home." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 113: + +"The arms of the Wimmera should be rabbit and dingo, `rampant,' +supporting a sun, `or, inflamed.'" + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 71: + +"Dingoes, the Australian name for the wild dogs so destructive +to sheep. They were . . . neither more nor less than wolves, +but more cowardly and not so ferocious, seldom going in large +packs. They hunted kangaroos when in numbers, or driven to it +by hunger; but usually preferred smaller and more easily +obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 38: + +"On the large stations a man is kept whose sole work it is to +lay out poison for the dingo. The black variety with white +breast generally appears in Western Queensland along with the +red." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"The dingo of northern Australia can be distinguished from his +brother of the south by his somewhat smaller size and +courageous bearing. He always carries his tail curled over his +back, and is ever ready to attack any one or anything; whilst +the southern dingo carries his tail low, slinks along like a +fox, and is easily frightened. The pure dingo, which is now +exceedingly rare in a wild state, partly through the agency of +poison, but still more from the admixture of foreign breeds, is +unable to bark, and can only express its feelings in long-drawn +weird howls." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. l1, col. 4: + +"Why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away, +and the answer to it--another quavering note slightly more +shrill--so close at hand? Is it delusion or distance?" + +<hw>Dinornis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name given by +Professor Owen to the genus of huge struthious birds of the +post-Pliocene period, in New Zealand, which survive in the +traditions of the Maoris under the name of <i>Moa</i> (q.v.). +From the Greek <i>deinos</i>, terrible, and <i>'ornis</i>, +bird. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. Intro. +p. xviii: + +"The specimens [fossil-bones] transmitted . . . were confided +to the learned Professor [Owen] for determination; and these +materials, scanty as they were, enabled him to define the +generic characters of <i>Dinornis</i>, as afforded by the bones +of the hind extremity." + +Ibid. p. xxiv: + +"Professor Owen had well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary of terms +expressive of largeness by naming his successive discoveries +<i>ingens, giganteus, crassus, robustus</i>, and +<i>elephantopus</i>, when he had to employ the superlative +<i>Dinornis maximus</i> to distinguish a species far exceeding +in stature even the stately <i>Dinornis giganteus</i>. In this +colossal bird . . . some of the cervical vertebrae almost equal +in size the neck-bones of a horse! The skeleton in the British +Museum . . . measures 11 feet in height, and . . . some of these +feathered giants attained to a still greater stature." + +<hw>Dipper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a vessel with a handle at the top of +the side like a big tin mug. That with which one dips. The +word is not Australian, but is of long standing in the United +States, where it is used as a name for the constellation of the +<i>Great Bear</i>. + +1893. `Australasian Schoolmaster,' Feb.: + +"These answers have not the true colonial ring of the +following, which purports to be the remark of the woman of +Samaria: `Sir, the well is very deep, and you haven't got +a dipper.'" + +<hw>Dips</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotation. + +1859. G. Bunce, `Travels with Leichhardt,' p. 161: + +". . . Dr. Leichhardt gave the party a quantity of dough boys, +or as we called them, dips. . ." + +[p. 171]: "In this dilemma, Dr. Leichhardt ordered the cook to +mix up a lot of flour, and treated us all to a feed of dips. +These were made as follows:--a quantity of flour was mixed up +with water, and stirred with a spoon to a certain consistency, +and dropped into a pot of boiling water, a spoonful at a time. +Five minutes boiling was sufficient, when they were eaten with +the water in which they were boiled." + +<hw>Dirt</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, any alluvial deposit in +which gold is found; properly <i>Wash-dirt</i>. The word is +used in the United States. See quotation, 187. + +1853. Mrs. Chas. Clancy, `Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings,' +p. 109: + +"And after doing this several times, the `dirt,' of course, +gradually diminishing, I was overjoyed to see a few bright +specks." + +1857. Borthwick, `California,' [Bartlett, quoted in `O.E.D.'] +p. 120: + +"In California, `dirt' is the universal word to signify the +substance dug; earth, clay, gravel, or loose slate. The miners +talk of rich dirt and poor dirt, and of stripping off so many +feet of `top dirt' before getting to `pay-dirt,' the latter +meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it will pay to dig it +up and wash it." + +1870. J. O. Tucker, `The Mute,'p. 40: + +"Others to these the precious dirt convey, + Linger a moment till the panning's through." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xiv. p. 142: + +"We were clean worked out . . . before many of our neighbours +at Greenstone Gully, were half done with their dirt." + +Ibid. c. xviii. p. 177: + +"We must trust in the Oxley `dirt' and a kind Providence." + +<hw>Dish</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a small and rough +vessel in which gold is washed. The word is used in the United +States. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 17: + +"I have obtained good dish prospects after crudely crushing up +the quartz." + +<hw>Dishwasher</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old English bird-name for the +Water-Wagtail; applied in Australia to <i>Seisura inquieta</i>, +Lath., the <i>Restless Fly-catcher</i> (q.v.). <i>Seisura</i> +is from Grk. <i>seiein</i> (to shake), and <i>'oura</i> (a +tail), being thus equal in meaning to Wagtail. Also called +<i>Dishlick, Grinder</i>, and <i>Razor-grinder</i> (q.v.). + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 250: + +"This bird is called by the colonists Dishwasher. It is very +curious in its actions. In alighting on the stump of a tree it +makes several semi-circular motions, spreading out its tail, +and making a loud noise somewhat like that caused by a +razor-grinder when at work." + +<hw>Distoechurus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus of the New Guinea Pentailed-Phalanger, or so-called +<i>Opossum-mouse</i> (q.v.). It has a tail with the long hairs +arranged in two opposite rows, like the vanes of a +feather.(Grk. <i>distoichos</i>, with two rows, and +<i>'oura</i>, a tail.) + +<hw>Diver</hw>, <i>n</i>. common bird-name used in Australia +for a species of Grebe. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vii. pl. 80: + +"<i>Podiceps australis</i>, Gould; Australian Tippet Grebe; +Diver of the Colonists." + +<hw>Doctor</hw>, <i>n</i>. word used in the South Australian +bush for "the cook." + +1896. `The Australasian,' June 13, p. 1133, col. 1: + +"`The doctor's in the kitchen, and the boss is in the shed; + The overseer's out mustering on the plain; + Sling your bluey down, old boy, for the clouds are overhead, + You are welcome to a shelter from the rain.'" + +<hw>Dodder Laurel</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Devil's Guts</i> + (q.v.). + +<hw>Dog-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name belongs to various +fishes of distinct families, chiefly sharks. In Australia, +it is used for the fish <i>Scyllium lima</i>, family +<i>Scylliidae</i>. In New South Wales it is <i>Scyllium +maculatum</i>, Bl. The <i>Sprite Dog-fish</i> of New Zealand +is <i>Acanthias maculatus</i>, family <i>Spinacidae</i>. The +<i>Spotted Dog-fish</i> of New South Wales is <i>Scyllium +anale</i>. The <i>Dusky Dogfish</i> of New South Wales is +<i>Chiloscyllium modestum</i>, Gunth., and there are others +in Tasmania and Australia. + +<hw>Dogleg</hw>, <i>adj</i>. applied to a primitive kind of +fence made of rough timber. Crossed spars, which are the +doglegs, placed at intervals, keep in place a low rail resting +on short posts, and are themselves fixed by heavy saplings +resting in the forks above. + +1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we saw in Australia,' p. 61: + +". . . we made acquaintance with the `dog's leg' fence. +This is formed of bare branches of the gum-tree laid obliquely, +several side by side, and the ends overlapping, so that they +have somewhat the appearance that might be presented by the +stretched-out legs of a crowd of dogs running at full speed. +An upright stick at intervals, with a fork at the top, on which +some of the cross-branches rest, adds strength to the +structure." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 13: + +"While the primaeval `dog-leg' fence of the Victorian bush, +or the latter-day `chock and log' are no impediments in the path +of our foresters." [sc. kangaroos; see <i>Forester</i>.] + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 71: + +"As we rode up we could see a gunyah made out of boughs, and a +longish wing of dog leg fence, made light but well put +together." + +<hw>Dog's Tongue</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the plant +<i>Cynoglossum suaveolens</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Asperifoliae</i>. + +<hw>Dogwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. various trees and their wood; none +of them the same as those called <i>dogwood</i> in the Northern +Hemisphere, but their woods are used for similar purposes, e.g. +butchers' skewers, fine pegs, and small pointed wooden +instruments. In Australia generally, <i>Jacksonia +scoparia</i>, R. Br., also <i>Myoporum platycarpum</i>, R. Br. +In Tasmania, <i>Bedfordia salicina</i>, De C., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i>, which is also called <i>Honeywood</i>, +and in New South Wales, <i>Cottonwood</i> (q.v.), and the two +trees <i>Pomaderris elliptica</i>, Lab., and <i>P. apetala</i>, +Lab., <i>N.O. Rhamnaceae</i>, which are called respectively +<i>Yellow</i> and <i>Bastard Dogwood</i>. See also +<i>Coranderrk</i>. In parts of Tasmania, <i>Pomaderris +apetala</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Rhamn/ac?/eae</i>, is also called +<i>Dogwood</i>, or <i>Bastard Dogwood</i>. + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 16: + +"There is a secluded hollow of this kind near Kangaroo Bottom, +near Hobart Town, where the common dogwood of the colony +(pomaderris apetala) has sprung up so thick and tall, that Mr. +Babington and myself having got into it unawares one day, had +the greatest difficulty imaginable to get out after three or +four hours' labour. Not one of the plants was more than six +inches apart from the others, while they rose from 6 to 12 +yards in height, with leaves at the top which almost wholly +excluded the light of the sun." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 11: + +"Iron-bark ridges here and there, with spotted gum, with +dogwood (<i>Jacksonia</i>) on a sandy soil." (p. 20): "A +second creek, with running water, which from the number of +dogwood shrubs (<i>Jacksonia</i>), in the full glory of their +golden blossoms, I called `Dogwood Creek.'" + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods,' p. 46: + +"Native dogwood, a hard, pale-brown, well-mottled wood; good +for turnery." + +<hw>Dogwood Poison-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales name; +the same as <i>Ellangowan Poison-bush</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Dollar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Holy Dollar</i>. + +<hw>Dollar-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the <i>Roller</i> +(q.v.). See quotations. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 202: + +"The settlers call it dollar-bird, from the silver-like spot on +the wing." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia;' vol. ii. pl. 17: + +"<i>Eurystomus Australis</i>, Swains., Australian Roller. +Dollar Bird of the Colonists. During flight the white spot in +the centre of each wing, then widely expanded, shows very +distinctly, and hence the name of Dollar Bird.'" + +1851. I. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 183: + +"The Dollar-bird derives its name from a round white spot the +size of a dollar, on its wing. It is very handsome, and flies +in rather a peculiar manner. It is the only bird which I have +observed to perform regular migrations; and it is strange that +in such a climate any one should do so. But it appears that +the dollar-bird does not relish even an Australian winter. +It is the harbinger of spring and genial weather." + +<hw>Dollar-fish</hw> <i>n</i>. a name often given formerly to +the <i>John Dory</i> (q.v.), from the mark on its side. See +quotation, 1880. The name <i>Dollar-fish</i> is given on the +American coasts to a different fish. + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 451: + +"The fishermen of Roman Catholic countries hold this fish in +special respect, as they recognize in a black round spot on its +side the mark left by the thumb of St. Peter, when he took the +piece of money from its mouth." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 62: + +"The dory has been long known, and when the currency of the +colony was in Mexican coin it was called a `dollar-fish.'" + +<hw>Dorca-Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Dorcopsis</i> and +<i>Kangaroo</i>. + +<hw>Dorcopsis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus of +little Kangaroos with pretty gazelle-like faces. +(Grk. <i>dorkas</i>, a gazelle, and <i>'opsis</i>, appearance.) +They are called <i>Dorca-Kangaroos</i>, and are confined to New +Guinea, and form in some respects a connecting link between +<i>Macropus</i> and the <i>Tree-Kangaroo</i> (q.v.). There are +three species--the Brown Dorca Kangaroo, <i>Dorcopsis +muelleri</i>; Grey D., <i>D. luctuosa</i>, Macleay's D., +<i>D. macleayi</i>. See <i>Kangaroo</i> (e). + +<hw>Dottrel</hw>, <i>n</i>. formerly <i>Dotterel</i>, common +English bird-name, applied in Australia to <i>Charadrius +australis</i>, Gould. + +Black-fronted Dottrel-- + <i>Charadrius nigrifrons</i>, Temm. + +Double-banded D.-- + <i>C. bicincta</i>, Jord. and Selb. + +Hooded D.-- + <i>C. monacha</i>, Geoff. + +Large Sand D.-- + <i>C. (AEgialitis)</i> geoffroyi, Wag. + +Mongolian Sand D.-- + <i>C. (AEgialitis) mongolica</i>, Pallas. + +Oriental D.-- + <i>C. veredus</i>, Gould. + +Red-capped Dottrel-- + <i>Charadrius ruficapilla</i>, Temm.; called also +<i>Sand-lark</i>. + +Red-necked D.-- + <i>C. (AEgialitis) mastersi</i>, Ramsay. + +Ringed D.-- + <i>C. hiaticula</i>, Linn. [See also Red-knee.] + + +<hw>Dove</hw>, <i>n</i>. a well-known English bird-name, +applied in Australia to the-- + +Barred-shouldered Dove-- + <i>Geopelia humeralis</i>, Temm. + +Ground D.-- + <i>G. tranquilla</i>, Gould. + +Little D.-- + <i>G. cuneata</i>, Lath. [See also Ground-dove.] + +<hw>Dove-Petrel</hw>, <i>n</i>. a well-known English bird-name. +The species in the-Southern Seas are-- + + <i>Prion turtur</i>, Smith. + +Banks D.-P.-- + <i>P. banksii</i>, Smith. + +Broad-billed D.-P.-- + <i>P. vittata</i>, Forst. + +Fairy D.-P.-- + <i>P. ariel</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Dover</hw>, <i>n</i>. a clasp knife, by a maker of that +name, once much used in the colonies. + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 418: + +"In plates and knives scant is the shepherd's store, + `Dover' and pan are all, he wants no more." + +1893. April 15, `A Traveller's Note': + +"`So much a week and the use of my Dover' men used to say in +making a contract of labour." + +1894. `Bush Song' [Extract]: + +"Tie up the dog beside the log, + And come and flash your Dover." + +<hw>Down</hw>, <i>n</i>. a prejudice against, hostility to; +a peculiarly Australian noun made out of the adverb. + +1856. W. W. Dobie, `Recollections of a Visit to Port Philip,' +p. 84: + +". . . the bushranger had been in search of another squatter, +on whom `he said he had a down'. . ." + +1884. J. W. Bull, `Early Life in South Australia,' p. 179: + +"It was explained that Foley had a private `down' on them, +as having stolen from him a favourite kangaroo dog." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia, vol. iv. p. 180: + +"They [diggers] had a `dead down' on all made dishes." + +1893. Professor Gosman, `The Argus,' April 24, p. 7, col. 4: + +"That old prejudice in the minds of many men to the effect that +those who represented the churches or religious people had a +regular down upon freedom of thought." + +1893. `The Age,' June 24, p. 5, col. 1: + +"Mr. M. said it was notorious in the department that one of the +commissioners had had `a down' on him." + +1893. R. L. Stevenson, `Island Nights' Entertainments,' p. 46: + +"`They have a down on you,' says Case. `Taboo a man because +they have a down on him'' I cried. `I never heard the like.'" + +<hw>Down</hw>, <i>adv</i>. "To come, or be down," is the phrase +used in Australian Universities for to be "plucked," or +"ploughed," or "spun," i.e., to fail in an examination. It has +been in use for a few years, certainly not earlier than 1886. +The metaphor is either taken from a fall from a horse, or +perhaps from the prize-ring. The use has no connection with +being "sent down," or "going down," at Oxford or Cambridge. + +<hw>Draft</hw>, <i>v</i>. to separate and sort cattle. An +adaptation of the meaning "to select and draw off for +particular service," especially used of soldiers. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. vi. p. 46: + +"I should like to be drafting there again." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Squatter's Dream,' p. 2: + +"There were those cattle to be drafted that had been brought +from the Lost Waterhole." + +<hw>Draft</hw>, <i>n</i>. a body of cattle separated from the +rest of the herd. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ii. p. 22: + +"A draft of out-lying cattle rose and galloped off." + +<hw>Drafter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man engaged in drafting cattle. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 227: + +"They behave better, though all the while keeping the drafters +incessantly popping at the fence by truculent charges." + +<hw>Drafting-gate</hw>, <i>n</i>. gate used in separating +cattle and sheep into different classes or herds. + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 4, col. 7: + +"But the tent-flap seemed to go up and down quick as a +drafting-gate." + +<hw>Drafting-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. a stick used in drafting +cattle. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. x. p. 72: + +"We . . . armed ourselves with drafting-sticks and resolutely +faced it." + +<hw>Drafting-yard</hw>, <i>n</i>. a yard for drafting cattle. + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 13, col. 1: + +"There were drafting-yards and a tank a hundred yards off, +but no garden." + +<hw>Dray</hw>, <i>n</i>. an ordinary cart for goods. See +quotation, 1872. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. Intro. p. xlix: + +"They send their produce to the market . . . receiving supplies +for home consumption on the return of their drays or carts from +thence." + +1872. C. H. Eden, "My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 31: + +"A horse dray, as known in Australia, is by no means the +enormous thing its name would signify, but simply an ordinary +cart on two wheels without springs." [There are also +spring-drays.] + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 41: + +"One told by camp fires when the station drays + Were housed and hidden, forty years ago." + +<hw>Dromicia</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +Australian <i>Dormouse Phalangers</i>, or little +<i>Opossum</i>- or <i>Flying-Mice</i>, as they are locally +called. See <i>Opossum</i>, <i>Opossum-mouse</i>, and +<i>Phalanger</i>. They are not really the "Flying"-Mice or +Flying-phalanger, as they have only an incipient parachute, but +they are nearly related to the <i>Pigmy Petaurists</i> (q.v.) +or small <i>Flying-Phalangers</i>. (Grk. <i>dromikos</i>, good +at running, or swift.) + +<hw>Drongo</hw>, <i>n</i>. This bird-name was "given by Le +Vaillant in the form <i>drongeur</i> to a South African bird +afterwards known as the Musical Drongo, <i>Dicrurus +musicus</i>, then extended to numerous . . . fly-catching, +crow-like birds." (`Century.') The name is applied in +Australia to <i>Chibia bracteata</i>, Gould, which is called +the <i>Spangled Drongo</i>. + +1895. W. 0. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 448: + +"There being but one member of the interesting Asiatic genus +<i>Drongo</i> in Australia, it was thought best to characterize +it simply as the <i>Drongo</i> without any qualifying term." + +<hw>Drop</hw>, <i>n</i>. (Slang.) To "have the drop on" is to +forestall, gain advantage over, especially by covering with a +revolver. + +It is curious that while an American magazine calls this phrase +Australian (see quotation), the `Dictionary of Slang'--one +editor of which is the distinguished American, Godfrey +C. Leland--says it is American. It is in common use in +Australia. + +1894. `Atlantic Monthly,' Aug., p. 179. + +"His terrible wife, if we may borrow a phrase from Australia, +`had the drop on him' in every particular." + +<hw>Drooping Acacia</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Acacia</i>. + +<hw>Drove</hw>, <i>v</i>. to drive travelling cattle or sheep. + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 334: + +"I don't know how you'd be able to get on without the `boys' to +muster, track, and drove." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River' [Poem `In the +Droving Days'], p. 95: + +"For though lie scarcely a trot can raise, + He can take me back to the droving days." + +<hw>Drum</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bundle; more usually called +a <i>swag</i> (q.v.). + +1866. Wm. Starner, `Recollections of a Life of Adventure,' +vol. i. p. 304 + +". . . and `humping his drum' start off for the diggings to +seek more gold." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 17: + +"They all chaffed us about our swags, or donkeys, or drums, +as a bundle of things wrapped in a blanket is indifferently +called." + +1886. Frank Cowan, `Australia, Charcoal Sketch,' p. 31: + +"The Swagman: bed and board upon his back--or, having humped +his drum and set out on the wallaby . . ." + +<hw>Drummer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales name for the fish +<i>Girella elevata</i>, Macl., of the same family as the +<i>Black-fish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Dry-blowing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Western Australian term in +gold-mining. + +1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5, col. 5: + +"When water is not available, as unfortunately is the case at +Coolgardie, `dry blowing' is resorted to. This is done by +placing the pounded stuff in one dish, and pouring it slowly at +a certain height into the other. If there is any wind blowing +it will carry away the powdered stuff; if there is no wind the +breath will have to be used. It is not a pleasant way of +saving gold, but it is a case of Hobson's choice. The +unhealthiness of the method is apparent." + +<hw>Duboisine</hw>, <i>n</i>. an alkaloid derived from the +plant <i>Duboisia myoposides</i>, <i>N.O. Sofanaceae</i>, a +native of Queensland and New South Wales. It is used in +medicine as an application to the eye for the purpose of +causing the pupil to dilate, in the same way as atropine, an +alkaloid obtained from the belladonna plant in Europe, has long +been employed. Duboisine was discovered and introduced into +therapeutics by a Brisbane physician. + +<hw>Duck</hw>, <i>n</i>. the well-known English name of the +birds of the <i>Anatinae, Fuligulinae</i>, and other series, +of which there are about 125 species comprised in about 40 genera. +The Australian genera and species are--- + +Blue-billed Duck-- + <i>Erismatura australis</i>, Gould. + +Freckled D.-- + <i>Stictonetta naevosa</i>, Gould. + +Mountain D. (the Shel-drake, q.v.). + +Musk D. (q.v.)-- + <i>Biziura lobata</i>, Shaw. + +Pink-eared D., or Widgeon (q.v.)-- + <i>Malacorhynchus membranaceus</i>, Lath. + +Plumed Whistling D.-- + <i>Dendrocygna eytoni</i>, Gould. + +Whistling D.-- + <i>D. vagans</i>, Eyton. [Each species of the + <i>Dendrocygna</i> called also by sportsmen Tree-duck.] + +White-eyed D., or Hard-head (q.v.)-- + <i>Nyroca australis</i>, Gould. + +Wild D.-- + <i>Anas superciliosa</i>, Gmel. + +Wood D. (the Maned Goose; see <i>Goose</i>). + +The following is a table of the ducks as compiled by Gould nearly +fifty years ago. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vii: + + Plate + +<i>Anas superciliosa</i>, Gmel. + Australian Wild Duck . . . 9 + +<i>Anas naevosa</i>, Gould, + Freckled Duck . . . 10 + +<i>Anas punctata</i>, Cuv. + Chestnut-breasted Duck . . . 11 + +<i>Spatula Rhyncotis</i>, + Australian Shoveller . . . 12 + +<i>Malacorhynchus membranaceus</i>, . . . 13 + Membranaceous Duck + +<i>Dendrocygna arcuata</i>, + Whistling Duck (q.v.) . . . 14 + +<i>Leptolarsis Eytoni</i>, Gould, + Eyton's Duck . . . 15 + +<i>Nyroca Australis</i>, Gould, + White-eyed Duck . . . 16 + +<i>Erismatura Australis</i>, + Blue-billed Duck . . . 17 + +<i>Biziura lobata</i>, + Musk Duck . . . 18 + +The following is Professor Parker's statement of the New Zealand +<i>Ducks</i>. + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 117: + +"There are eleven species of Native Ducks belonging to nine +genera, all found elsewhere, except two--the little Flightless +Duck of the Auckland Islands (genus <i>Nesonetta</i>) and the +Blue Mountain Duck (<i>Hymenolaemus</i>). Among the most +interesting of the non-endemic forms, are the Paradise Duck or +Sheldrake (<i>Casarca variegata</i>), the Brown Duck (<i>Anas +chlorotis</i>), the Shoveller or Spoonbill Duck (<i>Rhynchaspis +variegata</i>), and the Scaup or Black Teal (<i>Fuligula +Novae-Zealandiae</i>)." + +<hw>Duckbill</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Platypus</i>. Sometimes +also called <i>Duckmole</i>. + +<hw>Duckmole</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Platypus</i>. + +1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,' +in `Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales,' p. 496: + +"When sooty swans are once more rare, + And duck-moles the museum's care." + +[Appendix : "Water or duck-mole."] + +1875. Schmidt, `Descent and Darwinism,' p. 237: + +"The Ornithorhyncus or duck-mole of Tasmania." + +<hw>Duck-shoving</hw>, and <hw>Duckshover</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a cabman's phrase. + +In Melbourne, before the days of trams, the wagonette-cabs used +to run by a time-table from fixed stations at so much +(generally 3<i>d</i>.) a passenger. A cabman who did not wait +his turn on the station rank, but touted for passengers up and +down the street in the neighbourhood of the rank, was termed a +<i>Duck-shover</i>. + +1870. D. Blair, `Notes and Queries,' Aug. 6, p. 111: + +"Duck-shoving is the term used by our Melbourne cabmen to +express the unprofessional trick of breaking the rank, in order +to push past the cabman on the stand for the purpose of picking +up a stray passenger or so." + +1896. `Otago Daily Times,' Jan. 25, p. 3, col. 6: + +"The case was one of a series of cases of what was technically +known as `duck shoving,' a process of getting passengers which +operated unfairly against the cabmen who stayed on the licensed +stand and obeyed the by-law." + +<hw>Dudu</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a pigeon, +fat-breasted, and very good eating. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (3rd ed. 1855), c. vii. +p. 170: + +"In the grassland, a sort of ground pigeon, called the dudu, +a very handsome little bird, got up and went off like a +partridge, strong and swift, re-alighting on the ground, and +returning to cover." + +<hw>Duff</hw>, <i>v</i>. to steal cattle by altering the +brands. + +1869. E. Carton Booth, `Another England,' p. 138: + +"He said there was a `duffing paddock' somewhere on the Broken +River, into which nobody but the owner had ever found an +entrance, and out of which no cattle had ever found their +way--at any rate, not to come into their owner's +possession. . . . The man who owned the `duffing paddock' +was said to have a knack of altering cattle brands . . ." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xiv. p. 162: + +"I knew Redcap when he'd think more of duffing a red heifer +than all the money in the country." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 95: + +"As to the calves I'm a few short myself, as I think that +half-caste chap of yours must have `duffed.'" + +<hw>Duffer</hw>, <i>n.</i> a cattle stealer, +i.q. <i>Cattle-duffer</i> (q.v.). + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxv. p. 352: + +"What's a little money . . . if your children grow up duffers +and planters?" + +<hw>Duffer</hw>2, <i>n</i>. a claim on a mine which turns out +unproductive, called also <i>shicer</i> (q.v.). [This is only +a special application of the slang English, <i>duffer</i>, an +incapable person, or a failure. Old English <i>Daffe</i>, a +fool] + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 193: + +"It was a terrible duffer anyhow, every ounce of gold got from +it cost L 20 I'll swear." + +1864. J Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55: + +"Tho' <i>duffers</i> are so common + And golden gutters rare, + The mining sons of woman + Can much ill fortune bear." + +1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 291: + +"A shaft sunk without any produce from it is a duffer. . . . +But of these excavations the majority were duffers. It is the +duffering part of the business which makes it all so sad.So +much work is done from which there is positively no return." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 266: + +"The place is then declared to be a `duffer,' and abandoned, +except by a few fanatics, who stick there for months and +years." + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014: + +"Another duffer! Rank as ever was bottomed! Seventy-five feet +hard delving and not a colour!" + +<hw>Duffer out</hw>, <i>v</i>. A mine is said to duffer out, +when it has ceased to be productive. + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 279: + +"He then reported to the shareholders that the lode had +`duffered out,' and that it was useless to continue working." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 73: + +"Cloncurry has, to use the mining parlance, duffered out." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 58: + +"`So you're duffered out again, Harry,' she said." + +<hw>Dugong Oil</hw>, <i>n</i>. an oil obtained in Australia, +from <i>Halicore dugong</i>, Gmel., by boiling the superficial +fat. A substitute for cod-liver oil. The dugongs are a genus +of marine mammals in the order <i>Sirenia</i>. +<i>H. dugong</i> inhabits the waters of North and North-east +Australia, the southern shores of Asia, and the east coast of +Africa. The word is Malay. + +<hw>Dug-out</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name imported into New Zealand +from America, but the common name for an ordinary Maori canoe. + +<hw>Duke Willy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Whistling Dick</i>. + +<hw>Dummy</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) In Australia, when land was +thrown open for <i>selection</i> (q.v.), the squatters who had +previously the use of the land suffered. Each squatter +exercised his own right of selection. Many a one also induced +others to select nominally for themselves, really for the +squatter. Such selector was called a dummy. The law then +required the selector to swear that he was selecting the land +for his own use and benefit. Some of the dummies did not +hesitate to commit perjury. Dictionaries give "dummy, +<i>adj</i>. fictitious or sham." The Australian noun is an +extension of this idea. Webster gives "(<i>drama</i>) one who +plays a merely nominal part in any action, sham character." +This brings us near to the original <i>dumby</i>, from +<i>dumb</i>, which is radically akin to German <i>dumm</i>, +stupid. + +1866. D. Rogerson, `Poetical Works, p. 23: + +"The good selectors got most of the land, + The dummies being afraid to stand." + +1866. H. Simcox, `Rustic Rambles, p. 21: + +"See the dummies and the mediums, + Bagmen, swagmen, hastening down." + +1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra and Manaro,' p. 125: + +"Since free selection was introduced, a good many of the +squatters (they say, in self-defence) have, in turn, availed +themselves of it, to secure `the eyes' or water-holes of the +country, so far as they could by means of `dummies,' and other +blinds." + +1879. R. Niven, `Fraser's Magazine,' April, p. 516: + +"This was the, in the colony, well-known `dummy' system. Its +nature may be explained in a moment. It was simply a swindling +transaction between the squatter on the one hand and some +wretched fellow on the other, often a labourer in the +employment of the squatter, in which the former for a +consideration induced the latter to personate the character of +a free selector, to acquire from the State, for the purpose of +transferring to himself, the land he most coveted out of that +thrown open for selection adjoining his own property." + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb. p. 140: + +"By this device the squatter himself, all the members of the +family, his servants, shepherds, boundary-riders, station-hands +and rabbiters, each registered a section, the dummies duly +handing their `selection' over to the original holder for a +slight consideration." + +(2) Colloquial name for the grip-car of the Melbourne trams. +Originally the grip-car was not intended to carry passengers: +hence the name. + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), p. 5, col. 5: + +"Linked to the car proper is what is termed a dummy." + +1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 2, p. 7, col. 5: + +"But on the tramcar, matters were much worse. The front seat +of the dummy was occupied by a young Tasmanian lady and her +cousin, and, while one portion of the cart struck her a +terrible blow on the body, the shaft pinned her by the neck +against the front stanchion of the dummy." + +<hw>Dummy</hw>, <i>v</i>. to obtain land in the way above +described. + +1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. vi. p. 101: + +"Each partner in the run has purchased his ten thousand, +and there have been many Mrs. Harrises. The Mrs. Harris system +is generally called dummying--putting up a non-existent +free-selector--and is illegal. But I believe no one will deny +that it has been carried to a great extent." + +1896. `The Champion' (Melbourne), Jan. 11: + +"The verb `to dummy' and the noun `dummyism' are purely +Australian, quotations to illustrate the use of which can be +obtained from `Hansard,' the daily papers, and such works as +Epps' monograph on the `Land Tenure Systems of Australasia.'" + +<hw>Dummyism</hw>, <i>n</i>. obtaining land by +misrepresentation. See <i>Dummy, n</i>. + +1875. `The Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, p. 8, col. 2: + +"`Larrikinism' was used as a synonym for `blackguardism,' +and `dummyism' for perjury." + +1876. `The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 6, col. 6: + +"Mr. Bent thought that a stop should be put to all selection +and dummyism till a land law was introduced." + +1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 98: + +"This baneful and illegal system of land-grabbing is known +throughout the colonies by the expressive name of `dummyism,' +the persons professing to be genuine selectors, desirous of +establishing themselves on the soil, being actually the agents +or the `dummies of the adjoining squatters." + +<hw>Dump</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small coin formerly used in +Australia and Tasmania. Its history is given in the +quotations. In England the word formerly meant a heavy +leaden counter; hence the expression, "I don't care a dump." +See <i>Holy Dollar</i>. + +1822. `Hobart Town Gazette,' December 14: + +"Government Public Notice.--The Quarter Dollars, or `Dumps,' +struck from the centre of the Spanish Dollar, and issued by +His Excellency Governor Macquarie, in the year 1813, at One +Shilling and Threepence each, will be exchanged for Treasury +Bills at Par, or Sterling money." + +1823. `Sydney Gazette,' Jan. ['Century']: + +"The small colonial coin denominated dumps have all been called +in. If the dollar passes current for five shillings the dump +lays claim to fifteen pence value still in silver money." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 44 + +"He only solicits the loan of a `dump,' on pretence of treating +his sick gin to a cup of tea." + +Ibid. p. 225: + +"The genuine name of an Australian coin, in value +1<i>s</i>. 3<i>d</i>." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 141: + +"Tattered promissory notes, of small amount and doubtful +parentage, fluttered about the colony; dumps, struck out from +dollars, were imitated by a coin prepared without requiring +much mechanical ingenuity." + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. iii. p. 131: + +"The Spanish dollar was much used. A circular piece was struck +out of the centre about the size of a shilling, and it was +called a `dump.'" + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 5: + +"The coin current in those days (1829) consisted of ring- +dollars and dumps, the dump being the centre of the dollar +punched out to represent a smaller currency." + +1893. `The Daily News' (London), May 11, p. 4: + +"The metallic currency was then [1819-25] chiefly Spanish +dollars, at that time and before and afterwards the most widely +disseminated coin in the world, and they had the current value +of 5<i>s</i>. But there were too few of them, and therefore +the centre of them was cut out and circulated under the name of +`dumps' at 1<i>s</i>. 3<i>d</i>. each, the remainder of the +coin--called by way of a pun, `holy dollars'--still retaining +its currency value of 5<i>s</i>." + +<hw>Dump</hw>, <i>v</i>. to press closely; applied to wool. +Bales are often marked "not to be dumped." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 98: + +"The great object of packing so close is to save carriage +through the country, for however well you may do it, it is +always re-pressed, or `dumped,' as it is called, by hydraulic +pressure on its arrival in port, the force being so great as to +crush two bales into one." + +1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we saw in Australia,' p. 207: + +"From the sorting-tables the fleeces are carried to the +packing-shed; there, by the help of machinery, they are pressed +into sacks, and the sacks are then themselves heavily pressed +and bound with iron bands, till they become hard cubes. This +process is called `dumping.'" + +<hw>Dumplings</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Apple-berry</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Dundathee</hw>, or <hw>Dundathu Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +Queensland species (<i>Agathis robusta</i>, Sal.) of the +<i>Kauri Pine</i> (q.v.); and see <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Dungaree-Settler</hw>, <i>n</i>. Now obsolete. See +quotation. + +1852. Anon, `Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of +Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 11: + +"The poor Australian settler (or, according to colonist +phraseology, the Dungaree-settler; so called from their +frequently clothing themselves, their wives, and children +in that blue Indian manufacture of cotton known as +<i>Dungaree</i>) sells his wheat crop." + +<hw>Dunite</hw>, <i>n</i>. an ore in New Zealand, so called +from Dun mountain, near Nelson. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 56: + +"Chrome ore. This ore, which is a mixture of chromic iron and +alumina, is chiefly associated with magnesian rock, resembling +olivine in composition, named Dunite by Dr. Hochstetter." + +<hw>Dust</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang for flour. + +1893. Dec. 12, `A Traveller's Note': + +"A bush cook said to me to-day, we gave each sundowner a +pannikin of dust." + +<hw>Dwarf-box</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Eucalyptus microtheca</i>, +F. v. M. See <i>Box</i>. This tree has also many other names. +See Maiden's `Useful Native Plants,' p. 495. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 22: + +"Dwarf-box and the acacia pendula prevailed along the plains." + + + + +E + + + +<hw>Eagle</hw>, <i>n.</i> There are nine species of the true +Eagle, all confined to the genus <i>Haliaetus</i>, such as the +<i>Baldheaded Eagle (H. leucocephalus)</i>, the national emblem +of the United States. (`Century.') In Australia the name is +assigned to-- + +Little Eagle-- + <i>Aquila morphnoides</i>, Gould. + +Wedge-tailed E. (Eagle-hawk)-- + <i>A. audax</i>, Lath. + +Whistling E.-- + <i>Haliaetus sphenurus</i>, Vieill. + +White-bellied Sea E.-- + <i>H. leucogaster</i>, Gmel. + +White-headed Sea E.-- + <i>Haliaster girrenera</i>, Vieill. + +<hw>Eaglehawk</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian name for the bird +<i>Uroaetus</i>, or <i>Aquila audax</i>, Lath. The name was +applied to the bird by the early colonists of New South Wales, +and has persisted. In `O.E.D.' it is shown that the name was +used in Griffith's translation (1829) of Cuvier's `Regne +Animal' as a translation of the French <i>aigle-autour</i>, +Cuvier's name for a South American bird of prey of the genus +<i>Morphnus</i>, called <i>Spizaetus</i> by Vieillot; but it is +added that the word never came into English use. See +<i>Eagle</i>. There is a town in Victoria called Eaglehawk. +The Bendigo cabmen make the name a monosyllable, "Glawk." + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar, p. 56: + +"The large eaglehawk, which devours young kangaroos, lambs, +etc." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pl. 1: + +"<i>Aquila Fucosa</i>, Cuv., [now <i>A. audax</i>, Lath.] +Wedge-tailed eagle. Eaglehawk, Colonists of New South Wales." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 106: + +"We knew it was dying, as two large eaglehawks were hovering +about over it." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 251: + +"The hair of a person is tied on the end of the throwing-stick, +together with the feathers of the eagle hawk." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia', p. 106: + +"Since the destruction of native dogs and eagle-hawks by the +squatters, who stocked the country with sheep, the kangaroos +have not a single natural enemy left." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 35: + +"On the New South Wales side of the river the eagle-hawk is +sometimes so great a pest amongst the lambs that the settlers +periodically burn him out by climbing close enough to the nest +to put a fire-stick in contact with it." + +<hw>Eagle-hawking</hw>, <i>n.</i> bush slang: plucking wool off +dead sheep. + +<hw>Eagle-Ray</hw>, <i>n.</i> name belonging to any large +<i>Ray</i> of the family <i>Myliobatidae</i>; the New Zealand +species is <i>Myliobatis nieuhofii</i>. + +<hw>Eastralia</hw>, <i>n.</i> recent colloquial name, fashioned +on the model of <i>Westralia</i> (q.v.), used in West Australia +for the Eastern Colonies. In Adelaide, its application seems +confined to New South Wales. + +<hw>Ebony</hw>, <i>n.</i> a timber. The name is applied in +Australia to two species of <i>Bauhinia</i>, +<i>B. carronii</i>, F. v. M., and <i>B. hookeri</i>, F. v. M., +N.O. Leguminosae. Both are called Queensland or Mountain +Ebony. + +<hw>Echidna</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fossorial Monotreme, in general +appearance resembling a Porcupine, and often called <i>Spiny +Ant-eater</i> or <i>Porcupine</i>, or <i>Porcupine +Ant-eater</i>. The body is covered with thick fur from which +stiff spines protrude; the muzzle is in the form of a long +toothless beak; and the tongue is very long and extensile, and +used largely for licking up ants; the feet are short, with +strong claws adapted for burrowing. Like the Marsupials, the +Echidna is provided with a pouch, but the animal is oviparous, +usually laying two eggs at a time, which are carried about in +the pouch until the young ones are hatched, when they are fed +by a secretion from mammary glands, which do not, however, as +in other mammals, open on to a nipple. The five-toed Echidnas +(genus <i>Echidna</i>) are found in New Guinea, Australia, and +Tasmania, while the three-toed Echidnas (genus +<i>Proechidna</i>) are confined to New Guinea. The species +are--Common E., <i>Echidna aculeata</i>, Shaw; Bruijn's E., +<i>Proechidna bruijni</i>, Peters and Doria; Black-spined E., +<i>Proechidna nigro-aculeata</i>, Rothschild. The name is from +Grk. <i>'echidna</i>, an adder or viper, from the shape of the +long tongue. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 29: + +"The native porcupine or echidna is not very common." + +1843. J.Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies,' p. 89: + +"The Porcupine of this land, Echidna hystrix, is a squat +species of ant-eater, with short quills among its hair: it +conceals itself in the day time among dead timber in the hilly +forests." + +1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 178: + +"Mr. Milligan mentioned that one of the Aborigines of Tasmania +reports having often discovered the nest of the <i>Echidna +Setosa</i>, porcupine or ant eater, of the colony; that on +several occasions <i>one egg</i> had been found in it, and +never more: this <i>egg</i> has always been found to contain a +<i>foetus</i> or chick, and is said to be round, considerably +less than a tennis ball, and without a shell. The mother is +said to sit continuously (for a period not ascertained) in the +manner of the common fowl over the eggs; she does not leave the +young for a considerable time after having hatched it; at +length, detaching it from the small teat, she moves out +hurriedly and at long intervals in quest of food, the young one +becoming, at each successive return, attached to the +nipple. . . The Platypus (<i>Ornithorhyncus paradoxus</i>) is +said to lay two eggs, having the same external membranous +covering, but of an oblong shape." + +1860. G. Bennett,' Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia,' +p. 147: + +"The Porcupine Ant-eater of Australia (<i>Echidna hystrix</i>) +(the native Porcupine or Hedgehog of the colonists), and the +Ornithorhynchus, to which it is allied in internal +organization, form the only two genera of the order +<i>Monotremata</i>." + +1888. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 230: + +"Among the gigantic boulders near the top he may capture the +burrowing ant-eating porcupine, though if perchance he place it +for a moment in the stoniest ground, it will tax all his +strength to drag it from the instantaneous burrow in which it +will defiantly embed itself." + +1892. A.Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British Colonies,' +p. 273: + +"The echidna is an animal about a foot or 18 inches long, +covered with spines like a hedgehog. It lives chiefly upon +ants. With its bill, which is like a duck's but narrower, it +burrows into an ant's-hill, and then with its long, whip-like, +sticky tongue, draws the ants into its mouth by hundreds." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia and Monotremata,' p. 247: + +"In order to enable them to procure with facility their food +of ants and their larvae, echidnas are provided with very large +glands, discharging into the mouth the viscid secretion which +causes the ants to adhere to the long worm-like tongue when +thrust into a mass of these insects, after being exposed by the +digging powers of the claws of the echidna's limbs. . . . +When attacked they roll themselves into a ball similar to the +hedgehog." + +<hw>Echu</hw>, <i>n.</i> the name of an Australian bird +which has not been identified. The word does not occur +in the ornithological lists. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems--Evening Hymn,' p. 53: + +"The echu's songs are dying with the flute-bird's mellow tone." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Jan. 11, p. 73, col. 1: + +"`Yeldina' (Rochester) writes--While I was on the Murray, a few +days before Christmas last, some miles below <i>Echuca</i>, my +attention was attracted to the melancholy note, as of a bird +which had lost its mate, calling ee-k-o-o, e-e-koo, which was +repeated several times, after which a pause, then ee-koo, +ee-ko, coolie, coolie, ee-koo. This happened in the scrub at +sunset, and came, I think, from a bird smaller than the +Australian minah, and of a greenish yellowish hue, larger, but +similar to the members of the feathered tribe known to young +city `knights of the catapult' as greenies. It was while +returning to camp from fishing that I noticed this bird, which +appeared of solitary habits." + +"`Crossbolt' (Kew) writes--The echu is probably identical with +a handsome little bird whose peculiar cry `e-e-choo' is +familiar to many bush ramblers. It is the size of a small +wood-swallow; black head, back, wings, and tail more or less +blue-black; white throat; neck and breast light to rich +brown. The female is much plainer, and would scarcely be +recognized as the mate of the former. The melodious `e-e-choo' +is usually answered from a distance, whether by the female or a +rival I cannot say, and is followed by a prolonged warbling." + +<hw>Eel</hw>, <i>n.</i> The kinds present in Australia are-- + +Common Eel-- + <i>Anguilla australis</i>, Richards. + +Conger E.-- + <i>Conger labiatus</i>, Castin., and + <i>Gonorhynchus grayi</i>, Richards. + +Green E. (New South Wales)-- + <i>Muroena afra</i>, Bl. + +Silver E.-- + <i>Muroenesox cinereus</i>, Forsk.; also called the Sea-eel + (New South Wales). + <i>Conger wilsoni</i>, Castln. (Melbourne). + +The New Zealand Eels are-- + +Black Eel-- + <i>Anguilla australis</i>, Richards. + +Conger E.-- + <i>Conger vulgaris</i>, Cuv. + +Sand E.-- + <i>Gonorynchus grayi</i>, Richards. + +Serpent E.-- + <i>Ophichthys serpens</i>, Linn. + +Silver E.-- + <i>Congromuroena habenata</i>, Richards. + +Tuna E.-- + <i>Anguilla aucklandii</i>, Richards. + +The Sand Eel does not belong to the Eel family, and is only +called an Eel from its habits. + +<hw>Eel-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Plotosus tandanus</i>, +Mitchell. Called also <i>Catfish</i> (q.v.), and <i>Tandan</i> +(q.v.). + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. pl. 5, +p.. 44 and 95 [Note]: + + "<i>Plotosus tandanus</i>, tandan or eel-fish. Tandan is the +aboriginal name." + +<hw>Egret</hw>, <i>n.</i> an English bird-name. The following +species are present in Australia, some being European and +others exclusively Australian-- + +Lesser Egret-- + <i>Herodias melanopus</i>, Wagl. + +Little E.-- + <i>H. garzetta</i>, Linn. + +Pied E.-- + <i>H. picata</i>, Gould. + +Plumed Egret-- + <i>H. intermedia</i>, v. Hasselq. + +White E.-- + <i>H. alba</i>, Linn. + +<hw>Elder</hw>, <i>n.</i> See next word. + +<hw>Elderberry, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> The two Australian +species of the Elder are <i>Sambucus gaudichaudiana</i>, De C., +and <i>S. xanthocarpa</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Caprifoliaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 56: + +"Native elderberry. The fruit of these two native elders is +fleshy and sweetish, and is used by the aborigines for food." + +<hw>Elephant-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fish of New Zealand, South +Australian, and Tasmanian waters, <i>Callorhynchus +antarcticus</i>, Lacep., family <i>Chimaeridae</i>. "It has +a cartilaginous prominence of the snout, ending in a cutaneous +flap" (Gunth.), suggesting a comparison with an elephant's +trunk. Called also <i>King of the Herrings</i> (q.v.). + +1802. G. Barrington, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 388: + +"The sea affords a much greater plenty, and at least as great +a variety as the land; of these the elephant fish were very +palatable food." + +<hw>Ellangowan Poison-bush</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Queensland name +for <i>Myoporum deserti</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Myoporinae</i>,; +called "Dogwood Poison-bush" in New South Wales. Ellangowan is +on the Darling Downs in Queensland. Poisonous to sheep, but +only when in fruit. + +<hw>Emancipatist</hw>, and <hw>Emancipist</hw>, <i>n</i>. (the +latter, the commoner), an ex-convict who has served out his +sentence. The words are never used now except historically. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 118: + +"Emigrants who have come out free from England, and +emancipists, who have arrived here as convicts, and have +either been pardoned or completed their term of servitude." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 302: + +"Men who had formerly been convicts, but who, after their +period of servitude had expired, were called `emancipists.'" + +1837. Jas. Mudie, `Felonry of New South Wales,' p. vii: + +"The author begs leave to record his protest against the abuse +of language to the misapplication of the terms +<i>emancipists</i> and <i>absentees</i> to two portions of the +colonial felonry. An emancipist could not be understood to +mean the emancipated but the emancipator. Mr. Wilberforce may +be honoured with the title of emancipist; but it is as absurd +to give the same appellation to the emancipated felons of New +South Wales as it would be to bestow it upon the emancipated +negroes of the West Indies." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 69: + +"The same emancipist will, however, besides private charity, be +among the first and greatest contributors to a new church." + +1852. `Fraser's Magazine,' vol. xlvi. p. 135: + +"The convict obtained his ticket-of-leave . . . became an +emancipist . . . and found transportation no punishment." + +<hw>Emu</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian bird, <i>Dromaius +novae-hollandiae</i>, Lath. There is a second species, Spotted +Emu, <i>Dromaius irroratus</i>, Bartlett. An earlier, but now +unusual, spelling is <i>Emeu</i>. <i>Emeus</i> is the +scientific name of a New Zealand genus of extinct struthious +birds. The word <i>Emu</i> is not Australian, but from the +Portuguese <i>Ema</i>, the name first of the Crane, afterwards +of the Ostrich. Formerly the word <i>Emu</i> was used in +English for the Cassowary, and even for the American Ostrich. +Since 1885 an <i>Emu</i> has been the design on the twopenny +postage stamp of New South Wales. + +1613. `Purchas Pilgrimmage,' pt. I. Vol v. c. xii. p. 430 + (`O.E.D.'): + +"The bird called Emia or Eme is admirable." + +1774. Oliver Goldsmith, `Natural History,' vol. iii. p. 69, + Book III. c. v. [Heading] + +"The Emu." + +1788. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 53: + +"A bird of the ostrich genus, but of a species very different +from any other in the known world, was killed and brought +in. Its length was between seven and eight feet; its flesh was +good and thought to resemble beef. It has obtained the name of +the New South Wales Emu." + +1789. Captain W. Tench, `Expedition to Botany Bay,' p. 123: + +"The bird which principally claims attention is a species of +ostrich, approaching nearer to the emu of South America than +any other we know of." + +1793 Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 69: + +"Some were of opinion that it was the emew, which I think is +particularly described by Dr. Goldsmith from Linneus: others +imagined it to be the cassowary, but it far exceeds that bird +in size . . . two distinct feathers grew out from every +quill." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 307: + +"These birds have been pronounced by Sir Joseph Banks, of whose +judgment none can entertain a doubt, to come nearer to what is +known of the American ostrich than to either the emu of India +or the ostrich of Africa." + +1804. `Rev. R. Knopwood's Diary' (J. J. Shillinglaw-- +`Historical Records of Port Phillip,' 1879), p. 115: + +[At the Derwent] 26 March, 1804--"They caught six young emews +[sic], about the size of a turkey, and shot the old mother." + +1832. J. Bischof, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 165: + +"We saw an emu track down the side of a hill." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. c. ix. +p.276 + +"The face of the emu bears a most remarkable likeness to that +of the aborigines of New South Wales." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 160: + +"They will pick up anything, thimbles, reels of cotton, nails, +bullets indiscriminately: and thus the proverb of `having the +digestion of an emu' has its origin." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. I: + +"<i>Dromaius Novae Hollandiae</i>. The Emu. New Holland +Cassowary.--'Governor Phillips' Voyage, 1789.'" + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 42: + +"The emu strides with such rapidity over the plains as to +render its capture very difficult even by the swiftest +greyhound." + +1872. C. H. Eden, "My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 52: + +"A couple of grave-looking emus. These wobble away at an +ungainly but rapid pace directly they sight us, most probably +vainly pursued by the dray dogs which join us farther on, weary +and unsuccessful--indeed the swiftest dog finds an emu as much +as he can manage." + +1878. A. Newton, in `Encyclopedia Britannica' (9th edit.), +vol. viii. p. 173: + +"Next to the ostrich the largest of existing birds, the common +emeu. . .'' + +1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 210: + +". . . points out two emus to John. . . . They resemble +ostriches, but are not so large, and the tail droops more. +. . . John can distinguish every point about them, from their +black cast-iron looking legs, to the bare neck and small head, +with its bright eye and strong flat beak." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Game Act, Third Schedule': + +"Emu. [Close Season.] From the 14th day of June to the 20th +day of December following in each year." + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25,p. 4, col. 5: + +"The chief in size is the egg of the cassowary, exactly like +that of the emu except that the colour is pale moss green +instead of the dark green of the emu." + +<hw>Emu-Apple</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>Emu-Bush</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian shrub, <i>Eremophila +longifolia</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myoporineae</i>. + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 206: + +"Emu-tree. A small Tasmanian tree; found on low marshy ground +used for turners' work." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 317: + +"Emu-bush. Owing to emus feeding on the seeds of this and +other species. <i>Heterodendron oleaefolium</i>, Desf." + +Ibid. p. 132: + +"The seeds, which are dry, are eaten by emus." + +<hw>Emu-Wren</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird-name. See <i>Malurus</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 31: + +"<i>Stipituras Malachurus</i>, Less. Emu Wren. The decomposed +or loose structure of these [tail] feathers, much resembling +those of the emu, has suggested the colonial name of Emu-Wren +for this species, an appellation singularly appropriate, +inasmuch as it at once indicates the kind of plumage with which +the bird is clothed, and the Wren-like nature of its habits." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 213: + +"The delicate little emeu wren." + +1865. Lady Barker (letter from `Melbourne), `Station Life in +New Zealand,' p. 8: + +"Then there is the emu-wren, all sad-coloured, but quaint, with +the tail-feathers sticking up on end, and exactly like those of +an emu, on the very smallest scale, even to the peculiarity of +two feathers growing out of the same little quill." + +<hw>Eopsaltria</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name for the genus +of Australian birds called <i>Shrike-Robins</i> (q.v.). (Grk. +<i>'aeows</i>, dawn, and <i>psaltria</i>, a female harper.) + +<hw>Epacris</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name of the typical +genus of the order <i>Epacrideae</i>, a heath-like flower +of which there are twenty- five species, mostly Australian. +From Greek <i>'epi</i>, upon, and <i>'akron</i>, top (the +flowers grow in spikes at the top of the plant). +In Australia they are frequently confused with and called +<i>Ericas</i>. + +<hw>Ephthianura</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name of a genus +of very small Australian birds, anglicized as Ephthianure. +For species see quotation, 1848. A fourth species has been +discovered since Gould's day, <i>E. crocea</i>, Castln. and +Ramsay, which inhabits Northern Australia. The name was first +given by Gould, in the `Proceedings of the Zoological Society +of 1837,' p. 148, as a <i>genus novum</i>. The origin of the +word is not certain, but as the tail is unusually small, +it is suggested that the name is from the Greek 'oura, tail, +and Homeric imperfect 3rd person sing. <i>'ephthien</i>, +wasted away, from <i>phthiow</i> (= <i>phthinow</i>). +[The word occurs <i>Iliad</i> xviii. 446.] +//phthio is ONLY in Homer!! Iliad AND Odyssey GJC// + +1848. J. Gould,' Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 64: + +"<i>Ephthianura Albifrons</i>, White-fronted Ephthianura," +pl. 65. "<i>Aurifrons</i>, Gould, Orange-fronted E.," pl. 66. +"<i>Tricolor</i>, Gould, Tricoloured E.'" + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Game Act, Third Schedule': + +"Close season.--Ephthianuras. The whole year." + +<hw>Escapee</hw>, <i>n.</i> one who has escaped. Especially +used of French convicts who escape from New Caledonia. The +word is formed on the model of <i>absentee, refugee</i>, etc., +and is manifestly influenced by Fr. <i>e/chappe/</i>. +<i>Escaper</i> is the historical English form. (See Bible, 2 +Kings ix. 15, margin.) //He means, of course, the so-called +Authorised Version" which reads, ftn. 5: "let no escaper go, +etc." Even though the Revised Version was published in +1885. GJC// + +1880. `Melbourne Argus,' July 22, p. 2, col. 3 (`O.E.D.'): + +"The ten New Caledonia escapees . . . are to be handed over to +the French consul." + +<hw>Eucalyn</hw>, <i>n.</i> a sugar obtained, together with +laevulose, by fermentation of <i>melitose</i> (q.v.) with +yeast, or by boiling it with dilute acids. + +<hw>Eucalypt</hw>, <i>n.</i> shortened English form of +<i>Eucalyptus</i> used especially in the plural, <i>Eucalypts. +Eucalypti</i> sounds pedantic. + +1880. T. W. Nutt, `Palace of Industry,' p. 11: + +"Stems of the soaring eucalypts that rise + Four hundred friendly feet to glad the skies." + +1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia,' p. 126: + +"There is no unmixed good, it is said, on this mundane sphere, +and the evil that has accompanied the extensive settlement of +Gipps Land during recent years is to be found in the widespread +destruction of the forests, resulting in a disturbance of the +atmospheric conditions and the banishment of an ever-active +agent in the preservation of health, for these eucalypts, or +gum-trees, as they are generally called, possess the peculiar +property of arresting fever-germs and poisonous exhalations. +They have been transplanted for this especial purpose to some +of the malaria-infested districts of Europe and America, and +with pronounced success. Australia, to which they are +indigenous, has mercilessly hewn them down in the past, but is +now repenting of its folly in that respect, and is replanting +them at every seasonable opportunity." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 270: + +"Throughout the whole of Australia the prevailing trees are +eucalypts, known generally as gum-trees on account of the gum +which they secrete, and which may be seen standing like big +translucent beads on their trunks and branches." + +<hw>Eucalyptene</hw>, <i>n.</i> the name given by Cloez to a +hydrocarbon obtained by subjecting <i>Eucalyptol</i> (q.v.) to +dehydration by phosphorus pentoxide. The same name has also +been given by other chemists to a hydrocarbon believed to occur +in eucalyptus oil. + +<hw>Eucalyptian</hw>, <i>adj</i>. playfully formed; not in +common use. + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 8: + +"Gnarl'd, knotted trunks Eucalyptian + Seemed carved, like weird columns Egyptian, + With curious device--quaint inscription + And hieroglyph strange." + +<hw>Eucalyptic</hw>, <i>adj</i>. full of gumtrees. + +1873. J. Brunton Stephens, `Black Gin, etc.,' p.6: + +"This eucalyptic cloisterdom is anything but gay." + +<hw>Eucalyptol</hw>, <i>n.</i> a volatile oil of camphor-like +smell, extracted from the oil of <i>Eucalyptus globulus</i>, +Labill., <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill., etc. Chemically +identical with cineol, got from other sources. + +<hw>Eucalyptus</hw>, <i>n.</i> the gum tree. There are 120 +species, as set forth in Baron von Mueller's `Eucalyptographia, +a Descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts of Australia.' The name +was first given in scientific Latin by the French botanist +L'Heritier, in his <i>Sertum Anglicum</i>, published in 1788. +From the Greek <i>'eu</i>, well, and <i>kaluptein</i>, to cover. +See quotation, 1848. <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. The French now say +<i>Eucalyptus</i>; earlier they called it <i>l'acajou de la +nouvelle Hollande</i>. The Germans call it <i>Schoenmutze</i>. +See <i>Gum</i>. + +1823. Sidney Smith, `Essays,' p. 440: + +"A London thief, clothed in Kangaroo's skins, lodged under +the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep, fourteen +thousand miles from Piccadilly, with a crook bent into the +shape of a picklock, is not an uninteresting picture." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. 80: + +"A large basin in which there are stunted pines and eucalyptus +scrub." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 132: + +"The scientific term Eucalyptus has been derived from the +Greek, in allusion to a lid or covering over the blossom, +which falls off when the flower expands, exposing a four-celled +capsule or seed-vessel." + +1851. G. W. Rusden, `Moyarra,' canto i. p. 8: + +"The eucalyptus on the hill + Was silent challenge to his skill." + +1879. `Temple Bar,' Oct., p. 23 ('0. E. D.'): + +"The sombre eucalypti . . . interspersed here and there by +their dead companions." + +1886. J. A. Froude, `Oceana,' p. 118: + +"At intervals the bush remained untouched, but the universal +eucalyptus, which I had expected to find grey and monotonous, +was a Proteus it shape and colour, now branching like an oak +or a cork tree, now feathered like a birch, or glowing like +an arbutus with an endless variety of hue--green, orange, +and brown." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right, c. v. p. 46: + +"A lofty eucalyptus . . . lay with its bared roots sheer athwart +a tiny watercourse." + +<hw>Euro</hw>, <i>n.</i> one of the aboriginal names for +a <i>Kangaroo</i> (q.v.); spelt also <i>Yuro</i>. + +1885. Mrs. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 192: + +"Above and below . . . were beetling cliffs, with ledges +and crannies that afforded foothold only to yuros and +rock-wallabies." + +<hw>Exclusionist</hw>, <i>n.</i> and <i>adj</i>. See +quotation. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. pp. 118-19: + +". . . one subdivision of the emigrant class alluded to, is +termed the <i>exclusionist</i> party, from their strict +exclusion of the emancipists from their society." + +<hw>Exileism</hw>, <i>n.</i> a word of same period as +<i>Exiles</i> (q.v.). + +1893. A. P. Martin, `Life of Lord Sherbrooke,' vol. i. p. 381: + +"A gentleman who was at this time engaged in pastoral pursuits +in New South Wales, and was therefore a supporter of exileism.'" + +<hw>Exiles</hw>, <i>n.</i> euphemistic name for convicts. It +did not last long. + +1847, A. P. Martin, `Life of Lord Sherbrooke' (1893), + vol. i. p. 378: + +"The cargoes of criminals were no longer to be known as +`convicts,' but (such is the virtue in a name!) as `exiles.' +It was, as Earl Grey explained in his despatch of Sept 3, 1847, +`a scheme of reformatory discipline.'" + +1852. G. B. Earp, `Gold Colonies of Australia,' p. 100: + +"The convict system ceased in New South Wales in 1839; but +`exiles' as they were termed, i.e. men who had passed their +probation at home, were forwarded till 1843." + +<hw>Expiree</hw>, <i>n.</i> a convict whose term of sentence +had expired. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (ed. 1885), p. 107: + +"A hireling convict - emancipist, expiree, or ticket of leave." + +<hw>Expiree</hw>, <i>adj</i>. See preceding. + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 271: + +"Very many of their servants, being old hands or expiree +convicts from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, are +thoroughly unprincipled men." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in + Victoria' (1841-1351), p. 40: + +"Hiring men in Melbourne in 1841 was not by any means an +agreeable job, as wages were high, and labourers (almost all +old gaol-birds and expiree convicts) exceedingly independent +and rowdy." + + +F + + +<hw>Fairy Gardens</hw>, <i>n.</i> a miner's term, explained +in quotation. + +1852. F. Lancelott, `Australia, as it is', vol. ii. p. 221: + +"On the south-eastern portion of this county is the world-famed +Burra Burra copper mine. . . . Some of the cuttings are +through solid blocks of ore, which brilliantly glitter as you +pass with a lighted candle, while others are formed in veins +of malachite, and from their rich variegated green appearance +are not inaptly called by the miners `Fairy gardens.'" + +<hw>Fake-mucker</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Dusky Robin</i> (<i>Petroica vittata</i>). See +<i>Robin</i>. + +<hw>Falcon</hw>, <i>n.</i> English bird-name. The Australian +species are-- + +Black Falcon-- + <i>Falco subniger</i>, Gray. + +Black-cheeked F.-- + <i>F. melanogenys</i>, Gould. + +Grey F.-- + <i>F. hypoleucus</i>, Gould. + +Little F.-- + <i>F. lunulatus</i>, Lath. + +See also Nankeen-Hawk. + +<hw>Fantail</hw>, <i>n.</i> bird-name applied in England to a +pigeon; in Australia and New Zealand, to the little birds of +the genus <i>Rhipidura</i> (q.v.). It is a fly-catcher. The +Australian species are-- + +<i>Rhipidura albiscapa</i>, Gould. + +Black-and-White Fantail (called also the <i>Wagtail</i>, + q.v.)-- + <i>R. tricolor</i>, Vieill. + +Dusky F.-- + <i>R. diemenensis</i>, Sharpe. + +Northern F.-- + <i>R. setosa</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Pheasant F.-- + <i>Rhipidura phasiana</i>, De Vis. + +Rufous F.-- + <i>R. rufifrons</i>, Lath. + +Western F.-- + <i>R. preissi</i>, Cab. + +White-tailed F.-- + <i>R. albicauda</i>, North. + +Wood F.-- + <i>R. dryas</i>, Gould. + +The New Zealand species are-- + +Black F.-- + <i>Rhipidura fuliginosa</i>, Sparrm. (Tiwaiwaka). + +Pied F.-- + <i>R. flabellifera</i>, Gmel. (Piwakawaka). + +In Tasmania, the <i>R. diemenensis</i> is called +the Cranky Fantail, because of its antics. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Journal,' vol. ii. p. 80: + +"We also observed the . . . fantailed fly-catcher +(<i>Rhipidura</i>)." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 69: + +"The Red Fantail, ever flitting about with broadly expanded +tail, and performing all manner of fantastic evolutions, +in its diligent pursuit of gnats and flies, is one of the most +pleasing and attractive objects in the New Zealand forest. It +is very tame and familiar." + +<hw>Farinaceous City</hw>, or <hw>Village</hw>, <i>n.</i> a +playful name for Adelaide. The allusion is to wheat being the +leading export of South Australia. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' + vol. ii. p. 184: + +"[Adelaide] has also been nicknamed the Farinaceous City. +A little gentle ridicule is no doubt intended to be conveyed +by the word." + +<hw>Fat-cake</hw>, <i>n.</i> ridiculous name sometimes +applied to <i>Eucalyptus leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M., according to +Maiden (`Useful Native Plants,' p. 471). + +<hw>Fat-hen</hw>, <i>n.</i> a kind of wild spinach. +In England the name is applied to various plants of thick +foliage. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 40: + +"The fat-hen (Atriplex) . . ." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 120: + +"Another wild vegetable brew in the sandy beds of the rivers +and creeks, called `fat-hen.' It was exactly like spinach, +and not only most agreeable but also an excellent anti-scorbutic, +a useful property, for scurvy is not an unknown thing in the bush +by any means." + +1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 156: + +"Boiled salt junk, with <i>fat-hen</i> (a kind of indigenous +spinach)." + +1889. J. M. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 16: + +"<i>Chenopodium murale</i>, Linn., Australian spinach. +Bentham considers this may have been introduced." + +<hw>Felonry</hw>, <i>n.</i> See quotation. + +1837. Jas. Mudie, `Felonry of New South Wales,' p. 6: + +"The author has ventured to coin the word <i>felonry</i>, +as the appellative of an order or class of persons in New South +Wales--an order which happily exists in no other country in the +world. A legitimate member of the tribe of appellatives . . . +as peasantry, tenantry, yeomanry, gentry." + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. xv. p. 24: + +"The inundation of the Australian colonies with British +Felonry." + +1888. Sir C. Gavan Duffy, `Contemporary Review,' vol. liii. +p.14 [`Century']: + +"To shut out the felonry of Great Britain and Ireland." + +<hw>Ferns</hw>. The following list of Australian ferns is +taken from `The Fern World of Australia,' by F. M. Bailey of +Brisbane (1881), omitting from his list all ferns of which the +vernacular and scientific names coincide with the names of +ferns elsewhere. + +Bat's-wing Fern-- + <i>Pteris incisa</i>, Thunb. + +Black Tree F. of New Zealand-- + <i>Cyathea medullaris</i>, Sw. + +Blanket F.-- + <i>Grammitis rutaefolia</i>, R. Br. + +Braid F.-- + <i>Platyzoma microphyllum</i>, R. Br. + +Caraway F.-- + <i>Athyrium umbrosum</i>, J. Sm. + +Curly F.-- + <i>Cheilanthes tenuifolia</i>, Sw. + +Deer's-tongue F.-- + <i>Acrostichum conforme</i>, Sw. + +Ear F.-- + <i>Pteris falcata</i>, R. Br. + +Elk's-horn F.-- + <i>Platycerium alcicorne</i>, Desv. + +Fan F.-- + <i>Gleichenia flabellata</i>, R. Br. + +Golden Swamp F.-- + <i>Acrostichum aureum</i>, Linn. + +Grass-leaved F. (q.v.)-- + <i>Vittaria elongata</i>, Sw. + +*Hare's-foot F.-- + <i>F. Davallia pyxidata</i>, Cav. + +Jersey F.-- + <i>Grammitis leptophylla</i>, Sw. + +*Lady F.-- + <i>Aspidium aculeatum</i>, Sw. + +*Maiden-hair F.-- + <i>Adiantum</i>, spp. + +Meadow-rue Water F.-- + <i>Ceratoptoris thalictroides</i>, Brong. + +Parasol F.-- + <i>Gleichenia circinata</i>, Sw. + +Pickled-cabbage F.-- + <i>Lomaria capensis</i>, Willd. + +Potato F. (q.v.)-- + <i>Marattia fraxinea</i>, Sm. + +Prickly F. (q.v.)-- + <i>Alsophila australis</i>, R. Br. + +Prickly-tree Fern-- + <i>Alsophila leichhardtiana</i>, F. v. M. + +Ribbon F.-- + <i>Ophioglossum pendulum</i>, Linn. + +Shiny F.-- + <i>Polypodium aspidoides</i>, Bail. + +Snake's-tongue F.-- + <i>Lygodium</i>, spp. + +The following are not in Baileys List: + +Parsley F.-- + <i>Cheilanthes tenuifolia</i>, Sw. (Name Parsley applied to a + different Fern elsewhere.) + +Sword F.-- + <i>Grammitis australis</i>, R. Br. + +Umbrella F., Tasmanian name for Fan F. (q.v.). + +Other ferns not in this list appear elsewhere. See also +<i>Ferntree</i>. +____ +* Elsewhere the name is applied to a different species. +---- + +<hw>Fern-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> a New Zealand bird of +the genus <i>Sphenoecus</i>. Also called <i>Grass-bird</i>, +and <i>New Zealand Pipit</i>. There are three species-- + +The Fern-bird-- + <i>Sphenoecus punctatus</i>, Gray. + +Chatham Island F.-b.-- + <i>S. rufescens</i>, Buller. + +Fulvous F.-b.-- + <i>S. fulvus</i>, Gray. + +1885. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xviii. p. 125: + +"The peculiar chirp of the <i>fern bird</i> is yet +to be heard among the tall fern." + +1885. A. Hamilton, `Native Birds of Petane, Hawke's Bay': + +"Fern-bird. The peculiar chirp of this lively little bird is +yet to be heard among the tall fern, though it is not so +plentiful as in days gone by." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 59: + +"Fern Bird . . . This recluse little species is one of our +commonest birds, but is oftener heard than seen. It frequents +the dense fern of the open country and the beds of Raupo." + +<hw>Fern-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> Name applied to various +species of ferns which grow to a large size, the stem in the +fully grown plant reaching often a height of many feet before +the leaves are given off. Such Tree-ferns clothe the sides of +deep and shady gullies amongst the hills, and give rise to what +are known as Fern-tree gullies, which form a very +characteristic feature of the moister coastal Ranges of many +parts of Australia. The principal <i>Fern-trees</i> or +<i>Tree-ferns</i>, as they are indiscriminately called, of +Australia and Tasmania are-- + + <i>Dicksonia antarctica</i>, Lab.; + <i>Alsophila australis</i>, R. Br.; + <i>Todea africana</i>, Willd.; + <i>Cyathea cunninghami</i>, J. Hook.; + <i>Alsophila excelsa</i>, R. Br.; + +the last named, however, not occurring in Tasmania or Victoria. + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 164: + +"We entered a beautiful fern-tree grove, that also concealed +the heavens from view, spreading like a plantation or cocoa-nut +tree orchard, but with far more elegance and effect." + +1839. C. Darwin, `Voyage of Beagle' (ed. 1890), p. 177: + +"Tree-ferns thrive luxuriantly in Van Diemen's Land (lat. 45 +degrees), and I measured one trunk no less than six feet in +circumference. An arborescent fern was found by Forster in New +Zealand in 46 degrees, where orchideous plants are parasitical +on the trees. In the Auckland Islands, ferns, according to +Dr. Dieffenbach, have trunks so thick and high that they may be +almost called tree-ferns." + +1857. F. R. Nixon (Bishop of Tasmania), `Cruise of the Beacon,' +p. 26: + +"With these they [i.e. the Tasmanian Aborigines] mingled the +core or pith of the fern trees, <i>Cibotium Bollardieri</i> +and <i>Alsophila Australis</i> (of which the former is rather +astringent and dry for a European palate, and the latter, +though more tolerable, is yet scarcely equal to a Swedish +turnip.)" + +1870. S. H. Wintle, `Fragments of Fern Fronds,' p. 39: + +"Where the feet of the mountains are bathed by cool fountains, + The green, drooping fern trees are seen." + +1878. William Sharp, `Australian Ballads,' `Canterbury Poets' + (Scott, 1888), pp. 180-81: + +"The feathery fern-trees make a screen, + Where through the sun-glare cannot pass-- + Fern, gum, and lofty sassafras." + +"Under a feathery fern-tree bough + A huge iguana lies alow." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 83: + +"There were mossy fern-trees near me, + With their graceful feathered fronds, + Which they slowly waved above me, + Like hoar magicians' wands." + +1893. A.R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 53: + +"Here are graceful palms rising to 70 or even 100 feet; the +Indian fig with its tortuous branches clothed with a drapery +of curious parasites; while graceful tree ferns, 30 feet high, +flourish in the damp atmosphere of the sheltered dells." + +<hw>Fern-tree Gully</hw>. See <i>Fern-tree</i> and <i>Gully</i>. + +<hw>Fever-bark</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for <i>Bitter-bark</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Fibrous Grass</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Tasmanian grass +(see <i>Grass</i>), <i>Stipa semiibarbata</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"Fibrous grass (<i>Stipa semibarbata</i>, Br.). After the seed +has ripened the upper part of the stem breaks up into fibre, +which curls loosely and hangs down waving in the wind." + +<hw>Fiddle-back</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in +Australia to the beetle, <i>Schizorrhina australasiae</i>. + +<hw>Fiddler</hw>, <i>n.</i> a New South Wales and Victorian +name for a species of Ray, <i>Trygonorhina fasciata</i>, +Mull. and Heule, family <i>Rhinobatidae</i>. + +<hw>Fig-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird-name. +<i>Sphecotheres maxillaris</i>, Lath.; Yellow bellied, +<i>S. flaviventris</i>, Gould. <i>S. maxillaris</i> is also +called <i>Mulberry-bird</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Fig-eater</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird, i.q. <i>Grape-eater</i> + (q.v.). + +<hw>Fig-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is applied in +Australia to the following species:-- + +Blue Fig-- + <i>Elaeocarpus grandis</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +Clustered F.-- + <i>Ficus glomerata</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>. + +Moreton Bay F.-- + <i>P. macrophylla</i>, Desf., <i>N.O. Urticaciae</i> //sic. check//. + +Prickly F.-- + <i>Elaeocarpus holopetalus</i>, F. v. M., + <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +Purple F., or White F., or Rough-leaved F., or Flooded F. + [Clarence River]-- + <i>Ficus scabra</i>, G. Forst., <i>N.O. Urticaciae</i>. + +Ribbed F.-- + <i>F. pleurocarpa</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Urticaciae</i>. + +Rusty F., or Narrow-leaved F. [or Port Jackson]-- + <i>F. rubiginosa</i>, Desf., <i>N.O. Urticaciae</i>; + called also Native Banyan. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p.119: + +"And I forget how lone we sit beneath this old fig-tree." + +1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 115: + +"The fig-tree casts a pleasant shade + On the straggling ferns below." + +1882. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 537: + +"Moreton Bay fig. This noble-looking tree has a wood which +is sometimes used, though it is very difficult to season." + +[It is a handsome evergreen with dark leaves, larger than +those of a horse-chestnut, much used as an ornament in street +and gardens, especially in Sydney and Adelaide. The fig is +not edible.] + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right, c. 44, p. 380: + +"The . . . venerable church with its alleys of araucaria +and Moreton Bay fig-trees." + +<hw>File-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in New +Zealand to the fish <i>Monacanthus rudis</i>, Richards, family +<i>Sclerodermi</i>; in New South Wales to species of the genus +<i>Balistes</i>. The first of the spines of the dorsal fin is +roughened in front like a file. <i>Balistes maculatus</i> is +the "Spotted File-fish" of Sydney. It is closely allied to the +genus <i>Monacanthus</i>, called <i>Leather-jacket</i> (q.v.), +which is much more numerously represented in Australasia. + +<hw>Finch</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird-name, first applied in +Australia, in 1848, by Gould, to the genus <i>Poephila</i> +(Grass-lover), and since extended to other genera of birds. +The species are-- + +Banded Finch-- + <i>Stictoptera bichenovii</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Black-ringed F.-- + <i>S. annulosa</i>, Gould. + +Black-rumped F.-- + <i>Poephila atropygialis</i>, Diggles. + +Black-throated F.-- + <i>P. cincta</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-breasted F.-- + <i>Munia castaneothorax</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-eared F.-- + <i>Taeniopygia castanotis</i>, Gould. + +Crimson F.-- + <i>Neochmia phaeton</i>, Homb. and Jacq. + +Fire-tailed F.-- + <i>Zonaeginthus bellus</i>, Lath. + +Gouldian F.-- + <i>Poephila gouldiae</i>, Gould. + +Long-tailed F.-- + <i>P. acuticauda</i>, Gould. + +Masked F.-- + <i>P. personata</i>, Gould. + +Painted F.-- + <i>Emblema picta</i>, Gould. + +Plum-head F.-- + <i>Aidemosyne modesta</i>, Gould. + +Red-browed F.-- + <i>AEgintha temporalis</i>, Lath. + +Red-eared F.-- + <i>Zonaeginthus oculatus</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Red-tailed F.-- + <i>Bathilda ruficauda</i>, Gould. + +Scarlet-headed F.-- + <i>Poephila mirabilis</i>, Homb. and Jacq. + +Spotted-sided F.-- + <i>Staganopleura guttata</i>, Shaw. + +White-Breasted F.-- + <i>Munia pectoralis</i>, Gould. + +White-eared F.-- + <i>Poephila leucotis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-rumped F.-- + <i>Munia flaviprymna</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Fire-stick</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the +lighted stick which the Australian natives frequently carry +about, when moving from camp to camp, so as to be able to light +a fire always without the necessity of producing it by +friction. The fire-stick may be carried in a smouldering +condition for long distances, and when traversing open grass +country, such as the porcupine-grass covered districts of the +interior, the stick is used for setting fire to the grass, +partly to destroy this and partly to drive out the game which +is hiding amongst it. The <i>fire-stick </i> (see quotations) +is also used as emblematic of the camp-fire in certain +ceremonies. + +1847. J. D. Lang,' Cooksland,'p. 126, n.: + +"When their fire-stick has been extinguished, as is sometimes +the case, for their jins or vestal virgins, who have charge of +the fire, are not always sufficiently vigilant." + +1896. F. J. Gillen, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +Anthropology, pt. iv. p. 170: + +"Carrying fire-sticks, they place rings, woven of fur and +vegetable down, round the boy's neck and arms and sometimes +over and under the shoulders; the fire-sticks are then handed +to him, the lubras saying: Take care of the fire; keep to your +own camp.'" + +<hw>Firetail</hw>, <i>n.</i> name applied in Victoria to the +bird <i>AEgintha temporalis</i>, Lath.; and in Tasmania to +<i>Zonaeginthus (Estrelda) bellus</i>, Lath. In New South +Wales, <i>AE. temporalis</i> is known as the Red-head. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 78: + +"<i>Estrelda Bella</i>, Fire-tailed finch. Fire-tail, +Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." + +<hw>Fire-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> a tree of New Zealand; another +name for <i>Pohutukawa</i> (q.v.). For <i>Queensland +Fire-tree</i>, see <i>Tulip-tree</i>. + +<hw>Fireweed</hw>, <i>n.</i> a name given to several weeds, +such as <i>Senecio lautus</i>, Sol., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>; so +called because they spring up in great luxuriance where the +forest has been burned off. + +<hw>Fish-hawk</hw>, <i>n.</i> English name applied to +<i>Pandion leucocephalus</i>, Gould; called also the Osprey. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pl. 6: + +"<i>Pandion Leucocephalus</i>, Gould, White-headed osprey. +Little fish hawk, Colonists of New South Wales. Fish-hawk, +Colonists of Swan River.'' + +<hw>Fist</hw>, <i>v</i>. to use the hands. The word is not +unknown in English in the sense of to grip. (Shakspeare, `Cor.' +IV. v. 124) + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366: + +"`Fist it,' a colonial expression, which may convey to the +uninitiated the idea that knives, forks, plates, etc., are +unknown in the bush; such was formerly the case, but the +march of improvement has banished this peculiar simplicity." + +<hw>Five-corners</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the fruit of an +Australian tree and to the tree itself, <i>Syphelia triflora</i>, +Andr., N.O. Epacrideae. There are many species of +<i>Styphelia</i> (q.v.), the fruit of several being edible. + +1889. J. H. Maiden,' Useful Native Plants,' p. 61: + +"Five-corners. These fruits have a sweetish pulp with a large +stone. They form part of the food of the aboriginals, and are +much appreciated by school boys. When from a robust plant they +are of the size of a large pea, and not at all bad eating." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 158: + +"Still I see in my fancy the dark-green and blue + Of the box-covered hills where the five-corners grew." + +<hw>Flame-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is given in India and +elsewhere to several trees with bright scarlet, or crimson, +flowers. In Australia, two different trees are called +<i>Flame-trees</i>-- + + (1) A tree of Eastern Australia, with profuse bright +coral-like flowers, <i>Brachychiton acerifolium</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>. + + (2) A tree of Western Australia, with brilliant +orange-coloured flowers, <i>Nuytsia floribunda</i>, +<i>N.O. Loranthaceae</i>; which is also called <i>Tree +Mistletoe</i>, and, locally, a <i>Cabbage-tree</i>. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 96: + +"There are flame-trees showing in spring vivid patches +of crimson." + +<hw>Flannel Flower</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian +flower, <i>Actinotus helianthi</i>, Labill., +<i>N.O. Compositae</i>. It ranges from Gippsland to Southern +Queensland, but is particularly abundant in New South Wales. +Sometimes called the <i>Australian Edelweiss</i>. For the +reason of the name see quotation. + +1895. J. H. Maiden, `Flowering Plants of New South Wales,' +p. 9: + +"We only know one truly local name for this plant, and that is +the `Flannel Flower'--a rather unpoetical designation, but a +really descriptive one, and one universally accepted. It is, +of course, in allusion to the involucre, which looks as if it +were snipped out of white flannel. It is also known to a few +by the name of Australian Edelweiss." + +<hw>Flathead</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to several Australian +marine fishes, <i>Platycephalus fuscus</i>, Cuv. and Val., and +other species of <i>Platycephalus</i>, family <i>Cottidae</i>. +The Red Flathead is <i>P. bassensis</i>, Cuv.and Val., and the +Rock F. is <i>P. laevigatus</i>, Cuv.and Val. See also +<i>Tupong</i> and <i>Maori-chief</i>. + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 410 (Aboriginal +Vocabulary): + +"Paddewah, a fish called a flathead." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 32: + +"The market of Hobart Town is supplied with small rock cod, +flatheads, and a fish called the perch." + +<hw>Flat Pea</hw>, <i>n.</i> a genus of Australian flowering +plants, <i>Platylobium</i>, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +1793. `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. ii. p. 350: + +"Its name I have deduced from <i>platus</i>, broad, and +<i>lobos</i>, a pod." + +"P. formosum. Orange flat-pea . . . A figure of this +. . . will soon be given in the work I have undertaken +on the botany of New Holland." + +[The figure referred to will be found at p. 17 of the `Specimen +of the Botany of New Holland.'] + +<hw>Flax, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> The European flax is <i>Linum +usitatissimum</i>, <i>N.O. Liniae</i>. There is a species in +Australia, <i>Linum marginale</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Linaceae</i>, +called <i>Native Flax</i>. In New Zealand, the <i>Phormium</i> +is called <i>Native Flax</i>. See next word. + +1889. J. M. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 626: + +"`Native flax.' Although a smaller plant than the true flax, +this plant yields fibre of excellent quality. It is used by +the blacks for making fishing-nets and cordage." + +<hw>Flax, New Zealand</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Phormium tenax</i>, +<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. A plant yielding a strong fibre. +Called also, in New Zealand, <i>Native Flax</i>, and <i>Flax +Lily</i>. + +1807. J. Savage, `Some account of New Zealand,' p. 56: + +"Small baskets made of the green native flax." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i, +p. 63: + +"The plant is called <i>Phormium tenax</i> by naturalists. +The general native name for the plant, we are told, is `korari,' +but each sort, and there are ten or twelve, has its distinctive +name. Any portion of the leaf, when gathered, becomes here +`kie kie,' or literally, `tying stuff.' The operation of +scraping is called `kayo,' the fibre when prepared, `muka.'" +[Mr. Tregear says that Wakefield's statements are mistaken.] + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 23: + +"His robe of glossy flax which loosely flows." + +1861. C. C. Bowen, `Poems,' p. 57: + +"And flax and fern and tutu grew + In wild luxuriance round." + +1870. T. H. Braiui, `New Homes,' c. viii. p. 375: + +"The native flax (<i>Phormium tenax</i>) is found in all parts +of New Zealand; it grows to the height of about nine feet." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' v.3, p. 93: + +"In flowing vest of silky flax, undyed." + +1893. `Murray's Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 29: + +"The so-called native flax (<i>phormium tenax</i>)." + +<hw>Flax-blade</hw>, <i>n.</i> the leaf of the <i>New Zealand +Flax</i> (q.v.). + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' i. 5, p. 11: + +"With flax-blades binding to a tree + The Maid who strove her limbs to free." + +<hw>Flax-bush</hw>, <i>n.</i> the bush of the <i>New Zealand +Flax</i>. + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' Intro. p. v: + +"I had . . . to pass a night . . . under the shade + of a flax-bush." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' x. 4, p. 171: + +"And the louder flax-bushes + With their crowding and crossing + Black stems, darkly studded + With blossoms red-blooded." + +<hw>Flax-flower</hw>, <i>n.</i> the flower of the <i>New +Zealand Flax</i> (q.v.). + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' xiv. 3, p. 221: + + "little isles +Where still the clinging flax-flower smiles." + +<hw>Flax-leaf</hw>, <i>n.</i> the blade of the <i>New Zealand +Flax</i> (q.v.). + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori' p. 69: + +"Zephyrs stirred the flax-leaves into tune. + +<hw>Flax-lily</hw>, <i>n.</i> (1) An Australian fibre plant, +<i>Dianella laevis</i>, var. <i>aspera</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. (2) <i>Phormium tenax</i>. See +<i>Flax, New Zealand</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 621: + +"Flax-lily. The fibre is strong, and of a silky texture. +The aboriginals formerly used it for making baskets, etc. +All the colonies except Western Australia." + +<hw>Flindosa</hw>, and <hw>Flindosy</hw>, <i>n.</i> two trees +called <i>Beech</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Flintwood</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for <i>Blackbutt</i> +(q.v.), <i>Eucalyptus pillularis</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 502: + +"From the great hardness of the wood it is often known as + flintwood." + +<hw>Flounder</hw>, <i>n.</i> The Flounders in Australia are-- + +In Sydney, <i>Pseudorhombus russelli</i>, Gray; in Melbourne, +<i>Rhombosolea victoriae</i>, Castln.; in New Zealand and +Tasmania, <i>R. monopus</i>, Gunth. Maori name, Patiki; family +<i>Pleuronectidae</i>. They are all excellent eating. + +1876. P. Thomson, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. ix. art. lxvii., p. 487: + +"Patiki (flounder). Flounders are in the market all the year." + +<hw>Flower-pecker</hw>, <i>n.</i> bird-name used elsewhere, +but in Australia assigned to <i>Dicaeum hirundinaceum</i>, Lath. + +<hw>Flowering Rush</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the rush or reed, +<i>Xyris operculata</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Xyrideae</i>. + +<hw>Flute-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for the bird +<i>Gymnorrhina tibicen</i>, Lath. Called also <i>Magpie</i> +(q.v.). + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 53: + +"The flute-bird's mellow tone." + +<hw>Fly-catcher</hw>, <i>n.</i> bird-name used elsewhere. +The Australian species are-- + +Black-faced Flycatcher-- + <i>Monarcha melanopsis</i>, Vieill. + +Blue F.-- + <i>Myiagra concinna</i>, Gould. + +Broad-billed F.-- + <i>M. latirostris</i>, Gould. + +Brown F. [called also Jacky Winter (q.v.)] + <i>Micraeca fascinans</i>, Lath. + +Leaden F.-- + <i>Myiagra rubecula</i>, Lath. + +Lemon-breasted F.-- + <i>Micraeca flavigaster</i>, Gould. + +Lesser Brown F.-- + <i>M. assimilis</i>, Gould. + +Little F.-- + <i>Seisura nana</i>, Gould. + +Pale F.-- + <i>Micraeca pallida</i>. + +Pearly F.-- + <i>Monarcha canescens</i>, Salvad. + +Pied Fly-catcher-- + <i>Arses kaupi</i>, Gould. + +Restless F.-- + <i>Seisura inquieta</i>, Lath. [called also <i>Razor- + grinder</i>, q.v., and <i>Dishwasher</i>, q.v.] + +Satin F.-- + <i>Myiagra nitida</i>, Gould [called <i>Satin-robin</i>, q.v., + in Tasmania] + +Shining F.-- + <i>Piezorhynchus nitidus</i>, Gould. + +Spectacled F.-- + <i>P. gouldi</i>, Gray. + +White-bellied F.-- + <i>P. albiventris</i>, Gould. + +White-eared F.-- + <i>P. leucotis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-breasted F.-- + <i>Machaerhynchus flaviventer</i>, Gould. + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 161: + +"We this day caught a yellow-eared fly-catcher (see annexed +plate). This bird is a native of New Holland." [Description +follows.] + +Fly-eater, <i>n.</i> the new vernacular name for the Australian +birds of the genus <i>Gerygone</i> (q.v.), and see <i>Warbler</i>. +The species are-- + +Black-throated Fly-eater-- + <i>Gerygone personata</i>, Gould. + +Brown F.-- + <i>G. fusca</i>, Gould. + +Buff-breasted F.-- + <i>G. laevigaster</i>, Gould. + +Green-backed F.-- + <i>G. chloronota</i>, Gould. + +Large-billed F.-- + <i>G. magnirostris</i>, Gould. + +Southern F.-- + <i>G. culicivora</i>, Gould. + +White-throated F.-- + <i>G. albogularis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-breasted F.-- + <i>G. flavida</i>, Ramsay. + +1895. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science `(Brisbane), p. 447: + +"[The habits and habitats of the genus as] applied to +<i>Gerygone</i> suggested the term Fly-<i>eater</i>, as +distinguished from Fly-<i>catcher</i>, for this aberrant and +peculiarly Australasian form of small Fly-catchers, which not +only capture their food somewhat after the manner of +Fly-catchers, but also seek for it arboreally." + +<hw>Flyer</hw>, <i>n.</i> a swift kangaroo. + +1866. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' second series, +p. 172: + +"I may here state that the settlers designate the old kangaroos +as `old men' and `old women,' the full-grown animals are named +`flyers,' and are swifter than the British hare." + +<hw>Flying-Fox</hw>, <i>n.</i> a gigantic Australian bat, +<i>Pteropus poliocephalus</i>, Temm. It has a fetid odour and +does great damage to fruits, and is especially abundant in New +South Wales, though often met with in Victoria. Described, not +named, in first extract. + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 507: + +"The head of this bat strongly resembles that of a fox, and +the wings of many of them extend three feet ten inches. . . . +[Description of one domesticated.] . . . They are very fat, +and are reckoned by the natives excellent food. . . . It was +supposed more than twenty thousand of them were seen within the +space of one mile." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 315: + +"One flying fox is an immense bat, of such a horrific +appearance, that no wonder one of Cook's honest tars should +take it for the devil when encountering it in the woods." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 310: + +". . . a flying fox, which one of them held in his hand. It +was, in fact, a large kind of bat, with the nose resembling in +colour and shape that of a fox, and in scent it was exactly +similar to it. The wing was that of a common English bat, and +as long as that of a crow, to which it was about equal in the +length and circumference of its body." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 97: + +"Some of the aborigines feed on a large bat popularly called +`the flying fox.' . . We found the filthy creatures, hanging +by the heels in thousands, from the higher branches of the +trees." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 102: + +"The shrill twitter of the flying fox, or vampire bat, in the +bush around us." + +1871. Gerard Krefft, `Mammals of Australia': + +"The food on which the `Foxes' principally live when garden +fruit is not in season, consists of honey-bearing blossoms and +the small native figs abounding in the coast-range scrubs. . . . +These bats are found on the east coast only, but during very +dry seasons they occur as far west as the neighbourhood of +Melbourne." + +1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 20: + +"A little further on they came to a camp of flying foxes. +The huge trees on both sides of the river are actually black +with them. The great bats hang by their hooked wings to every +available branch and twig, squealing and quarrelling. +The smell is dreadful. The camp extends for a length of three +miles. There must be millions upon millions of them." + +<hw>Flying-Mouse</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Opossum-mouse</i> +and <i>Flying-Phalanger</i>. + +<hw>Flying-Phalanger</hw>, <i>n.</i> included in the class +of <i>Phalanger</i> (q.v.). The "flying" Phalangers "have +developed large parachute-like expansions of skin from the +sides of the body, by means of which they are able to take long +flying leaps from bough to bough, and thus from tree to tree. +While the great majority of the members of the family are +purely vegetable feeders, . . . a few feed entirely or partly +on insects, while others have taken to a diet of flesh." +(R. Lydekker.) + +They include the so-called <i>Flying-Squirrel</i>, +<i>Flying-Mouse</i>, etc. There are three genera-- + + Acrobates (q.v.), called the <i>Flying-Mouse</i>, + and <i>Opossum-Mouse</i> (q.v.). + + <i>Petauroides</i> commonly called the <i>Taguan</i>, or + <i>Taguan Flying-Squirrel</i>. + + <i>Petaurus</i> (q.v.), commonly called the <i>Flying + Squirrel</i>. + +The species are-- + +Lesser F.-Ph.-- + <i>Petaurus breviceps</i>. + +Papuan Pigmy F.-Ph.-- + <i>Acrobates pulchellus</i> (confined to Northern Dutch New + Guinea). + +Pigmy F.-Ph.-- + <i>A. pygmaeuss</i>. + +Squirrel F.-Ph.-- + <i>Petaurus sciureus</i>. + +Taguan F.-Ph.-- + <i>Petauroides volans</i>. + +Yellow-bellied F.-Ph.-- + <i>P. australis</i>. + +<hw>Flying-Squirrel</hw>, <i>n.</i> popular name for a +Flying-Phalanger, <i>Petaurus sciureus</i>, Shaw, a marsupial +with a parachute-like fold of skin along the sides by which he +skims and floats through the air. The name is applied to +entirely different animals in Europe and America. + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage to Botany Bay,' c. xv. p. 151: + +"Norfolk Island flying squirrel." [With picture.] + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.: + +"The flying squirrels are of a beautiful slate colour, with +a fur so fine that, although a small animal, the hatters here +give a quarter dollar for every skin." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 37: + +"The squeal and chirp of the flying squirrel." + +1850. R. C. Gunn, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van + Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 253: + +"In the year 1845 I drew the attention of the Tasmanian Society +to the interesting fact that the <i>Petaurus sciureus</i>, or +Flying Squirrel, of Port Phillip, was becoming naturalized in +Van Diemen's Land. . . . No species of <i>Petaurus</i> is +indigenous to Tasmania. . . . It does not appear from all that +I can learn, that any living specimens of the <i>Petaurus +schireus</i> were imported into Van Diemen's Land prior to +1834; but immediately after the settlement of Port Phillip, +in that year, considerable numbers of the flying squirrel were, +from their beauty, brought over as pets by the early visitors." + +1851. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 78: + +"The flying squirrel, another of the opossum species of the +marsupial order, is a beautiful little creature, and disposed +over the whole of the interior of New South Wales: its fur is +of a finer texture than that of the opossum." + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society of +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 70: + +"The common flying squirrel (<i>Petaurus sciureus</i>) is very +plentiful in the large gum trees near the banks of a creek or +river, and appears to entertain a peculiar aversion to the high +lands." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 90: + +"Flying squirrel." + +[Footnote]: + +"The marsupial flying phalanger is so called by the +Australians." + +<hw>Fly-Orchis</hw>, <i>n.</i> name applied in Tasmania to the +orchid, <i>Prasophyllum patens</i>, R. Br. + +<hw>Forest</hw>, <i>n.</i> See quotation. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior of +Eastern Australia,' vol i. p. 71 [Footnote]: + +"A `forest' means in New South Wales an open wood with grass. +The common `bush' or `scrubb' consists of trees and saplings, +where little grass is to be found." + +[It is questionable whether this fine distinction still exists.] + +<hw>Forester</hw>, <i>n.</i> the largest Kangaroo, <i>Macropus +giganteus</i>, Zimm. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 27: + +"There are three or four varieties of kangaroos; those most +common are denominated the forester and brush kangaroo." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 423: + +"I called this river the `Red Kangaroo River,' for in +approaching it we first saw the red forester of Port +Essington." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 67: + +"And the forester snuffing the air + Will bound from his covert so dark." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 15: + +"We have never had one of the largest kind--the Forester +Kangaroo (<i>Macropus gigantes</i>)--tame, for they have been +so hunted and destroyed that there are very few left in +Tasmania, and those are in private preserves, or very remote +out-of-the-way places, and rarely seen. . . . The aborigines +called the old father of a flock a Boomer. These were often +very large: about five feet high in their usual position, but +when standing quite up, they were fully six feet . . . and +weighing 150 or 200 pounds." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xix. p. 181: + +"The dogs . . . made for them as if they had been a brace of +stray foresters from the adjacent ranges." + +<hw>Forest-Oak</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Oak</i>. + +Forget-me-not, <i>n.</i> The species of this familiar flower is +<i>Myosotis australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Asperifoliae</i>. + +<hw>Fortescue</hw>, or <hw>40-skewer</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fish of +New South Wales, <i>Pentaroge marmorata</i>, Cuv. and Val., +family <i>Scorpaenidae</i>; called also the <i>Scorpion</i>, +and the <i>Cobbler</i>. All its names allude to the thorny +spines of its fins. The name <i>Fortescue</i> is an adaptation +of <i>Forty-skewer</i> by the law of Hobson-Jobson. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 49: + +"Of this fish Mr. Hill says: The scorpion or Fortescue, as +these fish are popularly termed by fishermen, have been known +for a long time, and bear that name no doubt in memory of the +pain they have hitherto inflicted; and for its number and array +of prickles it enjoys in this country the <i>alias</i> +`Forty-skewer' or `Fortescure.' " + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 228: + +"<i>Fortescue</i> is a terrible pest, lurking among the +<i>debris</i> in the nets and all but invisible, its spines +standing erect in readiness for the unwary finger. And so +intense is the pain inflicted by a stab, that I have seen a +strong man roll on the ground crying out like a madman." + +<hw>Forty-legs</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to a millipede, +<i>Cermatia smithii</i>. + +<hw>Forty-spot</hw>, <i>n.</i> name for a bird, +a <i>Pardalote</i> (q.v.). Pardalote itself means +spotted "like the pard." See also <i>Diamond-bird</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 37: + +"<i>Pardalotus quadragintus</i>, Gould, Forty-spotted +pardalote. Forty-spot, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +"`Lyre bird' is obvious; so, too, is `forty-spot'; only one +wonders why the number 40 was pitched upon. Was it a guess? +Or did the namer first shoot the bird and count?" + +<hw>Fossick</hw>, <i>v. intrans</i>. to dig, but with special +meanings. Derived, like <i>fosse</i>, a ditch, and +<i>fossil</i>, through French from Lat. <i>fossus</i>, perfect +part. of <i>fodere</i>, to dig. <i>Fossicking</i> as +pres. part., or as verbal noun, is commoner than the other +parts of the verb. + +(1) To pick out gold. + +1852. W. H. Hall, `Practical Experiences at the Diggings in +Victoria,' p. 16: + +"Or fossicking (picking out the nuggets from the interstices +of the slate formation) with knives and trowels." + +(2) To dig for gold on abandoned claims or in waste-heaps. + +1865. F. H. Nixon, `Peter Perfume,' p. 59: + +"They'll find it not quite so `welly good' + As their fossicking freak at the Buckland." + +1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. xix. p. 286: + +"Here we found about a dozen Chinamen `fossicking' after gold +amidst the dirt of the river, which had already been washed by +the first gold-seekers." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 22: + +"He commenced working along with several companions at surface +digging and fossicking." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 14, p. 4, col. 6: + +"The easiest and simplest of all methods is `fossicking.' An +old diggings is the place for this work, because there you will +learn the kind of country, formation, and spots to look for +gold when you want to break new ground. `Fossicking' means +going over old workings, turning up boulders, and taking the +clay from beneath them, exploring fissures in the rock, and +scraping out the stuff with your table knife, using your pick +to help matters. Pulling up of trees, and clearing all soil +from the roots, scraping the bottoms of deserted holes, and +generally keeping your eye about for little bits of ground +left between workings by earlier miners who were in too great +a hurry looking after the big fish to attend much to small fry." + +(3) To search for gold generally, even by stealing. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 60: + +"A number of idle and disorderly fellows had introduced a +practice which was termed `fossicking.' . . . In the dead +hours of midnight they issued forth, provided with wax tapers, +and, entering upon the ground, stole the auriferous earth." + +(4) To search about for anything, to rummage. + +1870. S. Lemaitre, `Songs of Goldfields,' p. 14: + +"He ran from the flat with an awful shout + Without waiting to fossick the coffin lid out." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 2, p. 4, col. 3: + +"Half the time was spent in fossicking for sticks." + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2: + +"I was . . . a boy fossicking for birds' nests in the gullies." + +1893. `The Australasian,' Jan. 14: + +"The dog was fossicking about." + +<hw>Fossicker</hw>, <i>n.</i> one who fossicks, sc. works +among the tailings of old gold-mines for what may be left. + +1853. C. Rudston Read, `What I heard, saw, and did at the +Australian Gold Fields,' p. 150: + +"The man was what they called a <i>night fossicker</i>, who +slept, or did nothing during the day, and then went round at +night to where he knew the claims to be rich, and stole the +stuff by candle-light." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 87: + +"I can at once recognize the experienced `fossickers,' who +know well how to go to work with every chance in their favour." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 32: + +"Steady old <i>fossickers</i> often get more + Than the first who open'd the ground." + +1869. R. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 612: + +"A fossicker is to the miner as is the gleaner to the reaper; +he picks the crevices and pockets of the rocks." + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1015: + +"We had heard that, on this same field, years after its total +abandonment, a two hundred ounce nugget had been found by a +solitary fossicker in a pillar left in an old claim." + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The fossickers sluiced and cradled with wonderful cradles of +their own building." + +<hw>Four-o'clock</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for the +<i>Friar-bird</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Free-select</hw>, <i>v</i>. to take up land under the Land +Laws. See <i>Free-selector</i>. This composite verb, derived +from the noun, is very unusual. The word generally used is +<i>to select</i>. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xix. p. 134: + +"Everything which he could have needed had he proceeded to +free-select an uninhabited island." + +<hw>Free-selection</hw>, <i>n.</i> (1) The process of selecting +or choosing land under the Land Laws, or the right to choose. +Abbreviated often into <i>Selection</i>. See +<i>Free-selector</i>. + +1865. `Ararat Advertiser' [exact date lost]: + +"He was told that the areas open for selection were not on the +Geelong side, and one of the obliging officials placed a plan +before him, showing the lands on which he was free to choose a +future home. The selector looked vacantly at the map, but at +length became attracted by a bright green allotment, which at +once won his capricious fancy, indicating as it did such +luxurious herbage; but, much to his disgust, he found that `the +green lot' had already been selected. At length he fixed on a +yellow section, and declared his intention of resting satisfied +with the choice. The description and area of land chosen were +called out, and he was requested t0 move further over and pay +his money. `Pay?' queried the fuddled but startled <i>bona +fide</i>, `I got no money (hic), old `un, thought it was free +selection, you know.'" + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' ii. 87: + +"A man can now go and make his free selection before survey of +any quantity of land not less than 40 nor more than 320 acres, +at twenty shillings an acre." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 743: + +"You may go to nine stations out of ten now without hearing +any talk but `bullock and free-selection.'" + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 82: + +"His intention . . . was to take up a small piece of land +under the system of `free-selection.'" + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xx. p. 162: + +"This was years before the free-selection discovery." + +(2) Used for the land itself, but generally in the abbreviated +form, <i>Selection</i>. + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' vol. vi, p. 56: + +"I've only seen three females on my selection since I took it +up four years last November." + +<hw>Free-selector</hw>, <i>n.</i> (abbreviated often to +<i>Selector</i>), one who takes up a block of Crown land under +the Land Laws and by annual payments acquires the freehold. +[320 acres to Victoria, 640 in New South Wales.] + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. i. p. 21: + +"Free selectors we shall be + When our journey's end we see." + +1866. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 9: + +"The very law which the free selector puts in force against the +squatter, the squatter puts in force against him; he selected +upon the squatter's run, and the squatter selects upon his +grazing right." + +1873. Ibid. p. 33: + +"Men who select small portions of the Crown lands by means of +land orders or by gradual purchase, and who become freeholders +and then permanently wedded to the colony." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 33: + +"The condition of the free-selector--that of ownership of a +piece of land to be tilled by the owner--is the one which the +best class of immigrants desire." + +1875. `Melbourne Spectator,' June 12, p. 70, col. 2: + +"A public meeting of non-resident selectors has been held at +Rushworth." + +1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 85: + +"A burly free selector pitched his tent in my Home-Station +paddock and turned my dam into a wash." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xii. p. 116: + +"No, no; I've kept free-selectors out all these years, +and as long as I live here I'll do so still." + +<hw>Freezer</hw>, <i>n.</i> a sheep bred and raised in order +that its mutton may be frozen and exported. + +1893. J. Hotson, Lecture in `Age,' Nov.30, p. 7, col. 2: + +"In the breeding of what are in New Zealand known as `freezers' +there lies a ready means of largely increasing the returns from +our land." + +<hw>Fresh-water Herring</hw>, <i>n.</i> In Sydney, the fish is +<i>Clupea richmondia</i>, Macl. Elsewhere in Australia, and in +Tasmania, it is another name for the <i>Grayling</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Fresh-water Perch</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in Tasmania to +the fish <i>Microperca tasmaniae</i>. + +<hw>Friar-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian bird, of the genus +called <i>Philemon</i>, but originally named +<i>Tropidorhynchus</i> (q.v.). It is a honey-eater, and is +also called <i>Poor Soldier</i> and other names; see quotation, +1848. The species are-- + +Friar-Bird-- + <i>Philemon corniculatus</i>, Lath. [Called also + <i>Leather-head</i>, q.v.] + +Helmeted F.-- + <i>P. buceroides</i>, Swains. + +Little F.-- + <i>P. sordidus</i>, Gould. + +Silvery-crowned F.-- + <i>P. argenticeps</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-throated F.- + <i>P. citreogularis</i>, Gould. + +Western F.-- + <i>P. occidentalis</i>, Ramsay. + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 615 (Vocab.): + +"Wirgan,--bird named by us the friar." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' + vol. xv. p. 324: + +"<i>Friar</i>,--a very common bird about Paramatta, called by +the natives `<i>coldong</i>:' It repeats the words `poor +soldier' and `four o'clock' very distinctly." + +1845. `Voyage to Port Phillip,' p. 53: + +"The cheerful sedge-wren and the bald-head friar, + The merry forest-pie with joyous song." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 58: + +"<i>Tropidorhynchus Corniculatus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +"From the fancied resemblance of its notes to those words, +it has obtained from the Colonists the various names of `Poor +Soldier,' `Pimlico,' `Four o'clock,' etc. Its bare head and +neck have also suggested the names of `Friar Bird,' `Monk,' +`Leather Head,' etc." + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of the Philosophical Society +of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 64: + +"The <i>Tropidorhynchus corniculatus</i> is well known to the +colonists by the names `poor soldier,' `leather-headed +jackass,' `friar-bird,' etc. This curious bird, in common with +several other varieties of honey-eaters, is remarkable on +account of its extreme liveliness and the singular resemblance +of its notes to the human voice." + +<hw>Frilled-Lizard</hw>, <i>n.</i> See quotation. + +1875, G. Bennett, `Proceedings of Royal Society of Tasmania,' +p. 56: + +"Notes on the <i>Chlamydosaurus</i> or frilled-lizard of +Queensland (C. Kingii.) " + +<hw>Frogsmouth</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian bird; genus +<i>Podargus</i>, commonly called <i>Mopoke</i> (q.v.). The +mouth and expression of the face resemble the appearance of a +frog. The species are-- + +Freckled Frogsmouth-- + <i>Podargus phaloenoides</i>, Gould. + +Marbled F.-- + <i>P. marmoratus</i>, Gould. + +Plumed F.-- + <i>P. papuensis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Tawney F.-- + <i>P. strigoides</i>, Lath. + +1895. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the + Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 447: + +"The term `Frogsmouth' is used in order to get rid of that very +objectionable name <i>Podargus</i>, and as being allied to the +other genera <i>Batrachostomus</i> and <i>Otothrix</i> of the +family <i>Steatorninae</i> in India. It is a name well suited +to the singular structure of the mouth, and presumably better +than the mythical title of `Goatsucker.' `Night-hawk,' +sometimes applied to the <i>Caprimulginae</i>, does not accord +with the mode of flight of the genus <i>Podargus</i>." + +<hw>Frontage</hw>, <i>n.</i> land along a river or creek, of +great importance to a station. A use common in Australia, not +peculiar to it. + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July i8, p. 3, col. 7: + +". . . has four miles frontage to the Yarra Yarra." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iii. p. 29: + +"Jack was piloted by Mr. Hawkesbury through the `frontage' +and a considerable portion of the `back' regions of Gondaree." + +<hw>Frost-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in Australia and New +Zealand to the European <i>Scabbard-fish</i>, <i>Lepidopus +caudatus</i>, White. The name is said to be derived from the +circumstance that the fish is found alive on New Zealand +sea-beaches on frosty nights. It is called the +<i>Scabbard-fish</i> in Europe, because it is like the shining +white metal sheath of a long sword. <i>Lepidopus</i> belongs +to the family <i>Trichiuridae</i>, it reaches a length of five +or six feet, but is so thin that it hardly weighs as many +pounds. It is considered a delicacy in New Zealand. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 51: + +"The frost-fish . . . the most delicately flavoured of all New +Zealand fishes, is an inhabitant of deep water, and on frosty +nights, owing probably to its air-bladders becoming choked, it +is cast up by the surf on the ocean-beach." + +<hw>Fruit-Pigeon</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is given to numerous +pigeons of the genera <i>Ptilinopus</i> and <i>Carpophaga</i>. +In Australia it is assigned to the following birds:-- + +Allied Fruit-Pigeon-- + <i>Ptilinopus assimilis</i>, Gould. + +Purple-breasted F.-P.-- + <i>P. magnifica</i>, Temm. + +Purple-crowned F.-P.-- + <i>P. superbus</i>, Temm. + +Red-crowned F.-P.-- + <i>P. swainsonii</i>, Gould. + +Rose-crowned F.-P.-- + <i>P. ewingii</i> Gould. + +White-headed F.-P.-- + <i>Columba leucomela</i>, Temm. + +And in New Zealand to <i>Carpophaga novae-zealandiae</i>, Gmel. +(Maori name, <i>Kereru Kuku</i>, or <i>Kukupa</i>.) + +<hw>Fryingpan-Brand</hw>, <i>n.</i> a large brand used by +cattle-stealers to cover the owner's brand. See <i>Duffer</i> +and <i>Cattle-Duffer</i>. + +1857. Frederic De Brebant Cooper, `Wild Adventures in +Australia,' p. 104: + +". . . This person was an `old hand,' and got into some +trouble on the other side (i.e. the Bathurst side) by using a +`frying-pan brand.' He was stock-keeping in that quarter, and +was rather given to `gulley-raking.' One fine day it appears +he ran in three bullocks belonging to a neighbouring squatter, +and clapt his brand on the top of the other so as to efface +it." + +<hw>Fuchsia, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is applied to +several native plants. + +(1) In Australia and Tasmania, to various species of <i>Correa</i> + (q.v.), especially to <i>Correa speciosa</i>, And., <i>N.O. + Rutaceae</i>. + +(2) In Queensland, to <i>Eremophila maculata</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O</i>. <i>Myoporineae</i>. + +(3) In New Zealand, to <i>Fuchsia excorticata</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Onagrariae</i>. (Maori name, <i>Kotukutuktu</i>, q.v.). +See also <i>Tooky-took</i> and <i>Konini</i>. + +1860. Geo. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia,' +pp. 371-2: + +"The Correa virens, with its pretty pendulous blossoms (from +which it has been named the `Native Fuchsia'), and the Scarlet +Grevillea (G. coccinea) are gay amidst the bush flowers." + +1880. Mrs.Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 23: + +"I see some pretty red correa and lilac." +[Footnote]: "Correa speciosa--native fuchsia of Colonies." + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 374: + +"<i>E. maculata</i>. A . . . shrub called native fuchsia, and +by some considered poisonous, by others a good fodder bush." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 126: + +"<i>E. maculata</i>. . . . Called `Native Fuchsia' in parts +of Queensland." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 24, `Native Trees': + +"A species of native fuchsia that is coming greatly into favour +is called [Fuchsia] Procumbens. It is a lovely pot plant, with +large pink fruit and upright flowers." + +<hw>Full up of</hw>, <i>adj</i>. (slang), sick and tired of. +"Full on," and "full of," are other forms. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxiii. p. 213: + +"She was `full up' of the Oxley, which was a rowdy, +disagreeable goldfield as ever she was on." + +<hw>Furze, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> a shrub, <i>Hakea ulcina</i>, +R. Br. See <i>Hakea</i>. + +<hw>Futtah</hw>, <i>n.</i> a settlers' corruption of the Maori +word <i>Whata</i> (q.v.). + +1895. W.S. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,'p. 28: + +"These stores were called by the Europeans <i>futters</i>,--but +the Maori name was Whata." + +1896. `Southland Daily News,' Feb. 3: + +"`Futtah is familiar as `household words.' There were always +rats in New Zealand--that is, since any traditions of its +<i>fauna</i> existed. The original ones were good to eat. +They were black and smooth in the hair as the mole of the Old +Country, and were esteemed delicacies. They were always +mischievous, but the Norway rat that came with the white man +was worse. He began by killing and eating his aboriginal +congener, and then made it more difficult than ever to keep +anything eatable out of reach of his teeth. Human ingenuity, +however, is superior to that of most of the lower animals, and +so the `futtah' came to be--a storehouse on four posts, each of +them so bevelled as to render it impossible for the cleverest +rat to climb them. The same expedient is to-day in use on +Stewart Island and the West Coast --in fact, wherever properly +constructed buildings are not available for the storage of +things eatable or destructible by the rodents in question." + + +G + + +<hw>Galah</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird.(The accent is now placed +on the second syllable.) Aboriginal name for the <i>Cacatua +roseicapilla</i>, Vieill., the <i>Rose-breasted +Cockatoo</i>. See <i>Cockatoo</i>. With the first syllable +compare last syllable of <i>Budgerigar</i> (q.v.) + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 5: + +"They can afford to screech and be merry, as also the grey, +pink-crested galahs, which tint with the colours of the evening +sky a spot of grass in the distance." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 127: + +"The galahs, with their delicate grey and rose-pink plumage, +are the prettiest parrots." + +1891. Francis Adams, `John Webb's End,' p. 191: + +"A shrieking flock of galahs, on their final flight before they +settled to roost, passed over and around him, and lifting up +his head, he saw how all their grey feathers were flushed with +the sunset light, their coloured breasts deepening into darkest +ruby, they seemed like loosed spirits." + +<hw>Gallows</hw>, <i>n.</i> Explained in quotation. Common +at all stations, where of course the butchering is done on +the premises. + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 64: + +"The gallows, a high wooden frame from which the carcases of +the butchered sheep dangle." + +<hw>Gang-gang</hw>, or <hw>Gan-gan</hw>, <i>n.</i> the +aboriginal word for the bird <i>Callocephalon galeatum</i>, +Lath., so called from its note; a kind of cockatoo, grey with a +red head, called also <i>Gang-gang Cockatoo</i>. See +<i>Cockatoo</i>. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. Intro. +p. xxxviii: + +"Upon the branches the satin-bird, the gangan, and various +kinds of pigeons were feeding." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 14: + +"<i>Callocephalon Galeatum</i>, Gang-gang Cockatoo, Colonists +of New South Wales." + +<hw>Gannet</hw>, <i>n.</i> the English name for the <i>Solan +Goose</i> and its tribe. The Australian species are-- + +The Gannet-- + <i>Sula serrator</i>, Banks. + +Brown G. (called also <i>Booby</i>)-- + <i>S. leucogastra</i>, Bodd. + +Masked G.-- + <i>S. cyanops</i>, Sunder. + +Red-legged G.-- + <i>S. piscator</i>, Linn. + +The species in New Zealand is <i>Dysporus serrator</i>, Grey; + Maori name, <i>Takapu</i>. + +<hw>Garfish</hw>, <i>n.</i> In England the name is applied to +any fish of the family <i>Belonidae</i>. The name was +originally used for the common European <i>Belone vulgaris</i>. +In Melbourne the Garfish is a true one, <i>Belone ferox</i>, +Gunth., called in Sydney "Long Tom." In Sydney, Tasmania, and +New Zealand it is <i>Hemirhamphus intermedius</i>, Cantor.; and +in New South Wales, generally, it is the river-fish +<i>H. regularis</i>, Gunth., family <i>Sombresocidae</i>. Some +say that the name was originally "Guard-fish," and it is still +sometimes so spelt. But the word is derived from x<i>Gar</i>, +in Anglo-Saxon, which meant spear, dart, javelin, and the +allusion is to the long spear-like projection of the fish's +jaws. Called by the Sydney fishermen <i>Ballahoo</i>, and in +Auckland the <i>Piper</i> (q.v.). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 288: + +"Charley brought me . . . the head bones of a large +guard-fish." + +1849. Anon., `New South Wales: its Past, Present, and Future +Condition,' p. 99: + +"The best kinds of fish are guard, mullet, and schnapper." + +1850. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' c. iii. p. 44: + +"In the bay are large quantities of guard-fish." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June I9, p. 81, col.1: + +"Common fish, such as trout, ruffies, mullet, garfish." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 83: + +"Of the garfishes we have four species known to be found on our +coasts. One, <i>Hemirhamphus regularis</i>, is the favourite +breakfast fish of the citizens of Sydney. <i>H. melanochir</i>, +or `river garfish,' is a still better fish, but has become very +scarce. <i>H. argentcus</i>, the common Brisbane species +. . . and <i>H. commersoni</i>." + +<hw>Gastrolobium</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name of a genus of +Australian shrubs, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, commonly known as +<i>Poison Bushes</i> (q.v.). The species are-- + + <i>Gastrolobium bilobum</i>, R. Br. + <i>G. callistachys</i>, Meissn. + <i>G. calycium</i>, Benth. + <i>G. obovatum</i>, Benth. + <i>G. oxylobioides</i>, Benth. + <i>G. spinosum</i>, Benth. + <i>G. trilobum</i>, Benth. + +All of which are confined to Western Australia. The species +<i>Gastrolobium grandiflorum</i>, F. v. M. (also called +<i>Wall-flower</i>), is the only species found out of Western +Australia, and extends across Central Australia to Queensland. +All the species have pretty yellow and purple flowers. The +name is from the Greek <i>gastaer, gastros</i>, the belly, +and <i>lobion</i>, dim. of <i>lobos</i>, "the capsule or pod +of leguminous plants." (`L. & S.') + +<hw>Geebung</hw>, or <hw>Geebong</hw>, <i>n.</i> aboriginal +name for the fruit of various species of the tree +<i>Persoonia</i>, and also for the tree itself, +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 221: + +"The jibbong is another tasteless fruit, as well as the five +corners, much relished by children." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 478: + +"We gathered and ate a great quantity of gibong (the ripe fruit +of Persoonia falcata)." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' c. vi,. p. 176, 3rd +edition 1855: + +"The geebung, a native plum, very woolly and tasteless." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 113: + +"We gathered the wild raspberries, and mingling them with +geebongs and scrub berries, set forth a dessert." + +1885. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 255: + +"You won't turn a five-corner into a quince, or a geebung into +an orange." + +1889. J. M. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 584: + +"A `geebung' (the name given to the fruits of <i>Persoonias</i>, +and hence to the trees themselves)." + +<hw>Gerygone</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific and vernacular name of +a genus of small warblers of Australia and New Zealand; the new +name for them is <i>Fly-eater</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand they +are called <i>Bush-warblers</i>, <i>Grey-warblers</i>, etc., +and they also go there by their Maori name of <i>Riro-riro</i>. +For the species, see <i>Fly-eater</i> and <i>Warbler</i>. The +name is from the Greek <i>gerugonae</i>, "born of sound," a word +used by Theocritus. + +1895. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 447: + +"[The habits and habitats of the genus] <i>Gerygone</i> +suggested the term Fly-<i>eater</i>, as distinguished from +Fly-<i>catcher</i>, for this aberrant and peculiarly +Australasian form of small Fly-catchers, which not only capture +their food somewhat after the manner of Fly-catchers, but also +seek for it arboreally." + +<hw>Ghilgai</hw>, <i>n.</i> an aboriginal word used by white +men in the neighbourhood of Bourke, New South Wales, to denote +a saucer-shaped depression in the ground which forms a natural +reservoir for rainwater. <i>Ghilgais</i> vary from 20 to 100 +yards in diameter, and are from five to ten feet deep. They +differ from <i>Claypans</i> (q.v.), in being more regular in +outline and deeper towards the centre, whereas <i>Claypans</i> +are generally flat-bottomed. Their formation is probably due +to subsidence. + +<hw>Giant-Lily</hw>, <i>n.</i> See under <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Giant-Nettle</hw>, i.q. <i>Nettle-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Gibber</hw>, <i>n.</i> an aboriginal word for a stone. +Used both of loose stones and of rocks. The <i>G</i> is hard. + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. x. [In a list +of `barbarisms']: + +"Gibber, a stone." + +[<i>Pace</i> Mr. Threlkeld, the word is aboriginal, though not +of the dialect of the Hunter District, of which he is speaking.] + +1852. `Settlers and Convicts; or Recollections of Sixteen Years' +Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 159: + +"Of a rainy night like this he did not object to stow himself +by the fireside of any house he might be near, or under the +`gibbers' (overhanging rocks) of the river. . . ." + +1890. A .J. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 338: + +"He struck right on top of them gibbers (stones)." + +1894. Baldwin Spencer, in `The Argus,' Sept. 1, p. 4, col. 2: + +"At first and for more than a hundred miles [from Oodnadatta +northwards], our track led across what is called the gibber +country, where the plains are covered with a thin layer of +stones--the gibbers--of various sizes, derived from the breaking +down of a hard rock which forms the top of endless low, +table-topped hills belonging to the desert sandstone +formation." + +<hw>Gibber-gunyah</hw>, <i>n.</i> an aboriginal cave-dwelling. +See <i>Gibber</i> and <i>Gunyah</i>, also <i>Rock-shelter</i>. + +1852. `Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of Sixteen +Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 211: + +"I coincided in his opinion that it would be best for us to +camp for the night in one of the ghibber-gunyahs. These are +the hollows under overhanging rocks." + +1863. Rev. R. W. Vanderkiste, `Lost, but not for Ever,' p. 210: + +"Our home is the gibber-gunyah, + Where hill joins hill on high, + Where the turrama and berrambo + Like sleeping serpents lie." + +1891. R. Etheridge, jun., `Records of the Australian Museum,' +vol. i. no. viii. p. 171: + +"Notes on Rock Shelters or Gibba-gunyahs at Deewhy Lagoon." + +<hw>Giddea</hw>, <hw>Gidya</hw>, or <hw>Gidgee</hw>, <i>adj</i>. +aboriginal word of New South Wales and Queensland for-- + +(1) a species of <i>Acacia, A. homalophylla</i>, Cunn. The +original meaning is probably <i>small</i>, cf. <i>gidju</i>, +Warrego, Queensland, and <i>kutyo</i>, Adelaide, both meaning +small. + +(2) A long spear made, from this wood. + +1878. `Catalogue of Objects of Ethno-typical Art in National +Gallery, Melbourne,' p. 46: + +"<i>Gid-jee</i>. Hardwood spear, with fragments of quartz set +in gum on two sides and grass-tree stem. Total length, 7 feet 8 +inches." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 51: + +"Gidya scrubs." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 357: + +"<i>A. homalophylla</i>. A `Spearwood.' Called `Myall' +in Victoria. . . . Aboriginal names are . . . Gidya, Gidia, +or Gidgee (with other spellings in New South Wales and +Queensland). This is the commonest colonial name . . . much +sought after for turner's work on account of its solidity and +fragrance. . . . The smell of the tree when in flower is +abominable, and just before rain almost unbearable." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 211: + +"I sat . . . watching the shadows of the gydya trees lengthen, +ah! so slowly." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 37: + +"Kind of scrub, called by the colonists gydya-scrub, which +manifests itself even at a distance by a very characteristic, +but not agreeable odour, being especially pungent after rain." + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Home Expedition in Central Australia,' +Narrative, p. 22: + +"We camped beside a water-pool on the Adminga Creek, which is +bordered for the main part by a belt of the stinking acacia, or +giddea (<i>A. homalophylla</i>). When the branches are freshly +cut it well deserves the former name, as they have a most +objectionable smell." + +<hw>Gill-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> an occasional name for the +<i>Wattle-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1896. `Menu' for October 15: + + "Gill-bird on Toast." + +<hw>Gin</hw>, <i>n.</i> a native word for an aboriginal woman, +and used, though rarely, even for a female kangaroo. See +quotation 1833. The form <i>gun</i> (see quotation 1865) looks +as if it had been altered to meet <i>gunae</i>, and of course +generate is not derived from <i>gunae</i>, though it may be a +distant relative. In `Collins's Vocabulary' occurs "din, a +woman." If such a phonetic spelling as <i>djin</i> had been +adopted, as it well might have been, to express the native +sound, where would the <i>gunae</i> theory have been? + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' Vocabulary, p. 612: + +"Din--a woman." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 152: + +"A proposition was made by one of my natives to go and steal a +gin (wife)." + +Ibid. p. 153: + +"She agrees to become his gin." + +1833. Lieut. Breton, R.N., `Excursions in New South Wales,' +p. 254: + +"The flying gin (gin is the native word for woman or female) is +a boomall, and will leave behind every description of dog." + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. x: + +"As a barbarism [sc. not used on the Hunter], jin--a wife." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 8: + +"A gin (the aboriginal for a married woman)." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 367: + +"Gin, the term applied to the native female blacks; not from +any attachment to the spirit of that name, but from some (to +me) unknown derivation." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. I. c. iv. +p. 74: + +"Though very anxious to . . . carry off one of their `gins,' +or wives . . . he yet evidently holds these north men in great +dread." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,'p. 126, n.: + +"When their fire-stick has been extinguished, as is sometimes +the case, for their jins or vestal virgins, who have charge of +the fire, are not always sufficiently vigilant." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 98: + +"Gins--native women--from <i>gune</i>, mulier, evidently!" + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. 2, p. 46: + +"The females would be comely looking gins, + Were not their limbs so much like rolling-pins." + +1865. S. Bennett, `Australian Discovery,' p. 250: + +"Gin or gun, a woman. Greek <i>gunae</i> and derivative words +in English, such as generate, generation, and the like." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `MY Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 118: + +"The gins are captives of their bow and spear, and are brought +home before the captor on his saddle. This seems the orthodox +way of wooing the coy forest maidens. . . . All blacks are +cruel to their gins." + +1880. J. Brunton Stephens, `Poems' [Title]: + +"To a black gin." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 23: + +"Certain stout young gins or lubras, set apart for the purpose, +were sacrificed." + +<hw>Ginger, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian tree, +<i>Alpinia caerulea</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Scitamineae</i>. +The globular fruit is eaten by the natives. + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 296: + +"Fresh green leaves, especially of the so-called native ginger +(<i>Alpinia caerulea</i>)." + +<hw>Give Best</hw>, <i>v</i>. Australian slang, meaning to +acknowledge superiority, or to give up trying at anything. + +1883. Keighley, `Who are You?' p. 87: + +"But then--the fact had better be confessed, I went to work +and gave the schooling best." + +1887. J. Farrell, `How he Died,' p. 80: + +"Charley gave life best and died of grief." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xviii. p. 174: + +"It's not like an Englishman to jack up and give these fellows +best." + +<hw>Globe-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the fish +<i>Tetrodon hamiltoni</i>, Richards., family +<i>Gymnodontes</i>. The <i>Spiny Globe-fish</i> is +<i>Diodon</i>. These are also called <i>Toad-fish</i> (q.v.), +and <i>Porcupine-fish</i> (q.v.). The name is applied to other +fish elsewhere. + +<hw>Glory Flower</hw>, or <hw>Glory Pea</hw>, +i.q. <i>Clianthus</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Glory Pea</hw>, i.q. <i>Clianthus</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Glucking-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird so named by +Leichhardt, but not identified. Probably the <i>Boobook</i> +(q.v.), and see its quotation 1827; see also under +<i>Mopoke</i> quotation, <i>Owl</i>, 1846. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 23: + +"The musical note of an unknown bird, sounding like `gluck +gluck' frequently repeated, and ending in a shake . . . are +heard from the neighbourhood of the scrub." + +Ibid. p. 29: + +"The glucking bird--by which name, in consequence of its note, +the bird may be distinguished--was heard through the night." + +Ibid. p. 47: + +"The glucking-bird and the barking owl were heard throughout +the moonlight nights." + +Ibid. pp. 398, 399: + +"During the night, we heard the well-known note of what we +called the `Glucking bird,' when we first met with it in the +Cypress-pine country at the early part of our expedition. Its +re-appearance with the Cypress-pine corroborated my supposition, +that the bird lived on the seeds of that tree." + +<hw>Glue-pot</hw>, <i>n.</i> part of a road so bad that the +coach or buggy sticks in it. + +1892. `Daily News,' London (exact date lost): + +"The Bishop of Manchester [Dr. Moorhouse, formerly Bishop of +Melbourne], whose authority on missionary subjects will not be +disputed, assures us that no one can possibly understand the +difficulties and the troubles attendant upon the work of a +Colonial bishop or clergyman until he has driven across almost +pathless wastes or through almost inaccessible forests, has +struggled through what they used to call `glue-pots,' until he +has been shaken to pieces by `corduroy roads,' and has been in +the midst of forests with the branches of trees falling around +on all sides, knowing full well that if one fell upon him he +would be killed." + +<hw>Goai</hw>, <i>n.</i> common name in southern island of New +Zealand for <i>Kowhai</i> (q.v.), of which it is a corruption. +It is especially used of the timber of this tree, which is +valuable for fencing. The change from <i>K</i> to <i>G</i> +also took place in the name Otago, formerly spelt Otakou. + +1860. John Blair, `New Zealand for Me,': + +"The land of the <i>goai</i> tree, mapu, and pine, + The stately <i>totara</i>, and blooming wild vine." + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 104: + +"I remember nothing but a rather curiously shaped gowai-tree." + +<hw>Goanna</hw>, <hw>Guana</hw>, and <hw>Guano</hw>, <i>n.</i> +popular corruptions for <i>Iguana</i>, the large Lace-lizard +(q.v.), <i>Varanus varius</i>, Shaw. In New Zealand, the word +<i>Guano</i> is applied to the lizard-like reptile <i>Sphenodon +punctatum</i>. See <i>Tuatara</i>. In Tasmania, the name is +given to <i>Taliqua schincoides</i>, White, and throughout +Australia any lizard of a large size is popularly called a +<i>Guana</i>, or in the bush, more commonly, a <i>Goanna</i>. +See also <i>Lace-lizard</i>. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. viii. +p. 285: + +"Among other reptiles were found . . . some brown guanoes." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present state of Australia,' p. 118: + +"At length an animal called a guana (a very large species of +lizard) jumped out of the grass, and with amazing rapidity ran, +as they always do when disturbed, up a high tree." + +1864. J. Ropers, `New Rush,' p. 6: + +"The shy guana climbs a tree in fear." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 99: + +"A goanna startled him, and he set to and kicked the front of +the buggy in." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 139: + +"And the sinister `gohanna,' and the lizard, and the snake." + +<hw>Go-ashore</hw>, <i>n.</i> an iron pot or cauldron, with +three iron feet, and two ears, from which it was suspended by +a wire handle over the fire. It is a corruption of the Maori +word <i>Kohua</i> (q.v.), by the law of Hobson-Jobson. + +1849. W. Tyrone Power, `Sketches in New Zealand with Pen and +Pencil,' p. 160: + +"Engaged in the superintendence of a Maori oven, or a huge +gipsy-looking cauldron, called a `go-ashore.'" + +1877. An Old Colonist, `Colonial Experiences,' p. 124: + +"A large go-ashore, or three-legged pot, of the size and shape +of the cauldron usually introduced in the witch scene in +Macbeth." + +1879. C. L. Innes, `Canterbury Sketches,' p. 23: + +"There was another pot, called by the euphonious name of a +`Go-ashore,' which used to hang by a chain over the fire. +This was used for boiling." + +<hw>Goborro</hw>, <i>n.</i> aboriginal name for <i>Eucalyptus +microtheca</i>, F. v. M. See <i>Dwarf-box</i>, under <i>Box</i>. + +<hw>Goburra</hw>, and <hw>Gogobera</hw>, <i>n.</i> variants +of <i>Kookaburra</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Goditcha</hw>. See <i>Kurdaitcha</i>. + +<hw>Godwit</hw>, <i>n.</i> the English name for birds of the +genus <i>Limosa</i>. The Australian species are-- + +Black-tailed G.,-- + <i>Limosa melanuroides</i>, Gould; + +Barred-rumped G.,-- + <i>L. uropygialis</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Gogobera</hw>, and <hw>Goburra</hw>, <i>n.</i> variants of +<i>Kookaburra</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Gold</hw>-. The following words and phrases compounded +with "gold" are Australian in use, though probably some are +used elsewhere. + +<hw>Gold-bearing</hw>, <i>verbal adj</i>. auriferous. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 13: + +"A new line of gold-bearing quartz." + +<hw>Gold-digging</hw>, <i>verbal n.</i> mining or digging for +gold. + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Gold. fields,' p. 36: + +"There were over forty miners thus playing at gold-digging +in Hiscock's Gully." + +<hw>Gold-digger</hw>, <i>n.</i> + +1852. J. Bonwick [Title]: + +"Notes of a Gold-digger." + +<hw>Gold-fever</hw>, <i>n.</i> the desire to obtain gold by +digging. The word is more especially applied to the period +between 1851 and 1857, the early Australian discovery of gold. +The term had been previously applied in a similar way to the +Californian excitement in 1848-49. Called also <i>Yellow +fever</i>. + +1888. A. J. Barbour, `Clara,' c. ix. p. 13: + +"The gold fever coursed through every vein." + +<hw>Gold-field</hw>, <i>n.</i> district where mining for gold +is carried on. + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria, c. xv. p. 215: + +"All were anxious to get away for the gold fields." + +1880. G. Sutherland, [Title] `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 19: + +"Edward Hargreaves, the discoverer of the Australian goldfields +. . . received L15,000 as his reward." + +<hw>Gold-founded</hw>, <i>part. adj</i>. founded as the result +of the discovery of gold. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. ix. p. 91: + +"I rode up the narrow street, serpentine in construction, as in +all gold-founded townships." + +<hw>Gold-hunter</hw>, <i>n.</i> searcher after gold. + +1852. G. S. Rutter [Title]: + + "Hints to Gold-hunters." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. v. p. 48: + +"I was not as one of the reckless gold-hunters with which +the camp was thronged." + +<hw>Gold-mining</hw>, <i>verbal n.</i> + +1852. J. A.Phillips [Title]: + +"Gold-mining; a Scientific Guide for Australian Emigrants." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 23: + +"He had already had quite enough of gold-mining." + +<hw>Gold-seeking</hw>, <i>adj</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xv. p. 150: + +"The great gold-seeking multitude had swelled . . . to the +population of a province." + +<hw>Golden Bell-Frog</hw>, <i>n.</i> name applied to a large +gold and green frog, <i>Hyla aurea</i>, Less., which, unlike +the great majority of the family <i>Hylidae</i> to which it +belongs, is terrestrial and not arboreal in its habits, being +found in and about water-holes in many parts of Australia. + +1881. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Dec. 6, pl. 53: + +"So completely alike was the sound of the Bell-frogs in an +adjoining pond at night to the noise of the men by day." + +<hw>Golden-chain</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for the +<i>Laburnum</i> + (q.v.). + +<hw>Golden-eye</hw>, <i>n.</i> the bird <i>Certhia +lunulatu</i>, Shaw; now called <i>Melithreptus lunulatus</i>, +Shaw, and classed as <i>White-naped Honey-eater</i> (q.v.). + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 315: + +"`This bird,' Mr. Caley says, `is called Golden-eye by the +settlers. I shot it at Iron Cove, seven miles from Sydney, +on the Paramatta road.'" + +<hw>Golden-Perch</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fresh-water fish of +Australia, <i>Ctenolates ambiguus</i>, Richards., family +<i>Percidae</i>, and <i>C. christyi</i>, Castln.; also called +the <i>Yellow-belly</i>. <i>C. ambiguus</i> is common in the +rivers and lagoons of the Murray system. + +<hw>Golden-Rosemary</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Rosemary</i>. + +<hw>Golden-Wattle</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Wattle</i>. + +1896. `The Argus,' July 20, p. 5, col. 8: + +"Many persons who had been lured into gathering armfuls +of early wattle had cause to regret their devotion to the +Australian national bloom, for the golden wattle blossoms +produced unpleasant associations in the minds of the wearers +of the green, and there were blows and curses in plenty. +In political botany the wattle and blackthorn cannot grow +side by side." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 53: + +"The last two weeks have been alive with signs and tokens, +saying `Spring is coming, Spring is here.' And though this +may not be the `merry month of May,' yet it is the time of +glorious Golden Wattle,--wattle waving by the river's bank, +nodding aloft its soft plumes of yellow and its gleaming golden +oriflamme, or bending low to kiss its own image in the brown +waters which it loves." + +<hw>Goodenia</hw>, <i>n.</i> the scientific and popular name of +a genus of Australian plants, closely resembling the +<i>Gentians</i>; there are many species. The name was given by +Sir James Smith, president of the Linnaean Society, in 1793. +See quotation. + +1793. `Transactions of the Linn.can Society,' vol. ii. p. 346: + +"I [Smith] have given to this . . . genus the name of Goodenia, +in honour of . . . Rev. Dr. <i>Goodenough</i>, treasurer of +this Society, of whose botanical merits . . . example of +Tournefort, who formed Gundelia from Gundelscheimer." + +[Dr. Goodenough became Bishop of Carlisle; he was the +grandfather of Commodore Goodenough.] + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 188: + +"A species of <i>Goodenia</i> is supposed to be used by the +native gins to cause their children to sleep on long journeys, +but it is not clear which is used." + +<hw>Goodletite</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name for a matrix in +which rubies are found. So named by Professor Black of +Dunedin, in honour of his assistant, William Goodlet, who was +the first to discover the rubies in the matrix, on the west +coast. + +1894. `Grey River Argus,' September: + +"Several sapphires of good size and colour have been found, +also rubies in the matrix--Goodletite." + +<hw>Goondie</hw>, <i>n.</i> a native hut. <i>Gundai</i> = a +shelter in the Wiradhuri dialect. It is the same word as +<i>Gunyah</i> (q.v.). + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 204: + +"There were a dozen `goondies' to be visited, and the inmates +started to their work." + +<hw>Goose</hw>, <i>n.</i> English bird-name. The Australian +species are-- + +Cape Barren Goose-- + <i>Cereopsis novae-hollandiae</i>, Lath. [Gould (`Birds of +Australia,' vol. vii. pl. 1) calls it the Cereopsis Goose, or +Cape Barren Goose of the Colonists.] + +Maned G. (or Wood-duck, q.v.)-- + <i>Branta jubata</i>, Lath. + +Pied G.-- + <i>Anseranus melanoleuca</i>, Lath. + Called also Magpie-Goose and Swan-Goose. + +1843. J. Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian + Colonies,' p. 75: + +"Five pelicans and some Cape Barren Geese were upon the beach +of Preservation Island [Bass Strait]." + +<hw>Goose-teal</hw>, <i>n.</i> the English name for a very +small goose of the genus <i>Nettapus</i>. The Australian +species are-- + +Green,-- + <i> Nettapus pulchellus</i>, Gould; + +White-quilled,-- + <i>N. albipennis</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Gooseberry-tree</hw>, Little, <i>n.</i> name given to the +Australian tree <i>Buchanania mangoides</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. +Anacardiaceae</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 479: + +"My companions had, for several days past, gathered the unripe +fruits of <i>Coniogeton arborescens</i>, R. Br., which, when +boiled, imparted an agreeable acidity to the water. . . . When +ripe, they became sweet and pulpy, like gooseberries. . . . +This resemblance induced us to call the tree `the little +gooseberry-tree.' " + +<hw>Gordon Lily</hw>, <i>n.</i> See under <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Gouty-stem</hw>, <i>n.</i> the Australian +<i>Baobab-tree</i> (q.v.), <i>Adansonia gregori</i>, F. v. M. +According to Maiden (p. 60), <i>Sterculia rupestris</i>, +Benth., is also called Gouty-stem, on account of the +extraordinary shape of the trunk. Other names of this tree are +the <i>Sour-gourd</i>, and the <i>Cream-of-tartar</i> tree. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. II. c. iii. +p. 115: + +"The gouty-stem tree . . . bears a very fragrant white flower, not +unlike the jasmine." [Illustration given at p. 116.] + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 2S9 [Note]: + +"This tree is distinguished by the extraordinary swollen +appearance of the stem, which looks as though the tree were +diseased or the result of a freak of nature. The youngest as +well as the oldest trees have the same deformed appearance, and +inside the bark is a soft juicy pulp instead of wood, which is +said to be serviceable as an article of food. The stem of the +largest tree at Careening Bay was twenty-nine feet in girth; it +is named the <i>Adansonia digitata</i>. A species is found in +Africa. In Australia it occurs only on the north coast." + +<hw>Government</hw>, <i>n.</i> a not unusual contraction of +"Government service," used by contractors and working men. + +<hw>Government men</hw>, <i>n.</i> an obsolete euphemistic name +for convicts, especially for assigned servants (q.v.). + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 122: + +"Three government men or convicts." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 127: + +"Government men, as assigned servants were called." + +<hw>Government stroke</hw>, <i>n.</i> a lazy style of doing +work, explained in quotations. The phrase is not dead. + +1856. W. W. Dobie, `Recollections of a Visit to Port Phillip,' +p. 47: + +"Government labourers, at ten shillings a-day, were breaking +stones with what is called `the Government stroke,' which is a +slow-going, anti-sweating kind of motion. . . ." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. ix. [near +end] p. 163: + +"In colonial parlance the government stroke is that light and +easy mode of labour--perhaps that semblance of labour--which no +other master will endure, though government is forced to put up +with it." + +1893. `Otago Witness,' December 2r, p. 9, col. 1: + +"The government stroke is good enough for this kind of job." + +1897. `The Argus,' Feb. 22, p. 4, col. 9: + +"Like the poor the unemployed are always with us, but they have +a penchant for public works in Melbourne, with a good daily pay +and the `Government stroke' combined." + +<hw>Grab-all</hw>, <i>n.</i> a kind of net used for marine +fishing near the shore. It is moored to a piece of floating +wood, and by the Tasmanian Government regulations must have a +mesh of 2 1/4 inches. + +1883. Edward O. Cotton, `Evidence before Royal Commission on +the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 82: + +"Put a graball down where you will in `bell-rope' kelp, more +silver trumpeter will get in than any other fish." + +1883. Ibid. p. xvii: + +"Between sunrise and sunset, nets, known as `graballs,' may be +used." + +<hw>Grammatophore</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name for "an +Australian agamoid lizard, genus <i>Grammatophora</i>." +(`Standard.') + +<hw>Grape, Gippsland</hw>, <i>n.</i> called also <i>Native +Grape</i>. An Australian fruit tree, <i>Vitis hypoglauca</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Viniferae</i>; called Gippsland Grape in +Victoria. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 66: + +"Native grape; Gippsland grape. This evergreen climber yields +black edible fruits of the size of cherries. This grape would +perhaps be greatly improved by culture. (Mueller.)" + +<hw>Grape, Macquarie Harbour</hw>, or <hw>Macquarie Harbour +Vine</hw> (q.v.), <i>n</i>. name given to the climbing shrub +<i>Muehlenbeckia adpressra</i>, Meissn. <i>N.O. Polygonaceae</i>. +Called <i>Native Ivy</i> in Australia. See under <i>Ivy</i>. + +<hw>Grape-eater</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird, called formerly +<i>Fig-eater</i>, now known as the <i>Green-backed +White-eye</i> (q.v.), <i>Zosterops gouldi</i>, Bp. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 82: + +"<i>Zosterops chloronotus</i>, Gould, Green-backed Z.; +Grape and Fig-eater, Colonists of Swan River." + +<hw>Grass</hw>, <i>n.</i> In Australia, as elsewhere, the name +<i>Grass</i> is sometimes given to plants which are not of the +natural order <i>Gramineae</i>, yet everywhere it is chiefly to +this natural order that the name is applied. A fair proportion +of the true <i>Grasses</i> common to many other countries in +the world, or confined, on the one hand to temperate zones, or +on the other to tropical or sub-tropical regions, are also +indigenous to Australia, or Tasmania, or New Zealand, or +sometimes to all three countries. In most cases such grasses +retain their Old World names, as, for instance, +<i>Barnyard</i>- or <i>Cock-spur Grass</i> (<i>Panicum +crus-galli</i>, Linn.); in others they receive new Australian +names, as <i>Ditch Millet</i> (<i>Paspalum scrobitulatum</i>, +F. v. M.), the `Koda Millet' of India; and still again certain +grasses named in Latin by scientific botanists have been +distinguished by a vernacular English name for the first time +in Australia, as <i>Kangaroo Grass</i> (<i>Anhistiria +ciliata</i>, Linn.), which was "long known before Australia +became colonized, in South Asia and all Africa" (von Muller), +but not by the name of the <i>Kangaroo</i>. + +Beyond these considerations, the settlers of Australia, whose +wealth depends chiefly on its pastoral occupation, have +introduced many of the best Old-World pasture grasses (chiefly +of the genera <i>Poa</i> and <i>Festuca</i>), and many +thousands of acres are said to be "laid down with English +grass." Some of these are now so wide-spread in their +acclimatization, that the botanists are at variance as to +whether they are indigenous to Australia or not; the <i>Couch +Grass</i>, for instance (<i>Cynodon dactylon</i>, Pers.), or +<i>Indian Doub Grass</i>, is generally considered to be an +introduced grass, yet Maiden regards it as indigenous. + +There remain, "from the vast assemblage of our grasses, even +some hundred indigenous to Australia" (von Muller), and a like +number indigenous to New Zealand, the greater proportion of +which are endemic. Many of these, accurately named in Latin +and described by the botanists, have not yet found their +vernacular equivalents; for the bushman and the settler do not +draw fine botanical distinctions. Maiden has classified and +fully described 158 species as "Forage Plants," of which over +ninety have never been christened in English. Mr. John +Buchanan, the botanist and draughtsman to the Geographical +Survey of New Zealand, has prepared for his Government a +`Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand,' which +enumerates eighty species, many of them unnamed in English, and +many of them common also to Australia and Tasmania. These two +descriptive works, with the assistance of Guilfoyle's Botany +and Travellers' notes, have been made the basis of the +following list of all the common Australian names applied to +the true <i>Grasses</i> of the <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. Some of +them of very special Australian character appear also elsewhere +in the Dictionary in their alphabetical places, while a few +other plants, which are grasses by name and not by nature, +stand in such alphabetical place alone, and not in this list. +For facility of comparison and reference the range and habitat +of each species is indicated in brackets after its name; the +more minute limitation of such ranges is not within the scope +of this work. The species of <i>Grass</i> present in +Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand are-- + +1. Alpine Rice Grass-- + <i>Ehrharta colensoi</i>, Cook. (N.Z.) + +2. Alpine Whorl G.-- + <i>Catabrosa antarctica</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +3. Bamboo G.-- + <i>Glyceria ramigera</i>, F. v. M. (A.) + Called also <i>Cane Grass</i>. + <i>Stipa verticillata</i>, Nees.(A.) + +4. Barcoo G. (of Queensland)-- + <i>Anthistiria membranacea</i>, Lindl. (A.) + Called also <i>Landsborough Grass</i>. + +5. Barnyard G.-- + <i>Panicum crus-galli</i>, Linn. (A., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Cockspur Grass</i>. + +6. Bayonet G.-- + <i>Aciphylla colensoi</i>.(N.Z.) + Called also <i>Spear-Grass</i> (see 112), and + <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.). + +7. Bent G.--Alpine-- + <i>Agrostis muellerii</i>, Benth. (A., N.Z., not endemic.) + <i>Deyeuxia setifolia</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +8. Bent G.--Australian-- + <i>Deyeuxia scabra</i>, Benth. (A., T., N.Z.) + +9. Bent G.--Billardiere's-- + <i>D. billardierii</i>, R. Br. (A., T., N.Z.) + +10. Bent G.--Brown-- + <i>Agrostis carina</i>, Linn. (N.Z.) + +11. Bent G.--Campbell Island-- + <i>A. antarctica</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +12. Bent G.--Dwarf Mountain-- + <i>A. subululata</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +13. Bent G.--Oat-like-- + <i>Deyeuxia avenoides</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +14. Bent G.--Pilose-- + <i>D. pilosa</i>, Rich. (N.Z.) + +15. Bent G.--Slender-- + <i>Agrostis scabra</i>, Willd. (A., T., N.Z.) + +16. Bent G.--Spiked-- + <i>Deyeuxia quadriseta</i>, R. Br. (A., T., N.Z.) + Called also <i>Reed Grass</i>. + +17. Bent G.--Toothea-- + <i>D. forsteri</i>, Kunth. (A., T., N.Z.) + +18. Bent G.--Young's-- + <i>D. youngii</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +19. Blady G.-- + <i>Ipperata arundinacea</i>, Cyr. (A.) + +20. Blue G.-- + <i>Andropogon annulatus</i>, Forst. (A.) + <i>A. pertusus</i>, Willd. (A.) + <i>A. sericeus</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +21. Brome G.--Seaside.-- + <i>8romus arenarius</i>, Labill. (A., N.Z.) + Called also <i>Wild Oats</i>. + +22. Canary G.-- + <i>Phalaris canariensis</i>. (A.) + +23. Cane G.-- + (i.q. <i>Bamboo Grass</i>. See 3.) + +24. Chilian G.-- + (i.q. <i>Rat--tailed Grass</i>. See 97.) + +25. Cockspur G.-- + (i.q. <i>Barnyard Grass</i>. See 5.) + +26. Couch G.-- + <i>Cynodon dactylon</i>, Pers. (A., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Indian Doub Grass</i>. + +27. Couch G.--Native-- + <i>Distichlys maritima</i>, Raffinesque. (A.) + +28. Couch G.--Water-- + <i>(i.q</i>. Seaside Millet. See 50.) + +29. Feather G.-- + <i>(Several species</i> of Stipa. See 101.) + +30. Fescue G.--Hard-- + <i>Festuca duriuscula</i>, Linn. (Australasia, not endemic.) + +31. Fescue G.--Poa-like-- + <i>F. scoparia</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +32. Fescue G.--Sandhill-- + <i>F. littoralis</i>, R. Br., var. <i>triticoides</i>, + Benth. (A., T., N.Z.) + +33. Fescue G.--Sheeps'-- + <i>F. ovina</i>, Linn. (A., T.) + +34. Finger G.--Cocksfoot-- + <i>Panicum sanguinale</i>, Linn. (A., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Hairy Finger Grass</i>, and <i>Reddish Panic + Grass</i>. + +35. Finger G.--Egyptian-- + <i>Eleusine aegyptica</i>, Pers. (A., not endemic.) + +36. Finger G.--Hairy-- + <i>(i.q</i> .Cocksfoot Finger Grass. See 33.) + +37. Foxtail G.-- + <i>(i.q</i>. Knee jointed Foxtazl Grass. See 42.) + +38. Hair G.--Crested-- + <i>Koeleria cristata</i>, Pers. (A., T., N.Z.) + +39. Hair G.--Turfy-- + <i>Deschampia caespitosa</i>, Beavo. (N.Z., not endemic.) + +40. Holy G.-- + <i>Hierochloe alpina</i>, Roem. & Schult. (Australasia, not + endemic.) + +41. Indian Doub G.-- + (i.q. <i>Couch Grass</i>. See 26.) + +42. Kangaroo G. (A., T., not endemic)-- + <i>Andropogon refractus</i>, R. Br. + <i>Anthistiria avenacea</i>, F. v. M. (Called also <i>Oat + Grass</i>.) + <i>A. ciliata</i>, Linn. (Common K.G.) + <i>A. frondosa</i>, R. Br. (Broad-leaved K.G.) + +43. Knee-jointed Fox-tail G.-- + <i>Alopecurus geniculatus</i>, Linn. (Australasia, not + endemic.) + +44. Landsborough G.-- + (i.q. Barcoo Grass. See 4.) + +45. Love G.--Australian-- + <i>Eragrostis brownii</i>, Nees. (A.) + +46. Manna G.-- + <i>Glyceria fluitans</i>, R. Br. (A.,T.) + +47. Millet--Australian-- + <i>Panicum decompositum</i>, R. Br. (A., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Umbrella Grass</i>. + +48. Millet--Ditch-- + <i>Paspalum scrobitulatum</i>, F. v. M. (A., N.Z., not endemic.) + The <i>Koda Millet</i> of India. + +49. Millet--Equal-glumed-- + <i>Isachne australis</i>, R. Br. (A., N.Z., not endemic.) + +50. Millet-Seaside-- + <i>Paspalum distichum</i>, Burmann. (A., N.Z., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Silt Grass</i>, and <i>Water Couch Grass</i>. + +51. Mitchell G.-- + <i>Astrebla elymoides</i>, F. v. M. (A., <i>True Mitchell + Grass</i>.) + <i>A. pectinata</i>, F. v. M. (A.) + <i>A. tritzcoides</i>, F. v. M. (A.) + +52. Mouse G.-- + (i.q.) <i>Longhaired Plume Grass</i>. See 72.) + +53. Mulga G.-- + <i>Danthonia racemosa</i>, R. Br. (A.) + <i>Neurachnea Mitchelliana</i>, Nees. (A.) + +54. New Zealand Wind G.-- + <i>Apera arundinacea</i>, Palisot. (N.Z., not endemic.) + +55. Oat G.-- + <i>Anthistiria avenacea</i>, F. v. M. (Called also <i>Kangaroo + Grass</i>. See 41.) + +56. Oat G.--Alpine-- + <i>Danthonia semi</i>-annularis, R. Br., var. <i>alpina</i>. + (N.Z.) + +57. Oat G.--Buchanan's-- + <i>D. buchanii</i>; Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +58. Oat G.--Few-flowered-- + <i>D. pauciflora</i>, R. Br. (A., T., N.Z.) + +59. Oat G.--Hard-- + <i>D. pilosa</i>, R. Br., var. stricta. (N.Z.) + +60. Oat G.--Naked-- + <i>D. nuda</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +61. Oat G.--New Zealand-- + <i>D. semi</i>-annularis, R. Br. (A., T., N.Z.) + +62. Oat G.--Purple-awned-- + <i>D. pilosa</i>, R. Br. (A., T., N.Z.) + +63. Oat G.--Racemed-- + <i>D. pilosa</i>, R. Br., var. racemosa. (N.Z.) + +64. Oat G.--Shining-- + <i>Trisetum antarcticum</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +65. Oat G.--Sheep-- + <i>Danthonia semi</i>-annularis, R. Br., var. gracilis.(N.Z.) + +66. Oat G.--Spiked-- + <i>Trisetum subspicatum</i>, Beauv. (Australasia, not + endemic.) + +67. Oat G.--Thompson's Naked-- + <i>Danthonia thomsonii</i> (new species). + +68. Oat G.--Wiry-leaved-- + <i>D. raoulii</i>, Steud, var. Australis, Buchanan. (N.Z.) + +69. Oat G.--Young's-- + <i> Trisetum youngii</I>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +<i>70. Panic</i> G.--Reddish-- + (i.q. <i>Cocksfoot Finger-Grass</i>. See 34.) + +71. Panic G.--Slender-- + <i>Oplismenus salarius</i>, var. Roem. and Schult. (A., N.Z., + not endemic.) + +72. Paper G.--Native-- + <i>Poa caespitosa</i>, Forst. (A., T., N.Z.) + Called also <i>Wiry Grass</i>, <i>Weeping Polly</i>, + and <i>Tussock Poa Grass</i>; and, in New Zealand, + <i>Snow Grass</i>. + +73. Plume G.--Long-haired-- + <i>Dichelachne crinita</i>, Hook. f. (A., T., N.Z.) + +74. Plume G.--Short-haired-- + <i>D. sciurea</i>, Hook. f. (A., T., N.Z.) + +75. Poa G.--Auckland Island-- + <i>Poa foliosa</i>, Hook. f., var. <i>a</i>. (N.Z.) + +76. Poa G.--Brown-flowered-- + <i>P. lindsayi</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +77. Poa G.--Brown Mountain + <i>P. mackayi</i> (new species). (N.Z.) + +78. Poa G.--Colenso's-- + <i>P. colensoi</i>, Hook. f.(N.Z.) 79. + +79. Poa G.--Common Field-- + <i>P. anceps</i>, Forst., var. <i>b</i>, foliosa, Hook. f. + (N.Z.) + +80. Pea G.--Dense-flowered + <i>P. anceps</i>, Forst., var. <i>d, densiflora</i>, + Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +81. Poa G.--Dwarf-- + <i>P. pigmaea</i> (new species). (N.Z.) + +82. Pea G.--Hard short-stemmed-- + <i>P. anceps</i>, Forst., var. <i>c, brevicalmis</i>, + Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +83. Poa G.--Kirk's-- + <i>P. kirkii</i> (new species). (N.Z.) + +84. Poa G.--Large-flowered-- + <i>P. foliosa</i>, Hook. f., var. <i>B</i>. (N.Z.) + +85. Poa G.--Little-- + <i>P. exigua</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +86. Poa G.--Minute-- + <i>P, foliosa</i>, Hook. f., var. <i>C</i>. (N.Z.) + +87. Poa G.--Minute Creeping-- + <i>P. pusilla</i>, Berggren. (N.Z.) + +88. Pea G.--Nodding Plumed-- + <i>P. anceps</i>, Forst., var. <i>A, elata</i>, + Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +89. Poa G.--One-flowered-- + <i>P. unifora</i> (new species). (N.Z.) + +90. Poa G.--Short-glumed-- + <i>P. breviglumus</i>, Hook. f.(N.Z.) + +91. Poa G.--Slender-- + <i>P. anceps</i>, Forst., var. <i>E, debilis</i>, Kirk, + Ms. (N.Z.) + +92. Poa G.--Small Tussock-- + <i>P. intemedia</i> (new species). (N.Z.) + +93. Poa G.--Tussock-- + <i>P. caespitosa</i>, Forst. (A., T., N.Z. See 71.) + +94. Poa G.--Weak-stemmed-- + <i>Eragrostis imbebecilla</i>, Benth. (A., N.Z.) + +95. Poa G.--White-flowered-- + <i>Poa sclerophylla</i>, Berggren. (N.Z.) + +96. Porcupine G. (q.v.)-- + <i>Triodia (various</i> species). + +97. Rat-tailed G.-- + <i>Sporobulus indicus</i>, R. Br. (A., N.Z., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Chilian Grass</i>. + <i>Ischaeum laxum</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +98. Reed G.-- + <i>Pragmites communis</i>, Trin. (N.Z. See 16.) + +99. Rice G.-- + <i>Leersia hexandria</i>, Swartz. (A.) + +100. Rice G.--Bush-- + <i>Microtaena avenacea</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +101. Rice G.--Knot-jointed-- + <i>M. polynoda</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +102. Rice G.--Meadow-- + <i>M. stipoides</i>, R. Br. (A.,T., N.Z.) + Called also <i>Weeping Grass</i>. + +103. Roly-Poly G.-- + <i>Panicum macractinum</i>, Benth. (A.) + +104. Rough-bearded G.-- + <i>Echinopogon ovatus</i>, Palisot. (A., T., N.Z.) + +105. Sacred G.-- + <i>Hierochloe redolens</i>, R. Br. (Australasia, not endemic.) + Called also <i>Scented Grass</i>, and <i>Sweet-scented</i> + Grass. + +106. Scented G.-- + <i>Chrysopogon parviforus</i>, Benth. (A.) See also 105. + +107. Seaside Brome G.-- + <i>(i.q</i>. Brome Grass. See 21.) + +108. Silt G.-- + <i>(i.q</i>. Seaside Millet. See 50.) + +109. Seaside Glumeless G.-- + <i>Gymnostychum gracile</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +110. Snow G. (q.v.)-- + <i>(i.q</i>. Paper Grass. See 72.) (N.Z.) + +111. Spear G. (q.v.)-- + <i>Aciphylla colensoi</i>. (N.Z.) + Called also <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.). + <i>Heteropogon contortus</i>, Roem. and Shult. (N.Z.), + and all species of <i>Stipa</i> (A., T.). + +112. Spider G.-- + <i>Panicum divaricatissimum</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +113. Spinifex G. (q.v.)-- + <i>Spinifex hirsutus</i>, Labill. (A., T., N.Z., not endemic.) + Called also <i>Spiny Rolling Grass</i>. + +114. Star G.--Blue-- + <i>Chloris ventricosa</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +115. Star G.--Dog's Tooth-- + <i>C. divaricata</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +116. Star G.--Lesser-- + <i>C. acicularis</i>, Lindl. (A.) + +117. Sugar G.-- + <i>Pollinia fulva</i>, Benth.(A.) + +118. Summer G.-- + (i.q. <i>Hairy-Finger Grass</i>. See 36.) + +119. Sweet G.-- + <i>Glyceria stricta</i>, Hook. f. (A., T., N.Z.) + +120. Sweet-scented G.-- + (i.q. <i>Sacred Grass</i>. See 105.) + +121. Traveller's G. (<i>N.O. Aroideae</i>).-- + (i.q. <i>Settlers' Twine</i>, q.v.) + +122. Tussock G.-- + (See 93 and 72.) + +123. Tussock G.-- Broad-leaved Oat-- + <i>Danthonia flavescens</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +124. Tussock G.--Erect Plumed-- + <i>Arundo fulvida</i>, Buchanan. (N.Z.) Maori name, + <i>Tot-toi</i> (q.v.). + +125. Tussock G.--Narrow-leaved Oat-- + <i>Danthonia raoulii</i>, Steud. (N.Z.) + +126. Tussock G.--Plumed-- + <i>Arundo conspicua</i>, A. Cunn. (N.Z.) Maori name, + <i>Toi-toi</i> (q.v.). + +127. Tussock G.--Small-flowered Oat-- + <i>Danthonia cunninghamii</i>, Hook. f. (N.Z.) + +128. Petrie's Stipa G.-- + <i>Stipa petriei</i> (new species). See 101. /?111?/ (N.Z.) + +129. Umbrella G.-- + (i.q. <i>Australian Millet</i>. See 47.) + +130. Wallaby G.-- + <i>Danthonia penicileata</i>, F. v. M. (A., N.Z.) + +131. Weeping G.-- + (i.q. <i>Meadow Rice</i> Grass. See 102.) + +132. Weeping Polly G.-- + (i.q. <i>Paper Grass</i>. See 72.) + +133. Wheat G.--Blue-- + <i>Agropyrum scabrum</i>, Beauv. (A., T., N.Z.) + +134. Wheat G.--Short-awned-- + <i>Triticum multiflorum</i>, Banks and Sol. (N.Z.) + +135. White-topped G.-- + <i>Danthonia longifolia</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +136. Windmill G.-- + <i>Chloris truncata</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +137. Wire G.-- + <i>Ehrharta juncea</i>, Sprengel; a rush-like grass of hilly + country. (A., T., N.Z.) + <i>Cynodon dactylum</i>, Pers.; so called from its knotted, + creeping, wiry roots, so difficult to eradicate in gardens + and other cultivated land. (Not endemic.) See 26. + +138. Wiry G.--. + (i.q. <i>Paper Grass</i>. See 72.) + +139. Wiry Dichelachne G.-- + <i>Stipa teretefolia</i>, Steud. (A., T., N.Z.) + +140. Woolly-headed G.-- + <i>Andropogon bombycinus</i>, R. Br. (A.) + +141. Vandyke G.-- + <i>Panicum flavidum</i>, Retz. (A.) + + +<hw>Grass-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> In New Zealand, <i>Sphenoeacus +//sic. otherwhere Sphenaeacus GJC// punctatus</i>, Gray, the +same as <i>Fern-bird</i> (q.v.); in Australia, <i>Megalurus +(Sphenaeacus) gramineus</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Grass-leaved Fern</hw>, <i>n. Vittaria elongata</i>, +Swartz, <i>N.O. Filices</i>. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 693: + +"Grass-leaved fern. . . . Frond varying in length from a few +inches to several feet, and with a breadth of from one to five +lines. . . . This curious grass-like fern may be frequently +seen fringing the stems of the trees in the scrubs of tropical +Queensland, in which situation the fronds are usually very +long." + +<hw>Grass-Parrakeet</hw>, <i>n.</i> a bird of the genus +<i>Euphema</i>. The Australian species are-- + +Blue-winged Parrakeet + <i>Euphema aurantia</i>, Gould. + +Bourke's P.-- + <i>E. bourkii</i>, Gould. + +Grass-P.-- + <i>E. elegans</i>, Gould. + +Orange-bellied P.-- + <i>E. chrysogastra</i>, Lath. + +Orange-throated P.-- + <i>E. splendida</i>, Gould. + +Red-shouldered P.-- + <i>E. pulchella</i>, Shaw. + +Warbling Grass-P.-- + Gould's name for <i>Budgerigar</i> (q.v.). + +See also <i>Rock-Parrakeet (Euphema petrophila</i>, Gould), +which is sometimes classed as a <i>Grass-Parrakeet</i>. + +<hw>Grass-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> (2) The name applied to trees +of the genus <i>Xanthorrhoea, N.O. Liliaceae</i>, of which +thirteen species are known in Australia. See also +<i>Richea</i>. + +(2) In New Zealand <i>Pseudopanax crassifolium</i>, Seemann, +<i>N.O. Araleaceae</i>. When young, this is the same as +<i>Umbrella-tree</i>, so called from its appearance like the +ribs of an umbrella. When older, it grows more straight and +is called <i>Lancewood</i> (q.v.). + +(3) In Tasmania, besides two species of <i>Xanthorrhoea</i> +the <i>Grass-tree</i> of the mainland, the <i>Richea +dracophylla</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>, found on Mount +Wellington, near Hobart, is also known by that name, whilst +the <i>Richea pandanifolia</i>, Hook., found in the South-west +forests, is called the <i>Giant Grass-tree</i>. Both these are +peculiar to the island. + +(4) An obsolete name for <i>Cordyline australis</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>, now more usually called <i>Cabbage- + tree</i> (q.v.). + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' + vol. ii. p. 153: + +"A grass tree grows here, similar in every respect to that +about Port Jackson." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 347: + +"Yielding frequently a very weak and sour kind of grass, +interspersed with a species of bulrush called grass-trees, +which are universal signs of poverty.": + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' Vol II. c. iii. p. 54: + +"The grass-tree is not found westward of the mountains." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 303: + +"We approached a range of barren hills of clay slate, on which +grew the grass-tree (<i>Xanthorhoea</i>) and stunted eucalypti." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 74: + +"The shimmering sunlight fell and kissed + The grass-tree's golden sheaves." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 132: + +"Here and there, in moist places, arises isolated the +`grass-tree' or `cabbage-tree' (Ti of the natives; <i>Cordyline +Australis</i>)." + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 80: + +"The grass-trees in front, blame my eyes, + Seemed like plumes on the top of a hearse." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 119: + +"How strikingly different the external features of plants may +be, though floral structure may draw them into congruity, is +well demonstrated by our so-called grass-trees, which pertain +truly to the liliaceous order. These scientifically defined +as Xanthorhoeas from the exudation of yellowish sap, which +indurates into resinous masses, have all the essential notes +of the order, so far as structure of flowers and fruits is +concerned, but their palm-like habit, together with cylindric +spikes on long and simple stalks, is quite peculiar, and +impresses on landscapes, when these plants in masses are +occuring, a singular feature." + +1879. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia' (ed. 1893), p. 52: + +"The grass trees (<i>Xanthorrhoea</i>) are a peculiar feature +to the Australian landscape. From a rugged stem, varying from +two to ten or twelve feet in height, springs a tuft of drooping +wiry foliage, from the centre of which rises a spike not unlike +a huge bulrush. When it flowers in winter, this spike becomes +covered with white stars, and a heath covered with grass trees +then has an appearance at once singular and beautiful." + +1882. A. Tolmer, `Reminiscences,' vol, ii. p. 102: + +"The root of the grass-tree is pleasant enough to eat, and +tastes something like the meat of the almond-tree; but being +unaccustomed to the kind of fare, and probably owing to the +empty state of our stomachs, we suffered severely from +diarrhoea." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 43: + +"Grass-trees are most comical-looking objects. They have a +black bare stem, from one to eight feet high, surmounted by a +tuft of half rushes and half grass, out of which, again, grows +a long thing exactly like a huge bullrush. A lot of them +always grow together, and a little way off they are not unlike +the illustrations of Red-Indian chiefs in Fenimore Cooper's +novels." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 59: + +"It [<i>Pseudopanax crassifolium</i>, the <i>Horoeka</i>] is +commonly called lance-wood by the settlers in the North Island, +and grass-tree by those in the South. This species was +discovered during Cook's first voyage, and it need cause no +surprise to learn that the remarkable difference between the +young and mature states led so able a botanist as Dr. Solander +to consider them distinct plants." + +1896. Baldwin Spencer. `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Narrative, p. 98: + +"As soon as the came upon the Plains we found ourselves in a +belt of grass trees belonging to a species not hitherto +described (<i>X. Thorntoni</i>). . . . The larger specimens +have a stem some five or six feet high, with a crown of long +wiry leaves and a flowering stalk, the top of which is fully +twelve feet above the ground." + +[Compare <i>Blackboy</i> and <i>Maori-head</i>. + +<hw>Grayling</hw>, <i>n.</i> The Australian fish of that name +is <i>Prototroctes maroena</i>, Gunth. It is called also the +<i>Fresh-water Herring</i>, <i>Yarra Herring</i> (in +Melbourne), <i>Cucumber-Fish</i>, and <i>Cucumber-Mullet</i>. +The last two names are given to it from its smell. It closely +resembles the English Grayling. + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 93: + +"These must be the long-looked-for cucumber mullet, or fresh- +water herring. . . . `The cucumber mullet,' I explain, +`I have long suspected to be a grayling.'" + +1882. Rev._I. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 109: + +"Though not a fish of New South Wales, it may be as well +to mention here the Australian grayling, which in character, +habits, and the manner of its capture is almost identical with +the English fish of that name. In shape there is some +difference between the two fish. . . . A newly caught fish +smells exactly like a dish of fresh-sliced cucumber. It is +widely distributed in Victoria, and very abundant in all the +fresh-water streams of Tasmania. . . . In Melbourne it goes by +the name of the Yarra herring. There is another species in New +Zealand." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 206: + +"The river abounds in delicious grayling or cucumber fish, +rather absurdly designated the `herring' in this [Deloraine] +and some other parts of the colony [Tasmania]." + +<hw>Grebe</hw>, <i>n.</i> common English bird-name, of the +genus <i>Podiceps</i>. The species known in Australia are-- + +Black-throated Grebe-- + <i>Podiceps novae-hollandiae</i>, Gould. + +Hoary-headed G.-- + <i>P. nestor</i>, Gould. + +Tippet G.-- + <i>P. cristataes</i>, Linn. + +But Buller sees no reason for separating <i>P. cristatus</i> +from the well-known <i>P. cristatus</i> of Europe. Some of +the <i>Grebes</i> are sometimes called <i>Dabchicks</i> (q.v.). + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 285: + +"The Crested Grebe is generally-speaking a rare bird in both +islands." + +<hw>Greenhide</hw>, <i>n.</i> See quotation. <i>Greenhide</i> +is an English tannery term for the hide with the hair on before +scouring. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 27: + +"Drivers, who walked beside their teams carrying over their +shoulders a long-handled whip with thong of raw salted hide, +called in the colony `greenhide.'" + +<hw>Greenie</hw>, <i>n.</i> a school-boys' name for <i>Ptilotis +penicillata</i>, Gould, the White-plumed Honey-eater. + +1896. `The Australasian,' Jan. 11, p. 73, col. 1: + +"A bird smaller than the Australian minah, and of a greenish +yellowish hue, larger, but similar to the members of the +feathered tribe known to young city `knights of the catapult' +as greenies." + +1897. A. J. Campbell (in `The Australasian,'Jan. 23), p. 180, +col. 5: + +"Every schoolboy about Melbourne knows what the `greenie' +is--the white-plumed honey-eater (P. penicillata). The +upper-surface is yellowish-grey, and the under-surface brownish +in tone. The white-plumed honey-eater is common in Victoria, +where it appears to be one of the few native birds that is not +driven back by civilisation. In fact, its numbers have +increased in the parks and gardens in the vicinity of +Melbourne." + +<hw>Green-leek</hw>, <i>n.</i> an Australian Parrakeet. See +quotation. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 15: + +"<i>Polytelis Barrabandi</i>, Wagl., Barraband's Parrakeet; +Green-leek of the colonists of New South Wales." + +1855. R. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 123: + +"We observed m the hollow trees several nests of the little +green paroquet,--here, from its colour, called the leek." + +<hw>Green Lizard</hw>, <i>n.</i> sometimes called the +<i>Spotted Green Lizard</i>, a New Zealand reptile, +<i>Naultinus elegans</i>, Gray. + +<hw>Green Oyster</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in Queensland to +the sea-weed <i>Ulva lactuca</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Algae</i>. +From being frequently found attached to oysters, this is +sometimes called "Green Oyster." (Bailey.) See <i>Oyster</i>. + +<hw>Greenstone</hw>, <i>n.</i> popular name of <i>Nephrite</i> +(q.v.). Maori name, <i>Pounamu</i> (q.v.). + +1859. A.S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' p. 140: + +"The greenstone composing these implements of war is called +nephrite by mineralogists, and is found in the Middle Island of +New Zealand, in the Hartz, Corsica, China and Egypt. The most +valuable kind is clear as glass with a slight green tinge." + +1889. Dr. Hocken, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 181: + + "This valued stone--pounamu of the natives--nephrite, is found +on the west coast of the South Island. Indeed, on Captain +Cook's chart this island is called `T'Avai Poenammoo'--Te wai +pounamu, the water of the greenstone." + +1892. F. R. Chapman, `The Working of Greenstone by the Maoris' +(New Zealand Institute), p. 4: + +"In the title of this paper the word `greenstone' occurs, and +this word is used throughout the text. I am quite conscious +that the term is not geologically or mineralogically correct; +but the stone of which I am writing is known by that name +throughout New Zealand, and, though here as elsewhere the +scientific man employs that word to describe a totally +different class of rock, I should run the risk of being +misunderstood were I to use any other word for what is under +that name an article of commerce and manufacture in New +Zealand. It is called `pounamu' or `poenamu' by the Maoris, +and `jade,' `jadeite,' or `nephrite' by various writers, +while old books refer to the `green talc' of the Maoris." + +<hw>Green-tops</hw>, <i>n.</i> Tasmanian name for the Orchid, +<i>Pterostylis pedunculata</i>, R. Br. + +<hw>Green-tree Ant</hw>, <i>n.</i> common Queensland Ant. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 294: + +"It was at the lower part of the Lynd that we first saw the +green-tree ant; which seemed to live in small societies in rude +nests between the green leaves of shady trees." + +<hw>Green Tree-snake</hw>, <i>n.</i> See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Grevillea</hw>, <i>n.</i> a large genus of trees of +Australia and Tasmania, <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>, named in honour +of the Right Hon. Charles Francis Greville, Vice-President +of the Royal Society of London. The name was given by Robert +Brown in 1809. The `Century' Dictionary gives Professor +Greville as the origin of the name but "Professor Robert +K. Greville of Edinburgh was born on the 14th Dec., 1794, +he was therefore only just fourteen years old when the genus +<i>Grevillea</i> was established." (`Private letter from Baron +F. von Mueller.') + +1851. `Quarterly Review,' Dec., p. 40: + +"Whether <i>Dryandra, Grevillea, Hakea</i>, or the other +<i>Proteaceae</i>, all may take part in the same glee-- + +"It was a shrub of orders grey + Stretched forth to show his leaves." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia, vol. iii. p. 138: + +"Graceful grevilleas, which in the spring are gorgeous with +orange-coloured blossoms." + +<hw>Grey-jumper</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to an Australian +genus of sparrow-like birds, of which the only species is +<i>Struthidea cinerea</i>, Gould; also called +<i>Brachystoma</i> and <i>Brachyporus</i>. + +<hw>Grey Nurse</hw>, <i>n.</i> a New South Wales name for a +species of Shark, <i>Odontaspis americanus</i>, Mitchell, +family <i>Lamnidae</i>, which is not confined to Australasia. + +<hw>Gridironing</hw>, <i>v</i. a term used in the province of +Canterbury, New Zealand. A man purchased land in the shape of +a gridiron, knowing that nobody would take the intermediate +strips, which later he could purchase at his leisure. In other +provinces free-selection (q.v.) was only allowed after survey. + +<hw>Grinder</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Razor-grinder</i> and +<i>Dishwasher</i>. + +<hw>Groper</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fish. In Queensland, <i>Oligorus +terrae-reginae</i>, Ramsay; in New Zealand, <i>O. gigas</i>, +"called by the Maoris and colonists `<i>Hapuku</i>,'" +(Guenther)--a large marine species. <i>Oligorus</i> is a genus +of the family <i>Percidae</i>, and the <i>Murray-Cod</i> (q.v.) +and <i>Murray Perch</i> (q.v.) belong to it. There is a fish +called the Grouper or <i>Groper</i> of warm seas quite distinct +from this one. See <i>Cod, Perch, Blue-Groper</i> and +<i>Hapuku</i>. + +<hw>Ground-berry</hw>, i.q. <i>Cranberry</i> (q.v.).: + +<hw>Ground-bird</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in Australia to any +bird of the genus <i>Cinclosoma</i>. The species are-- + +Chestnut-backed Ground-bird-- + <i>Cinclosoma castaneonotum</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-breasted G.-b.-- + <i>C. castaneothorax</i>, Gould. + +Cinnamon G.-b.-- + <i>C. cinnamomeum</i>, Gould. + +Northern, or Black-vented G.-b.-- + <i>C. marginatum</i>, Sharpe. + +Spotted G.-b.-- + <i>C. punctatum</i>, Lath., called by Gould <i>Ground-Dove</i> + (q.v.). + +<hw>Ground-Dove</hw>, <i>n.</i> (1) Tasmanian name +for the <i>Spotted Ground-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 4: + +"<i>Cinclosoma punctatum</i>, Vig. and Horsf., Spotted +Ground-thrush. In Hobart Town it is frequently exposed for +sale in the markets with bronze-wing pigeons and wattle-birds, +where it is known by the name of ground-dove . . . very +delicate eating." + +(2) The name is given by Gould to three species of <i>Geopelia</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pls. 72, 73, 74: + +"<i>Geopelia humeralis</i>, Barred-shouldered Ground-dove" + (pl. 72); + +"<i>G. tranquilla</i>" (pl. 73); + +"<i>G. cuneata</i>, Graceful Ground-dove" (pl. 74). + +<hw>Ground-Lark</hw>, <i>n.</i> (1) In New Zealand, a bird also +called by the Maori names, <i>Pihoihoi</i> and <i>Hioi</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 63: + +"<i>Anthus Novae Zelandiae</i>, Gray, New Zealand Pipit; +Ground-Lark of the Colonists." + +(2) In Australia, the Australian Pipit (<i>Anthus +australis</i>) is also called a <i>Ground-lark</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 73: + +"<i>Anthus Australis</i>, Vig. and Horsf., Australian Pipit. +The Pipits, like many other of the Australian birds, are +exceedingly perplexing." + +<hw>Ground-Parrakeet</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Parrakeet</i> and +<i>Pezoporus</i>. + +<hw>Ground-Parrot</hw>, <i>n.</i> (1) The bird <i>Psittacus +pulchellus</i>, Shaw. For the Ground Parrot of New Zealand, +see <i>Kakapo</i>. + +1793. G. Shaw, `Zoology [and Botany] of New Holland,' p. 10: + +"Long-tailed green Parrot, spotted with black and yellow,. . . +the Ground Parrot." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 278: + +"The settlers call it ground-parrot. It feeds upon the ground." + +Ibid. p. 286: + +"What is called the ground-parrot at Sydney inhabits the scrub +in that neighbourhood." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 298: + +"The ground-parrot, green, with mottlings of gold and black, +rose like a partridge from the heather, and flew low." + +(2) Slang name for a small farmer. See <i>Cockatoo</i>, +<i>n.</i> (2). + +<hw>Ground-Thrush</hw>, <i>n.</i> name of birds found all over +the world. The Australian species are-- + + <i>Geocincla lunulata</i>, Lath. + +Broadbent Ground-Thrush-- + <i>G. cuneata</i>. + +Large-billed G.-- + <i>G. macrorhyncha</i>, Gould. + +Russet-tailed G.-- + <i>G. heinii</i>, Cab. + +<hw>Grub</hw>, <i>v</i>. to clear (ground) of the roots. To +grub has long been English for to dig up by the roots. It is +Australian to apply the word not to the tree but to the land. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 185: + +"Employed with others in `grubbing' a piece of new land which +was heavily timbered." + +1868. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Memory of 1834,' p. 10: + +"A bit of land all grubbed and clear'd too." + +<hw>Guana</hw>, or <hw>Guano</hw>, <i>n.</i> i.q. <i>Goanna</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Guard-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> Erroneous spelling of +<i>Garfish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Gudgeon</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is given in New South +Wales to the fish <i>Eleotris coxii</i>, Krefft, of the family +of the Gobies. + +<hw>Guitar Plant</hw>, a Tasmanian shrub, <i>Lomatia +tinctoria</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +<hw>Gull</hw>, <i>n.</i> common English name for a sea-bird. +The Australian species are-- + +Long-billed Gull-- + <i>Larus longirostris</i>, Masters. + +Pacific G.-- + <i>L. pacificus</i>, Lath. + +Silver G.-- + <i>L. novae-hollandiae</i>, Steph. + +Torres-straits G.-- + <i>L. gouldi</i>, Bp. + +<hw>Gully</hw>, <i>n.</i> a narrow valley. The word is very +common in Australia, and is frequently used as a place name. +It is not, however, Australian. Dr.Skeat (`Etymological +Dictionary') says, "a channel worn by water." Curiously +enough, his first quotation is from `Capt. Cook's Third +Voyage,' b. iv. c. 4. Skeat adds, "formerly written +<i>gullet</i>: `It meeteth afterward with another gullet,' +i.e. small stream. Holinshed, `Description of Britain,' c. 11: +F. goulet, `a gullet . . . a narrow brook or deep gutter of +water.' (Cotgrave.) Thus the word is the same as gullet." +F. <i>goulet</i> is from Latin <i>gula. Gulch</i> is the word +used in the Pacific States, especially in California. + +1773. `Hawkesworth's Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 532--Captain Cook's +First Voyage, May 30, 1770: + +"The deep gullies, which were worn by torrents from the hills." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 214: + +"A man, in crossing a gully between Sydney and Parramatta, was, +in attempting to ford it, carried away by the violence of the +torrent, and drowned." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 17: + +"The gums in the gully stand gloomy and stark." + +1867. A.L. Gordon, `Sea-spray, etc.,' p. 134: + +"The gullies are deep and the uplands are steep." + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 16: + +"The terrible blasts that rushed down the narrow gully, as if +through a funnel." + +<hw>Gully-raker</hw>, <i>n.</i> a long whip. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 40: + +"The driver appealing occasionally to some bullock or other by +name, following up his admonition by a sweeping cut of his +`gully-raker,' and a report like a musket-shot." + +<hw>Gum</hw>, or <hw>Gum-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> the popular name +for any tree of the various species of <i>Eucalyptus</i>. The +word <i>Gum</i> is also used in its ordinary English sense of +exuded sap of certain trees and shrubs, as +e.g. <i>Wattle-gum</i> (q.v.) in Australia, and +<i>Kauri-gum</i> (q.v.) in New Zealand. In America, the +gum-tree usually means "the <i>Liquidambar styraciflua</i>, +favourite haunt of the opossum and the racoon, whence the +proverbial <i>possum up a gum-tree</i>." (`Current +Americanisms,' s.v. <i>Gum</i>) + +The names of the various Australian Gum-trees are as follows-- + +Apple Gum, or Apple-scented Gum-- + <i>Eucalyptus stuartiana</i>, F. v. M. + +Bastard G.-- + <i>Eucalyptus gunnii</i>, Hook. + +Bastard Blue G.-- + <i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M. (South Australia). + +Bastard White G.-- + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. (South Australia); + <i>E. radiata</i> (Tasmania). + +Black G.-- + <i>E. stellulata</i>, Sieb. + +Black-butted G.-- + <i>E. pillularis</i>, Smith (Victoria); + <i>E. regnans</i>, F. v. M. (New South Wales). + See <i>Blackbutt</i>. + +Blue G. [see also Blue-Gum] + <i>E. botryoides</i>, Smith (New South Wales); + <i>E. diversicolor</i>, F. v. M. [Karri]; + <i>E. globulus</i>, Labill.; + <i>E. goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M. (South Australia) [Ironbark]; + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith; + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith; + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. (West New South Wales). + +Botany Bay G,-- + <i>E. resinifera</i>, Smith. + +Brittle G.-- + <i>E. haemastonza</i>, Smith; + <i>E. micrantha</i>, Smith. + +Brown G.-- + <i>E. robusta</i>, Smith. + +Cabbage G.-- + <i>E. sieberiana</i>, F. v. M. (Braidwood, New South Wales). + +Cider G.-- + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. (Tasmania). + +Citron-scented G.-- + <i>E. maculata</i>, Hook. + +Creek G.-- + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht (West New South Wales). + +Curly White G.-- + <i>E. radiata</i> (Tasmania). + +Dark Red G.-- + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht. + +Desert G.-- + <i>E. eudesmoides</i>, F. v. M. (Central Australia); + <i>E. gracilis</i>, F. v. M. + + Drooping G.-- + <i>E. pauciflora</i>, Sieb. (Drooping Gum in Tasmania is + <i>E. risdoni</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; the tree is + peculiar to Tasmania); + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. (New South Wales). + +Flood, or Flooded G.-- + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. (Bombala, New South Wales); + <i>E. microtheca</i>, F. v. M. (Carpentaria and Central + Australia); + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht; + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith; + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith (New South Wales). + +Fluted G.- + <i>E. salubris</i>, F. v. M. + +Forest G.-- + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht (South Australia). + +Giant G.-- + <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill. + +Gimlet G.-- + <i>E. salubris</i>, F. v. M. + +Green G.-- + <i>E. stellulata</i>, Sieb. (East Gippsland). + +Grey G.-- + <i>E. crebra</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M. (New South Wales, east of + Dividing range); + <i>E. punctata</i>, De C. (South Coast of New South Wales); + <i>E. raveretiana</i>, F.v.M; + <i>E. resinifera</i>, Smith; + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith (New South Wales); + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith (New South Wales); + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill (Sydney); + +Honey-scented G.-- + <i>E. melliodora</i>, Cunn. + +Iron G.-- + <i>E. raveretiana</i>, F. v. M. + +Lemon-scented, or Lemon G.-- + <i>E. citriodora</i>, Hook. f. + +Lead G.-- + <i>E. stellulata</i>, Cunn. + +Mallee G.-- + <i>E. dumosa</i> (generally called simply Mallee, q.v.). + +Mountain G.-- + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith (South New South Wales). + +Mountain White G.-- + <i>E. pauciflora</i>, Sieb. (Blue Mountains). + +Nankeen G.-- + <i>E. populifolia</i>, Hook. (Northern Australia). + +Olive Green G.-- + <i>E. stellulata</i>, Cunn. (Leichhardt's name). + +Pale Red G.-- + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht. + +Peppermint G.-- + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. + +Poplar-leaved G.-- + <i>E. polyanthema</i>, Schau. + +Red G.-- + <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill. (Victoria); + <i>E. calophylla</i>, R. Br.; + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. (Bombala); + <i>E. melliodora</i>, Cunn. (Victoria); + <i>E. odorata</i>, Behr (South Australia); + <i>E. punctata</i>, De C.; + <i>E. resinifera</i>, Smith; + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht; + <i>E. stuartiana</i>, F. v. M. (Tasmania); + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith (New South Wales). + +Ribbon G.-- + <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill. Ribbony G. + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. + +Risdon G.-- + <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill. + +River G.-- + <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht (New South Wales, Queensland, + and Central Australia). + +River White G.-- + <i>E. radiata</i>. + +Rough-barked, or Rough G.-- + <i>E. botryoides</i>, Smith (Illawarra). + +Rusty G.-- + <i>E. eximia</i>, Schau. + +Scribbly G.-- + <i>E. haemastoma</i>, Smith. + +Scribbly Blue G.-- + <i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M. (South Australia). + +Scrub G.-- + <i>E. cosmophylla</i>, F. v. M. + +Slaty G.-- + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith (New South Wales); + <i>E. tereticornis</i>, Smith (New South Wales and + Queensland); + <i>E. largiflorens</i>, F. v. M. + +Spotted G.-- + <i>E. capitellata</i>, Smith (New England); + <i>E. goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. haemastonza</i>, Smith; + <i>E. maculata</i>, Hook. + +Sugar G.-- + <i>E. corynocalyx</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. + +Swamp G.-- + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook.; + <i>E. microtheca</i>, F. v. M.; + <i>E. pauciflora</i>, Sieb.; + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. (Tasmania). + +Weeping G.-- + <i>E. pauciflora</i>, Sieb. (Tasmania); + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. (New South Wales). + +White G.-- + <i>E. amygdalina</i>, Labill.; + <i>E. gomphocephala</i>, De C. (Western Australia); + <i>E. goniocalyx</i>, F. v. M. ; E. haemastoma, Smith; + <i>E. hemiphloia</i>, F. v. M. (Sydney); + <i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M. (South Australia); + <i>E. pauciflora</i>, Sieb.; + <i>E. populifolia</i>, Hook. (Queensland); + <i>E. radiata</i> (New South Wales); + <i>E. redunca</i>, Schau. (Western Australia); + <i>E. robusta</i>, Schlecht. (South Australia); + <i>E. saligna</i>, Smith (New South Wales); + <i>E. stellulata</i>, Cunn.; + <i>E. stuartiana</i>, F. v. M. (Victoria); + <i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. + +White Swamp G.-- + <i>E. gunnii</i>, Hook. (South Australia). + +Yellow G.-- + <i>E. punctata</i>, De C. + +York G.-- + <i>E. foecunda</i>, Schau. (Western Australia). + +This list has been compiled by collating many authorities. But +the following note on <i>Eucalyptus amygdalina</i> (from +Maiden's `Useful Native Plants,' p. 429) will illustrate the +difficulty of assigning the vernacular names with absolute +accuracy to the multitudinous species of <i>Eucalyptus</i>-- + +"<i>Eucalyptus amygdalina</i>, Labill., +Syn. <i>E. fissilis</i>, F. v. M.; <i>E. radiata</i>, Sieb.; +<i>E. elata</i>, Dehn.; <i>E. tenuiramis</i>, Miq.; +<i>E. nitida</i>, Hook, f.; <i>E. longifolia</i>, Lindl. ; +<i>E. Lindleyana</i>, DC.; and perhaps <i>E. Risdoni</i>, Hook, +f.; <i>E. dives</i>, Schauer.--This Eucalypt has even more +vernacular names than botanical synonyms. It is one of the +`Peppermint Trees' (and variously `Narrow-leaved Peppermint,' +`Brown Peppermint,' `White Peppermint,' and sometimes +`Dandenong Peppermint'), and `Mountain Ashes' of the Dandenong +Ranges of Victoria, and also of Tasmania and Southern New South +Wales. It is also called `Giant Gum' and `White Gum.' In +Victoria it is one of the `Red Gums.' It is one of the New +South Wales `Stringybarks,' and a `Manna Gum.' Because it is +allied to, or associated with, `Stringybark,' it is also known +by the name of `Messmate.' . . . A variety of this gum +(<i>E. radiata</i>) is called in New South Wales `White Gum' or +`River White Gum.' . . . A variety of <i>E. amygdalina</i> +growing in the south coast district of New South Wales, goes by +the name of `Ribbon Gum,' in allusion to the very thin, easily +detachable, smooth bark. This is also E. radiata probably. A +further New South Wales variety goes by the name of `Cut-tail' +in the Braidwood district. The author has been unable to +ascertain the meaning of this absurd designation. These +varieties are, several of them, quite different in leaves, +bark, and timber, and there is no species better than the +present one to illustrate the danger in attempting to fit +botanical names on Eucalypts when only the vernacular names are +known." + +Various other trees not of the genus Eucalyptus are also +sometimes popularly called <i>Gums</i>, such as, for instance-- + +Broad-leaved Water Gum-- + <i>Tristania suavolens</i>, Smith. + +Orange G.-- + <i>Angophora lanceolata</i>, Cave. + +Water G.-- + <i>Callistemon lanceolatus</i>, DeC. + <i>Tristania laurina</i>, R. Br. + <i>T. neriifolia</i>, R. Br. + +And others. + +In addition to this, poets and descriptive writers sometimes +apply epithets, chiefly denoting colour or other outward +appearance, which are not names of distinct species, such as +<i>Cinnamon, Morrell, Salmon, Cable, Silver</i>, +etc. [See quotation under <i>Silver Gum</i>.] + +1642. Abel Tasman, `Journal of the Voyage to the Unknown +Southland' (Translation by J. B. Walker in `Abel J. Tasman: His +Life, etc.' 1896) + +[Under date Dec. 2, 1642, after describing the trees at Fredrik +Hendrik's Bay (now Blackman's Bay, Forestier's Peninsula, +Tasmania) 2 to 21/2 fathoms thick, 60 to 65 feet to the first +branch, and with steps 5 feet apart cut in them, Tasman says +that they found] "a little gum, fine in appearance, which drops +out of the trees, and has a resemblance to gum lac (gomma +lacca)." + +1770. `Captain Cook's Journal' (ed. Wharton, 1893), p. 245: + +"May 1st.--We found two sorts of gum, one sort of which is like +gum dragon, and is the same, I suppose, Tasman took for gum +lac; it is extracted from the largest tree in the woods. + +"May 6th.--The biggest trees are as large or larger than our +oaks in England, and grow a good deal like them, and yield a +reddish gum; the wood itself is heavy, hard, and black like +<i>Lignum vitae</i>." + +1788. Governor Phillip (Despatch, May 15) in `Historical +Records of New South Wales', vol. i. pt. ii. p. 128: + +"What seeds could be collected are sent to Sir Joseph Banks, as +likewise the red gum taken from the large gum-tree by tapping, +and the yellow gum which is found on the dwarf palm-tree." + +1789. Captain Watkin Tench, `Narrative of the Expedition to +Botany Bay,' p. 119: + +"The species of trees are few, and . . . the wood universally +of so bad a grain, as almost to preclude the possibility of +using it. . . . These trees yield a profusion of thick red gum +(not unlike the <i>Sanguis draconis</i>)." + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 231: + +"The red gum-tree, <i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>. This is a +very large and lofty tree, much exceeding the English oak in +size." + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 69: + +"I have likewise seen trees bearing three different kinds of +leaves, and frequently have found others, bearing the leaf of +the gum-tree, with the gum exuding from it, and covered with +bark of a very different kind." + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 66: + +"Full-sized gums and iron barks, alongside of which the +loftiest trees in this country would appear as pigmies, with +the beefwood tree, or, as it is generally termed, the forest +oak, which is of much humbler growth, are the usual timber." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 200: + +"The gum-trees are so designated as a body from producing a +gummy resinous matter, while the peculiarities of the bark +usually fix the particular names of the species--thus the blue, +spotted, black-butted, and woolly gums are so nominated from +the corresponding appearance of their respective barks; the red +and white gums, from their wood; and the flooded gums from +growing in flooded land." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' +vol. II. c. iii. p. 108: + +"The silvery stems of the never-failing gum-trees." + +1857. H. Parkes, `Murmurs of Stream,' p. 56: + +"Where now the hermit gum-tree stands on the plain's heart." + +1864. J. S. Moore, `Spring Life Lyrics,' p. 114: + +"Amid grand old gums, dark cedars and pines." + +1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. xiii. p. 209: + +"The eternal gum-tree has become to me an Australian crest, +giving evidence of Australian ugliness. The gum-tree is +ubiquitous, and is not the loveliest, though neither is it by +any means the ugliest, of trees." + +1877. F. v. Muller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 7: + +"The vernacular name of gum-trees for the eucalypts is as +unaptly given as that of most others of our native plants, +on which popular appellations have been bestowed. Indeed our +wattles might far more appropriately be called gum-trees than +the eucalypts, because the former exude a real gum (in the +chemical meaning of the word); whereas the main exudation from +the stems and branches of all eucalypts hardens to a kino-like +substance, contains a large proportion of a particular tannin +(kino-tannic acid), and is to a great extent or entirely +soluble in alcohol, thus very different from genuine gum." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 176: + +"Golden, 'mid a sunlit forest, + Stood the grand Titanic forms + Of the conquerors of storms; + Stood the gums, as if inspired, + Every branch and leaflet fired + With the glory of the sun, + In golden robes attired, + A grand priesthood of the sun." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' +p. 61: + +"Nearly all the eucalyptus species exude gum, which the natives +utilise in the fabrication of their various weapons as +Europeans do glue. The myall and mimosa also exude gum; these +the natives prefer before all other kinds when obtainable, they +being less brittle and more adhesive than any of the others." + +i891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"This is an exact representation of the camps which were +scattered over the country not more than fifty years ago, and +inhabited by the original lords of the soil. The beautiful +she-oak and red-gum forest that used to clothe the slopes of +Royal Park was a very favourite camping-ground of theirs, as +the gum-tree was their most regular source of food supply. The +hollows of this tree contained the sleek and sleepy opossum, +waiting to be dragged forth to the light of day and despatched +by a blow on the head. It was to the honey-laden blossoms of +this tree that the noisy cockatoos and parrots used to flock. +Let the kangaroo be wary and waterfowl shy, but whilst he had +his beloved gum-tree, little cared the light-hearted black." + +1892. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 2: + +"The immense extent of gum-trees stretches indefinitely, +blotting out the conception of anything but its own +lightly-timbered pasture. It has not even the gloom and +impressiveness which we associate in England with the name +of forest land, for the trees are thinly scattered, their long +leaves hang vertically from the branches, and sunlight filters +through with sufficient force to promote the growth of the +tussocked grass beneath. The whole would be indescribably +commonplace, but that the vastness becomes at last by its own +force impressive." + +The following quotations illustrate special uses of the word in +composition. + +<i>Apple Gum</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 283: + +"On the small flats the apple-gum grew." + +Ibid. c. viii. p. 264: + +"Another Eucalyptus with a scaly butt . . . but with smooth +upper trunk and cordate ovate leaves, which was also new to me; +we called it the Apple-gum." + +<i>Blue Gum</i>-- + +1802. D.Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 235: + +"The blue gum, she-oak, and cherry-tree of Port Jackson were +common here." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 22: + +"The Blue Gum is found in greater abundance; it is a +loose-grained heavy wood." + +1851. James Mitchell, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' p. 125: + +"The name blue gum appears to have been derived from the bluish +gray colour of the whole plant in the earliest stages of its +growth, which is occasioned by a covering of dust or bloom +similar to that upon the sloe or damson." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 199: + +"I love to see the blue gums stand Majestically tall; + The giants of our southern woods, + The loftiest of all." + +<i>Black-butted Gum</i>-- + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. II. c. viii. p. 236: + +"One species . . . resembling strongly the black-butted gum." + +<i>Cable Gum</i>-- + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. II. c. iv. +p. 132: + +"Cable-gum . . . like several stems twisted together, abundant +in interior." + +<i>Cider Gum</i> (or <i>Cider Tree</i>)-- + +1830. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 119: + +"That species of eucalyptus called the <i>cider tree</i>, from +its exuding a quantity of saccharine liquid resembling +molasses. Streaks of it were to be seen dripping down the bark +in various parts, which we tasted, and found very palatable. +The natives have a method at the proper season of grinding +holes in the tree, from which the sweet juice flows +plentifully, and is collected in a hole at the root. We saw +some of these covered up with a flat stone, doubtless to +prevent the wild animals from coming to drink it. When allowed +to remain some time, and to ferment, it settles into a coarse +sort of wine or cider, rather intoxicating." + +<i>Cinnamon Gum</i>-- + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 19, p. 7, col. 1: + +"A forest only fit for urban gnomes these twisted trunks. Here +are no straight and lofty trees, but sprawling cinnamon gums, +their skin an unpleasing livid red, pock-marked; saplings in +white and chilly grey, bleeding gum in ruddy stains, and +fire-black boles and stumps to throw the greenery into bright +relief." + +<i>Drooping Gum</i>-- + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. II. c. xii. +p. 387: + +"The trees, which grew only in the valleys, were small kinds +of banksia, wattles and drooping gums." + +<i>Flooded Gum</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 7: + +"Large flooded gum-trees (but no casuarinas) at the low banks +of the lagoons." + +<i>Lemon-scented Gum</i>-- + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 265: + +"Among the <i>Eucalypti</i> or gum-trees growing in New South +Wales, a species named the lemon-scented gum-tree, +<i>Eucalyptus citriodora</i>, is peculiar to the Wide Bay +district, in the northern part of the colony." + +<i>Mountain Gum</i>-- + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. iii, p. 118: + +"The cypresses became mixed with casuarina, box and +mountain-gum." + +<i>Red Gum</i> [see also <i>Red-gum</i>]-- + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' +c. xi. p. 461: + +"The red gum-tree. This is a very large and lofty tree, +much exceeding the English oak in size." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 33: + +"Red gum, a wood which has of late years been exported to +England in great quantities; it has all the properties of +mahogany." + +1868. W. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 14: + +"While she, the younger, went to fill + Her red-gum pitcher at the rill." + +1870. J. O. Tucker, `The Mute,' etc., p. 85: + +"Then the dark savage `neath the red gum's shade + Told o'er his deeds." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 14, p. 4, col. I + +"Those of the leaden hue are red gums." + +<i>Rough Gum</i>-- + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. iii. p. 118: + +"The rough-gum abounded near the creek." + +<i>Rusty Gum</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 48: + +"The range was openly timbered with white gum, spotted gum, +Iron-bark, rusty gum and the cypress pine." + +<i>Salmon Gum</i>-- + +1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 3, p. 252, col. 4: + +"The chief descriptions are salmon, morrel and white gums, and +gimlet-wood. The bark of the salmon gum approaches in colour +to a rich golden brown, but the satin-like sheen on it has the +effect of making it several shades lighter, and in the full +glare of the sun it is sufficiently near a rich salmon tint to +justify its name." + +<i>Silver Gum</i>-- + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 113: + +"When so many of our Australian trees were named `gums,' a +distinguishing prefix for each variety was clearly necessary, +and so the words red, blue, yellow, white and scarlet, as +marking some particular trait in the tree, have come into +everyday use. Had the pioneer bush botanist seen at least one +of those trees at a certain stage in its growth, the term +`silver gum' would have found expression." + +<i>Spotted Gum</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 11: + +"Ironbark ridges here and there with spotted gum . . . +diversified the sameness." + +<i>Swamp Gum</i>-- + +1853. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. ii, p. 132 [James Mitchell, <i>On the +Strength of Timber</i>, etc., read Nov.12, 1851]: + +"The Swamp Gum grows to the largest size of any of this family +in Van Diemen's Land. Its growth is nearly twice as rapid as +that of the Blue Gum: the annular layers are sometimes very +large; but the bark, and the whole tree indeed, is so like the +Blue Gum, as not to be easily distinguished from it in outward +appearance. It grows best in moist places, which may probably +have given rise to its name. Some extraordinary dimensions +have been recorded of trees of this species. I lately measured +an apparently sound one, and found it 21 feet in circumference +at 8 feet from the ground and 87 feet to the first branches. +Another was 18 1/2 feet in circumference at 10 feet from the +ground, and 213 feet to the highest branch or extreme top. +A third reached the height of 251 feet to the highest branch: +but I am told that these are pigmies compared to the giants of +even the Blue Gum species found in the southern districts." + +1880. Garnet Watch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 100: + +"Groups of native trees, including the black wattle, silver +box, messmate, stringy bark, and the picturesque but less +useful swamp gum." + +<i>Water Gum</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 387: + +"Long hollows surrounded with drooping tea-trees and the white +watergums." + +<i>Weeping Gum</i>-- + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 169: + +"A kind of <i>Eucalyptus</i>, with long drooping leaves, called +the `Weeping Gum,' is the most elegant of the family." + +<i>White Gum</i>-- + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p, 278: + +"The natives tell me that it [the ground-parrot] chiefly +breeds in a stump of a small White Gum-tree." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 48: + +"The range was openly timbered with white gum." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 471: + +"<i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M. The `blue or white gum' of South +Australia and Victoria is a gum-tree with smooth bark and +light-coloured wood (hence the specific name). The flowers and +fruit of <i>E. leucoxylon</i> are very similar to those of +<i>E. sideroxylon</i>, and in this way two trees have been +placed under one name which are really quite distinct. Baron +Mueller points out that there are two well-marked varieties of +<i>E. leucoxylon</i> in Victoria. That known as `white-gum' +has the greater portion of the stem pale and smooth through the +outer layers of the bark falling off. The variety known +chiefly as the `Victorian Ironbark,' retains the whole bark on +the stem, thus becoming deeply fissured and furrowed, and very +hard and dark coloured." + +<i>Yellow Gum</i>-- + +1848. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia,' p. 107: + +"We this day passed a small group of trees of the yellow gum, +a species of eucalyptus growing only on the poor sandy soil +near Botany Bay, and other parts of the sea-coast near Sydney." + +<i>York Gum</i>-- + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. II. c. iv. +p. 132: + +"York gum . . . abundant in York on good soil." + +<hw>Gum-</hw> (<i>In Composition</i>). See <i>Gum</i>. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 134: + + "I said to myself in the gum-shadowed glen." + +1868. W. L. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 1: + +"To see the gum-log flaming bright + Its welcome beacon through the night." + +1890. `The Argus,' August 2, p. 4, col. 3: + +"Make a bit of a shelter also. You can always do it with +easily-got gum-boughs." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 201: + +"The edge of the long, black, gum-shrouded lagoon." + +<hw>Gummy</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to a shark of Victorian +and Tasmanian waters, <i>Mustelus antarcticus</i>, Gunth., and +called <i>Hound</i> (q.v.) in New South Wales, Victoria, and +New Zealand. The word <i>Gummy</i> is said to come from the +small numerous teeth, arranged like a pavement, so different +from the sharp erect teeth of most other sharks. The word +<i>Hound</i> is the Old World name for all the species of the +genus <i>Mustelus</i>. This fish, says Hutton, is much eaten +by the Maoris. + +<hw>Gum-sucker</hw>, <i>n.</i> slang for Victorian-born, not +now much used; but it is not always limited to Victorians. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. i. p. 201: + +"The acacias are the common wattles of this country; from their +trunks and branches clear transparent beads of the purest +Arabian gum are seen suspended in the dry spring weather, which +our young currency bantlings eagerly search after and regale +themselves with." + +[The practice of `gum-sucking' is here noticed, though the word does +not occur.] + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 24: + +"If he had not been too 'cute to be bitten twice by the +over-'cute `gumsuckers,' as the native Victorians are called." + +1890. `Quiz `(Adelaide), Dec. 26: + +"Quiz will take good care that the innocent Australians are not +fooled without a warning. Really L. and his accomplices must +look upon gumsuckers as being pretty soft." + +<hw>Gunyah</hw>, <i>n.</i> aboriginal name for a black-fellow's +hut, roughly constructed of boughs and bark; applied also to +other forms of shelter. The spelling varies greatly: in +Col. Mundy's book (1855) there are no fewer than four forms. +See <i>Humpy</i> and <i>Gibber</i>. What Leichhardt saw (see +quotation 1847) was very remarkable. + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' in an aboriginal vocabulary of Port Jackson, p. 610: + +"Go-nie--a hut." + +1830. R.Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 70: + +"One of their gunyers (bark huts)." + +Ibid. p. 171: + +"A native encampment, consisting of eight or ten `gunyers.' +This is the native term for small huts, which are supported +by three forked sticks (about three feet long) brought together +at the top in a triangular form: the two sides towards the wind +are covered by long sheets of bark, the third is always left +open to the wind." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. ii. p. 78: + +"We observed a fresh-made gunneah (or native hut)." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior +of Eastern Australia,' c. ii. p. 35: + +"Three huts, or gunyahs, consisted of a few green boughs, which +had just been put up for shelter from the rain then falling." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 10: + +"Their only habitation . . . is formed by two sheets of bark +stripped from the nearest tree, at the first appearance of a +storm, and joined together at an angle of 45 degrees. This, +which they call a gunnya, is cut up for firewood when the +storm has passed." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 238: + +"Behind appears a large piece of wood hooded like a `gunnya' +or `umpee.'" + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 290: + +"We saw a very interesting camping place of the natives, +containing several two-storied gunyas." + +1852. `Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of Sixteen +Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 211: + +"I coincided in his opinion that it would be best for us to +camp for the night in one of the ghibber-gunyahs. These are +the hollows under overhanging rocks." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' ed. 1855, p. 164: + +"A sloping sheet of bark turned from the wind--in bush lingo, +a break-weather--or in guneeahs of boughs thatched with grass." +[p. 200]: "Guneah." [p. 558]: "Gunneah." [p. 606]: "Gunyah." + +1860. G.Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 114 +[Footnote]: + +"The name given by the natives to the burrow or habitation of +any animals is `guniar,' and the same word is applied to our +houses." + +1880. P. J. Holdsworth, `Station, Hunting': + + "hunger clung +Beneath the bough-piled gunyah." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 19: + +"The sleepy blacks came out of their gunyahs." [p. 52]: +"A gunya of branches." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. ii. p. 16: + +"Where this beautiful building now stands, there were only the +gunyahs or homes of the poor savages." + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 98: + +"One of the gunyahs on the hill. . . . The hut, which is +exactly like all the others in the group,--and for the matter of +that all within two or three hundred miles,--is built of sticks, +which have been stuck into the ground at the radius of a common +centre, and then bent over so as to form an egg-shaped cage, +which is substantially thatched on top and sides with herbage +and mud." + +<hw>Gunyang</hw>, <i>n.</i> the aboriginal word for the +<i>Kangaroo Apple</i> (q.v.), though the name is more +strictly applied not to <i>Solanum aviculare</i>, but to +<i>S. vescum</i>. + +1877. F. von Muller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 106: + +"The similarity of both [<i>S. vescum</i> and <i>S. +aviculare</i>] to each other forbids to recommend +the fruit of the Gunyang as edible." + +1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany,' p. 73: + +"Kangaroo Apple, <i>Solanum aviculare</i>. . . . The Gunyang +(<i>Solanum vescum</i>) is another variety found in Victoria." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 222: + +"A couple of tiny streams trickle across the plains to the sea, +a dwarfed ti-tree, clinging low about the ground, like the +gunyang or kangaroo apple, borders the banks." + +<hw>Gurnard</hw>, <i>n.</i> i.q. <i>Gurnet</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Gurnet</hw>, <i>n.</i> The species of <i>Trigla</i> found +in British waters, called <i>Gurnards</i> are of the family of +<i>Cottidae</i>. The word <i>Gurnet</i> is an obsolete or +provincial form of Gurnard, revived in Australia, and applied +to the fish <i>Centropogon scorpoenoides</i>, Guich., family +<i>Scorpoenidae</i>. The original word <i>Gurnard</i> is +retained in New Zealand, and applied to the new species +<i>Trigla kumu</i> (<i>kumu</i> being the Maori name), family +<i>Cottidae</i>. The <i>Flying Gurnet</i> is <i>Trigla +polyommata</i>, Richards., found on all the Australian coasts +from New South Wales to Western Australia, family +<i>Cottidae</i>. It is a distinct species, not included in the +British species. They have large pectoral fins, but are not +known to possess the power of supporting themselves in the air +like the "flying fish" which belong to other genera. Sir +Fredk. McCoy says that <i>Sebastes Percoides</i>, Richards., is +called Gurnet, or Garnet-perch, by the fishermen and dealers, +as well as the more common <i>Neosebastes scorpoenoides</i>, +Guich., and <i>Scorpoena panda</i>, Richards. + +<hw>Gutter</hw>, <i>n.</i> in Australian goldmining, "the lower +and auriferous part of the channel of an old river of the +Tertiary period " (`Century'). "The lowest portion of a lead. +A gutter is filled with auriferous drift or <i>washdirt</i>, +which rests on the palaeozoic bed-rock." (Brough +Smyth, `Glossary of Mining Terms.') + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55: + +"Duffers are so common And golden gutters rare." + +1871. J. J. Simpson, `Recitations,' p. 23: + +"Privations and hardships you all have to suffer + Ere you can expect to get on to the gutter." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. viii. p. 81: + +"If we happened to drop right down on the `gutter' or main +course of the lead, we were all right." + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p.23: + +"The Company . . . are putting in a drive to strike the old +Shakspeare gutter." + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1015: + +"Evidently both claims had been driving for a `gutter.' One +of them had got to the end of its tether before reaching it." + +<hw>Gutter-flags</hw>, <i>n.</i> Flags fixed on the surface to +denote where the course of a gutter or lead underground has +been discovered." (Brough Smyth, `Glossary of Mining Terms.') + +<hw>Gweeon</hw>, <i>n.</i> a stone tomahawk of the aborigines. +<i>Gweh-un</i>, in Mukthang language, Gippsland. Apparently a +remnant of a term occurring along the east side of Australia; +<i>Burgoin</i>, New South Wales; <i>bulgoon</i> and +<i>balgon</i>, Burdekin River, Queensland; related to +<i>balgoungo</i>, to chop. + +<hw>Gymnobelideus</hw>, <i>n.</i> the scientific name of the +genus confined to Australia of <i>Squirrel Phalangers</i>, or +<i>Squirrel Opossums</i>, as they have been called. See +<i>Opossum</i>. The name was given by Sir Frederick McCoy in +1867. Only two specimens have been found, and they are in the +Melbourne Museum of Natural History. There is only one +species, <i>G. leadbeateri</i>, M'Coy. In general form they +resemble the so-called <i>Australian Flying Squirrel</i> +(q.v.), save for the absence of the parachute. They have large +naked ears. (Grk. <i>gymnos</i>, naked, and Latin, +<i>belideus</i>, the Flying-Phalanger or Squirrel.) + +<hw>Gymnorrhina</hw>, <i>n.</i> the scientific name of the +Australian genus of <i>Piping Crow-Shrikes</i>, called locally +by the vernacular name of <i>Magpies</i> (q.v.). They have the +nostrils and beak unfeathered. (Grk. <i>gymnos</i>, naked, and +<i>rhis</i>, nose.) For the species see under <i>Magpie</i>. + + + +H + + +<hw>Haddock</hw>, <i>n.</i> The New Zealand <i>Haddock</i> is +<i>Gadus australis</i>, Hutton, <i>Pseudophycis barbatus</i>, +Gunth., and <i>Merlucius gayi</i>, Guich., or <i>australis</i>, +Hutton, all belonging to the family <i>Gadidae</i> or +Cod-fishes. The European species of <i>Merlucius</i> is known +as the "Hake." + +<hw>Haeremai</hw>, <i>interj</i>. Maori term of welcome, +lit. come hither; <i>haere</i> is the verb. It has been +colloquially adopted. + +1769. J. Hawkesworth, `Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 229 (ed. 1785): + +"When they came near enough to be heard, they waved their +hands, and called out `Horomai.' These ceremonies we were +told were certain signs of their friendly disposition." + +1832. `Henry Williams' Journal,' in H. Carleton's `Life of +Henry Williams,' p. 112: + +"After breakfast we went to them all; they were very glad to +see us, and gave us the usual welcome, `Haeremai! Haeremai!'" + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' p. 249: + +"As I ascended the steep hill with my train, scarcely any +greeting was addressed to me, no shouts of haeremai, so +universal a welcome to the stranger, were to be heard." + +1863. F. E. Maning (<i>The Pakeha-Maori</i> ), `Old New +Zealand,' p. 14: + +"The boat nears the shore, and now arises from a hundred voices +the call of welcome, `Haere mai! haere mai! hoe mai!' Mats, +hands, and certain ragged petticoats all waving in the air in +sign of welcome. Then a pause. Then, as the boat came nearer, +another burst of haere mai! But unaccustomed as I was then to +the Maori salute, I disliked the sound. There was a wailing, +melancholy cadence that did not strike me as being the +appropriate note of welcome." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' (English edition) p. 438: + +"Rev. Mr. Chapman received me at his garden gate with a hearty +welcome, the natives shouted their friendly `haeremai,' and ere +long we were all in comfortable shelter beneath the missionary's +roof." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 34: + +"Haire mai ho! 'tis the welcome song + Rings far on the summer air." + +<hw>Hair-trigger</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Tasmanian name for any plant +of genus <i>Stylidium</i>. Called also <i>Trigger-plant</i>, +and <i>Jack in a Box</i> (q.v.). + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 71: + +"The <i>Stylidium</i>, or as we named it, the `Hair-trigger,' +is common all over the colony." + +<hw>Haka</hw>, <i>n.</i> Maori word for a dance. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' p. 198: + +"A haka was now performed by about one hundred and fifty men +and women. They seated themselves in ranks in one of the +courtyards of the pa, stripped to the waist. An old +chieftainess, who moved along the ranks with regular steps, +brandishing an ornamental spear in time to her movements, now +recited the first verse of a song in a monotonous, dirge-like +measure. This was joined in by the others, who also kept time +by quivering their hands and arms, nodding their heads and +bending their bodies in accordance with each emphasis and +pause." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' c. xvi. p. 409 (3rd ed. +1855): + +"I witnessed a national spectacle which was new to me--a sort +of incantation performed by women alone--the haka, I think it +is called." + +1872. A.Domett, `Ranolf,' XV. c. vi. p. 242: + +"The <i>haka</i>-dances, where she shone supreme." + +1873. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' G. I, +B., p. 8: + +"Thursday was passed by them [the natives] in feasting and +hakas." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 34: + +"A rushing throng in the furious haka share." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, p. 50, col. 5: + +"He also received a visit from three or four hostile natives, +who, with blood-curdling yells, duly performed the indispensable +haka." + +<hw>Hakea</hw>, <i>n.</i> the scientific name given, in honour +of Baron Hake of Hanover, to "a large Australian genus of +plants belonging to the follicular section of the +<i>Proteaceae</i>, tribe <i>Grevilleae</i>, and distinguished +from Grevillea by its axillary inflorescence and samaroid +seeds. The species, nearly 100 in number [Maiden's index to +`Useful Native Plants' gives sixteen], are all evergreen +shrubs, or small trees, with alternate coriaceous, variously +lobed, often spiny leaves. They are ornamental in cultivation, +and several have acquired special names--<i>H. ulicina</i>, +Native Furze; <i>H. laurina</i>, Cushion-flower; +<i>H. acicularis</i> (<i>Lissosperma</i>), Native Pear; +<i>H. flexilis</i>, Twine-bush." (`Century.') + +1877. F. v. Muller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 50: + +"<i>Proteaceae</i> are more extensively still represented in +Victoria by the well known genera Grevillea and Hakea, the +former dedicated to the Right Hon. C. F. Greville, of +Paddington, the latter genus named in honour of Baron Hake, of +Hanover, both having been alike patrons of horticulture at the +end of the last century." + +1897. `The Australasian,' Jan. 30, p. 226, col. 3: + +"Recently, according to `Nature,' Mr. G. M. Thomson, an eminent +authority on New Zealand botany, has shown that one of the +genera, namely Hakea, though absent at present from the islands +[of New Zealand], formerly existed there. Plant remains were +found at St. Bathans, in a bed of clay, which have been +identified by him as Hakea. The question of the identification +of fossil plants is always a difficult one, but as Mr. Thomson +announces that he has obtained fruit capsules and leaves there +can be but little doubt as to the correctness of his +determinations. Hitherto the genus has been regarded as +Australian only, and about 100 species are known, of which no +less than 65 are West Australian. It would seem then that the +Hakeas had obtained a footing in Eastern Australia before the +connection with New Zealand had disappeared, and that probably +the genus is a far older one than had been anticipated. Why, +after finding its way to New Zealand, it should have died out +there is a question to which no answer can as yet be supplied." + +<hw>Hand-fish</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Tasmanian fish, +<i>Brachionichthys hirsutus</i>, Lacep., family +<i>Pediculati</i>. The name is used in the northern hemisphere +for a different fish, which is also called there the +<i>Frog-fish</i> and <i>Toad-fish</i>. The name arises from a +fancied resemblance of the profile of the fish to a human hand. +It is also called <i>Frog-fish</i> and <i>Tortoise-shell +fish</i>. Mrs. Meredith calls it <i>Tortoise-shell Fish</i> +from its colour, when figuring it in `Tasmanian Friends and +Foes' under its former scientific name of <i>Cheironectes +Politus</i>. The surface of its skin is hirsute with minute +spines, and the lobe at the end of the detached filament of the +dorsal fin--called the fintacle--hangs loose. The scientific +names of the genus are derived from Grk. <i>brachiown</i>, +"the arm," and <i>cheir</i>, "the hand." The armlike +pectoral fins are used for holding on to stones or seaweed. + +1850. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' Jan. 9, vol. i. p. 268: + +"A little spotted fish belonging to the genus <i>Chironectes</i> +. . . Mr. Champ writes thus respecting the frog fish:-- +`It was found in the sea at Port Arthur by a person +who was with me, and when caught had all the appearance of +having four legs, from the position and shape of the fins; the +two longest of which, from the sort of elbow in them, and the +division into (rays) what resemble fingers, seem to form a +connecting link between fins and legs or arms.'" + +1880. Mrs.'Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 249: + +"It has fins like feet; one small pair where pectoral fins +usually are, and a larger pair, with absolute elbows to them, +and apparently shoulder-blades too, only those do not belong to +the fore pair of feet! A very antipodean arrangement truly! +The markings on the body and on the delicate pellucid fins +are like tortoise-shell." + +<hw>Hand, Old</hw>, <i>n.</i> one who has been a convict. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 141: + +"The men who have been convicts are termed `old hands'; +they are mostly rude, rough men, with no moral principle or +religious feeling, and who have little sympathy for humanity." + +1865. J. O. Tucker, `Australian Story,' c. i. p. 85: + +"Reformed convicts, or, in the language of their proverbial +cant, `old hands.'" + +1865. F. H. Nixon, `Peter Perfume,' p. 102: + +"`Boshman' in the old-hand vernacular signifies a fiddler." +["Bosh in gypsy means music and also violin." -Barrere and +Leland.] + +1885. J. Rae, `Chirps by an Australian Sparrow,' p. 99: + +"The old hands were quite tidy too + With hats of cabbage-tree." + +<hw>Hang up</hw>, v. to tie up a horse. + +1860. W. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' p. 49 [Footnote]: + +"In Melbourne there are posts sunk in the ground almost +opposite every door. . . . Fastening your horse to one +of these posts is called `hanging him up.'" + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 32: + +"We got off, hung our horses up to a tree." + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `Bride from the Bush,' p. 296: + +"The mail-boy is waiting impatiently in the verandah, +with his horse `hung up' to one of the posts." + +<hw>Hapalote</hw>, <i>n.</i> Anglicized form of Hapalotis +(Grk. <i>hapalos</i>, soft, and <i>'ous, 'owtis</i>) ear), +a peculiar Australian genus of rodents of the mouse family. +They are called <i>Jumping Mice</i>, and have soft ears, +and enlarged hind limbs like the jerboa, but are not +marsupial like the kangaroo. There are many species. + +<hw>Hapu</hw>, <i>n.</i> Maori word for sub-tribe; sometimes +even, family. + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 162: + +"The 70,000 semi-civilised natives now in New Zealand are +divided into some dozen chief tribes, and into numerous +sub-tribes and `harpu.'" + +1873. `Appendix to Journals of House of Representatives,' +vol. iii. G. 7, p. 87: + +"Were not all your hapu present when the money was paid? My +hapu, through whom the land Nvas claimed, were present: we +filled the room." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 171: + +"An important structure that engaged the united labours of the +hapu." + +1887. J. White, `Ancient History of the Maori,' vol. i. p. 290: + +"Each of which is subdivided again into <i>Hapu</i>, or smaller +communities." + +1891. Rev. J. Stacks, `Report of Australasian Association +for the Advancement of Science,' vol. iii. sect. G. p. 378: + +"On arriving in New Zealand, or Ao-tea-roa, the crews of the +colonizing fleet dispersed themselves over the length and +breadth of these islands, and formed independent tribes or +nations, each of which was divided into hapus and the hapus +into families." + +<hw>Hapuku</hw>, <i>n.</i> Maori name for a fish, <i>Oligorus +gigas</i>, Gunth., called later <i>Polyprion prognathus</i> +(see quotation, 1895), pronounced <i>hapuka</i>, frequently +corrupted into <i>habuka</i>, the <i>Groper</i> (q.v.). It is +variously called a <i>Cod</i>, a <i>Perch</i> and a +<i>Sea-Perch</i>. See quotations. + +1845 (about). `New Plymouth's National Song,' Hursthouse's +`New Zealand,' p 217: + +"Lowing herds on every side, + Hapuka in every tide." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui, p. 411: + +"Hapuku, or whapuku, commonly called the cod, but a much richer +fish in flavour: externally it more resembles the salmon, and +is known in New Holland as the dew or Jew-fish. It attains +a large size and is considered the best fish of New Zealand." + +1862. Anon., `From the Black Rocks on Friday,' `All the Year +Round,' May 17, 1862, No. 160: + +"A kind of codfish called by the natives whapuku or hahpuka." + +1878. P. Thomson, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. XI. art. lii. p. 383: + +"The hapuka, or groper, was in pretty regular supply." + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 392: + +"The second (Oligorus gigas) is found in the sea, on the coast +of New Zealand, and called by the Maoris and colonists `Hapuku' +. . . Dr. Hector, who has had opportunities of examining it in +a fresh state, has pointed out anatomical differences from the +Murray Cod." + +1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. XIII. art. ii. p. 46: + +"A feast of good things prepared--eels, and hapuku (codfish), +and taro." + +1884. W. D. Hay, in the `Field,' May 10, p. 637, col. 1: + +"The pakirikiri(<i>Percis colias</i>) is the fish to which +settlers in the north of New Zealand generally give the name of +whapuka." + +1895. `Oxford English Dictionary' (s.v.Cod): + +"In New Zealand, a serranoid fish <i>Polyprion prognathus</i>, +called by the Maories hapuku." + +<hw>Hardhead</hw>, n, the English sportsman's name for the +ruddy duck <i>(Erismatura rubida</i>). Applied by sportsmen in +Australia to the White-eyed Duck, <i>Nyroca australis</i>, +Gould. See <i>Duck</i>. + +<hw>Hardwood</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name is applied to many +Australian timbers something like teak, but especially to +<i>Backhousia bancroftii</i>, F. v. M. and Bailey, +N.O. Myrtaceae. In Tasmania, it means any gum-timber +(<i>Eucalyptus</i>). It is in constant and universal use for +building and fencing in Australia. + +1888. Candish, `Whispering Voices,' p. 108: + +"Sitting on a block of hardwood . . . is the gray-haired +forest feller." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 24: + +"It was a hammer-like piece of hardwood above a plate of tin." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 93: + +"A hardwood slab-door weighs a goodish deal, as any one may +find out that has to hump it a hundred yards." + +Hardyhead, <i>n.</i> name given in Sydney to the fish +<i>Atherina pinguis</i>, Lacep., family <i>Atherinidae</i>. + +<hw>Hare-Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n.</i> a small Kangaroo, resembling +the British hare. Called also <i>Hare-Wallaby</i>. The +scientific name is <i>Lagorchestes</i> (q.v.). + +1871. G. Krefft, `Mammals of Australia': + +"The Hare-kangaroos, so called from their resemblance to that +well known rodent, are the fleetest of the whole tribe, and +though they do not exceed a common hare in bulk, they can make +clear jumps of eight and ten feet high." + +<hw>Hare-Wallaby</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Hare-Kangaroo, +Wallaby</i>, and <i>Lagorchestes</i>. + +<hw>Harlequin-Pigeon</hw>, <i>n.</i> formerly referred to +the genus <i>Peristera</i>, but now to the genus <i>Phaps</i>. +It is commonly called in the interior the "flock" pigeon. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 296: + +"Large flocks of <i>Peristera histrionica</i> (the harlequin- +pigeon) were lying on the patches of burnt grass on the plains." + +<hw>Harmonic Thrush</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Port Jackson +Thrush</i>. + +<hw>Harpagornis</hw>, <i>n.</i> a scientific name for a partly +fossilised, huge raptorial bird of New Zealand. From Greek +HARPA? <i>harpax</i> robbing, and <i>'ornis</i>, a bird. + +1878. A. Newton, `Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. iii. p. 731: + +"There is a harpagornis, a bird of prey of stature sufficient +to have made the largest dinornis its quarry." + +<hw>Harrier</hw>, <i>n.</i> English bird-name (that which +harries), assigned in New Zealand to <i>Circus gouldii</i>, +Bonap. (also called <i>Swamp-hawk</i>), and in Australia to +<i>C. assimilis</i>, Jard. and Selb., or <i>C. approximans</i>, +Bonap., called <i>Spotted Harrier</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 206: + +"<i>Circus Gouldi</i>, Bonap., New Zealand harrier, or Gould's +harrier." + +<hw>Hat, Black</hw>, <i>n.</i> slang for a new immigrant. + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xxviii. p. 277: + +"Lord! if I were Mr. Dyson Maddox, I'd never let it be said +that a black hat had cut me out sweetheartin'." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. iii. p. 21: + +"A `black hat' in Australian parlance means a new arrival." + +<hw>Hat, Old</hw>. See <i>Old-hat</i>. + +<hw>Hatter</hw>. (1) A solitary miner--miner who works without +a mate partner: sc. one who has everything under his own hat. + +1869. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 613 +(`Glossary of Mining Terms'): + +"One who works alone. He differs from the fossicker who rifles +old workings, or spends his time in trying abandoned washdirt. +The hatter leads an independent life, and nearly always holds a +claim under the bye-laws." + +1884. R. L. A.Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 267: + +"Oh, a regular rum old stick; . . . he mostly works a `hatter.' +He has worked with mates at times, and leaves them when the +claim is done, and comes up a `hatter' again. He's a regular +old miser." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 37: + +"Instead of having to take to fossicking like so many `hatters' +--solitary miners." + +(2) By extension to other professions. + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Aug. 28, p. i. col. 7: + +"He had been a burglar of the kind known among the criminal +classes as `a hatter.' That is to say, he burgled `on his own +hook,' never in a gang. He had never, he told me, burgled with +a companion." + +<hw>Hatteria</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name for a genus of +reptiles containing a Lizard peculiar to New Zealand, the only +living representative of the order <i>Rhynchocephalinae</i>. +See <i>Tuatara</i>. + +<hw>Hatting</hw>, <i>quasi pres. partic</i>., solitary mining. +See <i>Hatter</i>. + +1891. `The Age,' Nov. 25, p. 6, col. 7: + +"Two old miners have been hatting for gold amongst the old +alluvial gullies." + +<hw>Hat-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to a species of +<i>Sterculia</i>, the Bottle-trees (q.v.). + +<hw>Hau-hau</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Maori superstition. This +superstition arose in Taranaki in 1864, through the crazy +fancies of the chief Te Ua, who communed with angels and +interpreted the Bible. The meaning of the word is obscure, but +it probably referred to the wind which wafted the angels to the +worshippers whilst dancing round an erect pole. Pai Marire was +another name for the superstition, and signifies "good and +peaceful." (See Gudgeon's `War in New Zealand,' p. 23 sq.; +also Colenso's pamphlet on `Kereopa,' p. 4.) + +<hw>Hawk</hw>, <i>n.</i> This common English bird-name is +applied in Australia to many species-- + +Brown-Hawk-- + <i>Hieracadiea orientalis</i>, Sehl. + +Crested-H.-- + <i>Baza subcristata</i>, Gould. + +Eagle-H.-- + <i>Another name</i> for Wedge-tailed Eagle. (See <i>Eagle</i> + and <i>Eagle-hawk</i>.) + +Fish-H.-- + Another name for <i>Osprey</i>. (See <i>Fish-hawk</i>.) + +Gos-H.-- + <i>Astur approximans</i>, V. and H. + +Grey Gos-H.-- + <i>A. cinereus</i>, Vieill. + +Lesser Gos-H.-- + <i>A. cruentus</i>, Gould. + +Lesser White Gos-H.-- + <i>A. leucosomus</i>, Sharpe. + +Red Gos-H.-- + <i>A. radiatus</i>, Lath. + +Sparrow-H.-- + <i>Accipiter cirrhocephalus</i>, Vieill. + +Striped Brown-H.-- + <i>Hieracidea berigora</i>, V. and H. [See <i>Berigora</i>.] + +Swamp-H. [See <i>Harrier</i>.] + +White Gos-H.-- + <i>Astur novae-hollandiae</i>, Gm. + +See also <i>Nankeen-Hawk</i>, and <i>Night-Hawk</i>. + +In New Zealand, the varieties appear in the quotation, +1889. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 206: + [A complete description.] + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 117: + +"Of the three species recognized, two, the quail-hawk (<i>Harpa +Novae Zealandiae</i>) and the bush-hawk (<i>H. ferox</i>) [or +sparrow-hawk], belong to a genus peculiar to New Zealand." +[The third is the New Zealand harrier, <i>Circus Gouldi</i>, +also found in Australia.] + +<hw>Hazel</hw>, <i>n.</i> name applied in Victoria to the tree +<i>Pomaderris apetala</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. Rhamnaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden. `Useful Native Plants,' p. 590: + +"Called `hazel' in `Victoria. A tall shrub, or small tree. +The wood is excellent, of a beautiful satiny texture, and +adapted for carvers' and turners' work. [Grows in] all the +colonies except Western Australia and Queensland." + +<hw>Head</hw>, <i>n.</i> the rammer for crushing quartz in +gold-mining. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p.7: + +"Forty additional heads will be shortly added to the crushing +power, bringing the battery up to sixty heads." + +<hw>Head-Station</hw>, <i>n.</i> the principal buildings, +including the owner's or manager's house, the hut, store, etc., +of a sheep or cattle run. + +1885. Mrs. Campbell Praed [Title]: + +"The Head Station." + +<hw>Heart-Pea</hw>, <i>n.</i> i.q. <i>Balloon-Vine</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Heartsease</hw>, <i>n.</i> i.q. <i>Brooklime</i>, (q.v.). + +<hw>Heartseed</hw>, <i>n.</i> i.q. <i>Balloon-Vine</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Heartwood</hw>. <i>n.</i> See <i>Ironwood</i>. + +<hw>Heath</hw>, <i>n.</i> In Tasmania, where the Epacris is of +very beautiful colour, this name is popularly used for +<i>Epacris impressa</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. See +<i>Epacris</i>. + +<hw>Hedgehog-Fruit</hw>, <i>n.</i> Popular name applied to the +fruit of <i>Echinocarpus australis</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. The tree is also called <i>Maiden's +Blush</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Hedge-Laurel</hw>, <i>n.</i> a name given to the tree +<i>Mapau</i> (q.v.), an evergreen shrub of New Zealand, of the +genus <i>Pittosporum</i> (q.v.). It has dark glossy foliage +and handsome flowers, and is planted and cultivated in the form +of tall garden hedges. See also <i>Laurel</i>. + +<hw>Hei-tiki</hw>, <i>n.</i> Maori name for a neck ornament +made of greenstone (q.v.). + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 151: + +"The latter idea [that they are representatives of gods] was +conceived from the hei-tiki being taken off the neck, laid down +. . . and then wept and sung over." + +1889. Dr. Hocken, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 81: + +"Hei means ornament for the neck. Tiki was the creator of man, +and these are the representations of him. By a sort of +license, they are occasionally taken to represent some renowned +ancestor of the possessor; but wooden Tikis, some of immense +size, usually represented the ancestors, and were supposed to +be visited by their spirits. These might be erected in various +parts of a pa, or to mark boundaries, etc. The Maories cling to +them as sacred heirlooms of past generations, and with some +superstitious reverence." + +<hw>Helmet-Orchis</hw>, <i>n.</i> This English name is applied +in Australia to the orchid <i>Pterostylis cucullata</i>, R. Br. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 168: + +"I also found three varieties of a singular green orchis, +of a helmet shape, growing singly, on rather tall slender +footstalks." + +<hw>Hemp, Queensland</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the common +tropical weed <i>Sida rhombifolia</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. Called also <i>Paddy Lucerne</i>, and +in other colonies <i>Native Lucerne</i>, and <i>Jelly Leaf</i>. +It is not endemic in Australia. + +<hw>Hemp-bush, <i>n.</i></hw> the plant <i>Plagianthus +pulchellus</i>, A. Gray, N.O. Halvaceae, native of Australia +and New Zealand. Though not true hemp (<i>cannabis</i>), it +yields a fibre commercially resembling it. + +<hw>He-Oak</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Oak</i> and <i>She-Oak</i>. + +Heron, <i>n.</i> common English bird-name. The species present +in Australia are-- + +Ashy Reef H.-- + <i>Demiegretta asha</i>, Sykes. + +Great-billed H.-- + <i>Ardea sumatrana</i>, Rafll. + +Grey H.-- + <i>A. cinerea</i>, Linn. + +Night H.-- + <i>Nycticorax caledonicus</i>, Lath. + +Reef H.-- + <i>Demiegretta sacra</i>, Gmel. + +White-fronted H.-- + <i>Ardea novae-hollandiae</i>, Lath. + +White-necked H.-- + A. pacifica, Lath. + +The Cranes and the Herons are often popularly confused. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' p. 11: + +"There did I shoot . . . a blue crane--the Australian heron." + +<hw>Herring</hw>, <i>n.</i> Various species of +<i>Clupeidae</i>, to which the European Herring belongs, are +known by this name in Australasia, and the word is also applied +to an entirely different fish, <i>Prototroctes maraena</i>, +Gunth., the <i>Yarra Herring</i>, <i>Freshwater Herring</i>, +<i>Grayling</i> (q.v.), or <i>Cucumber-Mullet</i>, found in the +rivers of Victoria or Tasmania. The <i>Clupeidae</i> are +<i>Clupea sagax</i> (called also <i>Maray</i>, q.v., and +<i>Pilchard</i>), <i>C. sundaica</i>, <i>C. hypselosoma</i> +Bleek., <i>C. novae-hollandiae</i>, Cuv, and Val., +<i>C. vittata</i>, Castln, (called the <i>Smelt</i>, q.v.), and +others. In Western Australia <i>Chatoessus erebi</i>, +Richards., is called the <i>Perth Herring</i>. See also +<i>Picton Herring</i>, <i>Aua</i>, and <i>Sardine</i>. + +<hw>Herring-cale</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in New South Wales +to the fish Olistherops brunneus, Macl., family Labridae, or +Wrasses. + +<hw>Hickory</hw>, <i>n.</i> The name <i>Hickory</i> is +originally American, and is derived from the North-American +Indian; its earliest form was <i>Pohickery</i>. The tree +belongs to the genus <i>Carya</i>. The wood is excellent for +gig-shafts, carriage-poles, fishing-rods, etc. The name is +applied in Australia to various trees whose wood is suitable +for similar purposes. In Tasmania, the name <i>Hickory</i> is +given to <i>Eriostemon squameus</i>, Labill., +<i>N.O. Rutacea</i>. <i>Native Hickory</i>, or Hickory-Acacia, +is <i>Acacia leprosa</i>, Sieb., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, and +in the southern part of New South Wales, <i>Acacia +melanoxylon</i>. (Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 358.) + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. v. p. 35: + +"The beautiful umbrageous blackwood, or native hickory, one of +the handsomest trees in Australia." + +<hw>Hickory-Eucalypt</hw>, <i>n.</i> one of the names for the +tree <i>Eucalyptus punctata</i>, DeC., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. +Called also <i>Leather-jacket</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Hickory-Wattle</hw>, <i>n.</i> a Queensland name for +<i>Acacia aulacocarpa</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; +called <i>Hickory</i> about Brisbane. + +<hw>Hielaman</hw>, <i>n.</i> a word of Sydney and +neighbourhood. The initial <i>h</i>, now frequently used by +the natives, is not found in the earliest forms. The +termination <i>man</i> is also English. Elimang (Hunter), +e-lee-mong (Collins), hilaman (Ridley). A narrow shield of an +aboriginal, made of bark or wood. Notice Mr. Grant's +remarkable plural (1881 quotation). + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 612: + +"E-lee-mong-shield made of bark." + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 5: + +"As an initial, <i>h</i> occurs in only a few words, +such as hilaman, a `shield.'" + +Ibid. p. 10: + +"As a barbarism, `hillimung-a shield.'" + +[A barbarism means with Mr. Threlkeld little more than "not +belonging to the Hunter district."] + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior + of Eastern Australia,' vol. ii. p. 349: + +"There is much originality in the shield or hieleman of these +people. It is merely a piece of wood, of little thickness, and +two feet, eight inches long, tapering to each end, cut to an +edge outwards, and having a handle or hole in the middle, +behind the thickest part." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1355), p. 102: + +"The hieleman or shield is a piece of wood, about two and a +half feet long, tapering to the ends, with a bevelled face not +more than four inches wide at the broadest part, behind which +the left hand passing through a hole is perfectly guarded." + +1865. S. Bennett, `Australian Discovery,' p. 251: + +"Hieleman, a shield. Saxon, heilan; English, helm or helmet +(a little shield for the head)." + +[This is a remarkable contribution to philological lore. In no +dictionary is the Saxon "heilan" to be found, and a misprint +may charitably be suspected. There is no doubt that the +<i>h</i> is an English Cockney addition to the aboriginal word. +It would need an ingenious fancy to connect "e-leemong" with +"helm."] + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin, etc.,' p. 26: + +"No faint far hearing of the waddies banging + Of club and heelaman together clanging, + War shouts and universal boomeranging." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 66: + +"Nullah-nullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, +and <i>heelimen</i> or shields lay about in every direction." + +<hw>Hielaman-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> another name for the +<i>Bats-wing Coral</i> (q.v.), <i>Erythrina vespertilio</i>, +Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 426: + +"`Heilaman [sic] tree.' The wood is soft, and used by +the aborigines for making their `heilamans' or shields." + +<hw>Hinau</hw>, <i>n.</i> Maori name for the New Zealand tree, +<i>Elaeocarpus dentatus</i>, Vahl., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' +vol. ii. p. 317: + +"Another export was much talked of. This was the bark of the +hinau, a large forest tree which abounds all over the country +near Cook's Strait. The natives extract from this bark the +black dye for their mats." + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Hinau--a white wood used for turner's work." + +Ibid.: + +"The natives produce the black dye for their flax-work, for +which purpose the bark is first bruised and boiled for a short +time. When cold the flax is put into the mixture . . . it is +then steeped thoroughly for two days in red swamp mud, rich in +peroxide of iron." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 130: + +"Hinau, a small tree about fifty feet high and eighteen inches +thick in stem, with brown bark which yields a permanent +blue-black dye, used for tanning . . . used by Maoris for +colouring mats and baskets. Wood a yellowish brown colour and +close-grained; very durable for fencing and piles." + +<hw>Hoki</hw>, <i>n.</i> a New Zealand fish, <i>Coryphaenoides +novae-zelandiae</i>. <i>Coryphaenoides</i> belongs to the +family <i>Macruridae</i>, which are deep-sea Gadoids. See +<i>Tasmanian Whip-tail</i>. + +<hw>Holly, Native</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given in Australia to +the tree <i>Lomatia ilicifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>, +and in Tasmania to <i>Coprosma hirtella</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. +Rubiaceae</i>; called also <i>Coffee Plant</i>. + +<hw>Holly, Smooth</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to the tree +<i>Hedycarya angustifolia</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Monimiaceae</i>; called also <i>Native Mulberry</i>. + +<hw>Hollyhock-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> name given to <i>Hibiscus +splendens</i>, Fraser, <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. + +<hw>Holy City</hw>, <i>n.</i> a nickname for Adelaide. See +<i>Farinaceous City</i>. + +1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we Saw in Australia,' p. 264: + +". . . including so many churches that we are at a loss to +understand why Adelaide should, in virtue of her supposed +superabundance, be nicknamed by her neighbours the Holy City." + +<hw>Holy-cross Toad</hw>, <i>n.</i> See <i>Catholic Frog</i>. + +<hw>Holy-Dollar</hw>, <i>n.</i> punning name for a dollar out +of which a <i>Dump</i> (q.v.) had been punched. + +1822. `Hobart Town Gazette,' Aug. 10 [Proclamation by Sir +Thomas Brisbane, Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales +and its dependencies, then including Van Diemen's Land] + +"Whereas in the Year of our Lord 1813, it was deemed expedient +to send a Quantity of Spanish Dollars to the Colony. . . . And +whereas His Excellency, the then Governor, thought proper to +direct, that every such Dollar, with a small circular Piece of +Silver, struck out of its Centre, should be current within this +Territory, and every part thereof, for the Sum of Five +Shillings." + +[These were called <i>holy (holey) dollars</i>, or ring +dollars, though the name does not occur in the above +quotation.] + +1857. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 59: + +"We were more particularly struck with the character and +various kinds of currency [in Tasmania in 1833]. Our first +change for a pound consisted of two dumps, two holy dollars, +one Spanish dollar, one French coin, one half-crown, one +shilling, and one sixpence." + +<hw>Honey-Ant</hw>, n. name given to various species of Ants, +in which the body of certain individuals becomes enormously +distended by sweet food with which they are fed by the worker +ants, for whom this store of honey serves as a food supply. +When the side of the distended abdomen is tapped, the ant +passes the `honey' out of its mouth, and it is then eaten. +Three species are known in Australia, <i>Camponotus +inflatus</i>, Lubbock; <i>C. cowlei</i>, Froggatt; and <i>C. +midas</i>, Froggatt. The aboriginal name of the first is +`Yarumpa.' + +1896. W. W. Froggatt, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +pt. ii. p. 386: + +"Our Australian honey ants belong to the genus Camponotus, +members of which are found to all parts of the world, and are +known as `sugar-ants,' from their fondness for all kinds of +sweets." + +<hw>Honey-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. See next word. + +<hw>Honey-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, with a +tongue specially adapted for being formed into a tube for the +absorption of honey from flowers. The name is applied to the +following species-- + +Banded Honey-eater-- + <i>Myzomela pectoralis</i>, Gould. + +Black H.-- + <i>M. nigra</i>, Gould. + +Black-chinned H.-- + <i>Melithreptus gularis</i>, Gould. + +Black-headed H.-- + <i>M. melanocephalus</i>, Gould. + +Blue-faced H.-- + <i>Entomyza cyanotis</i>, Swain. [See Blue-eye.] + +Bridled H.-- + <i>Ptilotis frenata</i>, Ramsay. + +Broadbent H.-- + <i>Stigmatops alboauricularis</i>, Ramsay. + +Brown H.-- + <i>S. ocularis</i>, Gould. + +Brown-backed H.-- + <i>Glyciphila modesta</i>, Gray. + +Brown-headed H.-- + <i>Melithreptus brevirostrus</i>. + +Cockerill H.- + <i>Ptilotis cockerelli</i>, Gould. + +Crescent H.-- + <i>Meliornis australasiana</i>, Shaw. + +Dusky H.-- + <i>Myzomela obscura</i>, Gould. + +Fasciated H.-- + <i>Ptilotis fasciogularis</i>, Gould. + +Fuscous H.-- + <i>P. fusca</i>, Gould. + +Gay H.-- + <i>Melithreptus vinitinatus</i>, Gould. + +Golden-backed H.-- + <i>M. latior</i>, Gould. + +Helmeted H.-- + <i>Ptilotis cassidix</i>, Jard. + +Least H.-- + <i>Stigmatops subocularis</i>, + +Long-billed H.-- + <i>Meliornis longirostris</i>, Gould. + +Moustached H.-- + <i>M. mystacalis</i>, Gould. + +New Holland H.-- + <i>M. novae</i>-hollandiae, Lath. + +Painted H.-- + <i>Entomophila picta</i>, Gould. + +Pied H.-- + <i>Certhionyx leucomelas</i>, Cuv. + +Red-headed Honey-eater-- + <i>Myzomela erythrocephala</i>, Gould. + +Red-throated H.-- + <i>Entomophila rufigularis</i>, + +Rufous-breasted H.-- + <i>E. albigularis</i>, Gould. + +Sanguineous H.-- + <i>Myzomela sanguineolenta</i>, Lath. [See Blood-bird.] + +Singing H.-- + <i>Ptilotis vittata</i>, Cuv. + +Spiny-cheeked H.-- + <i>Acanthochaea rufigularis</i>, Gould. + +Streak-naped H.-- + <i>Ptilotis filigera</i>, Gould. + +Striped H.-- + <i>Plectorhyncha lanceolata</i>, Gould. + +Strong-billed H.-- + <i>Melithreptus validirostris</i>, Gould. [See also Cherry +picker.] + +Tawny-crowned H.-- + <i>Glyciphila fulvifrons</i>, Lewin. + +Varied H.-- + <i>Ptilotis versicolor</i>, Gould. + +Warty-faced H.-- + <i>Meliphaga phrygia</i>, Lath. (Called also the Mock +Regent-bird, q.v.) + +Wattle-cheeked H.-- + <i>Ptilotis cratitia</i>, Gould. + +White-breasted H.-- + <i>Glyciphila fasciata</i>, Gould. + +White-cheeked H.-- + <i>Meliornis sericea</i>, Gould. + +White-eared H.-- + <i>Ptilotis leucotis</i>, Lath. + +White-fronted H.-- + <i>Glyciphila albifrons</i>, Gould. + +White-gaped H.-- + <i>Stomiopora unicolor</i>, Gould. + +White-naped H.-- + <i>Melithreptus lunulatus</i>, Shaw. [See also Golden-Eye.] + +White-plumed H.-- + <i>Ptilotis penicillata</i>, Gould. + +White-quilled H.-- + <i>Entomyza albipennis</i>, Gould. + +White-throated H.-- + <i>Melithreptus albogularis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow H.-- + <i>Ptilotis flavescens</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-eared H.-- + <i>P. lewini</i>, Swains. + +Yellow-faced H.-- + <i>P. chrysops</i>, Lath. + +Yellow-fronted H.-- + <i>P. plumula</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-plumed H.-- + <i>P. ornata</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-spotted H.-- + <i>P. gracilis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-streaked H.-- + <i>P. macleayana</i>, Ramsay. + +Yellow-throated H.-- + <i>P. flavicollis</i>, Vieill. + +Yellow-tinted H.-- + <i>P. flava</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-tufted H.-- + <i>P. auricomis</i>, Lath. + +Gould enumerated the species, nearly fifty years ago, in his +`<i>Birds of</i> Australia' (vol. iv.) as follows:-- + + Plate + +<i>Meliphaga Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Vig. and Horsf, + New Holland Honey-eater ... ... ... ... 23 + +<i>M. longirostris</i>, Gould, Long-billed H. ... 24 + +<i>M. sericea</i>, Gould, White-cheeked H. ... ... 25 + +<i>M. mystacalis</i>, Gould, Moustached H. ... ... 26 + +<i>M. Australasiana</i>, Vig. and Horsf, Tasmanian H. 27 + +<i>Glyciphila fulvifrons</i>, Swains., Fulvous-fronted H. + ... ... 28 + +<i>G. albifrons</i>, Gould, White-fronted H. ... 29 + +<i>G. fasciata</i>, Gould, Fasciated H. ... ... 30 + +<i>G. ocularis</i>, Gould, Brown H. ... ... 31 + +<i>Ptilotis chrysotis</i>, Yellow-eared H.... ... 32 + +<i>P. sonorus</i>, Gould, Singing H. ... ... 33 + +<i>P. versicolor</i>, Gould, Varied H. ... ... 34 + +<i>P. flavigula</i>, Gould, Yellow-throated H. ... 35 + +<i>P. leucotis</i>, White-eared H. ... ... 36 + +<i>P. auricomis</i>, Yellow-tufted H. ... ... 37 + +<i>P. cratilius</i>, Gould, Wattle-cheeked H. ... 38 + +<i>P. ornatus</i>, Gould, Graceful Ptilotis ... 39 + +<i>P. plumulus</i>, Gould, Plumed P. ... ... 40 + +<i>P. flavescens</i>, Gould, Yellow-tinted H. ... 41 + +<i>P. flava</i>, Gould, Yellow H. ... ... 42 + +<i>P. penicillatus</i>, Gould, White-plumed H. ... 43 + +<i>P. fuscus</i>, Gould, Fuscous H. ... ... 44 + +<i>P. chrysops</i>, Yellow-faced H. ... ... 45 + +<i>P. unicolor</i>, Gould, Uniform H. ... ... 46 + +<i>Plectorhyncha lanceolata</i>, Gould, Lanceolate H. 47 + +<i>Zanthomyza Phrygia</i>, Swains., Warty-faced H. .. 48 + +<i>Melicophila picata</i>, Gould, Pied H. ... ... 49 + +<i>Entomophila pitta</i>, Gould, Painted H. ... 50 + +<i>E. albogularis</i>, Gould, White-throated H. ... 51 + +<i>E. rufogularis</i>, Gould, Red-throated H. ... 52 + +<i>Acanthogenys rufogularis</i>, Gould, Spiny-cheeked H. + ... 53 + +<i>Anthochaera inauris</i></i>, Wattled H. ... ... 54 + +<i>A. Carunculata</i>, Wattled H. ... ... 55 + [Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 106.] + +<i>Myzomela sanguinolenta</i>, Sanguineous H. ... 63 + +<i>M. erythrocephala</i>, Gould, Red-headed H. ... 64 + +<i>M. pectoralis</i>, Gould, Banded H. ... ... 65 + +<i>M. nigra</i>, Gould, Black H. ... ... 66 + +<i>M. obscura</i>, Gould, Obscure H. ... ... 67 + +<i>Entomyza cyanotis</i>, Swains., Blue-faced Entomyza 68 + +<i>E. albipennis</i>, Gould, White-pinioned H. ... 69 + +<i>Melithreptus validirostris</i>, Gould, Strong-billed H. + ... ... 70 + +<i>M. gularis</i>, Gould, Black-throated H. ... 71 + +<i>M. lunulatus</i>, Lunulated H. ... ... 72 + +<i>M. brevirostris</i>, Gould, + +<i>M. chloropsis</i>, Gould, Swan River H. ... 73 + +<i>M. albogularis</i>, Gould, White-throated H. + (as well as pl. 51) ... ... 74 + +<i>M. melanocephalus</i>, Gould, Black-headed H. ... 75 + +<i>Myzantha garrula</i>, Vig. and Horsf, Garrulous H. 76 + +<i>M. obscura</i>, Gould, Sombre H. ... ... 77 + +<i>M. lutea</i>, Gould, Luteous H. ... ... 78 + +In the Supplement of 1869 Gould adds-- + + Plate + +<i>Ptilotis cassidix</i>, Jard., Helmeted H. ... 39 + +<i>P. fasciogularis</i>, Gould, Fasciated H. ... 40 + +<i>P. notata</i>, Gould, Yellow-spotted H. ... 41 + +<i>P. filigera</i>, Gould, Streaked H. ... 42 + +<i>P. Cockerelli</i>, Gould, Cockerell's H. ... 43 + +<i>Tropidorhynchus buceroides</i>, Helmeted H. ... 44 + +[Note.--The Brush Wattle-birds, Friar-birds, Spine-bills, +and the Yellow-throated Minah, are known as Honey-eaters, +and the whole series are sometimes called Honey-birds.] + +1897. A. J. Campbell (in `The Australasian,' Jan. 23), +p. 180, col. i: + +"The honey-eaters or meliphagous birds are a peculiar and +striking feature in Australian ornithology. As Gould points +out, they are to the fauna what the eucalypts, banksias, and +melaleucas are to the flora of Australia. They are closely +adapted to feeding on these trees. That great author asks:-- +`What can be more plain than that the brushlike tongue is +especially formed for gathering the honey from the flower-cups +of the eucalypti, or that their diminutive stomachs are +especially formed for this kind of food, and the peculiar +insects which constitute a portion of it?'" + +<hw>Honey-Eucalypt</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Box-tree, Yellow</i>. + +<hw>Honey-flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Lambertia formosa</i>, Smith, +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. iv. +p. 101: + +"They . . . returned . . . dreadfully exhausted, having +existed chiefly by sucking the wild honey-flower and shrubs." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 37: + +"`Honey-flower' or `honeysuckle,' a plant as well known to +small boys about Sydney as to birds and insects. It obtains +its vernacular name on account of the large quantity of a clear +honey-like liquid the flowers contain. After sucking some +quantity the liquid generally produces nausea and headache." + +<hw>Honey-plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to +<i>Richea scoparia</i> Hook., <i>N.O. Epacris</i>. + +<hw>Honeysuckle</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the <i>Banksias</i> +(q.v.); also called <i>Bottle-brush</i> (q.v.). +The species are-- + +Coast Honeysuckle-- + <i>Banksia integrifolia</i>, Linn. + +Common H.-- + <i>B. marginata</i>, Cav. + +Heath H.-- + <i>B. serrata</i>, Linn. + +New Zealand H.-- + <i>Knightia excelsa</i>, R.Br. + +Silvery H.-- + <i>Grevillea striata</i>, R.Br. + +Tasmanian H.-- + <i>Banksia margirata</i>, Cav. /sic. Probably marginata/ + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 125: + +"Some scattered honeysuckles, as they, are called, but which, +being specimens of a ligneous evergreen shrub (<i>Banksia +Australis</i>), my English reader will please not to assimilate +in his mind's eye in any respect with the woodbine." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 84: + +"The honeysuckle (<i>Banksia integrifolia</i>) will greatly +disappoint those who, from its name, expect to see anything +similar to the sweet-scented climbers of English hedges and +gardens--this being a tree attaining to thirty or forty feet in +height, with spiral yellow flowers. The blossoms at the proper +seasons yield a great quantity of honey, which on a dewy +morning may be observed dropping from the flowers." + +1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in Goodman's `Church +in Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 83: + +"In the course of our journey today we passed through a thin +wood of honeysuckle trees, for, I should think, about three +miles. They take their name from the quantity of honey +contained in the yellow cone-shaped flower, which is much +prized and sucked by the natives--the aborigines, I mean." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, 'My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 164: + +"The honeysuckle-tree (<i>Banksia latifolia</i>) is so +unreasonably named . . . so very unlike any sort or species of +the sweet old flower whose name it so unfittingly bears. . . . +The blossoms form cones, which when in full bloom, are much the +size and shape of a large English teazel, and are of a greenish +yellow. . . . The honeysuckle trees grow to about thirty feet +in height." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 10: + +"<i>Banksia</i>, spp., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. The name +`honeysuckle' was applied to this genus by the early settlers, +from the fact that the flowers, when in full bloom, contain, in +a greater or lesser quantity, a sweet, honey-like liquid, which +is secreted in considerable quantities, especially after a dewy +night, and is eagerly sucked out by the aborigines." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 271: + +"It [banksia] is called the `honeysuckle' by the people of +Australia, though it has no resemblance to an English +honeysuckle. Many of the banksias grow into stately trees." + +<hw>Honeywood</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to the tree +<i>Bedfordia salicina</i>, DeC., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>; also +there called <i>Dogwood</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Hoop-Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the tree +<i>Araucaria cunninghami</i> or <i>Moreton-Bay Pine</i>. +See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Hoot</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang term for compensation, payment, +money; characteristic corruption of Maori <i>Utu</i> (q.v.) + +1896. `Truth' (Sydney), Jan. 12: + +"There are several specimens of bush slang transplanted from +the Maori language. `Hoot' is a very frequent synonym for +money or wage. I have heard a shearer at the Pastoralist Union +office in Sydney when he sought to ascertain the scale of +remuneration, enquire of the gilt-edged clerk behind the +barrier, `What's the hoot, mate?' The Maori equivalent for +money is <i>utu</i>, pronounced by the Ngapuhi and other +northern tribes with the last syllable clipped, and the word is +very largely used by the kauri-gum diggers and station hands in +the North Island. The original meaning of <i>utu</i> in Maori +is `revenge.' When the missionaries first settled in New +Zealand, they found that the savage inhabitants had no +conception of any recompense except the grim recompense of +blood. Under Christianizing influences the natives were +induced to forego the blood-revenge for injuries, on receiving +a solatium in goods or land, and so <i>utu</i> came to have the +double meaning of revenge and recompense, and eventually became +recognized as the Maori word for money." + +<hw>Hop-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. "the name for all species of +<i>Dodonaea</i>" (Maiden, p. 417), <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Queensland Flora,' Synopsis, p. 82: + +"The capsules of many <i>Dodonaeas</i> are used for hops, +and thus the shrubs are known as hop-bushes in Queensland." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 621: + +"`Hop-bush,' called `switch-sorrel' in Jamaica, and according +to Dr. Bennett, `apiri' in Tahiti. Found in all the colonies." + +<hw>Hopping-fish</hw>, or <hw>Climbing-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a fish of the north of New South Wales and of Queensland, +P<i>eriophthalmus australis</i>, Castln., family +<i>Gobiidae</i>. Called also <i>Skipper</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 27: + +"On the confines of the northern boundaries of New South Wales +may be seen a very remarkable Goby called the `Hopping-fish.' +The pectoral fins are developed into regular legs, with which +the fish hops or leaps along the mud flats . . . The eyes are +on the top of the head, and very prominent, and moreover they +can be thrust very far out of their sockets, and moved +independently of one another, thus the fish can see long +distances around, and overtake the small crabs in spite of the +long stalks to their optics. It is a tropical form, yet it is +said to be found on the mud-flats of the Richmond River." + +<hw>Hops, Native</hw>, or <hw>Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. In +Australia, the fruit of the <i>Hop-bush</i> (see above), +<i>Dodonaea</i> spp. In Tasmania, <i>Daviesia latifolia</i>, +R.Br., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, and called also there +<i>Bitter-Leaf</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 23: + +"`Native hops,' on account of the capsules bearing some +resemblance to hops, both in appearance and taste. In the +early days of settlement the fruits of these trees were +extensively used, yeast and beer of excellent quality being +prepared from them. They are still so used to a small extent. +<i>D. attenuata</i>, A. Cunn., for instance, was largely used +in the Western District. In times of drought cattle and sheep +eat them." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 7: + +"The wild-hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full + Of wombat-holes, and any slip was death." + +<hw>Horizontal</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian shrub, <i>Anodopetalum +biglandulosum</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. Horizontal +Scrub, peculiar to the island, occurs in the western forests; +it derives its name from the direction of the growth of its +lower stems, and constitutes a tedious obstacle to the progress +of the traveller. + +1888. R. M. Johnston, `Geology of Tasmania' [Introd. p. vii: + +"The Horizontal is a tall shrub or tree. . . . Its peculiar +habit--to which it owes its name and fame--is for the main stem +to assume a horizontal and drooping position after attaining a +considerable height, from which ascend secondary branches which +in turn assume the same horizontal habit. From these spring +tertiary branchlets, all of which interlock, and form . . . +an almost impenetrable mass of vegetation." + +1891. `The Australasian,' April 4: "That stuff as they calls +horizontal, a mess of branches and root." + +<hw>Hornerah</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a throwing-stick; +a dialectic variation of Woomera (q.v.). a nonce-use. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 20: + +"I observed, too, that they used a stick, shaped thus __, + \ +called the hornerah (which assists them in throwing the +spear)." + +<hw>Horn-Ray</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand and Australian +<i>Ray</i>, the fish <i>Rhinobatus banksii</i>, Mull and Heule. +In this genus of Rays the cranial cartilage is produced into a +long rostral process (Guenther): hence the name. + +<hw>Horopito</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +shrub, <i>Drimys axillaris</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Magnoliaceae</i>; +called also <i>Pepper-tree</i> (q.v.). + +1847. G. F. Angas, `Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and +New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 17: + +A delicious fragrance, like that of hyacinth and jessamine +mingled, filled the warm still air with its perfume. It arose +from the petals of a straggling shrub, with bright green +shining leaves resembling those of the nutmeg-tree; and a +profusion of rich and delicate blossoms, looking like waxwork, +and hanging in clusters of trumpet-shaped bells: I observed +every shade of colour amongst them, from pinkish white to the +deepest crimson, and the edges of the petals were irregularly +jagged all round. The natives call this plant horopito." + +Ibid. p. 75: + +"The fuchsia and the <i>horopito</i> were also abundant." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 129: + +"Horopito, pepper-tree, winter's bark. A small slender evergreen +tree, very handsome. Whole plant aromatic and stimulant; used +by the Maoris for various diseases. Wood very ornamental in +cabinet-work." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 1: + +"The Horopito, or pepper-tree of the settlers, is an +ornamental shrub or small tree occurring in woods, on the +margin of which it is sometimes found in great abundance." + +<hw>Horse-Mackerel</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied in +Sydney to the fish <i>Auxis ramsayi</i>, Castln., family +<i>Scombridae</i>. In New Zealand it is <i>Caranx</i> (or +<i>Trachurus) trachurus</i>, Cuv. and Val., which is the same +fish as the Horse-Mackerel of England. This is called +<i>Yellow-tail</i> on the Australian coasts. See <i>Trevally</i>. + +<hw>Horseradish-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to <i>Codonocarpus +cotinifolius</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Phytolaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 164: + +"`Quinine-tree,' `medicine-tree' of the interior. Called also +`horse-radish tree' owing to the taste of the leaves. The bark +contains a peculiar bitter, and no doubt possesses medicinal +properties. The taste is, however, quite distinct from +quinine." + +<hw>Horseshoe-Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in New Zealand to +the fern <i>Marattia fraxinia</i>, Sm., called in Australia the +<i>Potato-Fern</i>. See under <i>Fern</i>. + +<hw>Hot Wind</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian meteorological +phenomenon. See quotations, especially 1879, A. R. Wallace. +The phrase is of course used elsewhere, but its Australian use +is peculiar. The hot wind blows from the North. +Mr. H. C. Russell, the Government Astronomer of New South +Wales, writes--"The hot wind of Australia is a circulation of +wind about the anticyclone in the rear of which, as it moves to +the east, there is a strong force of wind from north to north- +west, which blowing over the heated plains of the interior +gathers up its excessive temperature and carries it to the +southern colonies. They seldom last more than two or three +days in Sydney, and the great heat by which they are remembered +never lasts more than a few hours of one day, and is always a +sign of the end, which is an inrush of southerly wind, the +circulation forming the front of the new incoming anticyclone." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' Vol. II. c. iii. +p. 66: + +"This was the only occasion upon which we felt the hot winds +in the interior." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' Vol. II. +c. vi. p. 243: + +"These squalls generally succeed the hot winds that prevail +at this season in South Australia, coming from the interior." + +Footnote--"During the hot winds we observed the thermometer, +in the direct rays of the sun, to be 135 degrees." + +1846. Ibid. c. xii. p. 403: + +"A hot wind set in; . . . at one time the thermometer at the +public offices [Adelaide] was 158 degrees." + +1849. C. Sturt, `Expedition into Central Australia,' vol. +ii. p. 90: + +"I sought shelter behind a large gum tree, but the blasts of +heat were so terrific that I wondered the very grass did not +take fire. . . . Everything, both animate and inanimate, gave +way before it: the horses stood with their backs to the wind, +and their noses to the ground, without the muscular strength to +raise their heads; the birds were mute, and the leaves of the +trees, under which we were sitting, fell like a snow shower +around us. At noon I took a thermometer, graduated to 127 +degrees, out of my box, and observed that the mercury was up to +125 degrees. Thinking that it had been unduly influenced, I +put it in the fork of a tree close to me, sheltered alike from +the wind and the sun. In this position I went to examine it +about an hour afterwards, when I found that the mercury had +risen to the top of the instrument, and that its further +expansion had burst the bulb. . . . We had reached our +destination, however, before the worst of the hot wind set in." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 25: + +"The immediate cause of the hot winds has given rise to much +speculation. . . . The favourite theory is that they are +generated in the sandy plains of the interior, which becoming +powerfully heated, pour their glowing breath upon the fertile +regions of the south." + +1871. Dingo, `Australian Rhymes,' p. 7: + +"A hot wind swift envelopes me + In dust from foot to head." + +1879. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' (1893) vol. i. p. 39: + +"They are evidently produced by the sinking down to the surface +of that north-westerly current of heated air which . . . is +always passing overhead. The exact causes which bring it down +cannot be determined, though it evidently depends on the +comparative pressure of the atmosphere on the coast and in the +interior. Where from any causes the north-west wind becomes +more extensive and more powerful, or the sea breezes diminish, +the former will displace the latter and produce a hot wind till +an equilibrium is restored. It is the same wind passing +constantly overhead which prevents the condensation of vapour, +and is the cause of the almost uninterrupted sunny skies of the +Australian summer." + +1879. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 40: + +"Scientific men, however, tell us that those hot winds are just +what make Australia so healthy a climate--that they act as +scavengers, and without them the death-rate of the colonies +would be alarmingly great." + +<hw>Hot-windy</hw>,<i> adj</i>. See above. + +1871. Dingo, `Australian Rhymes,' p. 18: + +"A spell that still makes me forget + The dust and the hot-windy weather." + +<hw>Houhere</hw>, or <hw>Hohere</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for +a New Zealand tree, <i>Hoheria populnea</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>; called also <i>Lacebark</i> (q.v.) and +xeRibbonwood (q.v.). + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 130: + +"Houhere, ribbonwood of Dunedin. [The name is now more +general.] An ornamental shrub-tree ten to thirty feet high. +Bark fibrous and used for cordage, and affords a demulcent +drink. Wood splits freely for shingles, but is not durable. +. . . Bark used for making a tapa cloth by the Maoris in olden +times." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 87: + +"In one or other of its varied forms the `houhere' is found in +nearly every district in N.Z. It is everywhere admired for its +handsome foliage, and the beauty of its pure white flowers, +which are produced in vast profusion during the early winter +months. . . . The bark is capable of division into a number of +layers. . . . By settlers all forms are termed `ribbonwood,' +or less frequently `lace-bark'--names which are applied to +other plants; they are also termed `thousand-jacket.'" + +1895. `Longman's Geography Reader for New Zealand,' p. 231: + +"The houhere is a small tree with beautiful white flowers, +and the bark splits up into thin layers which look like delicate +lace; hence the plant is called lace-bark or ribbon-wood by +the colonists." + +<hw>Houi</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for New Zealand tree, +Ribbonwood (q.v.), <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>, kindred to +<i>Hoheria, Plagianthus Betulinus</i>, sometimes called +<i>Howi</i>. In Maori, the verb <i>houwere</i> means to tie, +to bind: the outer bark was used for tying. + +<hw>Hound</hw>, <i>n</i>. (sometimes <hw>Smooth Hound</hw>), +the Old World name for all the sharks of the genus +<i>Mustelus</i> ("the Hell-hound of the Deep"); applied +specially in New South Wales and New Zealand to the species +<i>Mustelus antarcticus</i>, Guenth., also called <i>Gummy</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Hovea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of +shrubs. "After Anthony Pantaleon Hove, a Polish botanist. +A small genus of highly ornamental leguminous shrubs, from +Australia, having blue or purple flowers in axillary clusters, +or very short racemes, alternate simple leaves, and short +turgid pods." (`Century.') + +<hw>Huia</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand bird, +like a starling, <i>Heteralocha acutirostris</i>, Gould, of +limited occurrence, chiefly found in North Island; having beak +straight and short in the male, long and curved in female. The +tail feathers are highly prized for ornament by the Maoris. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 91: + +"The huia is a black bird about as large as a thrush, with long +thin legs and a slender semi-circular beak, which he uses in +seeking in holes of trees for the insects on which he feeds. +In the tail are four long black feathers tipt with white. +These feathers are much valued by the natives as ornaments for +the hair on great occasions. . . . The natives attracted the +birds by imitating the peculiar whistle, from which it takes +the name of huia." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 36: + +"One snow-tipped hui feather graced his hair." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 7: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>Hump, to</hw>, <i>v</i>. to shoulder, carry on the back; +especially, to <i>hump the swag</i>, or <i>bluey</i>, or +<i>drum</i>. See <i>Swag, Bluey, Drum</i>. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 226: + +"He `humped his swag,' in digger's phrase, that is, shouldered +his pack and disappeared in the woods." + +1857. `Geelong Advertiser,' quoted in `Argus,' Oct. 23, +p. 5, col. 3: + +"The despised old chum bought his swag, `humped it,' grumbled +of course." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 93: + +"A hardwood slab-door weighs a goodish deal, as any one may +find out that has to hump it a hundred yards." + +1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian +Life,' p. 224: + +"I `humped my swag'--i.e. tied my worldly possessions, +consisting of a blanket, a pannikin, and an odd pair of boots, +upon my back-and `footed it' for the capital." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 134: + +"But Bill preferred to hump his drum + A-paddin' of the hoof." + +<hw>Hump</hw>, <i>n</i>. a long walk with a swag on one's back. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. 3, p. 46: + +"We get a fair share of exercise without a twenty-mile hump on +Sundays." + +<hw>Humpy</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) a native hut. The aboriginal +word is Oompi; the initial h is a Cockney addition, and the +word has been given an English look, the appearance of the huts +suggesting the English word <i>hump</i>. [The forms +<i>himbing</i> and <i>yamba</i> occur along the East coast of +Australia. Probably it is kindred with <i>koombar</i>, bark, +in Kabi dialect, Mary River, Queensland.] The old convict +settlement in Moreton Bay, now broken up, was called Humpy Bong +(see <i>Bung</i>), sc. <i>Oompi Bong</i>, a dead or deserted +settlement. The aboriginal names for hut may be thus tabulated + +Gunyah ) + . . . New South Wales. +Goondie ) + +Humpy (Oompi) . . . Queensland. + +Mia-mia . . . Victoria and Western Australia. + +Wurley (Oorla) . . . South Australia. + +Whare . . . New Zealand. + + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 228: + +"A `gunyia' or `umpee.'" + +1873. J. Brunton Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 16: + +"Lo, by the `humpy' door, a smockless Venus." + + +(2) Applied to a settler's house, very small and primitive. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 133: + +"To dwell in the familiar old bark `humpy,' so full of happy +memories. The roof was covered with sheets of bark held down +by large wooden riders pegged in the form of a square to one +another." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 57: + +"A lonely hut . . . and a kitchen--a smaller humpey--at the +back." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 247: + +"He's to bed in the humpy." + +1893. Gilbert Parker, `Pierre and his People,' p. 135: + +"Shon McGann was lying on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain +hut,--an Australian would call it a humpey." + +<hw>Hungry Quartz</hw>, <i>n</i>. a miner's term for +unpromising <i>Quartz</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Huon-Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large Tasmanian evergreen tree, +<i>Dacrydium franklinii</i>, Hook, <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. The +timber is prized in cabinet-work, being repellent to insects, +durable, and fairly easy to work; certain pieces are +beautifully marked, and resemble bird's-eye maple. The Huon is +a river in the south of Tasmania, called after a French +officer. See Pine. + +1800. J. J. Labillardiere, `Voyage a la Recherche de la +Perouse,' tom. i., Introd. p. xi: + +"Ces deux flutes recurent des noms analogues au but de +l'entreprise. Celle que montoit le general, Dentrecasteaux, +fut nommee la Recherche, et l'autre, commandee par le major de +vaisseau, Huon Kermadec, recut le nom de l'Esperance. . . . +Bruny Dentrecasteaux [fut le] commandant de l'expedition, [et] +Labillardiere [fut le] naturaliste." + +[Of these gentlemen of France and their voyage the names Bruni +Island, D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Recherche Bay, Port Esperance, +Kermandie [sic] River, Huon Island, Huon River, perpetuate the +memory in Southern Tasmania, and the Kermadec Islands in the +Southern Ocean.] + +1820. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and Descriptive +Delineations of the Island of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 28: + +"On the banks of these newly discovered rivers, and the +harbour, grows the Huon Pine (so called from the river +of that name, where it was first found)." + +1829. `The Tasmanian Almanack,' p. 87: + +"1816. Huon pine and coal discovered at Port Davey and +Macquarie Harbour." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' Vol. ii. p. 23: + +"Huon-pine is by far the most beautiful wood found in the +island." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' (edition 1855) p. 515: + +"Knots of the beautiful Huon pine, finer than bird's-eye maple +for ornamental furniture." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 71: + +"The river was named the Huon, and has since become celebrated +for the production which yields the pretty cabinet-wood known +as Huon pine." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xii. p. 102: + +"The huon-pine is of immense height and girth." + +<hw>Hut</hw>, <i>n</i>. the cottage of a shepherd or a miner. +The word is English but is especially common in Australia, and +does not there connote squalor or meanness. The "Men's Hut" on +a station is the building occupied by the male employees. + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 11, pt. 1, c. 3: + +"At the head station are a three-roomed hut, large kitchen, +wool-shed, etc." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania,' p. 21: + +"If a slab or log hut was required to be erected . . . a +cart-load of wool was pitchforked from the wasting heap, +wherewith to caulk the crevices of the rough-hewn timber +walls." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. vi. p. 42: + +"`The hut,' a substantial and commodious structure, arose in +all its grandeur." + +1890. Id. `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 62: + +"Entering such a hut, as it is uniformly, but in no sense of +contempt, termed--a hut being simply lower in the scale than +a cottage--you will find there nothing to shock the eye or +displease the taste." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 29: + +"Bark and weatherboard huts alternating with imposing hotels +and stores." + +<hw>Hut-keep</hw>, <i>v</i>. to act as hut-keeper. + +1865. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 380 + +"At this, as well as at every other station I have called at, +a woman `hutkeeps,' while the husband is minding the sheep." + +1890. `Melbourne Argus,' June 14th, p. 4, col. 2: + +"`Did you go hut-keeping then?' `Wrong again. Did I go +hut-keeping? Did you ever know a hut-keeper cook for sixty +shearers?'" + +<hw>Hut-keeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotations. + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 285: + +"Old men, unfit for anything but to be hut-keepers who were to +remain at home to prevent robbery, while the other inhabitants +of the hut were at labour." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. II. c. +iii. p. 458 + +"My object was to obtain these heads, which the +. . . hut-keeper instantly gave." + +1853. G. Butler Earp, `What we Did in Australia,' p. 17: + +"The lowest industrial occupation in Australia, viz. a +hut-keeper in the bush . . . a station from which many of +the wealthiest flockmasters in Australia have risen." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' +(1841-1851), p. 21: + +"A bush hut-keeper, who baked our damper, fried our chops." + +<hw>Hyacinth, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian flower, +<i>Thelymitra longifolia</i>, R. and G. Forst., +<i>N.O. Orchideae</i>. + +<hw>Hyaena</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Thylacine</i>, +and <i>Tasmanian Tiger</i>. + +<hw>Hypsiprymnodon</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus of the Australian animal called <i>Musk Kangaroo</i>. +(Grk. hupsiprumnos, with a high stern.) A very small, +rat-like, arboreal kangaroo, about ten inches long. The strong +musky odour from which it takes its vernacular name is +perceptible in both sexes. + +1874. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 73: + + "The third and last subfamily (Hypsiprymnodontidae) of the +Macropodidae is represented solely by the remarkable creature +known, from its strong scent, as the Musk-kangaroo." + + +I + + + + +<hw>Ibis</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are twenty-four species of this +bird distributed over all the warmer parts of the globe. Those +present in Australasia are-- + +Glossy (Black, or Bay) Ibis-- + <i>Ibis falcinellus</i>, Linn. + +Straw-necked I.-- + <i>Geronticus spinnicollis</i>, Jameson. + +White I.-- + <i>Threskiornis strictipennis</i>, Gould. + +Of these the last two are confined to Australia, the first is +cosmopolitan. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 155: + +"All they had for supper and breakfast were a straw-coloured +ibis, a duck and a crow." + +Ibid. p. 300: + +"Crows were feasting on the remains of a black Ibis." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi.: + +"<i>Geronticus spinicollis</i>, straw-necked ibis (pl. 45). +This beautiful ibis has never yet been discovered out of +Australia, over the whole of which immense country it is +probably distributed." + +"<i>Threskiornis strictipennis</i>, white ibis" (pl. 46). + +"<i>Ibis falcinellus</i>, Linn., glossy ibis" (pl. 47). + +1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 4: + +"When the hoarse-voiced jackass mocked us, and the white-winged + ibis flew + Past lagoons and through the rushes, far away into the blue." + +<hw>Ice-Plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for <i>Tetragonia +implexicoma</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Ficoideae</i>, B. Fl. Various +species of <i>Tetragonia</i> are cultivated as <i>Spinach</i> +(q.v.). + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 63: + +"Called `ice-plant' in Tasmania. Baron Mueller suggests that +this plant be cultivated for spinach. [Found in] all the +colonies except Queensland." + +<hw>Identity, Old</hw>, <i>n</i>. phrase denoting a person well +known in a place. a term invented in Dunedin, New Zealand, in +1862, in a popular topical song, by Mr. R. Thatcher, an +improvisator. In the song the "Old Identity," the former +resident of Dunedin, was distinguished from the "New Iniquity," +as the people were termed who came from Australia. + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 197: + +"The old identities were beginning to be alive to the +situation." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Oct.: + +"It is permissible to wonder about the origin of the phrase `an +old identity.' Surely no man, however old, can be an identity? +An entity he is, or a nonentity; an individual, a centenarian, +or an oldest inhabitant; but identity is a condition of +sameness, of being identical with something. One can establish +one's identity with that of some one who is being sought or +sued, but once established it escapes us." + +<hw>Inaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. See <i>Inanga</i>. + +<hw>Inanga</hw> or <hw>Inaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. (the <i>ng</i> +as in the word <i>singer</i>, not as in <i>finger</i>), +a New Zealand fish, <i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, or +<i>Retropinna richardsoni</i>. It is often called the +<i>Whitebait</i> and <i>Minnow</i>, and in Tasmania the +larger variety is called <i>Jolly-tail</i>. The change +from <i>Inanga</i> to <i>Inaka</i> is a dialectal Maori +variation, answering exactly to the change from North +Island Kainga to South Island Kaik (q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. +ii. p. 100: + +"This fish is called hinanga [sic.], and resembles Blackwall +white-bait in size and flavour. Its colour is a pinkish white, +spotted with black." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 3: + +"About the same size as this fish [the cockabully] is the +`inaka' much used for bait. Indeed, it is called the New +Zealand whitebait. A friend from Victoria having used this +bait, I asked him to spell the name of the fish, and he wanted +to make it like the patriarch who `walked with God' +--Enoch-a. The more correct shape of the Maori word is inanga; +but in the South Island `k' often takes the place of that +distinctive Maori letter `ng,' as `kainga' becomes kaik; +ngaio, kaio." + +<hw>Inchman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Bull-dog Ant</i> (q.v.), from its length, which is +sometimes nearly an inch. + +<hw>Indians</hw>, pl. <i>n</i>. early and now obsolete name +for the Aboriginals in Australia and even for the Maoris. + +1769. J. Banks, `Journal,' Oct. 21 (Sir J. D. Hooker +edition), p. 191: + +"We applied to our friends the Indians for a passage +in one of their canoes." + +[These were Maoris.] + +1770. Ibid. April 28: + +"During this time, a few of the Indians who had not followed +the boat remained on the rock opposite the ship, threatening +and menacing with their pikes and swords." + +[These were Australian Aboriginals.] + +1825. Barron Field, `Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales,' +p. 437: + +"Some of the Indians have also seriously applied to be allowed +convict labourers, as the settlers are, although they have not +patience to remain in the huts which our Government has built +for them, till the maize and cabbage that have been planted to +their hands are fit to gather." + +1830. `The Friend of Australia,' p. 244: + +"It is the observation of some writers, that the system pursued +in Australia for educating the children of the Indians is not +attended with success. The black children will never do any +good there, until some other plan is commenced . . ." + +<hw>Indigo, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. all the species of +<i>Swainsonia</i>, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, are called "Native +Indigos." See <i>Indigo-plant</i>. In Tasmania, the Native +Indigo is <i>Indigofera australis</i>, Willd., <i>N.O</i>. +<i>Leguminosae</i>. The plants are also called +<i>Indigo-plant</i> and <i>Darling-pea</i> (q.v.). +<i>Swainsonia</i> belongs to the same N.O. as <i>Indigofera +tinctoria</i>, which furnishes the Indigo of commerce. + +1826. J. Atkinson, `Agriculture and Grazing in New South +Wales,' p. 24: + +"Indigo brushes are not very common; the timber in these is +generally white or blackbutted gum; the ground beneath is +covered with the native indigo, a very beautiful plant, +with a light purple flower." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 140: + +"The `darling-pea' or `indigo-plant' is a dreaded plant from +the great amount of loss it has inflicted on stockowners. Its +effect on sheep is well known; they separate from the flock, +wander about listlessly, and are known to the shepherds as ` +pea-eaters,' or `indigo-eaters.' When once a sheep takes to +eating this plant it seldom or never fattens, and may be said +to be lost to its owner. The late Mr. Charles Thorn, of +Queensland, placed a lamb which had become an `indigo-eater' in +a small paddock, where it refused to eat grass. It, however, +ate the indigo plant greedily, and followed Mr. Thorn all over +the paddock for some indigo he held in his hand." + +<hw>Indented Servants</hw>, <i>n</i>. same as <i>Assigned</i> +(q.v.) Servants. + +1810. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 352: + +"Public Notice. Secretary's Office, Sydney, July 21, 1810. +A ship being daily expected to arrive here from England with +female convicts, whom it is His Excellency the Governor's +intention to distribute among the settlers, as indented +servants. . . ." + +<hw>Ink-plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the "toot," +a New Zealand shrub, <i>Coriaria thymifolia</i>, <i>N.O. +Coriarieae</i>. Called Ink-plant on account of its juice, +which soon turns to black. There is also an European +Ink-plant, <i>Coriaria myrtifolia</i>, so that this is +only a different species. + +<hw>Ironbark</hw>, <i>n</i>. Early settlers gave this name +to several large Eucalypts, from the hardness of their bark, +especially to <i>E. leucoxylon</i>, F. v. M., and +<i>E. resinifera</i>, Smith. In Queensland it is applied to +<i>E. siderophloia</i>, Benth. See also Leguminous Ironbark, +and Lemon-scented Ironbark. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. viii. +p. 263: + +"A species of gum-tree, the bark of which on the trunk is that +of the ironbark of Port Jackson." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 183: + +"It was made out of a piece of bark from a tree called +ironbark (nearly as hard when dry as an English elm-board)." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 45: + +"But this gradually changed to an ironbark (<i>Eucalyptus +resinifera</i>) and cypress-pine forest." + +187. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees', p. 199: + +"The Ironbark-tree (<i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>) is . . . +widely spread over a large part of Australia. . . . A lofty +forest tree of moderate circumference. . . . It is believed to +have been named as above by some of the earliest Australian +settlers on account of the extreme hardness of its bark; but it +might with equal reason have been called ironwood. The wood is +of a deep red colour, very hard, heavy, strong, extremely +rigid, and rather difficult to work . . . used extensively in +shipbuilding and engineering works in Australia; and in this +country (England) it is employed in the mercantile navy for +beams, keelsons, and . . . below the line of flotation." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 77: + +"The ironbark (<i>Eucalyptus sideroxylon</i>) became from its +durability a synonym for toughness." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxvii. p. 248: + +"The corrugated stems of the great ironbark trees stood black +and columnar." + +1893. `The Age,' May 11, p. 7, col. 3, (advt.): + +"Monday, 15th May.--Supply in one or more contracts of not less +than 20 beams of 400 ironbark or box beams for cattle pits, +delivered at any station. Particulars at the office of the +Engineer for Existing Lines." + +With qualifications. <i>Silver-leaved</i>-- + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 65: + +"The silver-leaved ironbark (<i>Eucalyptus pulverulentus</i>) +was here coming into blossom." + +<i>Narrow-leaved</i>-- + +1847. Ibid. p. 154: + +"The narrow-leaved ironbark [grew] on a lighter sandy soil." + +<hw>Iron hand</hw>, a term of Victorian politics. It was a new +Standing Order introducing what has since been called the +Closure, and was first moved in the Victorian Legislative +Assembly on Jan. 27, 1876. + +1876. `Victorian Hansard,' Jan. 20, vol. xxiii. p. 2002: + +"They [the Government] have dealt with the Opposition with +a velvet glove; but the iron hand is beneath, and they shall +feel it." + +1884. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. iii. +p. 406: + +"The <i>cloture</i>, or the `iron hand,' as McCulloch's +resolution was called, was adopted in Victoria, for one +session." + +<hw>Ironheart</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree, +<i>Metrosideros tomentosa</i>, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; native +name, <i>Pohutukawa</i>. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 311: + +"It was the `downy ironheart' + That from the cliffs o'erhanging grew, + And o'er the alcove, every part, + Such beauteous leaves and blossoms threw." + +"<i>Note</i>.--This most lovely tree is common about the +northern coasts and cliffs of the North Island and the banks of +Lake Tarawera." + +<hw>Ironwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is used of many +hard-wooded trees in various parts of the world. The +Australian varieties are-- + +Ironwood (Queensland)-- + <i>Acacia excelsa</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; + <i>Melaleuca genistifolia</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Ironwood (North Queensland)-- + <i>Myrtus gonoclada</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Ironwood (North New South Wales)-- + <i>Olea paniculata</i>, R.Br., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>. + +Ironwood (Tasmania)-- + <i>Notelaea ligustrina</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>. + +Scrub Ironwood-- + <i>Myrtus hillii</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +For <i>Ironwood</i> of New Zealand, see <i>Puriri</i>. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xii. +p. 479: + +"A club of iron-wood, which the cannibals had left in the +boat." + +1823. W. B. Cramp, `Narrative of a Voyage to India,' p. 17: + +". . . they have a short club made of iron wood, called a +waday, and a scimeter made of the same wood." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 579: + +"`Ironwood' and `Heartwood' of Tasmania; `Spurious Olive,' +`White Plum' of Gippsland. An exceedingly hard, close-grained +wood, used for mallets, sheaves of blocks, turnery, etc. The +heartwood yields a very peculiar figure ; it is a very fair +substitute for lignum-vitae." + +<hw>Irriakura</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal name for the tubers +of <i>Cyperus rotundus</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>, +adopted by white men in Central Australia. + +1896. E. C. Stirling, `Home Expedition in Central +Australia,' Anthropology, p. 60: + +"<i>Cyperus rotundus</i>. In almost every camp we saw large +quantities of the tunicated tubes of this plant, which are +generally called `Erriakura' or `Irriakura' by the Arunta +natives. . . Even raw they are pleasant to the taste, having +an agreeable nutty flavour, which is much improved by the +slight roasting." + +<hw>Ivory-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, +<i>Siphonodon australe</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Celastrinae</i>. + +<hw>Ivy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a child's name for the ivy-leaf +geraniums, especially the double pink-flowered one called +Madame Kruse. In Australia the warm climate makes these all +evergreens, and they are trained over fences and walls, +sometimes to the height of twenty or thirty feet, supplanting +the English ivy in this use, and covered with masses of +flowers. + +<hw>Ivy, Native</hw>, an Australian plant, <i>Muehlenbeckia +adpressa</i>, Meissn., <i>N.O. Polygonaceae</i>; called also +<i>Macquarie Harbour Vine</i>, or <i>Grape</i>. The name is +widely applied also to the acclimatised Cape Ivy, or German +Ivy (<i>Senecio scandens</i>). + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 46: + +"`Native Ivy,' Macquarie Harbour Vine or Grape of Tasmania. +The currant-like fruits are sub-acid, and were, and perhaps +still are, used for tarts, puddings, and preserves; the leaves +taste like sorrel." + +<hw>Ivy, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian creeper, +<i>Platylobium triangulare</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Ivy-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. New Zealand tree, genus +<i>Panax</i>, <i>N.O. Araliacae</i>; Maori name, +<i>Horoeka</i>. It is also called <i>Lancewood</i> (q.v.). + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New' Zealand,' p. 127: + +"Horoeka, ivy-tree. an ornamental, slender, and +sparingly-branched tree. Wood close-grained and tough." + + + +J + + + + +<hw>Jabiru</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word comes from Brazil, and was +first given there to the large stork <i>Mycteria (Xenorhynchus) +Americana</i>. The Australian species is <i>M. australis</i>, +Lath. It has the back and neck dark grey, changing on the neck +to scarlet. There is a black-necked stork in Australia +(<i>Xenorhynchus asiaticus</i>), which is also called the +<i>Jabiru</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 194: + +"We saw a Tabiroo [sic] (<i>Mycteria</i>)." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 195: + +"In October, 1858, I succeeded in purchasing a fine living +specimen of the New Holland Jabiru, or Gigantic Crane of the +colonists (<i>Mycteria Australis</i>)" + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 323: + +"The splendid Australian jabiru (<i>Mycteria Australis</i>), +and I had the good fortune to shoot on the wing a specimen of +this beautiful variety of the stork family." + +<hw>Jacana</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Brazilian word for a bird of the +genus <i>Parra</i> (q.v.). The Australian species is the +Comb-crested Jacana, <i>Parra gallinacea</i>, Temm. It is also +called the <i>Lotus-bird</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Jack in a Box</hw>, i.q. <i>Hair-trigger</i> (q.v.). + +1854. `The Home Companion,' p. 554: + +"When previously mentioning the elegant <i>Stylidium +graminifolium</i> (grass-leaved Jack-in-a-box), which may be +easily known by its numerous grassy-like radical leaves, and +pretty pink flowers, on a long naked stem, we omitted to +mention a peculiarity in it, which is said to afford much +amusement to the aborigines, who are, generally speaking, fond +of, and have a name for, many of the plants common in their own +territories. The stigma lies at the apex of a long column, +surrounded and concealed by the anthers. This column is +exceedingly irritable, and hangs down on one side of the +flower, until it is touched, when it suddenly springs up and +shifts to the opposite side of the blossom or calyx." + +1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 26: + +"<i>Stylidium</i> (native Jack in a box). This genus is +remarkable for the singular elasticity of the column stylis, +which support the anthers, and which being irritable, will +spring up if pricked with a pin, or other little substance, +below the joint, before the pollen, a small powder, is shed, +throwing itself suddenly over, like a reflex arm, to the +opposite side of the flower. Hence the colonial designation of +Jack in a box." + +<hw>Jack the Painter</hw>, <i>n</i>. very strong bush-tea, so +called from the mark it leaves round the drinker's mouth. + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 163: + +"Another notorious ration tea of the bush is called Jack the +Painter--a very green tea indeed, its viridity evidently +produced by a discreet use of the copper drying-pans in its +manufacture." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 418: + +"The billy wins, and `Jack the Painter' tea + Steams on the hob, from aught like fragrance free." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 113 + +"Special huts had to be provided for them [the sundowners], +where they enjoyed eleemosynary rations of mutton, damper, +and `Jack the Painter.'" + +<hw>Jackaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name for a Colonial Experience +(q.v.), a young man fresh from England, learning squatting; +called in New Zealand a Cadet (q.v.). Compare the American +"tenderfoot." A verse definition runs: + +"To do all sorts and kinds of jobs, + Help all the men Jacks, Bills or Bobs, + As well as he is able. + To be neither boss, overseer, nor man, + But a little of all as well as he can, + And eat at the master's table." + +The word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitation +of the word Kangaroo) of the words "Johnny Raw." Mr. Meston, +in the `Sydney Bulletin,' April 18, 1896, says it comes from +the old Brisbane blacks, who called the pied crow shrike +(<i>Strepera graculina</i>) "tchaceroo," a gabbling and +garrulous bird. They called the German missionaries of 1838 +"jackeroo," a gabbler, because they were always talking. +Afterwards they applied it to all white men. + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 19: + +"Jackaroos--the name given to young gentlemen newly arrived +from home to gather colonial experiences." + +1881. A. C. Grant `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. +p. 53: + +"The young jackaroo woke early next morning." + +[Footnote]: "The name by which young men who go to the +Australian colonies to pick up colonial experience are +designated." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 85: + +"Of course before starting on their own account to work a +station they go into the bush to gain colonial experience, +during which process they are known in the colony as +`jackaroos.'" + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 74: + +"We went most of the way by rail and coach, and then a +jackaroo met us with a fine pair of horses in a waggonette. +I expected to see a first cousin to a kangaroo, when the +coachdriver told us, instead of a young gentleman learning +squatting." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost): + +"`Jack-a-roo' is of the same class of slang; but the unlucky +fellow--often gentle and soft-handed--who does the oddwork of a +sheep or cattle station, if he finds time and heart for letters +to any who love him, probably writes his rue with a +difference." + +<hw>Jackaroo</hw>, <i>v</i>. to lead the life of a Jackaroo. + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152: + +"I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another. +They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then +there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in +Queensland." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xix. p. 239: + +"A year or two more Jackerooing would only mean the consumption +of so many more figs of negro-head, in my case." + +<hw>Jackass-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. another Sydney name for the +<i>Morwong</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Jackass, Laughing</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The popular name of +an Australian bird, <i>Dacelo gigas</i>, Bodd, the Great Brown +Kingfisher of Australia; see <i>Dacelo</i>. To an Australian +who has heard the ludicrous note of the bird and seen its +comical, half-stupid appearance, the origin of the name seems +obvious. It utters a prolonged rollicking laugh, often +preceded by an introductory stave resembling the opening +passage of a donkey's bray. + +But the name has been erroneously derived from the French +<i>jacasse</i>, as to which Littre gives "<i>terme populaire. +Femme, fille qui parle beaucoup</i>." He adds, that the word +<i>jacasse</i> appears to come from <i>jacquot</i>, a name +popularly given to parrots and magpies, our "Poll." The verb +<i>jacasser</i> means to chatter, said of a magpie. The +quotation from Collins (1798) seems to dispose of this +suggested French origin, by proving the early use of the name +<i>Laughing Jackass</i>. As a matter of fact, the French name +had already in 1776 been assigned to the bird, viz. <i>Grand +Martin-pecheur de la Nouvelle Guinee</i>. [See Pierre +Sonnerat, <i>`Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee</i>' (Paris, 1776), +p. 171.] The only possibility of French origin would be from +the sailors of La Perouse. But La Perouse arrived in Botany +Bay on January 26, 1788, and found Captain Phillip's ships +leaving for Sydney Cove. The intercourse between them was very +slight. The French formed a most unfavourable idea of the +country, and sailed away on March 10. If from their short +intercourse, the English had accepted the word <i>Jackass</i>, +would not mention of the fact have been made by Governor +Phillip, or Surgeon White, who mention the bird but by a +different name (see quotations 1789, 1790), or by Captain +Watkin Tench, or Judge Advocate Collins, who both mention the +incident of the French ships? + +The epithet "laughing" is now often omitted; the bird is +generally called only a <i>Jackass</i>, and this is becoming +contracted into the simple abbreviation of Jack. A common +popular name for it is the <i>Settlers'-Clock</i>. (See +quotations--1827, Cunningham; 1846, Haydon; and 1847, +Leichhardt.) The aboriginal name of the bird is +<i>Kookaburra</i> (q.v.), and by this name it is generally +called in Sydney; another spelling is <i>Gogobera</i>. + +There is another bird called a <i>Laughing Jackass</i> in New +Zealand which is not a Kingfisher, but an <i>Owl, Sceloglaux +albifacies</i>, Kaup. (Maori name, <i>Whekau</i>). The New +Zealand bird is rare, the Australian bird very common. The +so-called <i>Derwent Jackass</i> of Tasmania is a <i>Shrike +(Cracticus cinereus</i>, Gould), and is more properly called +the <i>Grey Butcher-bird</i>. See <i>Butcher-bird</i>. + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' p. 287: + +Description given with picture, but under name "Great Brown +Kingsfisher" [sic]. + +Ibid. p. 156: + +Similar bird, with description and picture, under name "Sacred +King's Fisher." + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 137: + +"We not long after discovered the Great Brown King's Fisher, +of which a plate is annexed. This bird has been described by +Mr. Latham in his `General Synopsis of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 603. + +Ibid. p. 193: + +"We this day shot the Sacred King's-Fisher (see plate annexed)." + +1798. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South Wales,' +p. 615, (Vocabulary): + +"Gi-gan-ne-gine. Bird named by us the Laughing Jackass. +Go-con-de--inland name for it." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 232: + +"The loud and discordant noise of the laughing jackass (or +settler's-clock, as he is called), as he takes up his roost on +the withered bough of one of our tallest trees, acquaints us +that the sun has just dipped behind the hills." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 204: + +"The settlers call this bird the Laughing Jackass. I have also +heard it called the Hawkesbury-Clock (clocks being at the +period of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there not +being one perhaps in the whole Hawkesbury settlement), for it +is among the first of the feathered tribes which announce the +approach of day." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' +p. 71: + +"The laughing jackass, or settler's-clock is an uncouth looking +creature of an ashen brown colour . . . This bird is the +first to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus it +has received its other name, the settler's clock." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 234: + +"I usually rise when I hear the merry laugh of the laughing- +jackass (<i>Dacelo gigantea</i>), which, from its regularity, +has not been unaptly named the settlers'-clock." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 18: + +"<i>Dacelo Gigantea</i>, Leach, Great Brown King Fisher; +Laughing Jackass of the Colonists." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58: + +"You are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks of +geese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of the +laughing jackass (<i>Dacelo gigantea</i>) a species of jay." + +[Howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azure +iridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colour +like the blue feathers on the jay.] + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vi. p. 145: + +"The odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes from +the `Laughing Jackass.'" + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18: + +"At daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as if +the infernal regions had been broken loose--this was the song of +another feathered innocent, the laughing jackass--not half a bad +sort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes, +and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water." + +1880. T. W. Nutt, `Palace of Industry,' p. 15: + +"Where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve." + +[Footnote] "The familiar laughing jackass." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 13: + +"Dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynic +of the woods, as A. P. Martin calls the laughing jackass, +seemed to mock us for our pains." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 37: + +"The harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jackass." + +1881. D. Blair, `Cyclopaedia of Australasia,' p. 202: + +"The name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the French word +Jacasser, `to chatter,' and the correct form is the `Laughing +Jacasse.'" + +[No. See above.] + +1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76: + +"Magpies chatter, and the jackass + Laughs Good-morrow like a Bacchus." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' [telling an +old story] p. 155: + +"The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had +attracted his attention. `Your grace, we call that the +laughing jackass in this country, but I don't know the +botanical [sic] name of the bird." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 27: + +"Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as this +curious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy and +unattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jackass, +it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. It +boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is +consequently the friend of the colonist." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265: + +"`There's a jackass--a real laughing jackass on that dead +branch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know--' +and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of +a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical +tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule': + +"[Close season.] Great Kingfisher or Laughing Jackass. +The whole year. all Kingfishers other than the Laughing Jackass. +From the 1st day of August to the 20th day of December next +following in each year." + +(2) The next quotations refer to the New Zealand bird. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 122: + +"<i>Athene Albifacies</i>, wekau of the Maoris, is known by +some up-country settlers as the big owl or <i>laughing +jackass</i>." + +"The cry of the laughing jackass . . . Why it should share +with one of our petrels and the great <i>Dacelo</i> of +Australia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not; +if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable +outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been +able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the +unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198: + +"<i>Sceloglaux albifacies</i>, Kaup., Laughing Owl; Laughing +Jackass of the Colonists." + +[The following quotation refers to the <i>Derwent Jackass</i>.] + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 110: + +"You have heard of . . . the laughing jackass. We, too, have +a `jackass,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable, +except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when several +pipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of very +talkative people all chattering against time, and all at once." + + +<hw>Jack-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of the South Island of New +Zealand, <i>Creadion cinereus</i>, Buller. See also +<i>Saddle-back</i> and <i>Creadion</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 23: + +"It has become the habit to speak of this bird as the Brown +Saddle-back; but this is a misnomer, inasmuch as the absence of +the `saddle' is its distinguishing feature. I have accordingly +adopted the name of Jack-bird, by which it is known among the +settlers in the South Island. Why it should be so called I +cannot say, unless this is an adaptation of the native name +<i>Tieke</i>, the same word being the equivalent, in the Maori +vernacular, of our Jack." + +<hw>Jack Shay</hw>, or Jackshea, <i>n</i>. a tin quart-pot. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 209: + +"Hobbles and Jack Shays hang from the saddle dees." + +[Footnote]: "A tin quart-pot, used for boiling water for tea, +and contrived so as to hold within it a tin pint-pot." + +1890. `The Argus,' June14, p. 4, col. 1: + +"Some of his clothes, with his saddle, serve for a pillow; his +ration bags are beside his head, and his jackshea (quart-pot) +stands by the fire." + +<hw>Jacky Winter</hw>, <i>n</i>. the vernacular name in New +South Wales of the Brown Flycatcher, <i>Microeca fascinans</i>, +a common little bird about Sydney. The name has been ascribed +to the fact that it is a resident species, very common, and +that it sings all through the winter, when nearly every other +species is silent. See Flycatcher. + +<hw>Jade</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Greenstone</i>. + +<hw>Jarrah</hw>, <i>n</i>. anglicised form of <i>Jerryhl</i>, +the native name of a certain species of Eucalyptus, which grows +in the south of Western Australia, east and south-east of +Perth. In Sir George Grey's Glossary (1840), Djar-rail; +Mr. G. F. Moore's (1884), Djarryl. (<i>Eucalyptus +marginata</i>, Donn.) The name <i>Bastard-Jarrah</i> is given +to <i>E. botryoides</i>, Smith, which bears many other names. +It is the <i>Blue-Gum</i> of New South Wales coast-districts, +the <i>Bastard-Mahogany</i> of Gippsland and New South Wales, +and also <i>Swamp Mahogany</i> in Victoria and New South Wales, +and occasionally <i>Woolly-Butt</i>. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' +vol. ii. p. 102: + +"It may be that after all the hopes of the West-Australian +Micawbers will be realised in jarrah-wood." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 189: + +"The Jarrah or Mahogany-tree is also found in Western +Australia. The wood is red in colour, hard, heavy, close in +texture, slightly wavy in the grain, and with occasionally +enough figure to give it value for ornamental purposes; it +works up quite smoothly and takes a good polish." + +188. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia, vol. i. p. 77: + +"The jarrah of Western Australia (<i>Eucalyptus marginata</i>) +has a peculiar reputation for its power to defy decay when +submerged and exposed to the attacks of the dreaded teredo, and +has been largely exported to India." + +1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 163 + +". . . the awful butchery . . . of the Maribyrnong Plate. The +walls were colonial ramparts--logs of <i>jarrah</i> spiked into +masonry--with wings as strong as Church buttresses." + +[Jarrah is not a Victorian, but a West-Australian timber, and +imported logs are not used by the V.R.C., but white or red gum. +For making "jumps," no logs are "spiked into masonry," and the +Maribyrnong Plate is not a "jump-race."] + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 415: + +"Mr. W. H. Knight, twenty years ago, gave evidence as to the +value of the jarrah. . . . It is found that piles driven down +in the Swan River were, after being exposed to the action of +wind, water, and weather for forty years, as sound and firm as +when put into the water. . . . It completely resists the +attacks of the white ants, where stringy-bark, blue-gum, +white-gum, and black-wood are eaten through, or rendered +useless, in from six to twelve years." + +1896. `The Times' (weekly edition), Dec. 4, p. 822, col. 1: + +"The jarrah, <i>Eucalyptus marginata</i>, stands pre-eminent as +the leading timber tree of the Western Australian forests. For +constructive work necessitating contact with soil and water +jarrahwood has no native equal. A jarrah forest is dull, +sombre, and uninteresting to the eye. In first-class forests +the trees attain a height of from 90 ft. to 120 ft., with good +stems 3 ft. to 5 ft. in diameter. The tree is practically +confined to the south-western division of the colony, where the +heaviest rains of the season fall. As a rule, jarrah is found +either intermixed with the karri tree or in close proximity to +it." + +<hw>Jasmine, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian plant, +<i>Ricinocarpus pinifolius</i>, Desf., +<i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 286: + +"Native Jasmine. This plant yields abundance of seeds, +like small castor oil seeds. They yield an oil." + +<hw>Jelly-leaf</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Queensland Hemp</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Jelly-plant</hw>, a sea-weed, <i>Eucheuma speciosum</i>, +J. Agardh, <i>N.O. Algae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 28: + +"Jelly-plant of Western Australia. This is a remarkable +sea-weed of a very gelatinous character [used by] the people of +Western Australia for making jelly, blanc-mange, etc. Size and +cement can also be made from it. It is cast ashore from deep +water." + +<hw>Jemmy Donnelly</hw>, <i>n</i>. a ridiculous name given to +three trees, <i>Euroschinus falcatus</i>, Hook, +<i>N.O. Anacardiaceae</i>; <i>Myrsine variabilis</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Myrsinaceae</i>; and <i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>, Sm., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. They are large timber trees, highly +valued in Queensland. + +<hw>Jerrawicke</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete name for Colonial beer. + +1857. J. Askew, `A Voyage to Australia and New Zealand,' +p. 272: + +"There were always a number of natives roaming about. There +might be about 150 in all, of the Newcastle tribe. They were +more wretched and filthy, and if possible, uglier than those of +Adelaide. . . . All the earnings of the tribe were spent in +tobacco and jerrawicke (colonist-made ale)." + +1857. Ibid. p. 273: + +"A more hideous looking spectacle can hardly be imagined than +that presented by these savages around the blazing fire, +carousing among jerrawicke and the offal of slaughtered +animals.'" + +<hw>Jew-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied in New South Wales +to two or more different species, <i>Sciaena antarctica</i>, +Castln., and <i>Glaucosoma hebraicum</i>, Richards. <i>Sciaena +antarctica</i>, Castln., is the King-fish of the Melbourne +market. <i>Sciaena</i> is called Dew-fish in Brisbane. It +belongs to the family <i>Sciaenidae</i>. The Australian +species is distinct from <i>S. aquila</i>, the European +"Maigre" or "Meagre," but closely resembles it. +<i>Glaucosoma</i> belongs to the <i>Percidae</i>. The Silver +Jew-fish of New South Wales is thought to be the same as the +<i>Teraglin</i> (q.v.), <i>Otolithus atelodus</i>, Guenth., +also of the family <i>Sciaeidae</i>. Tenison Woods (in `Fish +and Fisheries of New South Wales,' 1882, p. 34) says the +Jew-fish of New South Wales is sometimes <i>Glaucosoma +scapulare</i>, Ramsay; and <i>Glaucosoma hebraicum</i>, +Richards., is the Jew-fish of Western Australia (a marine +fish). Fishes on the American coasts, different from these, +are there called <i>Jew-fishes</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 40: + +"The water-holes abounded with jew-fish and eels." + +<hw>Jew-Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large Australian lizard, +<i>Amiphibolurus barbatus</i>, Cuv.; called also <i>Bearded +Lizard</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 89: + +"A small <i>Chlamydophorus</i> (Jew-lizard of the Hunter) was +also seen." [The Hunter is a river of New South Wales.] + +1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Natural History of +Victoria,' Decade xiii. pl. 121: + +"This is commonly called the Jew Lizard by colonists, and is +easily distinguished by the beard-like growth of long slender +spires round the throat . . . when irritated, it inflates the +body to a considerably increased size, and hisses like a snake +exciting alarm; but rarely biting." + +1893. `The Argus,' July 22, p. 4, col. 5: + +"The great Jew-lizards that lay and laughed horribly to +themselves in the pungent dust on the untrodden floors." + +<hw>Jil-crow-a-berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Anglicised +pronunciation and spelling of the aboriginal name for the +indigenous <i>Rat-tail Grass</i>, <i>Sporobolus indicus</i>, +R. Br. + +<hw>Jimmy</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete name for an immigrant, a +word which was jocularly changed into Jimmy Grant. The word +`immigrant' is as familiar in Australia as `emigrant' in +England. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 211: + +"`What are these men that we are going to see?' `Why one,' +said Lee, is a young Jimmy--I beg your pardon, sir, an +emigrant, the other two are old prisoners.'" + +1867. `Cassell's Magazine,' p. 440: + +"`I never wanted to leave England,' I have heard an old +Vandemonian observe boastfully. `I wasn't like one of these +`Jemmy Grants' (cant term for `emigrants'); I could always earn +a good living; it was the Government as took and sent me out." + +[The writers probably used the word <i>immigrant</i>, which, +not being familiar to the English compositor, was misprinted +<i>emigrant</i>. The "old Vandemonian" must certainly have +said <i>immigrant</i>.] + +<hw>Jimmy Low</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the many names of a +Timber-tree, <i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>, Smith, +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 208: + +"The `Red,' or `Forest Mahogany,' of the neighbourhood of +Sydney. These are bad names, as the wood bears no real +resemblance to the true mahogany. Because the product of this +tree first brought Australian kino into medical notice, it is +often in old books called `Botany Bay Gum-tree.' Other names +for it are Red gum, Grey gum, Hickory, and it perpetuates the +memory of an individual by being called `Jimmy Low.'" + +<hw>Jingle</hw>, <i>n</i>. a two-wheeled vehicle, like an Irish +car, once common in Melbourne, still used in Brisbane and some +other towns: so called from the rattle made by it when in +motion. The word is not Australian, as is generally supposed; +the `Century' gives "a covered two-wheeled car used in the +south of Ireland." + +1862. Clara Aspinall, `Three Years in Melbourne,' p. 122: + +"An omnibus may be chartered at much less cost (gentlemen who +have lived in India <i>will</i> persist in calling this vehicle +a <i>jingle</i>, which perhaps sounds better); it is a kind of +dos-a-dos conveyance, holding three in front and three behind: +it has a waterproof top to it supported by four iron rods, and +oilskin curtains to draw all round as a protection from the +rain and dust." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' +p. 44: + +"During my stay in Melbourne I took a jingle, or car, and drove +to St. Kilda." + +1865. Lady Barker, writing from Melbourne, `Station Life in +New Zealand,' p. 12: + +"A vehicle which was quite new to me--a sort of light car with a +canopy and curtains, holding four, two on each seat, dos-a-dos, +and called a jingle--of American parentage, I fancy. One drive +in this carriage was quite enough, however." + +1869. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher,' p. 14: + +"Some folks prefer to travel + Over stones and rocks and gravel; + And smile at dust and jolting fit to dislocate each bone. + To see 'em driving in a jingle, + It would make your senses tingle, + For you couldn't put a sixpence 'twixt the wheel and the + kerb-stone." + +1887. Cassell's 'Picturesque Australasia,' vol. i. p. 64: + +"In former days the Melbourne cab was a kind of Irish car, +popularly known as a jingle. . . . The jingle has been ousted +by the one-horse waggonette." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. 30: + +"The Premier hailed a passing jingle." + +[This was in Brisbane.] + +<hw>Jinkers</hw>, <i>n</i>. a contrivance much used in the bush +for moving heavy logs and trunks of trees. It consists of two +pairs of wheels, with their axle-trees joined by a long beam, +under which the trunks are suspended by chains. Its structure +is varied in town for moving wooden houses. Called in England +a "whim." + +1894. `The Argus,' July 7, p. 8, col. 4: + +"A rather novel spectacle was to be seen to-day on the Ballan +road in the shape of a five-roomed cottage on jinkers. . . . +Mr. Scottney, carrier of Fitzroy, on whose jinkers the removal +is being made . . ." + +Jirrand, <i>adj</i>. an aboriginal word in the dialect of +Botany Bay, signifying "afraid." Ridley, in his vocabulary, +spells it jerron, and there are other spellings. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. +ii. p. 59: + +"The native word <i>jirrand</i> (afraid) has become in some +measure an adopted child, and may probably puzzle our future +Johnsons with its <i>unde derivatur</i>." + +1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 316: + +"When I saw the mob there was I didn't see so much to be jerran +about, as it was fifty to one in favour of any one that was +wanted." + +<hw>Jo-Jo</hw>, <i>n</i>. name used by Melbourne larrikins for +a man with a good deal of hair on his face. So called from a +hairy-faced Russian "<i>dog man</i>" exhibited in Melbourne +about 1880, who was advertised by that name. + +<hw>Job's</hw> Tears. The seeds of <i>Coix lachryma</i>, which +are used for necklace-making by the native tribes on the Cape +York peninsula, are there called <i>Job's tears</i>. + +<hw>Joe, Joe-Joe, Joey</hw>, interjection, then a <i>verb</i>, +now obsolete. Explained in quotations. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 400: + +"The well-known cry of `Joe! Joe!'--a cry which means one of +the myrmidons of Charley Joe, as they familiarly style Mr. +[Charles Joseph] La Trobe,--a cry which on all the diggings +resounds on all sides on the appearance of any of the hated +officials." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 135: + +"The cry of `Joey' would rise everywhere against them." + +[Footnote]: "To `Joey' or `Joe' a person on the diggings, or +anywhere else in Australia, is to grossly insult and ridicule +him." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' +p. 165: + +"In the early days of the Australian diggings `Joe' was the +warning word shouted out when the police or gold commissioners +were seen approaching, but is now the chaff for new chums." + +1865. F. H. Nixon, `Peter Perfume,' p. 58: + +"And Joe joed them out, Tom toed them out." + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 5, p. 13, col. 4: + +"`The diggers,' he says, `were up in arms against the +Government officials, and whenever a policeman or any other +Government servant was seen they raised the cry of "Joe-Joe."' +The term was familiar to every man in the fifties. In the +earliest days of the diggings proclamations were issued on +diverse subjects, but mostly in the direction of curtailing the +privileges of the miners. These were signed, `C. Joseph La +Trobe,' and became known by the irreverent--not to say flippant +--description of `Joes.' By an easy transition, the corruption +of the second name of the Governor was applied to his officers, +between whom and the spirited diggers no love was lost, and +accordingly the appearance of a policeman on a lead was +signalled to every tent and hole by the cry of `Joe-Joe.'" + +<hw>Joey</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A young kangaroo. + +1839. W. H. Leigh, `Reconnoitring Voyages in South Australia' +pp. 93-4: + +"Here [in Kangaroo Island] is also the wallaba . . . The +young of the animal is called by the islanders a joe." + +1861. T. McCombie, I`Australian Sketches,' p. 172: + +"The young kangaroos are termed joeys. The female carries the +latter in her pouch, but when hard pressed by dogs, and likely +to be sacrificed, she throws them down, which usually distracts +the attention of the pack and affords the mother sufficient +time to escape." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 10: + +"Sometimes when the flying doe throws her `joey' from her +pouch the dogs turn upon the little one." + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 29: + +"At length the actual fact of the Kangaroo's birth, which is +much as that of other mammals, was carefully observed at the +London Zoo, and the budding fiction joined the myths that were. +It was there proved that the little `joey' is brought into the +world in the usual way, and forthwith conveyed to the +comfortable receptacle and affixed to the teat by the dam, +which held the lifeless-looking little thing tenderly in her +cloven lips." + +(2) Also slang used for a baby or little child, or even a young +animal, such as a little guinea-pig. Compare "kid." + +(3) A hewer of wood and drawer of water. + +1845. J. A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings,' p. 15: + +"He was a `joey,' which, in truth, + Means nothing more than that youth + Who claims a kangaroo descent + Is by that nomenclature meant." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 198: + +"I'm not going to be wood-and-water Joey, I can tell ye." + +<hw>John Dory</hw>, or <hw>Dorey</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. This +name is applied in New South Wales and Tasmania to <i>Cyttus +(Zeus) australis</i>, Richards., family <i>Cyttidae</i>, which +is nearly the same as <i>Zeus faber</i>, the "John Dory" of +Europe. Others call <i>C. australis</i> the <i>Bastard +Dorey</i> (q.v.), and it is also called the <i>Boar-fish</i> +(q.v.) and <i>Dollar-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 451: + +"`John Dorys' are found in the Mediterranean, on the eastern +temperate shores of the Atlantic, on the coasts of Japan and +Australia. Six species are known, all of which are highly +esteemed for the table. The English name given to one of the +European species (<i>Zeus Faber</i>) seems to be partly a +corruption of the Gascon `Jau,' which signifies cock, `Dory' +being derived from the French <i>Doree</i>, so that the entire +name means Gilt-cock. Indeed, in some other localities of +southern Europe it bears the name of <i>Gallo</i>. The same +species occurs also on the coasts of South Australia and New +Zealand." + +<hw>Johnny</hw>-cake. <i>n</i>. The name is of American +origin, originally given by the negroes to a cake made of +Indian corn (maize). In Australia it is a cake baked on the +ashes or cooked in a frying-pan. (See quotations.) The name +is used in the United States for a slightly different cake, +viz. made with Indian meal and toasted before a fire. + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' p. 154: + +"The dough-cakes fried in fat, called `Johnny-cakes.'" + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 20: + +"Johnny-cakes, though they are smaller and very thin, and made +in a similar way [sc. to dampers: see <i>Damper</i>]; when +eaten hot they are excellent, but if allowed to get cold they +become leathery." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance of Australia,' p. 3: + +"Johnny-cakes are made with nothing but flour, but there is a +great art in mixing them. If it is done properly they are +about the lightest and nicest sort of bread that can be made; +but the efforts of an amateur generally result in a wet heavy +pulp that sticks round one's teeth like bird-lime." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 13, col. 1: + +"Here I, a new chum, could, with flour and water and a pinch +of baking-powder, make a sweet and wholesome johnny cake." + +1892. Mrs. Russell, `Too Easily Jealous,' p. 273 : + +"Bread was not, and existed only in the shape of johnny-cakes +--flat scones of flour and water, baked in the hot ashes." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 10, p. 4, col. 6: + +"It is also useful to make your damper or `Johnny-cake,' which +serves you in place of yeast bread. A Johnny-cake is made +thus:--Put a couple of handfuls of flour into your dish, with a +good pinch of salt and baking soda. Add water till it works to +a stiff paste. Divide it into three parts and flatten out into +cakes about half an inch thick. Dust a little flour into your +frying-pan and put the cake in. Cook it slowly over the fire, +taking care it does not burn, and tossing it over again and +again. When nearly done stand it against a stick in front of +the fire, and let it finish baking while you cook the other +two. These, with a piece of wallaby and a billy of tea, are a +sweet meal enough after a hard day's work." + +<hw>Jolly-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the larger +variety of the fish <i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, Jenyns, and +other species of <i>Galaxias</i> called <i>Inanga</i> (q.v.) in +New Zealand. <i>Galaxias weedoni</i> is called the <i>Mersey +Jolly-tail</i>, and <i>Galaxias atkinsoni</i>, the <i>Pieman +Jolly-tail</i>. Pieman and Mersey are two Tasmanian rivers. +See <i>Mountain-Trout</i>. + +<hw>July</hw>, <i>n</i>. a winter month in Australia. See +<i>Christmas</i>. + +1888. Mrs. M'Cann, `Poetical Works,' p. 235: + +"Scarce has July with frigid visage flown." + +<hw>Jumbuck</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal pigeon-English for +sheep. Often used in the bush. The origin of this word was +long unknown. It is thus explained by Mr. Meston, in the +`Sydney Bulletin,' April 18, 1896: "The word `jumbuck' for +sheep appears originally as <i>jimba, jombock, dombock</i>, and +<i>dumbog</i>. In each case it meant the white mist preceding +a shower, to which a flock of sheep bore a strong resemblance. +It seemed the only thing the aboriginal mind could compare it +to." + +1845. C. Griffith, `Present State and Prospects of the Port +Phillip District of New South Wales,' p. 162: + +"The following is a specimen of such eloquence: `You +pilmillally jumbuck plenty sulky me, plenty boom, borack +gammon,' which being interpreted means, `If you shoot my sheep +I shall be very angry, and will shoot you and no mistake.'" + +1855. W. Ridley, `Transactions of Philological Society,' +p. 77: + +"When they adopt English words ending in mutes, the blacks drop +the mute or add a vowel: thus, <i>jimbugg</i>, a slang name for +sheep, they sound <i>jimbu</i>." [It was not English slang but +an aboriginal word.] + +1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 1: + +"Mister Charlie, jumbuck go along of grass, blood all there, +big dog catch him there, big jumbuck, m'me word, neck torn." + +1896. `The Australasian,' June 6, p. 1085, col. 1: + +"Jumbuck (a sheep) has been in use from the earliest days, +but its origin is not known." + +<hw>Jump</hw>, to, <i>v</i>. to take possession of a claim +(mining) on land, on the ground that a former possessor has +abandoned it, or has not fulfilled the conditions of the grant. +The word is also used in the United States, but it is very +common in Australia. Instead of "you have taken my seat," you +have <i>jumped</i> it. So even with a pew. a man in England, +to whom was said, "you have jumped my pew," would look +astonished, as did that other who was informed, "Excuse me, +sir, but you are occupewing my py." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 31: + +". . . on condition that he occupies it within twenty-four +hours: should this rule not be observed, the right of the +original holder is lost, and it may be occupied (or `jumped' +as it is termed) by any other person as a deserted claim." + +1861. `Victorian Hansard,' vol. vii. p. 942 (May 21): + +"<i>Mr. Wood</i>: Some of the evils spoken of seemed indeed +only to exist in the imagination of the hon. and learned +gentleman, as, for instance, that of `jumping,' for which a +remedy was already given by the 77th section of the present +Act. + +"<i>Mr. Ireland</i>: Yes; after the claim is `jumped.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 37: + +"If such work were not commenced within three days, any other +miners might summarily take possession of or jump the claim." + +ibid. p. 52: + +"Let us have the melancholy satisfaction of seeing Gus's pegs, +and noting whether they are all <i>en regle</i>. If not, we'll +`jump' him." + +Ibid. p. 76: + +"In default of such advertisement, for the general benefit, +they were liable, according to custom and practice, to have +their claim `jumped,' or taken forcible possession of by any +party of miners who could prove that they were concealing the +golden reality." + +1875. `Melbourne Spectator,' August 21, p. 189, col. 3: + +"Jumping selections . . . is said to be very common now in +the Winmera district." + +<hw>Jumpable</hw>, <i>adj</i>. open to another to take. See +<i>Jump</i>. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, Melbourne Memories,' c. xvi. p. 114: + +"The heifer station was what would be called in mining +parlance `an abandoned claim' and possibly `jumpable.'" + +Jumper, <i>n</i>. one who <i>jumps</i> a claim. See +<i>Jump</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xii. p. 127: + +"Come along, my noble jumper, you've served your injunction." + +<hw>Jumping-mouse</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hapalote</i>. + +<hw>June</hw>, <i>n</i>. a winter month in Australia. See +<i>Christmas</i>. + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 132: + +"Twenty white-haired Junes have left us + Grey with frost and bleak with gale." + +<hw>Jungle-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a mound-building +bird, <i>Megapodius tumulus</i>, Gould. See also +<i>Megapode</i>. The Indian Jungle-fowl is a different bird. + +1890. Carl Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 97: + +"But what especially gives life and character to these woods +are the jungle-hens (mound-builders) . . . The bird is of a +brownish hue, with yellow legs and immensely large feet; hence +its name <i>Megapodius</i>." + +<hw>Juniper, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Currant</i> +(q.v.). + + + +K + + +<hw>Kahawai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the fish <i>Arripis +salar</i>, Richards.; called in Australia and New Zealand +<i>Salmon</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Kahikatea</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +tree, <i>Podocarpus dacrydioides</i>, A. Rich., +<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. Also called <i>White-Pine</i>. +See <i>Pine</i>. The settlers' pronunciation is often +<i>Kackatea</i>. There is a Maori word Kahika, meaning +ancient. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor. `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 439: + +"White-pine, <i>Podocarpus dacrydioides</i>--Kahikatea, kahika, +korol. This tree is generally called the white-pine, from the +colour of its wood. The kahikatea may be considered as nearly +the loftiest tree in the New Zealand forest; it often attains a +height of little less than two hundred feet, and in that +respect rivals the noble kauri, but the general appearance is +not very pleasing." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Trees,' p. 304: + +"The kahikatea or kakaterra-tree (<i>Dacrydium excelsum</i> or +<i>taxifolium</i>). This majestic and noble-looking tree +belongs to the natural order of <i>Taxaceae</i>, more commonly +known by the name of Joint Firs. Height 150 to 180 feet, +rising sixty feet and upward without a branch." + +1876: W. Blair, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. ix. art. 10, p. 160: + +"This timber is known in all the provinces, except Otago, by +the native name of `kahikatea'. I think we should adopt it +also, not only on account of being more euphonious, but for +the reason that so many timbers in other parts of the world +are called white-pine." + +1873. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' +vol. iii. G. 7, p. 11: + +"On the purchased land stands, or lately stood, a small +kahikatea bush. . . . The wood appears to have been of no +great money value, but the natives living in Tareha's pa +depended upon it for their supply of fire-wood." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 124: + +[It is Sir James Hector who assigns the tree to +<i>Coniferae</i>, not <i>Taxaceae</i>.] + +1888. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. p. 210: + +"The White Pine or kahikatea is a very beautiful tree, and +droops its dark feathery foliage in a way which recalls the +graceful branches of the English elm-tree." + +<hw>Kahikatoa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for /a/ New Zealand +shrub, but no longer used by the settlers. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 126: + +"Kahikatoa, <i>tea-tree</i> of Cook. <i>Leptospermum +scoparium</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>." + +<hw>Kahikomako</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name [shortened into +<i>kaikomako</i>] for a New Zealand timber, <i>Pennantia +corymbosa</i>, <i>N.O. Olacineae</i>; called also +<i>Ribbonwood</i> (q.v.). + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 130: + +"Kahikomako, a small, very graceful tree, with white +sweet-smelling flowers; height twenty to thirty feet. +Wood used by the Maoris for kindling fires by friction." + +<hw>Kai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for <i>food</i>; used also +in the South Sea islands. <i>Kai-kai</i> is an English +adaptation for feasting. + +1807. J. Savage, `Some Account of New Zealand,' Vocab. +p. 75: + +"Kiki . . . food." [The <i>i</i> has the English not the +Italian sound.] + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 157: + +"Kai, <i>s</i>. victuals, support, etc.; <i>a</i>. eatable." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 29: + +"He explained to us that every one would cry very much, and +then there would be very much kai-kai or feasting." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 95: + +"Kai, the general word for food, is not used at Rotorua, +because it was the name of a great chief, and the word tami +has been substituted for it." + +1895. Louis Becke and J. D. Fitzgerald, `The Maori in +Politics,' `Review of Reviews,' June 20, p. 621: + +"We saw some thirty men and women coming towards us, singing +in chorus and keeping step to the music. In their hands they +carried small baskets woven of raupo reeds, containing kai, +or food. This was the `kai' dance." + +<hw>Kainga</hw>, and <hw>Kaika</hw>, <i>n</i>. now generally +<i>kaik</i>, and pronounced <i>kike</i>, a Maori settlement, +village. <i>Kainga</i> is used in the North, and is the +original form; <i>Kaika</i> is the South Island use. It is the +village for dwelling; the <i>pa</i> is for fighting in. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 157: + +"Kainga. A place of residence, a home," etc. + +1873. Lt.-Colonel St. John, `Pakeha Rambles through Maori +Lands,' p. 164 [Heading of Chapter x.]: + +"How we live in our kainga." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, p. 50, col. 5: + +"A cosy-looking kainga located on the bank of a picturesque +bend of the river." + +Ibid. p. 52, col. 1: + +"We steamed on slowly towards Tawhitinui, a small kainga +or kaik, as it is called in the South island." + +1884. `Maoriland,' p. 84: + +"The drive may be continued from Portobello to the Maori kaik." + +<hw>Kaio</hw>, <i>n</i>. popular corruption in the South Island +of New Zealand of <i>Ngaio</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Kaitaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for the best kind of +native mat. + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 157: + +"Requiring from three to four months' close sitting to complete +one of their kaitakas--the finest sort of mat which they +make. This garment has a very silky appearance." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 244: + +"Pukaro ended by flinging over my shoulders a very handsome +kaitaka mat, which he had been wearing while he spoke." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 205: + +"Highly prized and beautiful kaitaka mats." + +<hw>Kaiwhiria</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for New Zealand tree, +<i>Hedycarya dentata</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Monimiaceae</i>. +Porokaiwhiri is the fuller name of the tree. + +1883. /J./ Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 129 + +"Kaiwhiria, a small evergreen tree, twenty to thirty feet high; +the wood is finely marked and suitable for veneering." + +<hw>Kaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for a parrot. The word +is imitative of a parrot's cry. It is now always used to +denote the <i>Brown Parrot</i> of New Zealand, <i>Nestor +meridionalis</i>, Gmel. + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 54: + +"Kaka--a bird of the parrot kind; much larger than any other +New Zealand parrot." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 259: + +"The kaka, a large russet parrot, of excellent flavour, and +very abundant in many places." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 40: + +"The bright red feathers from under the wing of the kaka or +large parrot." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' [Notes] p. 79: + +"The kaka is a kind of parrot of a reddish grey colour, +and is easily tamed when taken young." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 93: + +"The hoarse croak of the ka-ka, as it alighted almost at our +feet, and prepared, quite careless of our vicinity, to tear up +the loose soil at the root of a tall tree, in search of grubs." + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' (Supplement): + +"<i>Nestor hypopolius</i>, ka-ka parrot." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 38: + +"I heard mocking kakas wail and cry above thy corse." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 150: + +"<i>Nestor meridionalis</i>, kaka parrot." + +Ibid. p. 158: + +"Sprightly in its actions, eminently social, and more noisy +than any other inhabitant of the woods, the kaka holds a +prominent place among our native birds." + +<hw> Kaka-bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand plant, the +<i>Clianthus</i> (q.v.), so called from the supposed +resemblance of the flower to the bill of the <i>Kaka</i> +(q.v.). Called also <i>Parrot-bill</i>, <i>Glory-Pea</i>, and +<i>Kowhai</i> (q.v.). + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in New Zealand,' [Hobart Town]. +p. 196: + +"Kowai ngutukaka [parrot-bill kowai]; the most elegant +flowering shrub of the country." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 24, `Native Trees': + +"A plantation of a shrub which is in great demand in England +and on the Continent, and is greatly neglected here--the +<i>Clianthus puniceus</i>, or scarlet glory pea of New Zealand, +locally known as kaka beak." + +<hw>Kakapo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the Night-parrot, +<i>Stringops habroptilus</i>, Gray. Called also +<i>Owl-parrot</i>. See <i>Kaka</i>. The syllable <i>po</i> +is Maori for <i>night</i>. Compare <i>Katipo</i> (q.v.). + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement): + +"<i>Strigops habroptilus</i>, G. R. Gray, Kakapo, native name." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 149: + +"<i>Stringops</i>, owl-parrot--ground-parrot of the colonists." + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 117: + +"Although possessing large wings, it is flightless, its +breast-muscles being so small as to be practically useless. +Its habits are nocturnal, and it has a ring of feathers +arranged round the eye, giving it a curious resemblance to +an owl, whence the name owl-parrot is often applied to it." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 445: + +"Another remarkable bird is the owl parrot (<i>Stringops +habroptilus</i>) of a greenish colour, and with a circle of +feathers round the eye as in the owl. It is nocturnal in its +habits, lives in holes in the ground under tree-roots or +rocks." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' June 11, p. 53: + +"The Kakapo is one of our most unique birds." + +<hw>Kakariki</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a green Parrakeet. +There are two species, <i>Platycercus novae zelandiae</i>, +Sparrm., and <i>P. auriceps</i>, Kuhl. See <i>Parrakeet</i>. +The word <i>kakariki</i> means literally little parrot, +<i>kaka</i> (q.v.) and <i>iki</i> (little), the <i>r</i> is +intrusive. It is applied also to a green lizard. In Maori it +becomes later an adjective, meaning `green.' + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 404: + +"The Kakariki . . . (<i>platycercus novae zeal</i>.) is a +pretty light green parrot with a band of red or yellow over the +upper beak and under the throat. This elegant little bird is +about the size of a small thrush." + +1894. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxvii. +p. 95 [Note]: + +"The name <i>Kakarika</i> (indicative of colour) is applied +alike to the green lizard and to the green Parrakeet of our +woods." + +<hw>Kamin</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word, explained in +quotation. It is probably local. + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 89: + +"If he [the Australian black] has to climb a high tree, he +first goes into the scrub to fetch a piece of the Australian +calamus (<i>Calamus australis</i>), which he partly bites, +partly breaks off; he first bites on one side and breaks it +down, then on the other side and breaks it upwards--one, two, +three, and this tough whip is severed. At one end of it he +makes a knot, the other he leaves it as it is. This implement, +which is usually from sixteen to eighteen feet long, is called +a kamin." + +<hw>Kanae</hw>, <i>n</i>. (trisyll.) Maori name for a fish +of New Zealand, the Silver-Mullet, <i>Mugil perusii</i> or +<i>argenteus</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(C.M.S.), p. 158: + +"Kanae, s. The mullet fish." + +1888. Order in Council, New Zealand, Jan. 10, `Regulations +under the Fisheries Conservation Act': + +"The months of December, January, and February in each year +are here prescribed a close season for the fish of the species +of the mugil known as mullet or kanae." + +<hw>Kanaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a labourer from the +South Sea Islands, working in Queensland sugar-plantations. +The word is Hawaiian (Sandwich Islands). The kindred words are +given in the following extract from + +Fornander's Polynesian Race' (1885), vol. iii. p. 154: + +"<i>Kanaka</i>, <i>s</i>. Hawaiian, man, human, mankind, a +common man in distinction from chiefs. Samoan, New Zealand +[sc. Maori], Tongan, <i>tangata</i>, man. Tahitian, +<i>taata</i>, man." + +In the original word the accent is on the first syllable, which +accent Mr. Rudyard Kipling preserves (see quotation, 1893), +though he has changed the word in his reprint of the poem in + `The Seven Seas'; but the usual pronunciation in Australia is +to accent the second syllable. + +1794. J. J. Jarves, `History of Hawaiian Islands,' printed at +Honolulu (1872), p. 82: + +"[On 21st Feb. 1794.] A salute was then fired, and the natives +shouted, `Kanaka no Beritane'--we are men of Britain." + +1852. A. Miller, `Narrative of United States Exploring +Expedition,' c. ii. p. 142: + +"On Monday (Nov. 16, 1840) our gentlemen formed themselves into +two parties, and started on horseback for their journey. One +party consisted of Messrs. Reade, Rich, and Wall, with eight +kanakas and two guides." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. viii. +p. 133: + +"Queensland at present is supplying itself with labour from +the South Sea Islands, and the men employed are called +Polynesians, or canakers, or islanders." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia, p. 162: + +"The word `kanaka' is really a Maori word, signifying a man, +but in Australia it has come to be applied exclusively to the +inhabitants of the South Sea Islands." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 9: + +"The kanaka reverences women and adores children. He is loyal +in heart, affectionate of disposition, and domestic in his +habits." + +1888. H. S. Cooper, `The Islands of the Pacific,' p. 5: + +"The kanakas, who at present populate Hawaii, are, as a rule, +well made and intelligent. That there is a cross of the Malay +and Indian blood in them few can doubt." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 64: + +"Natives of the South Sea Islands, who in Australia are called +kanakas--a capable and intelligent race, especially to this +kind of work [on plantations], for they are strong, and endure +the tropical heat far better than the whites." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 298: + +"Thus, it is maintained by the planters, the kanaka, necessary +as he is to the conditions of North Queensland, opens up +avenues of skilled labour for the European, and makes +population and commerce possible where otherwise there would +be complete stagnation." + +2892. `The Times,' Dec. 28: + +"The principal open-air labour of the sugar plantations is +furnished by kanakas, who are the native inhabitants of certain +groups of South Sea Islands not at present under the protection +of any European flag." + +1893. R. L. Stevenson, `Island Night's Entertainments,' +p. 41: + +"What we want is a man-of-war--a German, if we could--they know +how to manage kanakas." + +1893. Rudyard Kipling, `Banjo Song': + +"We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets, + We've starved on a kanaka's pay." + +1893. C. H. Pearson, `National Life and Character,' p.32: + +"In Australasia . . . the Maori, the Kanaka, and the Papuan +are dying out. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that +certain weak races--even when, like the kanaka, they possess +some very high qualities--seem to wither away at mere contact +with the European. . . . The kanakas (among whom we may include +the Maories)." + +<hw>Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) an aboriginal word. +See <i>Marsupial</i>. + +(a) The Origin of the Name. The name was first obtained in +1770, while H.M.S. <i>Endeavour</i> lay beached at the +Endeavour River, where Cooktown, Queensland, now is. The name +first appears in print in 1773, in the book brought out by the +relatives of Mr. Parkinson, who was draughtsman to Banks the +naturalist, and who had died on the voyage. The object of this +book was to anticipate the official account of Cook's Voyage by +Hawkesworth, which appeared later in the same year. It is now +known that Hawkesworth's book was like a rope twisted of four +strands, viz. Cook's journal, the diaries of the two +naturalists, Banks and Solander, and <i>quartum quid</i>, the +Johnsonian pomposity of Dr. Hawkesworth. Cook's journal was +published in 1893, edited by Captain Wharton, hydrographer to +the Admiralty; Banks's journal, in 1896, edited by Sir J. D. +Hooker. Solander's journal has never been printed. + +When Englishmen next came to Australia in 1788, it was found +that the word <i>Kangaroo</i> was not known to the natives +round Port Jackson, distant 1500 miles to the South of +Cooktown. In fact, it was thought by them to be an English +word. (See quotation, Tench, 1789.) It is a question whether +the word has belonged to any aboriginal vocabulary since. +"Capt. Philip P. King, the explorer, who visited that locality +[sc. Endeavour River] forty-nine years after Cook, relates in +his `Narrative of the Survey of the Intertropical and Western +Coasts of Australia,' that he found the word kangaroo unknown +to the tribe he met there, though in other particulars the +vocabulary he compiled agrees very well with Captain Cook's." +(Curr's `Australian Race,' vol. i. p. 27.) In the fourth +volume of Curr's book a conspectus is given of the words used +in different parts of Australia for various objects. In the +list of names for this animal there are a few that are not far +from <i>Kangaroo</i>, but some inquirers suspect the accuracy +of the list, or fancy that the natives obtained the words +sounding like <i>Kangaroo</i> from English. It may be assumed +that the word is not now in use as an aboriginal word. Has it, +then, disappeared? or was it an original mistake on the part of +Banks or Cook ? + +The theory of a mistake has obtained widely. It has figured in +print, and finds a place in at least one dictionary. Several +correspondents have written that the word <i>Kangaroo</i> meant +"I don't understand," and that Banks mistook this for a name. +This is quite possible, but at least some proof is needed, as +for instance the actual words in the aboriginal language that +could be twisted into this meaning. To find these words, and +to hear their true sound, would test how near the explanation +hits the mark. Banks was a very careful observer, and he +specially notes the precautions he took to avoid any mistake in +accepting native words. Moreover, according to Surgeon +Anderson, the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land described the +animal by the name of <i>Kangaroo</i>. (See quotation, 1787.) + +On the other hand, it must be remembered that it is an +ascertained fact that the aborigines taboo a word on the death +of any one bearing that word as a proper name. (See quotation +under <i>Nobbler</i>, 1880.) If, therefore, after Cook's visit, +some man called <i>Kangaroo</i> died, the whole tribe would +expunge <i>Kangaroo</i> from its vocabulary. There is, +however, some evidence that the word was much later in use +in Western Australia. (See quotation, 1835.) + +It is now asserted that the word is in use again at the very +part of Queensland where the <i>Endeavour</i> was beached. +Lumholtz, in his `Amongst Cannibals' (p. 311), gives it in his +aboriginal vocabulary. Mr. De Vis, of the Brisbane Museum, in +his paper before the Geographical Society at Brisbane (1894), +says that "in point of fact the word `kangaroo' is the normal +equivalent for kangaroo at the Endeavour River; and not only +so, it is almost the type-form of a group of variations in use +over a large part of Australia." It is curiously hard to +procure satisfactory evidence as to the fact. Mr. De Vis says +that his first statement was "made on the authority of a +private correspondent; "but another correspondent writes from +Cooktown, that the blacks there have taken <i>Kangaroo</i> from +English. Inquiries inserted in each of the Cooktown newspapers +have produced no result. Mr. De Vis' second argument as to the +type-form seems much stronger. A spoken language, unwritten, +unprinted, must inevitably change, and change rapidly. A word +current in 1770 would change rather than disappear, and the +root consonants would remain. The letters <i>ng</i> together, +followed by <i>r</i>, occur in the proportion of one in +thirteen, of the names for the animal tabulated by Curr. + +It is a difficult matter on which to speak decidedly, but +probably no great mistake was made, and the word received was +a genuine name of the animal. + +See further the quotations, 1896. + +(b) The Plural of the Word. + +There seems to be considerable doubt as to the plural of the +word, whether it should take <i>s</i> like most English words, +or remain unchanged like <i>sheep, deer</i>. In two +consecutive pages of one book the two plurals are used. The +general use is the plural in <i>s</i>. See 1793 Hunter, 1845 +Balfour, and 1880 Senior; sportsmen frequently use the form +<i>Kangaroo</i>. + +[Since 1888 a kangaroo has been the design on the one-shilling +postage stamp of New South Wales.] + +1815. `History of New South Wales,' (1818) PP. 460-461: + +"Throughout the general course of the journey, kangaroos, emus, +ducks, etc. were seen in numbers." "Mr. Evans saw the +kangaroo in immense flocks." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 49: + +"The kangaroos are too subtle and shy for us to get near." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 125: + +"In the afternoon we saw some kangaroos and wallaby, but did +not succeed in killing any." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 23: + +"Though kangaroo were plentiful, they were not overwhelming to +number." + +(c) Kangaroo in French. + +1777. Buffon, `Supplement a l'Histoire Naturelle,' tom. iv. +`Table des Matieres': + +"Kanguros, espece de grosse Gerboise qui se trouve dans les +terres australes de la Nouvelle Hollande." + +1800. J. J. Labillardiere, `Voyage a la recherche de La +Perouse,' tom. i. p. 134: [Under date April 24, 1792.] + +"Un de nos chasseurs trouva un jeune kangourou sur les bords de +la mer." + +1880. H. de Charency, `Recherches sur les Dialectes +Tasmaniens,' p. 21: + +"Kangourou. Ce mot semble d'origine non Australienne, comme on +l'a soutenu, mais bien Tasmanienne." + +1882. Littre, `Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise' (s.v.): + +"Kanguroo ou kangarou. On ecrit aussi kangarou et kangourou." + +1882. A. Daudet, `Jack,' p. 131: + +Il regardait les kangaroos dresses sur leurs pattes, si +longues qu'elles ont l'agilite et l'elan d'une paire d'ailes." + +1890. Oscar Comettant [Title]: + +"Au Pays des Kangourous." + +(d) Kangaroo in German--<i>Kaenguruh</i>: + +1892. R. V. Lendenfeld, `Australische Reise,' p. 46: + +"Die Kaenguruh hoben in dem Augenblick, als sie das Geheul +hoerten, die Koepfe hoch and witterten, blickten and loosten +in alle Richtungen." + +Notice that both in French and German the <i>u</i> sound of the +middle syllable is preserved and not changed as in English to +<i>a</i>. + +(e) The species. + +The name <i>Kangaroo</i> is applied to the following larger +species of the genus <i>Macropus</i>, the remaining species +being called <i>Wallabies</i>-- + +Antilopine Kangaroo-- + <i>Macropus antilopinus</i>, Gould. + +Great Grey K., or Forester-- + <i>M. giganteus</i>, Zimm. + +Great Red K.-- + <i>M. rufus</i>, Desm. + +Isabelline K.-- + <i>M. isabellinus</i>, Gould. + +Owen's K.-- + <i>M. magnus</i>, Owen. + +Wallaroo, or Euro-- + <i>M. robustus</i>, Gould. + +The name <i>Kangaroo</i> is also applied to certain other +species of Marsupials belonging to the genus <i>Macropus</i>, +but with a qualifying adjective, such as <i>Dorca</i>-, +<i>Tree</i>-, <i>Rat</i>-, <i>Musk</i>-, etc.; and it is +applied to species of the genera <i>Dorcopsis</i>, +<i>Dendrolagus, Bettongia</i>, and <i>Hypsiprymnodon</i>. The +<i>Brush-Kangaroo</i> (q.v.) is another name for the +<i>Wallaby</i> (q.v.), and the <i>Rat-Kangaroo</i> is the +stricter scientific appellation of <i>Kangaroo-Rat</i> (q.v.). +The <i>Banded-Kangaroo</i> is a <i>Banded-Wallaby</i> (see +<i>Lagostrophus</i>). See also <i>Dorca-Kangaroo</i>, +<i>Tree-Kangaroo</i>, <i>Musk-Kangaroo</i>, <i>Dorcopsis, +Dendrolagus</i>, <i>Bettongia, Hypsiprymnodon</i>, +<i>Rock-Wallaby</i>, <i>Paddy-melon</i>, <i>Forester</i>, +<i>Old Man</i>,, <i>Joey</i>, and <i>Boomah</i>. + +(f) The Use of the Word. + +1770. `Capt. Cook's Journal' (edition Wharton, 1893), p. 244: + +May 1st. An animal which must feed upon grass, and which, +we judge, could not be less than a deer." + +[p. 280]: "June 23rd. One of the men saw an animal something +less than a greyhound; it was of a mouse colour, very slender +made, and swift of foot." + +[p. 294]: August 4th. "The animals which I have before +mentioned, called by the Natives Kangooroo or Kanguru." +[At Endeavour River, Queensland.] + +1770. Joseph Banks, `Journal' (edition Hooker, 1896), p. 287: + +"<i>July</i> 14.--Our second Lieutenant had the good fortune to +kill the animal that had so long been the subject of our +speculations. To compare it to any European animal would be +impossible, as it has not the least resemblance to any one that +I have seen. Its forelegs are extremely short, and of no use +to 1t in walking; its hind again as disproportionally long; +with these it hops seven or eight feet at a time, in the same +manner as the jerboa, to which animal indeed it bears much +resemblance, except in size, this being in weight 38 lbs., and +the jerboa no larger than a common rat." + +Ibid. p. 301: + +"<i>August</i> 26.--Quadrupeds we saw but few, and were able to +catch but few of those we did see. The largest was called by +the natives <i>kangooroo</i>; it is different from any +European, and, indeed, any animal I have heard or read of, +except the jerboa of Egypt, which is not larger than a rat, +while this is as large as a middling lamb. The largest we shot +weighed 84 lbs. It may, however, be easily known from all +other animals by the singular property of running, or rather +hopping, upon only its hinder legs, carrying its fore-feet +close to its breast. In this manner it hops so fast that in +the rocky bad ground where it is commonly found, it easily beat +my greyhound, who though he was fairly started at several, +killed only one, and that quite a young one." + +1773. Sydney Parkinson, `Journal of a Voyage,' p. 149: + +"Kangooroo, the leaping quadruped." +[A description given at p. 145.] + +1773. J. Hawkesworth, `Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 577: + +"July 14, 1770. Mr. Gore, who went out this day with his gun, +had the good fortune to kill one of the animals which had been +so much the subject of our speculation. An idea of it will +best be conceived by the cut, plate xx., without which the most +accurate verbal description would answer very little purpose, +as it has not similitude enough to any animal already known to +admit of illustration by reference. In form it is most like +the gerbua, which it also resembles in its motion, as has been +observed already, for it greatly differs in size, the gerbua +not being larger than a common rat, and this animal, when full +grown, being as big as a sheep: this individual was a young +one, much under its full growth, weighing only thirty-eight +pounds. The head, neck, and shoulders are very small in +proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is nearly +as long as the body, thick near the rump, and tapering towards +the end: the fore-legs of this individual were only eight +inches long, and the hind-legs two-and-twenty: its progress is +by successive leaps or hops, of a great length, in an erect +posture; the fore-legs are kept bent close to the breast, and +seemed to be of use only for digging: the skin is covered with +a short fur, of a dark mouse or grey colour, excepting the head +and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to those of a hare. +In form it is most like the gerbua. This animal is called by the +natives `kangaroo.'" [This account, it will be seen, is based +on the notes of Banks.] + +1774. Oliver Goldsmith, `Animated Nature,' Book VII. c. xvi., +The Gerbua,' [in four-vol. ed., vol. iii. p. 30]: + +"But of all animals of this kind, that which was first +discovered and described by Mr. Banks is the most +extraordinary. He calls it the kanguroo; and though from its +general outline and the most striking peculiarities of its +figure it greatly resembles the gerbua, yet it entirely +differs, if we consider its size, or those minute distinctions +which direct the makers of systems in assorting the general +ranks of nature. The largest of the gerbua kind which are to +be found in the ancient continent do not exceed the size of a +rabbit. The kanguroo of New Holland, where it is only to be +found, is often known to weigh above sixty pounds, and must +consequently be as large as a sheep. Although the skin of that +which was stuffed and brought home by Mr. Banks was not much +above the size of a hare, yet it was greatly superior to any of +the gerbua kind that have been hitherto known, and very +different in many particulars. The snout of the gerbua, as has +been said, is short and round, that of the discovered animal +long and slender; the teeth also entirely differ, for as the +gerbua has but two cutting teeth in each jaw, making four in +all, this animal, besides its cutting teeth, has four canial +teeth also; but what makes a more striking peculiarity, is the +formation of its lower jaw, which, as the ingenious discoverer +supposes, is divided into two parts which open and shut like a +pair of scissors, and cut grass, probably this animal's +principal food. The head, neck, and shoulders are very small +in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is +nearly as long as the body; thick near the rump and tapering +towards the head and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to +those of the hare. We are not told, however, from the +formation of its stomach to what class of quadrupeds it +belongs: from its eating grass, which it has been seen to do, +one would be apt to rank it among the ruminating animals; but +from the canial teeth which it is found to have, we may on the +other hand suppose it to bear some relation to the carnivorous. +Upon the whole, however, it can be classed with none more +properly than with the animals of the gerbua kind, as its +hind-legs are so much longer than the fore; it moves also +precisely in the same manner, taking great bounds of ten or +twelve feet at a time, and thus sometimes escaping the fleetest +greyhound, with which Mr. Banks pursued it. One of them that +was killed proved to be good food; but a second, which weighed +eighty-four pounds, and was not yet come to its full growth, +was found to be much inferior." + +1787, Surgeon Anderson, quoted by W. Eden, in `History of New +Holland' (second edition), p. 71: + +"However, we must have a far more intimate acquaintance with +the languages spoken here [Van Diemen's Land] and in the more +northern parts of New Holland, before we can pronounce that +they are totally different; nay, we have good grounds for the +opposite opinion; for we found that the animal called kangaroo +at Endeavour River was known under the same name here." + +1781. T. Pennant, `History of Quadrupeds,' vol. i. p. 306: + +No. 184. [A Scientific Description of the Kangaroo.] + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage': + +[p. 106]: "The kangaroo." + +[p. 168]: "Skeleton of the head of the kangaroo." + +[At each of these places there is a description and a picture. +Under each picture the name is spelt "Kangooroo." At p. 289 +there is a further note on the kanguroo. In the text at p. 149 +the spelling " Kangooroo " is adopted.] + +Ibid. p. 104: + +"The kanguroo, though it resembles the jerboa in the +peculiarity of using only the hinder legs in progression, +does not belong to that genus." + +Ibid, p. 168: + +"Since stating the dimensions of the kanguroo, in page 106, +Lord Sydney has received from Governor Phillip a male of a much +larger size. . . . Lieutenant Shortland describes them as +feeding in herds of about thirty or forty, and assures us that +one is always observed to be apparently upon the watch at a +distance from the rest." + +1789. Watkin Tench, `Account of the Settlement of Port +Jackson,' p. 171: + +"Kangaroo was a name unknown to them [the aborigines of Port +Jackson] for any animal, until we introduced it. When I showed +Colbee [an aboriginal] the cows brought out in the Gorgon he +asked me if they were kangaroos." + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 66: + +"The animal described in the voyage of the <i>Endeavour</i>, +called the kangaroo (but by the natives patagorang), we found +in great numbers." + +Ibid. p. 568: + +"I had a kanguroo on board, which I had directions to carry to +Lord Grenville, as a present for his Majesty.--Nov. 26, 1791." +[There is no statement whether the animal reached England.] + +Ibid. p. 402: + +"In rowing up this branch, we saw a flock of about thirty +kangaroos or paderong, but they were only visible during their +leaps, as the very long grass hid them from our view." + +1809. G. Shaw, `Zoological Lectures,' vol. i. p. 94: + +"The genus <i>Macropus</i> or kangaroo . . . one of the most +elegant as well as curious animals discovered in modern times." +[Under the picture and in list of contents: Kanguroo.] + +1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Introd. +p. lxiii: + +"An animal found upon one of the islands is described [by +Dampier, `Voyage to New Holland,' vol. iii. p. 123] as `a +sort of raccoon, different from that of the West Indies, +chiefly as to the legs; for these have very short fore legs; +but go jumping upon them' [not upon the short fore, but the +long hind legs, it is to be presumed] `as the others do; and +like them are very good meat.' This appears to have been the +small kangaroo, since found upon the islands which form the +road; and if so, this description is probably the first ever +made of that singular animal" [though without the name]. + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' +p. 57: + +"Coursing the kangaroo and emu forms the principal amusement +of the sporting part of the colonists. + +(p. 68): The colonists generally pursue this animal [kangaroo] +at full speed on horseback, and frequently manage, +notwithstanding its extraordinary swiftness, to be up at the +death." + +1833. Charles Lamb, `Essays of Elia' [edition 1895], p. 151, +`Distant Correspondents': + +"The kangaroos--your Aborigines--do they keep their primitive +simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short fore +puds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the +pick-pocket! Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather +lamely provided <i>a priori</i>; but if the hue and cry were +once up, they would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the +expertest loco motor in the colony." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. iii. p. 106: + +"Those that were noticed were made of the red kangaroo-skin." + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar of the Language +spoken by the Aborigines, at Hunter's River,' p. 87: + +"Kong-go-rong, The Emu, from the noise it makes, and likely +the origin of the barbarism, kangaroo, used by the English, as +the name of an animal, called Mo-a-ne." + +1835. T. B. Wilson, `Narrative of a Voyage round the World, +etc.' p. 212: + +"They [natives of the Darling Range, W.A.] distinctly +pronounced `kangaroo' without having heard any of us utter that +sound: they also called it <i>waroo</i>, but whether they +distinguished `kangaroo' (so called by us, and also by them) +from the smaller kind, named `<i>wallabi</i>,' and by them +`<i>waroo</i>,' we could not form any just conclusion." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 23: + +"Kangaroos are of six different species, viz. the forester, +the flyer, the wallaby, the wallaroo, the kangaroo-rat, +and the kangaroo-mouse." +[This is of course merely a popular classification.] + +1845. J. A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings,' p. 15: + +"A kangaroo, like all his race, + Of agile form and placid face." + +1861. W. M. Thackeray, `Roundabout Papers', p.83: + +"The fox has brought his brush, and the cock has brought his +comb, and the elephant has brought his trunk and the kangaroo +has brought his bag, and the condor his old white wig and black +satin hood." + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 8: + +"To return to the marsupials. I have been assured that +the kangaroos come first and eat off the grass; that the +wallabies, following, grub up the roots." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 114: + +"Sometimes a kangaroo would come down with measured thud, +thud, and drink, and then return without noticing the human +beings." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 118: + +"According to the traditions of the bush--not always +reliable--the name of kangaroo was given under a misconception. +An aborigine being asked by one of the early discoverers the +name of the animal, replied, `Kangaroo' (`I don't know'), and +in this confession of ignorance or misapprehension the name +originated. It seems absurd to suppose that any black hunter +was really ignorant of the name of an animal which once +represented the national wealth of Australians as the merino +does to-day." + +[The tradition is not quite so ridiculous, if the answer +meant--"I don't know what you mean,--I don't understand you." +See above.] + +1891. `Guide Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"In this enclosure is a wooden model of a kangaroo of ancient +times. This is copied from a restoration by Professor McCoy, +who was enabled to represent it from fossil remains which have +been unearthed at various places in Australia." + +1896. E. Meston, `Sydney Bulletin,' April 18: + +"The origin of the word `kangaroo' was published by me six +years ago. Captain Cook got it from the Endeavor River blacks, +who pronounce it to-day exactly as it is spelled in the great +navigator's journal, but they use it now only for the big toe. +Either the blacks in Cook's time called the kangaroo `big toe' +for a nick-name, as the American Indians speak of the `big +horn,' or the man who asked the name of the animal was holding +it by the hind foot, and got the name of the long toe, the +black believing that was the part to which the question +referred." + +1896. Rev. J. Mathew, Private Letter, Aug. 31: + +"Most names of animals in the Australian dialects refer to their +appearance, and the usual synthesis is noun + adjective; the +word may be worn down at either end, and the meaning lost to +the native mind. + +"A number of the distinct names for <i>kangaroo</i> show a +relation to words meaning respectively <i>nose, leg, big</i>, +<i>long</i>, either with noun and adjective to combination or +one or other omitted. + +"The word <i>kangaroo</i> is probably analysable into <i>ka</i> +or <i>kang</i>, <i>nose</i> (or <i>head</i>), and <i>goora</i>, +<i>long</i>, both words or local equivalents being widely +current." + +(2) Wild young cattle (a special use)-- + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 290: + +"A stockyard under six feet high will be leaped by some of +these kangaroos (as we term them) with the most perfect ease, +and it requires to be as stout as it is high to resist their +rushes against it." + +(3) Used playfully, and as a nickname for persons and things +Australian. An Australian boy at an English school is +frequently called "Kangaroo." It is a Stock Exchange nickname +for shares in Western Australian gold-mining companies. + +1896. `Nineteenth Century' (Nov.), p. 711: + +"To the 80,000,000 Westralian mining shares now in existence +the Stock Exchange has long since conceded a special `market'; +and it has even conferred upon these stocks a nickname--the +surest indication of importance and popularity. And that +`Kangaroos,' as they were fondly called, could boast of +importance and popularity nobody would dare to gainsay." + +(4) A kind of chair, apparently from the shape. + +1834. Miss Edgeworth, `Helen,' c. xvi. (`Century'): + +"It was neither a lounger nor a dormeuse, nor a Cooper, nor a +Nelson, nor a Kangaroo: a chair without a name would never do; +in all things fashionable a name is more than half. Such a +happy name as Kangaroo Lady Cecilia despaired of finding." + +<hw>Kangarooade</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Kangaroo hunt; nonce word. +See quotation. + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum Trees,' +p. 86: + +"The Kangarooade--in three Spirts." +[Title of a poem.] + +<hw>Kangaroo-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian and Tasmanian +fruit, <i>Solanum aviculare</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. +Solanaceae</i>. The name is also applied to <i>S. vescum</i>, +called the <i>Gunyang</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand, the fruit is +called <i>Poroporo</i> (q.v.). + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual, p. 133: + +`<i>Solanum laciniatum</i>, the kangaroo-apple, resembling the +apple of a potato; when so ripe as to split, it has a mealy +sub-acid taste." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 85: + +"The kangaroo-apple (<i>Solanum laciniatum</i>) is a fine shrub +found in many parts of the country, bearing a pretty blue +flower and a fruit rather unpleasant to the taste, although +frequently eaten by the natives, and also by Europeans." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 132: + +"The kangaroo-apple comes from a bush or small tree bearing +blue blossoms, which are succeeded by apples like those of the +potato. They have a sweetish flavour, and when ripe may be +boiled and eaten, but are not greatly prized." + +1857. F. R. Nixon (Bishop), `Cruise of Beacon,' p. 28: + +"Of berries and fruits of which they partook, the principal +were those of <i>Solanum laciniatum</i>, or kangaroo-apple, +when dead ripe." + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 105: + +"<i>Solanum aviculare</i>, on which our colonists have very +inappropriately bestowed the name <i>Kangaroo-apple</i>, while +in literal scientific translation it ought to be called Bird's +Nightshade, because Captain Cook's companions observed in New +Zealand that birds were feeding on the berries of this bush." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Dog</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large dog, lurcher, +deerhound, or greyhound, used for hunting the <i>Kangaroo</i>. + +1806. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 265: + +"Shortly before the <i>Estramina</i> left the River Derwent, +two men unfortunately perished by a whale-boat upsetting, in +which they were transporting four valuable kangaroo-dogs to the +opposite side, none of which ever reached the shore." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 141: + +"The kind of dog used for coursing the kangaroo is generally a +cross between the greyhound and the mastiff or sheep-dog; but +in a climate like New South Wales they have, to use the common +phrase, too much lumber about them. The true bred greyhound is +the most useful dog: he has more wind; he ascends the hills +with more ease; and will run double the number of courses in a +day. He has more bottom in running, and if he has less +ferocity when he comes up with an `old man,' so much the +better, as he exposes himself the less, and lives to afford +sport another day." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 31: + +"They . . . are sometimes caught by the kangaroo-dogs." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 126: + +"A fine kangaroo-dog was pointed out to us, so fond of +kangarooing that it goes out alone, kills the game, and then +fetches its master to the dead animals." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 422: + +"With the gun over his shoulder, and the kangaroo-dog in a +leash by his side." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' c. iii. +p. 35: + +"On every station, also, a large kind of greyhound, a cross +of the Scotch greyhound and English bulldog, called the +kangaroo-dog, which runs by sight, is kept for the purpose +of their destruction." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 91: + +"Kangaroo-dogs are a special breed, a kind of strong +greyhound." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 1: + +"That big, powerful, black kangaroo-dog Marmarah was well worth +looking at, with his broad, deep chest, intelligent, determined +eyes, sinews of a gymnast, and ribs like Damascus steel. On +his black skin he bore marks of many honourable fights; the +near side showed a long, whitish line where the big emu he had +run down, tackled single-handed, and finally killed, had laid +him open. His chest and legs showed numerous grey scars, each +with a history of its own of which he might well be proud." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Fly</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small Australian fly, +<i>Cabarus</i>. See quotations. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. ii. p. 71: + +"Our camp was infested by the kangaroo-fly, which settled upon +us in thousands." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 313 [Note]: + +"Rather smaller than the house-fly, it acts with such celerity +that it has no sooner settled on the face or hands than it +inflicts instantaneously a painful wound, which often bleeds +subsequently. It is called by the colonists the kangaroo-fly; +and though not very common, the author can testify that it is +one of the most annoying pests of Australia." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to several +species of grasses of the genera <i>Anthistiria</i> and +<i>Andropogon</i>, chiefly from their height, but also because, +when they are young and green in spring, the <i>Kangaroo</i> +feeds on them. <i>Andropogon</i> is more like a rush or sedge, +and is sometimes so high as to completely conceal horses. See +<i>Grass</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 209: + +"Of native grasses we possess the oat-grass, rye-grass, +fiorin, kangaroo-grass, and timothy,--blady grass growing in wet, +flooded, alluvial spots, and wire-grass upon cold, wet, washed +clays." + +1838. `Report of Van Diemen's Land Company,' in J. Bischoff's +`Van Diemen's Land' (1832), c. v. p. 119: + +"The grasses were principally timothy, foxtail, and single +kangaroo." + +1845. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia, p. 88: + +"A new species of <i>Anthistiria</i> occurred here, perfectly +distinct from the kangaroo grass of the colony." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 131: + +"The most conspicuous of the native <i>Gramineae</i> that so +widely cover the surface of Australia Felix." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 36: + +"Where are the genial morning dews of former days that used to +glisten upon and bespangle the vernal-leaved kangaroo grass?" + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania,' p. 393: + +"Between the Lake River and Launceston . . . I was most +agreeably surprised in beholding the novel sight of a spacious +enclosure of waving kangaroo grass, high and thick-standing as +a good crop of oats, and evidently preserved for seed." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 8: + +"Not even a withered wisp of kangaroo-grass." + +(p. 193): + +"The long brown kangaroo-grass." + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2: + +"Had they but pulled a tuft of the kangaroo-grass beneath their +feet, they would have found gold at its roots." + +<hw>Kangaroo-hop</hw>, <i>n</i>. a peculiar affected gait. See +quotation. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 22, p. 27, col. 2: + +"The young lady that affects waterfalls, the Grecian-bend, +or the kangaroo hop." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Hound</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Kangaroo-Dog</i> +(q.v.). + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 28: + +"A large dog, a kangaroo-hound (not unlike a lurcher in +appearance)." + +<hw>Kangarooing</hw>, vb. <i>n</i>. hunting the kangaroo. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' p. 257: + +"In chasing kangaroos, or, as it is technically termed, +`kangarooing,' large powerful dogs are used . . ." + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 194: + +"You may be out Kangarooing; the dogs take after one +[a kangaroo], and it promises to be a good course." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 15: + +"We were sick of kangarooing, like the dogs themselves, +that as they grew old would run a little way and then pull +up if a mob came jump, jump, past them." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Mouse</hw>, <i>n</i>. more strictly called the +<i>Pouched-Mouse</i> (q.v.). + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 256: + +"It is a long chain from the big forester, down through the +different varieties of wallaby to the kangaroo-rat, and finally, +to the tiny interesting little creature known on the plains as +the `kangaroo-mouse'; but all have the same characteristics." + +<hw>Kangaroo-net</hw>, <i>n</i>. net made by the natives to +catch the kangaroo. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 45: + +"I found . . . four fine kangaroo-nets, made of the bark of +sterculia." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Rat</hw>, or <hw>Rat-Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. +the name applied to species of Marsupials belonging to the +following genera, viz.-- + +(1) <i>Potorous</i>, (2) <i>Caloprymnus</i>, (3) +<i>Bettongia</i>, (4) <i>AEpyprymnus</i>. + +(1) The first genus (<i>Potorous</i>, q.v.) includes animals +about the size of a large rat; according to Gould, although +they stand much on their hind-legs they run in a totally +different way to the kangaroo, using fore and hind-legs in a +kind of gallop and never attempting to kick with the hind-feet. +The aboriginal name was <i>Potoroo</i>. The species are +three--the Broad-faced Kangaroo-Rat, <i>Potorous platyops</i>, +Gould; Gilbert's, <i>P. gilberti</i>, Gould; Common, +<i>P. tridactylus</i>, Kerr. They are confined to Australia +and Tasmania, and one Tasmanian variety of the last species is +bigger than the mainland form. There is also a dwarf Tasmanian +variety of the same species. + +(2) A second genus (<i>Caloprymnus</i>, q.v.) includes the +<i>Plain Kangaroo-Rat</i>; it has only one species, +<i>C. campestris</i>, Gould, confined to South Australia. +The epithet plain refers to its inhabiting plains. + +(3) A third genus (<i>Bettongia</i>, q.v.) includes the +Prehensile-tailed Rat-Kangaroos and has four species, +distributed in Australia and Tasmania-- + +Brush-tailed Kangaroo-Rat-- + <i>Bettongia penicillata</i>, Gray. + +Gaimard's K.-R.-- + <i>B. gaimardi</i>, Desm. + +Lesueur's K.-R.-- + <i>B. lesueuri</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Tasmanian K.-R.-- + <i>B. cuniculus</i>, Ogilby. + +(4) A fourth genus (<i>AEpyprymnus</i>, q.v.) includes the +Rufous Kangaroo-Rat. It has one species, <i>AE. rufescens</i>, +Grey. It is the largest of the Kangaroo-Rats and is +distinguished by its ruddy colour, black-backed ears, +and hairy nose. + +[Mr. Lydekker proposes to call the animal the <i>Rat- +Kangaroo</i> (see quotation, 1894), but the name <i>Kangaroo- +Rat</i> is now so well-established that it does not seem +possible to supersede it by the, perhaps, more correct name of +<i>Rat-Kangaroo</i>. The introduction of the word +<i>Kangaroo</i> prevents any possibility of confusion between +this animal and the true rodent, and it would seem to be a +matter of indifference as to which word precedes or follows the +other.] + +1788. Governor Phillip (Despatch, May 15), in `Historical +Records of New South Wales,' vol. I. pt. ii. p. 135: + +"Many trees were seen with holes that had been enlarged by the +natives to get at the animal, either the squirrel, kangaroo +rat, or opossum, for the going in of which perhaps they wait +under their temporary huts, and as the enlarging these holes +could only be done with the shell they used to separate the +oysters from the rocks, must require great patience." + +1793 Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 61: + +"As most of the large trees are hollow by being rotten in the +heart, the opossum, kangaroo-rat, squirrel, and various other +animals which inhabit the woods, when they are pursued, +commonly run into the hollow of a tree." + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xi. +p. 430: + +"The poto roo, or kangaroo-rat. . . . This curious animal +which is indeed a miniature of the Kangaroo." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 28: + +"The kangaroo-rat is a small inoffensive animal and perfectly +distinct from the ordinary species of rat." + +1836. C. Darwin, `Naturalist's Voyage,' c. xix. p. 321: + +"The greyhounds pursued a kangaroo-rat into a hollow tree, +out of which we dragged it; it is an animal as large as a +rabbit, but with the figure of a kangaroo." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 37: + +"The kangaroo-rat is twice the size of a large English +water-rat, and of the same colour, measuring nearly two feet +in length." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1853), p. 157: + +"Two or three of the smallest kind, called the kangaroo-rat-- +about the size of a hare, and affording pretty good coursing." + +1860. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 195: + +"One of the skin aprons . . . made from the skin of a +kangaroo-rat." + +1879. C. W. Schurmann, `Native Tribes of Australia--Port +Lincoln Tribe,' p. 214: + +"The natives use this weapon [the <i>Waddy</i>] principally +for throwing at kangaroo-rats or other small animals." + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 63: + +"The Victorian Kangaroo rat is <i>Bettongia cuniculus</i>." + +1894. R.Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 63: + +"The rat-kangaroos, often incorrectly spoken of as +kangaroo-rats." + +<hw>Kangaroo-skin</hw>, <i>n</i>. either the leather for the +tanned hide, or the complete fur for rugs and wraps. + +1806. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 258: + +"The fitness of the kangaroo-skin for upper leathers will no +doubt obtain preference over most of the imported leather, as +it is in general lighter and equally durable." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 106: + +"I used always to strip and preserve the pelt, for it makes +good and pretty door-mats, and is most useful for pouches, +leggings, light-whips, or any purpose where you require +something strong and yet neater than green hide. I have seen +saddles covered with it, and kangaroo-skin boots are very +lasting and good." + +<hw>Kangaroo-tail Soup</hw>, <i>n</i>. soup made from the +kangaroo-tail. + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' +p. 58: + +"The tail of the forest kangaroo in particular makes a soup +which, both in richness and flavour, is far superior to any +ox-tail soup ever tasted." + +1865. Lady Barker, writing from Melbourne, `Station Life in +New Zealand,' p. 14: + +"The soups comprised kangaroo-tail--a clear soup not unlike +ox-tail, but with a flavour of game." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxxv. p. 312: + +"Kangaroo-tail and ox-tail soup disputed pre-eminence." + +<hw>Kangaroo-Thorn</hw>, <i>n</i>. an indigenous hedge-plant, +<i>Acacia armata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; called +also <i>Kangaroo Acacia</i>. + +<hw>Kapai</hw>, <i>adj</i>. Maori word for <i>good</i>, used +by the English in the North Island of New Zealand; e.g. "That is +a kapai pipe." "I have a kapai gun." + +1896. `New Zealand Herald,' Feb. 14 (Leading Article): + +"The Maori word which passed most familiarly into the speech +of Europeans was `kapai,' `this is good.'" + +<hw>Kapu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a stone adze. The +Maori word means the hollow of the hand. The adze is so called +from its curved shape. (Williams, `Maori Dict.') + +1889. `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' p. 140: + +"Kapu,, or adze." + +<hw>Karaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a tree, +<i>Corynocarpus laevigata</i>, Forst. <i>N.O. anacardiaceae</i>; +also called <i>Cow-tree</i> (q.v.), forty feet high, with orange- +coloured berries, two to three inches long. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 226: + +"Two or three canoes were hauled up under some karaka trees, +which formed a pleasant grove in a sort of recess from the +beach." + +Ibid. vol. i. p. 233: + +"The karaka-tree much resembles the laurel in its growth and +foliage. It bears bright orange-coloured berries about the +size and shape of damsons, growing in bunches. The fruit is +sickly and dry; but the kernel forms an important article of +native food." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' p. 157: + +"The karaka fruit is about the size of an acorn. The pulp is +eaten raw; the kernel is cooked in the oven for ten days, and +then steeped for several weeks in a running stream before it is +fit for use. Karaka berries for winter use are dried in the +sun. The kernel is poisonous uncooked." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 108: + +"The thick karakas' varnished green." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 102: + +"The karaka with its brilliantly polished green leaves +and golden yellow fruit." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 35: + +"Bring the heavy karaka leaf, + Gather flowers of richest hue." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 10. (Native Trees): + +"<i>Corynocarpus laevigata</i> (generally known by the name of +karaka). The fruit is poisonous, and many deaths of children +occur through eating it. Mr. Anderson, a surgeon who +accompanied Captain Cook, mentions this tree and its fruit, and +says the sailors ate it, but does not say anything about it +being poisonous. The poison is in the hard inner part, and it +may be that they only ate the outer pulp." + +<hw>Karamu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for several species of +the New Zealand trees of the genus <i>Coprosma</i>, +<i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>. Some of the species are called +<i>Tree-karamu</i>, and others <i>Bush-karamu</i>; to the +latter (<i>C. lucida</i>, Kirk) the name <i>Coffee-plant</i>, +or <i>Coffee-bush</i>, is also applied. + +1874. J. White, `Te Rou, or the Maori at Home,' p. 221: + +"Then they tied a few Karamu branches in front of them and went +towards the settlement." + +1876. J. C. Crawford, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. IX. art. lxxx. p. 545: + +"I have seen it stated that coffee of fine flavour has been +produced from the karamu, <i>coprosma lucida</i>." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 132: + +"Karamu. an ornamental shrub-tree; wood close-grained and +yellow; might be used for turnery." + +1887. T. F. Cheeseman, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. XX. art. xxii. p. 143: + +"The first plant of interest noted was a new species of +<i>coprosma</i>, with the habit of the common karamu." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 275: + +"`Karamu' is applied by the Maoris to several species of +<i>Coprosma</i>, amongst which, I believe, this +[<i>C. arborea</i>] is included, but it is commonly termed +`tree-karamu' by bushmen and settlers in the North." + +1891. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' `New Zealand Country +Journal,' vol. xv. p. 105: + + "Of these fruits that of the karamu, (Coprosma lucida), +seemed to be amongst the first to be selected." + +<hw>Kareau</hw> or <hw>Kareao</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for +<i>Supplejack</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Karmai</hw>, <i>n</i>. used by settlers in South Island of +New Zealand for <i>Towhai</i> (q.v.), a New Zealand tree, +<i>Weinmannia racemosa</i>, Forst. <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. +Kamahi is the Maori, and <i>Karmai</i>, or <i>Kamai</i>, the +corruption. + +1876. W. N. Blair, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. ix. p. 148: + +"As will be seen by the tables of names, kamai is called black +birch in the Catlin River District and Southland, which name is +given on account of a supposed resemblance to the `birches,' +or more correctly `beeches,' a number of which occur in that +locality. I cannot understand how such an idea could have +originated, for except in the case of the bark of one there +is not the slightest resemblance between the birches and kamai. +Whatever be the reason, the misapplication of names is +complete, for the birches are still commonly called kamai in +Southland." + +<hw>Karoro</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a Black-backed Gull, +<i>Larus dominicanus</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 47: +[Description.] + +<hw>Karri</hw> or <hw>Kari</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name +(Western Australia) for <i>Eucalyptus diversicolor</i>. +F. v. M. + +1870. W. H. Knight, `Western Australia: Its History, +Progress, Condition, etc.,' p. 38: + +"The Karri (<i>eucalyptus colossea</i>) is another wood very +similar in many respects to the tuart, and grows to an enormous +size." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 196: + +"The kari-tree is found in Western Australia, and is said to be +very abundant . . . of straight growth and can be obtained +of extraordinary size and length. . . . The wood is red in +colour, hard, heavy, strong, tough, and slightly wavy or curled +in the grain." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 444: + +"Commonly known as `karri,' but in its native habitat as +blue-gum. . . . The durability of this timber for lengthened +periods under ground yet remains to be proved." + +1896. `The Inquirer and Commercial News,' [Perth] July 3, +p. 4, col. 5: + +"Mr. J. Ednie Brown, conservator of forests . . . expresses +astonishment at the vastness of the karri forests there. They +will be in a position to export one thousand loads of karri +timber for street-blocking purposes every week." + +1896. `The Times' (Weekly Edition), Dec. 4, p. 822, col. 1: + +"Karri, <i>Eucalyptus diversicolor</i>, is the giant tree of +Western Australia. an average tree has a height of about +200ft., and a diameter of 4 ft. at 3 ft. or 4 ft. above the +ground. The tree is a rapid grower, and becomes marketable in +30 or 40 years, against 50 years for jarrah. Karri timber is +being largely exported for London street-paving, as its surface +is not easily rendered slippery." + +<hw>Katipo</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small venomous spider of New +Zealand and Australia. The name is Maori. The scientific name +is <i>Latrodectus scelio</i>, Thorel.In New Zealand, it is +generally found on the beach under old driftwood; but in +Australia it is found widely scattered over the Continent, and +always frequents dark sheltered spots. The derivation may be +from <i>Kakati</i>, verb, to sting, and <i>po</i>, night. +Compare <i>Kakapo</i>. It is a dark-coloured spider, with a +bright red or yellowish stripe. + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 440: + +"A small black spider with a red stripe on its back, which they +[the natives of New Zealand] call katipo or katepo." + +1870. Sir W. Buller, before Wellington Philosophical Society, +quoted in `The Katipo,' Jan. 1, 1892, p. 2: + +"I have satisfied myself that in common with many other +venomous creatures it (the katipo) only asserts its dreaded +power as a means of defence, or when greatly irritated, +for I have observed that on being touched with the finger it +instantly folds its legs, rolls over on its back, and simulates +death, remaining perfectly motionless till further molested, +when it attempts to escape, only using its fangs as the <i>dernier +ressort</i>." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 39: + +"Another spider (<i>Lathrodectus scelio</i>), which is very +common here and everywhere in Queensland, is very dangerous +even to men. It is a small black animal, of the size of our +house-spider, with a brilliant scarlet mark on its back." + +1891. C. Frost, `Victorian Naturalist,' p. 140: + +"I also determined, should opportunity occur, to make some +further experiments with the black and red spider +<i>Latrodectus scelio</i> . . . I found suspended in the web +of one of this species a small lizard . . . which doubtless had +been killed by its bite." + +1892. Jan. 1, `The Katipo,' a Journal of Events in connection +with the New Zealand Post Office and Telegraph Services. On +p. 2 of the first number the Editor says: + +"If hard words could break bones, the present lot of the +proprietors of `The Katipo' would be a sorry one. From certain +quarters invectives of the most virulent type have been hurled +upon them in connection with the title now bestowed upon the +publication--the main objections expressed cover contentions +that the journal's prototype is a `repulsive,' `vindictive,' +and `death-dealing reptile,' `inimical to man,' etc. ; and so +on, <i>ad infinitum</i>." + +[The pictorial heading of each number is a katipo's web, +suggestive of the reticulation of telegraph wires, concerning +which page 3 of the first number says: "The Katipo spider and +web extends its threads as a groundwork for unity of the +services."] + +1895. H. R. Hogq, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia, +Zoology, p. 322: + + "This spider, popularly known as the red streaked spider, is +found all over Victoria and New South Wales, and is recorded +from Rockhampton and Bowen on the Queensland Coast, and from +the North Island of New Zealand, where it is known by the +Maoris as the Katipo." + +<hw>Kauri</hw>, or <hw>Cowry</hw>, or <hw>Kauri-Pine</hw>, +<i>n</i>. Maori name for the tree <i>Agathis australis</i>, +Sal. (formerly <i>Dammara A</i>.), <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. +Variously spelt, and earlier often called <i>Cowdie</i>. In +`Lee's New Zealand Vocabulary,' 1820, the spelling <i>Kaudi</i> +appears. Although this tree is usually called by the generic +name of <i>Dammara</i> (see quotation, 1832), it is properly +referred to the genus <i>Agathis</i>, an earlier name already +given to it by Salisbury. There is a Queensland Kauri +(<i>Dammara robusta</i>, F. v. M.). See <i>Pine</i>. + +1823. R. A. Cruise, `Ten Months in New Zealand,' p. 145: + +"The banks of the river were found to abound with cowry; and +. . . the carpenter was of opinion that there could be no great +difficulty in loading the ship. The timber purveyor of the +Coromandel having given cowry a decided preference to +kaikaterre, . . . it was determined to abandon all further +operations." + +1835. W. Yate, `True Account of New Zealand,' p. 37: + +"As a shrub, and during its youthful days, the kauri is not +very graceful . . . but when it comes to years of maturity, +it stands unrivalled for majesty and beauty." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 285: + +"The kauri (<i>Dammera</i> [sic] <i>Australis</i>) is +coniferous, resinous, and has an elongated box-like leaf." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 349: + +"When Captain Cook visited New Zealand (nearly a century after +the discovery of the <i>Dammara</i> of Amboyna), he saw, upon +the east coast of the Northern Island, a tree, called by the +natives Kowrie; it was found to be a second species of +<i>Dammara</i>, and was named <i>D. australis</i>." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 140: + +"The Kauri-pine is justly styled the Queen of the New Zealand +forest . . . the celebrated and beautiful Kauri." + +1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 169: + +"The kauri is the only cone-bearing pine in New Zealand. The +wood is of a yellow colour, wonderfully free from knots, and +harder than the red-pine of the Baltic. Beautifully mottled +logs are sometimes met with, and are frequently made up into +furniture." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 295: + +"The Kaurie or Cowdie-Pine (<i>Dammara Australis</i>) is a +native of and is found only in New Zealand. . . . A tall and +very handsome tree with a slightly tapering stem. . . . For +masts, yards, etc., is unrivalled in excellence, as it not only +possesses the requisite dimensions, lightness, elasticity, and +strength, but is much more durable than any other Pine." [The +whole of chap. 37 is devoted to this tree.] + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 47: + +"As some tall kauri soars in lonely pride, + So proudly Hira stood." + +1886. J. A. Froude, `Oceans,' p. 318: + +"Only the majestic Kauri tolerated no approaches to his +dignity. Under his branches all was bare and brown." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 143: + +"The Native name `Kauri' is the only common name in general +use. When the timber was first introduced into Britain it was +termed `cowrie' or `kowdie-pine'; but the name speedily fell +into disuse, although it still appears as the common name in +some horticultural works." + +1890. Brett, `Early History of New Zealand,' p. 115: + +"`The Hunter' and `Fancy' loaded spars for Bengal at the Thames +in 1798." . . . "These two Indian vessels in the Thames were +probably the earliest European ships that loaded with New +Zealand Timber, and probably mark the commencement of the +export Kauri trade." + +<hw>Kauri-gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. the resin which exudes from the +<i>Kauri</i> (q.v.), used in making varnish. + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 140: + +"In the year 1859 the amount of timber exportation from the +Province of Auckland was L 34,376; that of kauri-gum exported +L 20,776." + +1874. G. Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 15: + +"He paid his passage with kauri-gum." + +1893. `Murray's Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 62: + +"The industry which will most interest the tourist is the +Kauri-gum. . . . The resin or gum which they [the Kauri-trees] +contained fell into the ground as the trees died, and (not +being soluble in water) has remained there ever since. Men go +about with spears which they drive into the ground, and if they +find small pieces of gum sticking to the end of the spear, they +commence digging, and are often rewarded by coming on large +lumps of gum." + +<hw>Kava</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is Tongan for-- + +(1) An ornamental shrub, <i>Piper methysticum</i>, Miq.; also +<i>Macropiper latifolium</i>, Miq. See <i>Kawa-kawa</i>. + +(2) A narcotic and stimulant beverage, prepared from the root +of this plant, which used to be chewed by the natives of Fiji, +who ejected the saliva into a <i>Kava</i> bowl, added water and +awaited fermentation. The final stage of the manufacture was +accompanied by a religious ceremonial of chanting. The +manufacture is now conducted in a cleaner way. Kava produces +an intoxication, specially affecting the legs. + +1858. Rev. T. Williams, `Fiji and the Fijians,' vol. i. +p. 141: + +"Like the inhabitants of the groups eastward, the Fijians drink +an infusion of the <i>Piper methysticum</i>, generally called +<i>Ava</i> or <i>Kava</i>--its name in the Tongan and other +languages. Some old men assert that the true Fijian mode of +preparing the root is by grating, as is still the practice in +two or three places; but in this degenerate age the Tongan +custom of chewing is almost universal, the operation nearly +always being performed by young men. More form attends the use +of this narcotic on Somosomo than elsewhere. Early in the +morning the king's herald stands in front of the royal abode, +and shouts at the top of his voice, `<i>Yagona</i>!' Hereupon +all within hearing respond in a sort of scream, +`<i>Mama</i>!'--`Chew it!' At this signal the chiefs, priests, +and leading men gather round the well-known bowl, and talk over +public affairs, or state the work assigned for the day, while +their favourite draught is being prepared. When the young men +have finished the chewing, each deposits his portion in the +form of a round dry ball in the bowl, the inside of which thus +becomes studded over with a large number of these separate +little masses. The man who has to make the grog takes the bowl +by the edge and tilts it towards the king, or, in his absence, +to the chief appointed to preside. A herald calls the king's +attention to the slanting bowl, saying, `Sir, with respects, +the <i>yagona</i> is collected.' If the king thinks it enough, +he replies, in a low tone, `<i>Loba</i>'--`Wring it--an order +which the herald communicates to the man at the bowl in a +louder voice. The water is then called for and gradually +poured in, a little at first, and then more, until the bowl is +full or the master of the ceremonies says, `Stop!' the operator +in the meantime gathering up and compressing the chewed root." + +1888. H. S. Cooper, `The Islands of the Pacific,' p. 102: + +"Kava is the name given to a liquor produced by chewing the +root of a shrub called angona, and the ceremonious part of the +preparation consists in chewing the root." + +<hw>Kawa-kawa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for an ornamental +shrub of New Zealand, <i>Macropiper excelsum</i>. In Maori, +Kawa = "unpleasant to the taste, bitter, sour." (Williams.) +The missionaries used to make small beer out of the +<i>Kawa-kawa</i>. + +1850. Major Greenwood, `Journey from Taupo to Auckland,' +p. 30: + +"The good missionary . . . thrust upon us . . . some +bottles of a most refreshing light beverage made from the +leaves of the kawa-kawa tree, which in taste much resembled +ginger-beer." + +1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences, or Incidents of +Thirty-four Years in New Zealand,' p. 104: + +"Our tea was made from the dried leaves of a native shrub, +of a very spicy flavour, and known as the kawakawa, too pungent +if used fresh and green." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' June 4, p. 49: + +"The tints of <i>kawa</i>, of birch and broadleaf, of +<i>rimu</i> and <i>matai</i> are blended together into one dark +indivisible green." + +<hw>Kawau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a Shag, +<i>Phalacrocorax novae-hollandiae</i>, Steph. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 145: + +[Description given.] + +<hw>Kea</hw>, <i>n</i>. a parrot of New Zealand, <i>Nester +notabilis</i>, Gould. For its habits see quotations. + +1862. J. Von Haast, `Exploration of Head Waters of Waitaki, +1862,'-in `Geology of Westland' (published 1879), p. 36: + +"What gave still greater interest to the spot was the presence +of a number of large green alpine parrots (<i>Nestor +notabilis</i>), the kea of the natives, which visited +continually the small grove of beech-trees near our camp." + +1880. `Zoologist' for February, p. 57: + +"On the 4th of November last the distinguished surgeon, +Mr. John Wood, F.R.S., exhibited before the Pathological +Society of London the colon of a sheep, in which the operation +known as Colotomy had been performed by a Parrot . . . the +species known as the `Kea' by the Maoris, the `Mountain Parrot' +of the colonists, <i>Nestor notabilis</i> of Gould. Only five +species . . . are known, one of which (<i>Nestor productus</i>) +has lately become extinct; they only occur in New Zealand and +Norfolk Island. They were formerly classed among the +<i>Trichoglossinae</i> or brush-tongued parrots . . . more +nearly allied to true <i>Psittaci</i> . . . Its ordinary food +consists of berries and insects; but since its Alpine haunts +have been reached by the tide of civilization, it has acquired +a taste for raw flesh, to obtain which it even attacks living +animals." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 176: + +"We have the hoary-headed nestors, amongst which are found the +noisy honey-loving kaka, the hardy kea, that famous sheep- +killer and flesh-eater, the dread of many an Alpine sheep +farmer." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 166: + +"<i>Nestor notabilis</i>, Gould, Kea-parrot, Mountain-parrot of +the Colonists." + +1888. `Antipodean Notes,' p. 74: + +"The Kea picks the fat which surrounds the kidneys. . . . +Various theories have been started to explain how this parrot +has become carnivorous." +[Two pages are devoted to the question.] + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 19: + +"The kea-parrot. . . . The kea is pretty to look at, having +rich red and green plumage, but it is a cruel bird. It is said +that it will fasten on the back of a living sheep and peck its +way down to the kidney-fat, for which this parrot has a special +fancy. No tourist need feel compunction about shooting a kea." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 445: + +"Another very interesting group of birds are the large dull +colonial parrots of the genus Nestor, called kea or kaka by the +natives from their peculiar cries. Their natural food is +berries . . . but of late years the kea (<i>Nestor +notabilis</i>), a mountain species found only in the South +Island, has developed a curious liking for meat, and now +attacks living sheep, settling on their backs and tearing away +the skin and flesh to get at the kidney fat." + +1895. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 26, p. 3, col. 1: + +"There is in the Alpine regions of the South Island a plant +popularly called the `vegetable sheep,' botanically named +<i>Raoulia</i>. From the distance of even a few yards it looks +like a sheep. It grows in great masses, and consists of a +woolly vegetation. A large specimen of this singular plant was +exhibited in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. It is said +that the kea was in the habit of tearing it up to get at the +grubs which harbour within the mass, and that mistaking dead +sheep for vegetable sheep it learned the taste of mutton. A +more enterprising generation preferred its mutton rather +fresher." + +<hw>Kelp-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, also called +<i>Butter-fish</i> (q.v.), <i>Coridodax pullus</i>, Forst. +In Tasmania, <i>Odax baleatus</i>, Cuv. and Val.; called +also <i>Ground Mullet</i> by the fishermen. In Victoria, +<i>Chironemus marmoratus</i>, Gunth. <i>Coridodax</i> and +<i>Odax</i> belong to the family <i>Labridae</i> or Wrasses, +which comprises the <i>Rock-Whitings</i>; <i>Chironemus</i> +to the family <i>Cirrhitidae</i>. The name is also given +in New Zealand to another fish, the <i>Spotty</i> (q.v.). +These fishes are all different from the Californian food- +fishes of the same name. + +1841. J. Richardson, `Description of Australian Fishes,' +p. 148: + +"This fish is known at Port Arthur by the appellation of +`Kelp-fish,' I suppose from its frequenting the thickets of +the larger fuci." + +<hw>Kennedya</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus of +perennial leguminous herbs of the bean family-named, in 1804, +after Mr. Kennedy, a gardener at Hammersmith, near London. +There are seventeen species, all natives of Australia and +Tasmania, many of them cultivated for the sake of their showy +flowers and berries. Others lie near the ground like a vetch; +<i>K. prostrata</i> is called the <i>Coral Pea</i> (q.v.), +or <i>Bleeding Heart</i>, or <i>Native Scarlet Runner</i>, +or <i>Running Postman</i>. Another species is called +<i>Australian Sarsaparilla</i>. See <i>Sarsaparilla</i>. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `The Head Station,' p. 294: + +"Taking off his felt hat, he twisted round it a withe of +crimson Kennedia, then put it on again." + +<hw>Kestrel</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common English name for a +falcon. According to Gould the Australian species is identical +with <i>Cerchneis tinnunculus</i>, a European species, but +Vigors and Horsfield differentiate it as <i>Tinnunculus +cenchroides</i>. + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 5: + +"The kestrel's nest we always found in the fluted gums that +overhung the creek, the red eggs resting on the red mould of +the decaying trunk being almost invisible." + +Kia ora, <i>interj</i>. Maori phrase used by English in +the North Island of New Zealand, and meaning "Health to you!" +A private letter (1896) says--"You will hear any day at a +Melbourne bar the first man say <i>Keora ta-u</i>, while the +other says <i>Keora tatu</i>, so replacing "Here's to you!" +These expressions are corruptions of the Maori, <i>Kia ora +taua</i>, "Health to us too!" and <i>Kia ora tatou</i>, +"Health to all of us!" + +<hw>Kie-kie</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a climbing plant, +<i>Freycinetia banksii</i>, <i>N.O. Pandanaceae</i>; frequently +pronounced <i>ghi-ghi</i> in the North Island of New Zealand, +and <i>gay-gie</i> in the South Island. + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' p. 77: + +"The trees were . . . covered with a kind of parasite plant, +called a keekee, having a thick cabbage-like stock." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf' (Notes), p. 505: + +"Kie-kie (parasite). . . . A lofty climber; the bracts and +young spikes make a very sweet preserve." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 20: + +"The unused food . . . of our little camp, together with +the empty kie-kie baskets." + +[sc. baskets made of <i>kie-kie</i> leaves.] + +<hw>Kiley</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word in Western Australia +for a flat weapon, curved for throwing, made plane on one side +and slightly convex on the other. A kind of boomerang. + +1839. Nathaniel Ogle, `The Colony of Western Australia,' +p. 57: + +"In every part of this great continent they have the koilee, +or boomerang . . ." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. 1. +c. iv. p. 72: + +"One of them had a kiley or bomerang." + +1872. Mrs. E. Millett, `An Australian Parsonage; or, The +Settler and the Savage in Western Australia,' p. 222: + +"The flat curved wooden weapon, called a <i>kylie</i>, which +the natives have invented for the purpose of killing several +birds out of a flock at one throw, looks not unlike a bird +itself as it whizzes (or <i>walks</i> as natives say) through +the air in its circular and ascending flight. . ." + +1885 Lady Barker, `Letters to Guy,' p. 177: + +"More wonderful and interesting, however, is it to see them +throw the kylie (what is called the boomerang in other parts of +Australia), a curiously curved and flat stick, about a foot +long and two or three inches wide. . . . There are heavier +`ground kylies,' which skim along the ground, describing +marvellous turns and twists, and they would certainly break +the leg of any bird or beast they hit; but their gyrations +are nothing compared to those of a good air-kylie in skilful +hands." + +<hw>Kinaki</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori word for food eaten with +another kind to give it a relish. Compare Grk. <i>'opson</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 164: + +"Kinaki. Victuals, added for variety's sake." + +1873. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' +vol. iii. G. 1, p. 5: + +"If it be a Maori who is taken by me, he will also be +made into a kinaki for my cabbage." + +1878. R. C. Barstow, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. XI. art. iv. p. 71: + +"Fifty years ago it would have been a poor hapu that could +not afford a slave or two as a kinaki, or relish, on such an +occasion." + +<hw>King-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand a sea-fish, +<i>Seriola lalandii</i> (Maori, Haku), sometimes called the +<i>Yellow-tail</i>; in Victoria, <i>Sciaena antarctica</i>, +Castln. Called <i>Jew-fish</i> (q.v.) in New South Wales. +Tenison Woods says the King-fish of Port Jackson must not be +confounded with the King-fish of Victoria or the King-fish of +Tasmania (<i>Thyrsites micropus</i>, McCoy). The Port Jackson +King-fish belongs to a genus called "Yellow-tails" in Europe. +This is <i>Seriola lalandii</i>, Cuv. and Val. <i>Seriola</i> +belongs to the family <i>Carangidae</i>, or <i>Horse- +Mackerels</i>. <i>Thyrsites</i> belongs to the family +<i>Trichiuridae</i>. The "Barracouta" of Australasia is +another species of <i>Thyrsites</i>, and the "Frost-fish" +belongs to the same family. The <i>Kingfish</i> of America is +a different fish; the name is also applied to other fishes in +Europe. + +1876. P. Thomson, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. XI. art. lii. p. 381: + +"The king-fish, <i>Seriola Lalandii</i>, put in no appearance +this year." + +1883. `Royal Commission on Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 11: + +"<i>Thyrsites Lalandii</i>, the king-fish of Tasmania: +migratory. Appear in immense numbers at certain seasons +(December to June) in pursuit of the horse-mackerel. Caught +with a swivelled barbless hook at night. Voracious in the +extreme--individuals frequently attacking each other, and also +the allied species, the barracouta." + +<hw>Kingfisher</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. Gould +mentions thirteen species in Australia. The Australian species +are-- + +Blue Kingfisher-- + <i>Halcyon azurea</i>, Lath. + +Fawn-breasted K.-- + <i>Dacelo cervina</i>, Gould. + +Forest K.-- + <i>Halcyon macleayi</i>, Jard. and Selb. + +Laughing jackass (q.v.)-- + <i>Dacelo gigas</i>, Bodd. + +Leach's K.-- + <i>D. leachii</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Little K.-- + <i>Halcyon pusilla</i>, Temm. + +Mangrove K.-- + <i>H. sordidus</i>, Gould. + +Purple K.-- + <i>H. pulchra</i>, Gould. + +Red-backed K.-- + <i>H. pyrropygius</i>, Gould. + +Sacred K.-- + <i>H. sanctus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +White-tailed K.-- + <i>Tanysiptera sylvia</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-billed K.-- + <i>Syma flavirostris</i>, Gould. + +There is a Kingfisher in New Zealand (<i>Halcyon vagans</i>, +Less.) considered identical by many with <i>H. sanctus</i> +of Australia, but concluded by Butler to be a distinct species. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 121: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>King of the Herrings</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Elephant-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association' (Melbourne), p. 72: + +"The King of the Herrings, <i>Callorhynchus antarcticus</i>, +is fairly common with us." + +<hw>King-Parrot</hw>. See <i>Parrot</i>. + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 317: + +This creek [King Parrot Creek] was named after a beautiful +parrot which was then seen for the first time. It is a bird +of magnificent plumage, with crimson feathers on the body, +and blue wings, both of gorgeous hue, and no other colour except +a little black. The name, King Parrot, is variously applied to +several birds in different arts of Australia; the one +described is common." + +<hw>King William Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian tree. +See <i>Cedar</i>. + +<hw>Kino</hw>, <i>n</i>. a drug; the dried juice, of astringent +character, obtained from incisions in the bark of various +trees. In Australia it is got from certain Eucalypts, +e.g. <i>E. resinifera</i>, Smith, and <i>E. corymbosa</i>, +Smith. "It is used in England under the name of <i>Red-gum</i> +in astringent lozenges for sore throat." (`Century.') See +<i>Red Gum</i>. The drug is Australian, but the word, +according to Littre, is "<i>Mot des Indes orientales</i>." + +<hw>Kipper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a youth who has been initiated, +i.e. been through the <i>Bora</i> (q.v.). It is a Queensland +word. In Kabi, Queensland, the form is <i>kivar</i>: on the +Brisbane River, it is <i>kippa</i>, whereas in the Kamilaroi of +New South Wales the word is <i>kubura</i>. + +1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and +1853,' p. 126: + +"Around us sat `Kippers,' i.e. `hobbledehoy blacks.'" + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 24: + +"The young men receive the rank of warriors, +and are henceforth called kippers." + +Kit, <i>n</i>. a flexible Maori basket; not the English +<i>kit</i> used by soldiers, but the Maori word kete, a basket. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 199: + +"<i>Kete</i> (Maori), pa-kete (Anglo-Maori), basket, kit +(Eng.)." + +1856. E. B. Fitton, `New Zealand,' p. 68: + +"The natives generally bring their produce to market in neatly +made baskets, plaited from flax and known by the name of `Maori +kits.'" + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 180: + +"The kit is a large plaited green-flax basket." + +1877. An Old Colonist, `Colonial Experiences,' p. 31: + +"Potatoes were procurable from the Maoris in flax kits, +at from one to five shillings the kit." + +1884. Lady Martin, `Our Maoris,' p. 44: + +"They might have said, as an old Maori woman long afterwards +said to me, `Mother, my heart is like an old kete (i.e. a +coarsely-woven basket). The words go in, but they fall +through.'" + +<hw>Kite</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. The species +in Australia are-- + +Allied Kite-- + <i>Milvus affanis</i>, Gould. + +Black-shouldered K.-- + <i>Elanus axillaris</i>, Lath. + +Letter-winged K.-- + <i>E. scriptus</i>, Gould. + +Square-tailed K.-- + <i>Lophoictinia isura</i>, Gould. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 321: + +"We had to guard it by turns, whip in hand, from a host of +square-tailed kites (<i>Milvus isiurus</i>)." + +1895. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Zoology, p. 55: + +"At any stockyard or station passed Kites were seen . . . at +Henbury one female bird was bold enough to come right into camp +and pick up the flesh thrown to it from birds I was skinning." + +<hw>Kiwi</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a wingless struthious +bird of New Zealand, the <i>Apteryx</i> (q.v.), so called from +the note of the bird. The species are-- + +Large Grey Kiwi (Roa roa, generally shortened to <i>Roa</i>, +q.v.)-- + <i>Apteryx haastii</i>, Potts. + +Little Grey K.-- + <i>A. oweni</i>, Gould. + +North Island K.-- + <i>A. bulleri</i>, Sharpe. + +South Island K. (Tokoeka)-- + <i>A. australis</i>, Shaw and Nodder. + +See Buller, `Birds of New Zealand' (1888), vol. ii. p. 308. + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 58: + +"Kiwi--the most remarkable and curious bird in New Zealand." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 2: + +"<i>Apteryx Australis</i>, Shaw, Kiwi kiwi." + +[Australis here equals Southern, not Australian.] + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 181: + +"The Kiwi, however, is only the last and rather insignificant +representative of the family of wingless birds that inhabited +New Zealand in bygone ages." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 232: + +"'Twas nothing but that wing-less, tail-less bird, + The <i>kiwi</i>." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 35: + +"The fact that one collector alone had killed and disposed +of above 2000 specimens of the harmless kiwi." + +1889. Professor Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 116: + +"The Kiwi, although flightless, has a small but well-formed +wing, provided with wing quills." + +<hw>Knockabout</hw>, <i>adj</i>. a species of labourer employed +on a station; applied to a man of all work on a station. Like +<i>Rouseabout</i> (q.v.). + +1876. W. Harcus, `Southern Australia,' p. 275: + +"Knockabout hands, 17s. to 20S. per week." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 80: + +"They were composed chiefly of what is called in the bush +`knockabout men'--that is, men who are willing to undertake +any work, sometimes shepherding, sometimes making yards or +driving." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' xvi. p. 118: + +"I watched his development through various stages of colonial +experience--into dairyman, knockabout man, bullock-driver, +and finally stock-rider." + +<hw>Knock-down</hw>, <i>v</i>. generally of a cheque. To spend +riotously, usually in drink. + +1869. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher' (reprint), +p. 80: + +"Last night! went knocking round with Swizzleford and +Rattlebrain. C'sino, and V'ri'tes. Such a lark! Stole two +Red Boots and a Brass Hat. Knocked down thirteen notes, and +went to bed as tight as a fly!" + +1871. J. J. Simpson, `Recitations,' p. 9: + +"Hundreds of diggers daily then were walking Melbourne town, + With their pockets fill'd with gold, which they very soon + knock'd down." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 6: + +"Cashed by the nearest publican, who of course never handed +over a cent. A man was compelled to stay there and knock his +cheque down `like a man'" + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton,' Advance Australia,' p. 222: + +"A system known as `knocking down one's cheque' prevails all +over the unsettled parts of Australia. That is to say, a man +with a cheque, or a sum of money in his possession, hands it +over to the publican, and calls for drinks for himself and his +friends, until the publican tells him he has drunk out his +cheque." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xviii. p. 182: + +"The illiterate shearer who knocks down his cheque in a spree." + +<hw>Koala</hw>, <hw>Coola</hw>, or <hw>Kool-la</hw>, +<i>n</i>. aboriginal name for <i>Native Bear</i> (q.v.); genus, +<i>Phascolarctus</i> (q.v.). A variant of an aboriginal word +meaning a big animal. In parts of South Australia koola means +a kangaroo. + +1813. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 432: + +"The koolah or sloth is likewise an animal of the opossum +species, with a false belly. This creature is from a foot and +a half to two feet in length, and takes refuge in a tree, where +he discovers his haunt by devouring all the leaves before he +quits it." + +1849. J. Gould, `Proceedings of the Zoological Society of +London,' November: + +"The light-coloured mark on the rump, somewhat resembling that +on the same part of the Koala . . . the fur is remarkable for +its extreme density and for its resemblance to that of the +Koala." + +<hw>Kohekohe</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +tree, sometimes called Cedar, <i>Dysoxylum spectabile</i>, +Hook (<i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>). + +1883. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 127: + +"Kohekohe. A large forest tree, forty to fifty feet high. Its +leaves are bitter, and used to make a stomachic infusion: wood +tough, but splits freely." + +<hw>Kohua</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word, for (1) a Maori oven; +(2) a boiler. There is a Maori <i>verb Kohu</i>, to cook or +steam in a native oven (from a noun <i>Kohu</i>, steam, mist), +and an <i>adj</i>. <i>Kohu</i>, concave. The word is used by +the English in New Zealand, and is said to be the origin of +<i>Goashore</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Kokako</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>Blue-wattled +Crow</i>. See under <i>Crow</i> and <i>Wattle-bird</i>. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 194: + +"The Orange-wattled Crow, or wattled bird, kokako of the +Maoris, Glaucopis cinerea, Gml., still seems to be an almost +unknown bird as to its nesting habits. . . . The kokako loving +a moist temperature will probably soon forsake its ancient +places of resort." + +<hw>Kokopu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand fish; +any species of <i>Galaxias</i>, especially <i>G. fasciatus</i>; +corrupted into <i>Cock-a-bully</i> (q.v.). See <i>Mountain +Trout</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 106: + +"Kokopu. Name of a certain fish." + +1886. R. A. Sherrin, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 138: + +"`Kokopu,' Dr.Hector says, `is the general Maori name for +several very common fishes in the New Zealand streams and +lakes, belonging to the family of <i>Galaxidae</i>.'" + +<hw>Kokowai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for Red Ochre, an oxide +of iron deposited in certain rivers, used by the Maoris for +painting. It was usually mixed with shark oil, but for very +fine work with oil from the berries of the <i>titoki</i> +(q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 124: + +"His head, with the hair neatly arranged and copiously +ornamented with feathers, reclined against a carved post, +which was painted with kokowai, or red ochre." + +1878. R. C. Barstow, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. XI. art. iv. p. 75: + +"Kokowai is a kind of pigment, burnt, dried, and mixed with +shark-liver oil." + +<hw>Konini</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for (1) the fruit of the +New Zealand fuchsia, <i>Fuchsia excorticata</i>, Linn. + +(2) A settlers' name for the tree itself. +See <i>Kotukutuku</i>. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 114: + +"The berries of the konini . . . ripening early furnish some +part of its (bell-bird's) food supply." + +(p. 146): "Rather late in August, when the brown-skinned konini +begins to deck its bare sprays with pendulous flowers." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 53: + +"Mr. Colenso informs me that it [<i>Fuchsia excorticata</i>] +is the Kohutuhutu and the Kotukutuku of the Maoris, the fruit +being known as Konini, especially in the South Island and the +southern part of the North Island. The settlers sometimes term +it Kotukutuku or Konini, but more generally fuchsia." + +<hw>Kooberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the <i>Bidyan +Ruffe</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Kookaburra</hw>, <i>n</i>. (also <hw>Gogobera</hw> and +<hw>Goburra</hw>), the aboriginal name for the bird called +the <i>Laughing Jackass</i> (q.v.). The first spelling is +that under which the aboriginal name now survives in English, +and is the name by which the bird is generally called in Sydney. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 123: + +"And wild goburras laughed aloud + Their merry morning songs." + +1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 167: + +"The rude rough rhymes of the wild goburra's song." + +1886. E. M. Curr, `Australian Race,' p. 29: + +"The notes of this bird are chiefly composed of the sounds +<i>ka</i> and <i>koo</i>, and from them it takes its name +in most of the languages . . . It is noticeable in some +localities that <i>burra</i> is the common equivalent of +<i>people</i> or <i>tribe</i>, and that the Pegulloburra . . . +the Owanburra, and many other tribes, called the laughing- +jackass--kakooburra, kakaburra, kakoburra, and so on; literally +the <i>Kakoo people</i>." [Mr. Curr's etymology is not +generally accepted.] + +1890. `The Argus,' Oct. 25, p. 4, col 5: + +"You might hear the last hoot of the kookaburra then." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 26, p. 5, col. 4: + +"But what board will intervene to protect the disappearing +marsupials, and native flora, the lyre-bird, the kookaburra, +and other types which are rapidly disappearing despite the laws +which have been framed in some instances for their protection?" + +1894. E. P. Ramsay, `Catalogue of Australian Birds in the +Australian Museum at Sydney,' p. 2, s.v. <i>Dacelo</i>: + +"Gogobera, aborigines of New South Wales." + +<hw>Koradji</hw>, or <hw>Coradgee</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal +name for a wise man, sorcerer, or doctor. In the south-east of +New South Wales, it means one of the tribal wizards, usually +called "blackfellow- doctors." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 14: + +"The coradgees, who are their wise men, have, they suppose, +the power of healing and foretelling. Each tribe possesses one +of these learned pundits, and if their wisdom were in proportion +to their age, they would indeed be Solons." + +1865. S. Bennett, `Australian Discovery,' p. 250: + +"Kiradjee, a doctor; Grk. <i>cheirourgos</i>. Persian, +khoajih. English, surgeon. Old English (obsolete), +chirurgeon." + +[Curious and impossible etymology.] + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 287: + +"One who seemed a coradge, or priest, went through a strange +ceremony of singing, and touching his eyebrows, nose, and +breast, crossing himself, and pointing to the sky like an old +Druid." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 23: + +"The korradgees, or medicine men, are the chief repositories +(of the secrets of their religion)." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 63: + +"For some diseases, the kar'aji, or native doctor when he is +called in, makes passes with his hand over the sick man, much +in the same way as a mesmerist will do . . . Our Australian +karaji is highly esteemed, but not paid." + +<hw>Korari</hw>, <i>n</i>. often pronounced <i>Koladdy</i> +and <i>Koladdy</i>, and spelt variously; the Maori word for +the flowering stem of <i>Phormium tenax</i>, J. and G. Forst. +(q.v.), generally used for making a <i>mokihi</i> (q.v.). +There is a Maori noun, <i>kora</i>, a small fragment; +and a verb <i>korari</i>, to pluck a twig, or tear it off. + +1879. `Old Identity' [Title]: + +"The Old Identities of the Province of Otago." + +[p. 53]: "A <i>kolladie</i> (the flower stalk of the flax, +about seven feet long) carried by each, as a balancing pole or +staff." + +1893. Daniel Frobisher, `Sketches of Gossipton,' p. 75: + +"But now the faithful brute is gone; + Through bush and fern and flax <i>koladdy</i>, + Where oft he bunny pounced upon, + No more will follow me, poor Paddy." + +<hw>Korero</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori for a conference, +a conversation. The verb means "to tell, to say, to address, +to speak, to talk." (`Williams' Maori Dictionary,' 4th. ed.) + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 168: + +"Korero, <i>s</i>. a speaking; <i>v. n</i>. speaking." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 78: + +"There were about sixty men assembled, and they proceeded to +hold a `korero,' or talk on the all-important subject." + +Ibid. p. 81: + +"With the exception of an occasional exclamation of `korero, +korero,' `speak, speak,' which was used like our `hear, hear,' +in either an encouraging or an ironical sense, or an earnest +but low expression of approval or dissent, no interruption of +the orators ever took place." + +1863. T. Moser, `Mahoe Leaves,' p. 30: + + "As he had to pass several pahs on the road, at all of which +there would be `koreros.'" + +(p. 31): "Had been joined by a score or more of their +acquaintances, and what between `koreros' and `ko-mitis,' +had not made any further progress on their journey." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, p. 42, col. 3: + +"All this after a very excited `korero' on the empty dray, +with the surging and exciting crowd around." + +<hw>Korimako</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the +<i>Bell-Bird</i> (q.v.). + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 402: + +"The korimako, or kokorimako (<i>Anthornis melanura</i>). +This bird is the sweetest songster of New Zealand, but is not +distinguished by its plumage, which is a yellowish olive with +a dark bluish shade on each side of the head." + +Ibid. p. 75: + +"In the first oven [at the Maori child's naming feast] a +korimako was cooked; this is the sweetest singing bird of New +Zealand; it was eaten that the child might have a sweet voice +and be an admired orator." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 202: + +"The <i>korimako</i>, sweetest bird + Of all that are in forest heard." + +1888. W. W. Smith, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. XXI. art. xxi. p. 213: + +"<i>Anthornis melanura</i>, korimako or bell-bird. In fine +weather the bush along the south shores of Lake Brunner +re-echoes with the rich notes of the tui and korimako, although +both species have disappeared from former haunts east of the +Alps." + +<hw>Koromiko</hw>, <i>n</i>. a white flowering arborescent +Veronica of New Zealand, <i>Veronica salicifolia</i>, Forst., +<i>N.O. Scrophularineae</i>. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' P. 454: + +"Koromiko, a very ornamental plant, but disappearing before the +horse. It bears a tapering-shaped flower of a purplish white." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 2: + + "Just a ditch, +With flowering koromiko rich." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 21: + + "The early breeze +That played among the koromiko's leaves." + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 16: + +"Fostered by the cool waters of a mountain rivulet, the +koromiko grows by the side of the poisonous tutu bushes." + +Korora, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a <i>Blue Penguin</i>, +<i>Spheniscus minor</i>, Gmel. See <i>Penguin</i>. + +<hw>Korrumburra</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the common +blow-fly, which in Australia is a yellow-bottle, not a +blue-bottle. + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 54: + +"Odd `Korrumburras' dodge quickly about with cheerful hum. +Where they go, these busy buzzy flies, when the cold calls them +away for their winter vac. is a mystery. Can they hibernate? +for they show themselves again at the first glint of the spring +sun." + +<hw>Kotuku</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>White +Crane</i> of the Colonists, which is really a <i>White +Heron</i> (<i>Ardea egretta</i>). See <i>Crane</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 124: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>Kotukutuku</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +tree, <i>Fuchsia excorticata</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Onagrariea</i>; written also <i>Kohutuhutu</i>. This +name is not much used, but is corrupted into <i>Tookytook</i> +(q.v.). See <i>Konini</i> and <i>Fuchsia</i>. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 127: + +"Kotukutuku. The fruit is called <i>konini</i>. A small and +ornamental tree, ten to thirty feet high . . . a durable +timber. . . . The wood might be used as dye-stuff . . . Its +fruit is pleasant and forms principal food of the wood-pigeon." + +<hw>Kowhai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name given to-- + +(1) Locust-tree, <i>Yellow Kowhai</i> (<i>Sophora +tetraptera</i>, Aiton, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>). + +(2) Parrot-bill, <i>Scarlet Kowhai</i> (<i>Clianthus +puniceus</i>, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>), or <i>Kaka-bill</i> +(q.v.). + +Variously spelt <i>Kowai</i> and <i>Kohai</i>, and corrupted +into <i>Goai</i> (q.v.) by the settlers. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 58: + +"The kohai too, a species of mimosa covered with bright +yellow blossoms, abounds in such situations where the stunted +growth is an almost unvarying sign of constant inundation." + +[Mr. Wakefield was mistaken. The Kohai is not a mimosa.] + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 261: + +"`Tis the <i>Kowhai</i>, that spendthrift so golden + But its kinsman to Nature beholden, + For raiment its beauty to fold in, + Deep-dyed as of trogon or lory, + How with parrot-bill fringes 'tis burning, + One blood-red mound of glory!" + +1873. `New Zealand Parliamentary Debates,' No. 16, p. 863: + +"Kowai timber, thoroughly seasoned, used for fencing posts, +would stand for twelve or fourteen years; while posts cut out +of the same bush and used green would not last half the time." + +1882. T. H. Potts, 'Out in the Open,' p. 146: + +"The head of the straight-stemmed kowhai is already crowned +with racemes of golden blossoms." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 131: + +"Kowhai--a small or middling-sized tree. . . . Wood red, +valuable for fencing, being highly durable . . . used for +piles in bridges, wharves, etc." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 21: + +"The dazzling points of morning's lances + Waked the red kowhai's drops from sleep." + +<hw>Kuku</hw>, or <hw>Kukupa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name +for the New Zealand <i>Fruit-pigeon</i> (q.v.), <i>Carpophaga +novae-zelandiae</i>, Gmel. Called also <i>Kereru</i>. +The name is the bird's note. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 170: + +"Kuku, s. the cry of a pigeon." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 406: + +"Family <i>Columbidae</i>--kereru, kukupa (kuku, <i>Carpophaga +Novae Zealandiae</i>), the wood-pigeon. This is a very fine +large bird, the size of a duck; the upper part of the breast +green and gold, the lower a pure white, legs and bill red. It +is a heavy flying bird, and very stupid, which makes it an easy +prey to its enemies. The natives preserve large quantities in +calabashes, taking out the bones; these are called kuku." + +Ibid. p. 183: + +"The pigeon bears two names--the kuku and kukupa, which are +common to the isles." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 115: + +"The kukupa . . . was just the bird created expressly for the +true cockney sportsman--the one after his heart . . . for if not +brought down by the first shot, why he only shakes his feathers +and calmly waits to be shot at again!" + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 45: + +"The kuku, plaintive, wakes to mourn her mate." + +<hw>Kumara</hw>, or <hw>Kumera</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced +Koomera), a Maori word for an edible root, the yam or sweet +potato, <i>Ipomaea batatas</i>, <i>N.O. Convolvulaceae</i>. +There are numerous varieties. It should be added that it is +doubtful whether it grows wild in New Zealand. + +1773. Sydney Parkinson, `Journal of a Voyage to the South +Seas' (see extract in `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +`Manibus Parkinsonibus Sacrum,' W. Colenso, vol. x. art. ix. +p. 124): + +"Several canoes came alongside of the ship, of whom we got some +fish, kumeras or sweet potatoes, and several other things." + +1828. `Henry William Diarys' (in Life by Carleton), p. 69: + +"Kumara had been planted over the whole plain." + +1830. Ibid. p. 79: + +"We passed over the hill, and found the assailants feasting on +the kumara, or sweet potato, which they just pulled up from +the garden at which they had landed." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 49: + +"He saw some fine peaches and kumaras or sweet potatoes." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' c. xi. p. 273 (3rd +edition, 1855) + +"The kumara or sweet potato is a most useful root." + +1863. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `Old New Zealand,' p. 51: + +"Behind the pigs was placed by the active exertion of two or +three hundred people, a heap of potatoes and kumera, in +quantity about ten tons, so there was no lack of the raw +material for a feast." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 430: + + "Now the autumn's fruits +Karaka,--taro,--kumera,--berries, roots +Had all been harvested with merry lays +And rites of solemn gladness." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 18: + +"Some more dainty toothsome dish + Than the kumera and fish." + +<hw>Kumquat, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Atalantia glauca</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>, +i.q. <i>Desert Lemon</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Kurdaitcha</hw>, <hw>Coordaitcha</hw>, or <hw>Goditcha</hw>, +<i>n</i>. a native term applied by white men to a particular +kind of shoe worn by the aborigines of certain parts of Central +Australia, and made of emu feathers matted together. The two +ends are of the same shape, so that the direction in which the +wearer has travelled cannot be detected. The wearer is +supposed to be intent upon murder, and the blacks really apply +the name to the wearer himself. The name seems to have been +transferred by white men to the shoes, the native name for +which is <i>interlin</i>~a, or <i>urtathurta</i>. + +1886. E. M. Curr, `Australian Race,' vol. i. p. 148: + +"It was discovered in 1882 . . . that the Blacks . . . wear a +sort of shoe when they attack their enemies by stealth at +night. Some of the tribes call these shoes <i>Kooditcha</i>, +their name for an invisible spirit. I have seen a pair of +them. The soles were made of the feathers of the emu, stuck +together with a little human blood, which the maker is said to +take from his arm. They were about an inch and a half thick, +soft, and of even breadth. The uppers were nets made of human +hair. The object of these shoes is to prevent those who wear +them from being tracked and pursued after a night attack." + +1896. P. M. Byrne, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of +Victoria,' p. 66: + +"The wearing of the Urtathurta and going Kurdaitcha luma +appears to have been the medium for a form of vendetta." + +<hw>Kurrajong</hw>, <i>n</i>. or <hw>Currajong</hw> (spelt +variously), the aboriginal name for various Australian and +Tasmanian fibrous plants; see quotations, 1825 and 1884. +They are the-- + +Black Kurrajong-- + <i>Sterculia diversifolia</i>, G. Don., and <i>Sterculia +quadrifida</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>. + +Brown K.-- + <i>Commersonia echinata</i>, R. and G. Forst.; also, +<i>Brachychiton gregorii</i>; both belonging to +<i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>. + +Green K.-- + <i>Hibiscus heterophyllus</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. + +Tasmanian K.-- + <i>Plagianthus sidoides</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. + +Others are <i>Trema aspera</i>, Blume, <i>N.O. Urticeae</i>; +and <i>Sterculia rupestris</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Urticeae</i>. +Some of the varieties are also called <i>Bottle-trees</i>, and, +in Tasmania, <i>Cordage-trees</i> (q.v.). + +1823. `Uniacke's Narrative of Oxley's Expedition,' quoted by +J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 408: + +"The nets used for fishing [by the natives] are made by the men +from the bark of the kurrajong (<i>Hibiscus heterophyllus</i>), +a shrub which is very common to the swamps." + +1825. Barron Field, Glossary, in `Geographical Memoirs of New +South Wales,' p. 502: + +"Currijong or Natives' cordage tree (Hibiscus heterophyllus)." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 25: + +"The curragong is sometimes found; its inner bark may be +manufactured into ropes." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 149: + +"The currajong (<i>Sterculia</i>)is used for cordage, and makes +strong, close, but not very durable ropes." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' vol. iii. p. 91: + +"Dillis neatly worked of koorajong bark." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 214: + +"In such a valley in which stands a spreading corrijong +(<i>Sterculia diversifolia</i>), which has a strong resemblance +to the English oak, I constantly found a flock of sheep." + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"Currajong (<i>Plagianthus sidoides</i>, Hook). The fibres +of the bark are very strong. It is a large shrub, found +chiefly on the southern side of the Island, in various and +shady places, and grows rapidly." + +1878. Rev. W. W. Spicer, `Handbook of the Plants of +Tasmania,' p. 104: + +"<i>Plagianthus sidoides</i>, Hooker. Currijong, +<i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. Peculiar to Tasmania." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 77: + +"The currejong of the forest, and the casuarina which lines the +rivers, stand with brighter green in cheering contrast to the +dulness of surrounding leaves." + +1881,. W. R. Guilfoyle, `Australian Botany' (second +edition), p. 162: + +"The aborigines apply the name Kurrajong, or Currijong, to some +[Pimeleas]; but it would appear that this native name is +indiscriminately given to any plant possessing a tough bark." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. p. 138: + +"Quaint currajongs . . . very like in form to the stiff +wooden trees we have all played with in childish days." + + + +L + + +<hw>Laburnum, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Tasmanian +<i>Clover-tree, Goodenia lotifolia</i>, Sal., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Laburnum, Sea-coast</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called <i>Golden +Chain</i>, <i>Sophora tomentosa</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. +Leguminosae</i>; a tall, hoary shrub. + +<hw>Lace-bark</hw>, <hw>Lacey-bark</hw>, or <hw>Lacewood</hw>, +<i>n</i>. names for Ribbonwood (q.v.). The inner bark of the +tree is like fine lace. + +1876. W. N. Blair, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. IX. art. x. p. 175: + +"Ribbonwood, <i>Plagianthus betulinus</i>, botanical name, +Hooker; Whauwhi, Maori name, according to Hector; lace-bark +tree, settlers' name, according to Buchanan." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open': + +"The soft, bright-foliaged ribbonwood (lace-bark, +<i>Plagianthus</i>) contrasts with the dusky hue +of the dark-leaved fagus." + +<hw>Lace-Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Hydrosaurus (Varanus) +varius</i>. See <i>Goanna</i>. + +1881. F. McCoy, `Prodomus of the Natural History of Victoria,' +Dec. 4: + +"Although the present Lace Lizard is generally arboreal, +climbing the forest trees with ease, and running well on the +ground, it can swim nearly as well as a Crocodile." + +<hw>Lagorchestes</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for a +genus of Australian marsupial mammals, called the <i>Hare- +Wallabies</i> or <i>Hare-Kangaroos</i> (q.v.). (Grk. +<i>lagows</i>, a hare, and <i>'orchestaes</i>, a dancer.) +They live on plains, and make a "form" in the herbage like +the hare, which they resemble. + +<hw>Lagostrophus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus containing the animal called the <i>Banded-Wallaby</i>. +(Grk. <i>lagows</i>, a hare, and <i>strophos</i>, a band or +zone.) Its colour is a greyish-brown, with black and white +bands, its distinguishing characteristic. It is sometimes +called the <i>Banded-Kangaroo</i>, and is found at Dirk +Hartog's Island, and on one or two islands in Shark's Bay, +and in West Australia. For its interesting habits see +R. Lyddeker's `Marsupialia.' + +<hw>Lake-Trout</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian fish, <i>Galaxias +auratus</i>, family <i>Galaxidae</i>. See <i>Mountain- +Trout</i>. + +<hw>Lamb down</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. + +(1) To knock down a cheque or a sum of money in a spree. +There is an old English verb, of Scandinavian origin, and +properly spelt <i>lamm</i>, which means to thrash, beat. + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 51: + +"It is the Bushman come to town-- + Come to spend his cheque in town, + Come to do his lambing down." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The lambing down of cheques." + +1890. Ibid. Aug. 9, p. 4, col. 5: + +"The old woman thought that we were on gold, and would lamb +down at the finish in her shanty." + +(2) To make a man get rid of his money to you; to clean him +out." + +1873. Marcus Clarke, `Holiday Peak, etc.,' p. 21: + +"The result was always the same--a shilling a nobbler. True, +that Trowbridge's did not `lamb down' so well as the Three +Posts, but then the Three Posts put fig tobacco in its brandy +casks, and Trowbridge's did not do that." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p.30: + +"The operation--combining equal parts of hocussing, +overcharging, and direct robbery--and facetiously christened +by bush landlords `lambing down.'" + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 4, col. 7: + +"One used to serve drinks in the bar, the other kept the +billiard-table. Between them they lambed down more shearers +and drovers than all the rest on the river." + +<hw>Lamprey</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian Lampreys are +species of the genera <i>Mordacia</i> and <i>Geotria</i>, +of the same family as the "Lampreys" of the Northern Hemisphere. + +<hw>Lancelet</hw>, <i>n</i>. The fishes of this name present in +Australasia are-- + +In Queensland, <i>Epigonichthys cultellus</i>, Peters, family +<i>Amplingae</i>; in Victoria and New South Wales, species of +<i>Heteropleuron</i>. + +<hw>Lancewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are many lancewoods in +various parts of the world. The name, in Australia, is given +to <i>Backhousia myrtifolia</i>, Hook. and Harv., <i>N.O. +Myrtaceae</i>; and in New Zealand, to <i>Panax crassifolium</i>, +Dec. and Plan., <i>N.O. Araliaceae</i>, known as <i>Ivy- +tree</i>, and by the Maori name of <i>Horoeka</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Landsborough Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a valuable Queensland +fodder grass of a reddish colour, <i>Anthistiria +membranacea</i>, Lindl., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. +See <i>Grass</i>. + +<hw>Lantern, Ballarat</hw>, <i>n</i>. a local term. +See quotation. + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 21: + +"I may explain that a `Ballarat Lantern' is formed by knocking +off the bottom of a bottle, and putting a candle in the neck." + +<hw>Lark</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird name. +The Australian species are-- + +Brown Song Lark-- + <i>Cincloramphus cruralis</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Bush L.-- + <i>Mirafra horsfieldii</i>, Gould. + +Field L.-- + <i>Calamanthus campestris</i>, Gould. + +Ground L.-- + <i>Anthus australis</i>, Vig. and Hors. (Australian Pipit), + <i>A. novae-zelandae</i>, Gray (New Zealand Pipit). + +Lesser Bush L.-- + <i>Mirafra secunda</i>, Sharpe. + +Little Field L.-- + <i>Cathonicola sagittata</i>, Lath. + +Magpie L.-- + <i>Grallina picata</i>, Lath.; see <i>Magpie-Lark</i>. + +Rufous Song L.-- + <i>Cincloramphus rufescens</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Striated Field L.-- + <i>Calamanthus fuliginosus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +See <i>Ground-Lark</i>, <i>Sand-Lark</i>, <i>Pipit</i>, and +<i>Magpie-Lark</i>. + +<hw>Larrikin</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word has various shades of +meaning between a playful youngster and a blackguardly rough. +Little streetboys are often in a kindly way called <i>little +larrikins</i>. (See quotations, 1870 and 1885.) Archibald +Forbes described the larrikin as "a cross between the Street +Arab and the Hoodlum, with a dash of the Rough thrown in to +improve the mixture." (`Century.) The most exalted position +yet reached in literature by this word is in Sir Richard +Burton's `Translation of the Arabian Nights' (1886-7), +vol. i. p. 4, <i>Story of the Larrikin and the Cook</i>; +vol. iv. p. 281, <i>Tale of First Larrikin</i>. The previous +translator, Jonathan Scott, had rendered the Arabic word, +<i>Sharper</i>. + +There are three views as to the origin of the word, viz.-- + + +(1) That it is a phonetic spelling of the broad Irish +pronunciation, with a trilled <i>r</i> of the word +<i>larking</i>. The story goes that a certain Sergeant Dalton, +about the year 1869, charged a youthful prisoner at the +Melbourne Police Court with being "<i>a-larrr-akin</i>' about +the streets." The Police Magistrate, Mr. Sturt, did not quite +catch the word--"A what, Sergeant?"--"A larrikin', your +Worchup." The police court reporter used the word the next day +in the paper, and it stuck. (See quotation, `Argus,' 1896.) + +This story is believed by 99 persons out of 100; unfortunately +it lacks confirmation; for the record of the incident cannot +be discovered, after long search in files by many people. Mr. +Skeat's warning must be remembered--"As a rule, derivations which +require a story to be told turn out to be false." + +(2) That the word is thieves' English, promoted like +<i>swag</i>, <i>plant</i>, <i>lift</i>, etc., into ordinary +Australian English. Warders testify that for a number of years +before the word appeared in print, it was used among criminals +in gaol as two separate words, viz.--<i>leary</i> ('cute, fly, +knowing), and <i>kinchen</i> (youngster),--`<i>leary kinchen +</i>,'--shortened commonly into `<i>leary kin</i>' and +`<i>leary kid</i>.' Australian warders and constables are +Irish, almost to a man. Their pronunciation of `<i>leary +kin</i>' would be very nearly `<i>lairy kin</i>,' which becomes +the single word <i>larrikin</i>. (See quotation, 1871.) It is +possible that Sergeant Dalton used this expression and was +misunderstood by the reporter. + +(3) The word has been derived from the French <i>larron</i> +(a thief), which is from the Latin <i>latronem</i> (a robber). +This became in English <i>larry</i>, to which the English +diminutive, <i>kin</i>, was added; although this etymology is +always derided in Melbourne. + +1870. `The Daily Telegraph' (Melbourne), Feb. 7, p. 2, col. 3: + +"We shall perhaps begin to think of it in earnest, when we +have insisted upon having wholesome and properly baked bread, +or a better supply of fish, and when we have put down the +`roughs' and `larrikins.'" + +1870. `The Age,' Feb. 8, p. 3, col. 1: + +"In sentencing a gang of `larrikins' who had been the terror +of Little Bourke-street and its neighbourhood for several hours +on Saturday night, Mr. Call remarked. . ." + +1870. `The Herald,' April 4, p.3, col. 2: + +". . . three larikins who had behaved in a very disorderly manner +in Little Latrobe-street, having broken the door of a house and +threatened to knock out the eye of one of the inmates." + +1870. Marcus Clarke, `Goody Two Shoes,' p. 26: + +"He's a lively little larrikin lad, and his name is +Little Boy Blue." + +1871. `The Argus,' Sept. 19, p.5, col. 4: + +"In San Francisco, the vagabond juveniles who steal, smash +windows, and make themselves generally obnoxious to the +respectable inhabitants, instead of being termed `larrikins,' +as in Victoria, are denominated `hoodleums.' The name is more +musical than the one in vogue here, and probably equally as +descriptive, as its origin appears to be just as obscure as +that of the word `larrikin.' This word, before it got into +print, was confined to the Irish policemen, who generally +pronounced it `lerrikan,' and it has been suggested that the +term is of Hibernian origin, and should be spelt lerrichaun.'" + +1871. Sir George Stephen, Q.C., `Larrikinism,' a Lecture +reported in `Prahran Telegraph,' Sept. 23, p. 3, col. 1: + +What is Larrikinism? It is a modern word of which I can only +guess the derivation, . . . nor can I find any among the +erudite professors of slang who adorn our modern literature who +can assist me. Some give our police the credit of coining it +from the `larking' of our school boys, but I am inclined to +think that the word is of Greek origin--<i>Laros</i>, a +cormorant--though immediately derived from the French +`<i>larron</i>' which signifies a thief or rogue. If I am +right, then larrikin is the natural diminutive form in English +phraseology for a small or juvenile thief. . . . This however +is, I must acknowledge, too severe a construction of the term, +even if the derivation is correct; for I was myself, I frankly +confess it, an unquestionable larrikin between 60 and 70 years +ago. . . . Larrikinism is not thieving, though a road that +often leads to it. . . . Is it a love of mischief for +mischief's sake? This is the theory of the papers, and is +certainly a nearer approach to the true solution." + +1871. `Figaro,' in `Prahran Telegraph,' Sept. 30, p. 7, +col. 3: + +"A local contemporary has . . . done his `level best' to help +me out of my `difficulty' with respect to the word Larrikin. +He suggests that <i>lerrichan</i> should read <i>leprichaun +</i>, a mischievous sprite, according to Irish tradition. . . . +We think we may with more safety and less difficulty trace the +word to the stereotype [sic] reply of the police to the +magisterial question--`What was he doing when you apprehended +him?' `Oh! larriking (larking) about, yer Wurtchip.'" + +1872. J. S. Elkington, `Tenth Report of Education, +Victoria,' dated Feb. 14: + +"My inquiries into the origin and habits of that troublesome +parasite the larrikin (if I may adopt Constable Dalton's term) +do not make me sanguine that compulsory primary instruction can +do much for him, unless indirectly." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 15, p. 21, col. 3: + +"On Sunday night an unfortunate Chinaman was so severely +injured by the Richmond larrikins that his life was +endangered." + +1875. David Blair, in `Notes and Queries,' July 24, p. 66: + +"Bedouins, Street Arabs, Juvenile Roughs in London; <i>Gamins +</i> in Paris; Bowery Boys in New York; Hoodlums to San +Francisco; Larrikins in Melbourne. This last phrase is an +Irish constable's broad pronunciation of `larking' applied to +the nightly street performances of these young scamps, here as +elsewhere, a real social pestilence." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 338: + +"There is not a spare piece of ground fit for a pitch anywhere +round Melbourne that is not covered with `larrikins' from six +years old upwards." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 159: + +"It has become the name for that class of roving vicious young +men who prowl about public-houses and make night hideous in +some of the low parts of our cities. There is now the bush +`larrikin' as well as the town `larrikin,' and it would be +difficult sometimes to say which is the worse. Bush +`larrikins' have gone on to be bushrangers." + +1890. `The Argus,' May 26, p. 6, col. 7: + +"He was set upon by a gang of larrikins, who tried to rescue +the prisoner." + +1891. `Harper s Magazine,' July, p. 215, col. 2: + +"The Melbourne `larrikin' has differentiated himself from the +London `rough,' and in due season a term had to be developed to +denote the differentiation." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 12, p. 13, col. 2: + +"Robert Louis Stevenson, in a recent novel, `The Wrecker,' +makes the unaccountable mistake of confounding the unemployed +Domain loafer with the larrikin. This only shows that Mr. +Stevenson during his brief visits to Sydney acquired but a +superficial knowledge of the underlying currents of our social +life." + +1896. J. St. V. Welch, in `Australasian Insurance and Banking +Record,' May 19, p. 376: + +"Whence comes the larrikin? that pest of these so-called +over-educated colonies; the young loafer of from sixteen to +eight-and-twenty. Who does not know him, with his weedy, +contracted figure; his dissipated pimply face; his greasy +forelock brushed flat and low over his forehead; his too small +jacket; his tight-cut trousers; his high-heeled boots; his +arms--with out-turned elbows--swinging across his stomach as he +hurries along to join his `push,' as he calls the pack in which +he hunts the solitary citizen---a pack more to be dreaded on a +dark night than any pack of wolves--and his name in Sydney is +legion, and in many cases he is a full-fledged voter." + +1896. W. H. Whelan, in `The Argus,' Jan. 7, p. 6, col. 3: + +"Being clerk of the City Court, I know that the word originated +in the very Irish and amusing way in which the then well-known +Sergeant Dalton pronounced the word larking in respect to the +conduct of `Tommy the Nut,' a rowdy of the period, and others +of both sexes in Stephen (now Exhibition) street. + +"Your representative at the Court, the witty and clever `Billy' +O'Hea, who, alas! died too early, took advantage of the +appropriate sound of the word to apply it to rowdyism in +general, and, next time Dalton repeated the phrase, changed the +word from verb to noun, where it still remains, anything to the +contrary notwithstanding. I speak of what I do know, for O'Hea +drew my attention to the matter at the time, and, if I mistake +not, a reference to your files would show that it was first in +the `Argus' the word appeared in print." + +("We can fully confirm Mr. Whelan's account of the origin of +the word `larrikin.'"--Ed. `Argus.') + +[But see quotation from `Argus,' 1871.] + +<hw>Larrikin</hw>, <i>adj</i>. + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 522: + +"Marks the young criminals as heroes in the eyes not only of +the ostensible larrikin element . . ." + +<hw>Larrikinalian</hw>, <i>adj</i>. (Not common.) + +1893. `Evening Standard,' July 5, p. 4, col. 4 (Leading +Article): + +"In the larrikinalian din which prevailed from start to finish +. . ." + +<hw>Larrikiness</hw>, <i>n</i>. a female larrikin. + +1871. `Collingwood Advertiser and Observer,' June 22, p. 3, +col. 5: + +"Evidence was tendered as to the manner of life led by these +larikinesses . . . The juvenile larrikin element being +strongly represented in court, all the boys were ordered out." + +1871. Sir George Stephen, Q.C., `Larrikinism,' a Lecture +reported in `Prahran Telegraph,' Sept. 23, p. 3, col. 1: + +"I know many a larrikiness to whose voice I could listen by +the hour with all my heart, without the least fear of her +stealing it, even if it were worth the trouble." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 224: + +"I have not found the larrikin [in Brisbane]. . . . The +slouch-hat, the rakish jib, the drawn features are not to be +seen; nor does the young larrikiness--that hideous outgrowth +of Sydney and Melbourne civilization--exist as a class." + +<hw>Larrikinism</hw>, <i>n</i>. the conduct of <i>larrikins</i> +(q.v.). + +1870. `The Australian' (Richmond, Victoria), Sept. 10, p. 3, +col. 3: + +"A slight attempt at `larrikinism' was manifested. . . . " + +1871. J. J. Simpson, `Recitations and Rhymes,' p. 17: + +"Melbourne larrikinism is still very bad, + By the papers each day we are told." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, p. 80, col. 2: + +"He took as his theme the `Dialect of Victoria,' which was +coarse and vulgar to a degree. `Larrikinism' was used as a +synonym for `blackguardism.'" + +1876. A. P. Martin, `Sweet Girl-Graduate,' p. 20: + +"There is no doubt that its rising generation afforded material +for letters in the newspapers, under the headings `Larrikinism,' +or, `What shall we do with our boys?'" + +1893. `The Argus,' Feb. 23: + +"Outbreaks of larrikinism are not always harmless ebullitions +of animal spirits. Sometimes they have very serious results." + +<hw>Laughing Jackass</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Jackass</i>. + +<hw>Launce</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian species of this fish +is <i>Congrogradus subducens</i>, Richards., found in North- +West Australia. The <i>Launces</i> or <i>Sand-eels</i> of the +Northern Hemisphere belong to a different group. + +<hw>Laurel</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English tree name is applied in +Australia to various trees, viz.-- + +Alexandrian Laurel-- + <i>Calophyllum inophyllum</i>, Linn:, <i>N.O. Guttiferae</i>; +not endemic in Australia. + +Diamond-leaf L.-- + <i>Pittosporum rhombifolium</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. + +Dodder L.-- + <i>Cassytha filiformis</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Lauraceae</i>; +called also Devil's Guts, not endemic in Australia. + +Hedge L. (q.v.)-- + <i>Pittosporum eugenioides</i>, Cunn. + +Moreton Bay L.-- + <i>Cryptocarya australis</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Lauraceae</i>; +called also Grey Sassafras. + +Native L.-- + <i>Pittosporum undulatum</i>, Andr., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>; +called also <i>Mock Orange</i> (q.v.). + <i>Panax elegans</i>, C. Moore and F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Araliaceae</i>; which is also called Light or White Sycamore. + +White L.-- + <i>Cryptocarya glaucescens</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Lauraceae</i>; +for other names see <i>Beech</i>. + +In Tasmania, the name Native Laurel is applied to <i>Anopterus +glandulosus</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. Peculiar to +Tasmania. + +The New Zealand Laurel is <i>Laurelia novae-zelandiae</i>; +called also <i>Sassafras</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 292: + +"Native Laurel, [also called] `Mock Orange.' This tree is well +worth cultivating on a commercial scale for the sake of the +sweet perfume of its flowers." + +<hw>Lavender, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian tree, +<i>Styphelia australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +<hw>Lawyer</hw>, <i>n</i>. One of the English provincial uses +of this word is for a thorny stem of a briar or bramble. In +New Zealand, the name is used in this sense for the <i>Rubus +australis</i>, <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>, or Wild Raspberry-Vine +(Maori, <i>Tataramoa</i>). The words <i>Bush-Lawyer</i>, +<i>Lawyer-Vine</i>, and <i>Lawyer-Palm</i>, are used with the +same signification, and are also applied in some colonies to +the <i>Calamus australis</i>, Mart. (called also <i>Lawyer- +Cane</i>), and to <i>Flagellaria indua</i>, Linn,, similar +trailing plants. + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 157: + +"<i>Calamus Australis</i>, a plant which Kennedy now saw for +the first time. . . It is a strong climbing palm. From the +roots as many as ninety shoots will spring, and they lengthen +out as they climb for hundreds of feet, never thicker than a +man's finger. The long leaves are covered with sharp spines; +but what makes the plant the terror of the explorers, is the +tendrils, which grow out alternately with the leaves. Many of +these are twenty feet long, and they are covered with strong +spines, curved slightly downwards." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 135: + +"<i>Rubus Australis</i>, the thorny strings of which scratch +the hands and face, and which the colonists, therefore, very +wittily call the `bush-lawyer.'" + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 71: + +"Torn by the recurved prickles of the bush-lawyer." + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 16: + +"Trailing `bush-lawyers,' intermingled with coarse bracken, +cling lovingly to the rude stones." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 103: + +"In the mountain scrubs there grows a very luxuriant kind of +palm (<i>Calamus Australis</i>), whose stem of a finger's +thickness, like the East Indian Rotang-palm, creeps through the +woods for hundreds of feet, twining round trees in its path, +and at times forming so dense a wattle that it is impossible to +get through it. The stem and leaves are studded with the +sharpest thorns, which continually cling to you and draw blood, +hence its not very polite name of lawyer-palm." + +1891. A. J. North, `Records of Australian Museum,' vol. i. +p. 118: + +"Who, in the brushes of the Tweed River, found a nest placed on +a mass of `lawyer-vines' (<i>Calamus Australis</i>)." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 256: + +"`Look out,' said my companion, `don't touch that lawyer-vine; +it will tear you properly, and then not let you go.' Too late; +my fingers touched it, and the vine had the best of it. The +thorns upon the vine are like barbed spears, and they would, +in the language of the Yankee, tear the hide off a crocodile." + +1892. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 7: + +"But no obstacle is worse for the clearer to encounter than the +lawyer-vines where they are not burnt off. These are a form of +palm which grows in feathery tufts along a pliant stalk, and +fastens itself as a creeper upon other trees. From beneath its +tufts of leaves it throws down trailing suckers of the +thickness of stout cord, armed with sets of sharp red barbs. +These suckers sometimes throw themselves from tree to tree +across a road which has not been lately used, and render it as +impassable to horses as so many strains of barbed wire. When +they merely escape from the undergrowth of wild ginger and +tree-fern and stinging-bush, which fringes the scrub, and coil +themselves in loose loops upon the ground, they are dangerous +enough as traps for either man or horse. In the jungle, where +they weave themselves in and out of the upright growths, they +form a web which at times defies every engine of destruction +but fire." + +<hw>Lawyer-Cane</hw>, <hw>Lawyer-Palm</hw>, and +<hw>Lawyer-Vine</hw>. See <i>Lawyer</i>. + +<hw>Lead</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced <i>leed</i>), a mining +term. In the Western United States and elsewhere, the term +lead in mining is used as equivalent for lode. In Australia, +the word <i>lead</i> is only used in reference to alluvial +mining, and signifies the old river-bed in which gold is found. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, p. 75, col. 2: + +"There was every facility for abstracting the gold in the rich +lead of a neighbour." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 272 [Note]: + +"The expression `deep lead' refers to those ancient +river-courses which are now only disclosed by deep-mining +operations." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. v. p. 55: + +"Taking the general matter of `leads' or dead rivers, it +chiefly obtained that if gold were found on one portion of +them, it extended to all the claims within a considerable +distance." + +<hw>Lead, to strike the</hw>. See above. Used figuratively +for to succeed. + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 74: + +"We could shy up our caps for a feller, + As soon as he struck the lead." + +<hw>Leadbeater</hw>, <i>n</i>. applied to a <i>Cockatoo</i>, +<i>Cacatua leadbeateri</i>, Vig., called <i>Leadbeaters +Cockatoo</i> by Major Mitchell (q.v.). + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 127: + +"The birds are very beautiful--the Blue Mountain and Lowrie +parrots . . . leadbeater, and snow-white cockatoos." + +<hw>Leaf-insect</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Phasmid</i>. + +<hw>Lease</hw>, <i>n</i>. a piece of land leased for mining +purposes. In England, the word is used for the document or +legal right concerning the land. In Australia, it is used for +the land itself. Compare <i>Right-of-way</i>. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 15: + +"A nice block of stone was crushed from Johnson's lease." + +<hw>Lease in perpetuity</hw>, a statutory expression in the +most recent land legislation of New Zealand, indicating a +specific mode of alienating Crown lands,. It is a lease for +999 years at a permanent rental equal to 4% on the capital +value, which is not subject to revision. + +<hw>Leather-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Friar-bird</i> (q.v.), <i>Philemon corniculatus</i>, Lath. +See <i>Tropidorhynchus</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 461: + +"The Leatherhead with its constantly changing call and +whistling." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58: + +"The leather-heads utter their settled phrase `Off we go! off +we go!' in the woods, or they come to suck honey from the +<i>Melianthus major</i>, which stands up like a huge artichoke +plant, tipped with dark red plumes of flowers." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 233: + +"Among the Honey-suckers is that singular-looking bird, the +Leatherhead, or Bald-headed Friar (<i>Tropidorhynchus +corniculatus</i>); it is commonly seen upon the topmost +branches of lofty trees, calling `Poor Soldier,' `Pimlico,' +`Four o'clock,' and uttering screaming sounds. It feeds upon +insects, wild fruits, and any sweets it can procure from the +flowers of the Banksia and Gum-trees." + +<hw>Leather-Jacket</hw>, <i>n</i>. + +(1) A name applied popularly and somewhat confusedly to various +trees, on account of the toughness of their bark-- +(a) <i>Eucalyptus punctata</i>, De C., Hickory Eucalypt (q.v.); +(b) <i>Alphitonia excelsa</i>, Reiss., or Cooperswood; +(c) <i>Ceratopetalum</i>, or Coachwood; +(d) <i>Cryptocarya meissnerii</i>, F. v. M.; +(e) <i>Weinmannia benthami</i>, F. v. M. + +(2) A fish of the family <i>Sclerodermi</i>, <i>Monacanthus +ayraudi</i>, Quoy. and Gaim., and numerous other species of +<i>Monocanthus</i>. Leather-Jackets are wide-spread in +Australian seas. The name is given elsewhere to other fishes. +See <i>File-fish</i> and <i>Pig-fish</i>. + +1770. `Capt. Cook's Journal,' edition Wharton, 1893, p. 246: + +"They had caught a great number of small fish, which the +sailors call leather jackets, on account of their having +a very thick skin; they are known in the West Indies." + +1773. `Hawkesworth's Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 503--'Cook's +First Voyage,' May 4, 1770 (at Botany Bay): + +"Small fish, which are well known in the West Indies, and +which our sailors call Leather jackets, because their skin +is remarkably thick." + +1789. W. Tench, `Expedition to Botany Bay, p. 129: + +"To this may be added bass, mullets, skaits, soles, +leather-jackets, and many other species." + +(3) A kind of pancake. + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 151: + +"A plentiful supply of `leatherjackets' (dough fried in a +pan)." + +1853. Mossman and Banister, `Australia Visited and Revisited,' +p. 126: + +"Our party, upon this occasion, indulged themselves, in +addition to the usual bush fare, with what are called `Leather +jackets,' an Australian bush term for a thin cake made of +dough, and put into a pan to bake with some fat. . . The +Americans indulge in this kind of bread, giving them the name +of `Puff ballooners,' the only difference being that they place +the cake upon the bare coals . . ." + +1855. R. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 117: + +"The leather-jacket is a cake of mere flour and water, raised +with tartaric acid and carbonate of soda instead of yeast, and +baked in the frying-pan; and is equal to any muffin you can +buy in the London shops." + +<hw>Leather-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Pinkwood</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Leawill</hw>, or <hw>Leeangle</hw> (with other spellings), +<i>n</i>. aboriginal names for a native weapon, a wooden club +bent at the striking end. The name is Victorian, especially of +the West; probably derived from <i>lea</i> or <i>leang</i>, or +<i>leanyook</i>, a tooth. The aboriginal forms are +<i>langeel</i>, or <i>leanguel</i>, and <i>lea-wil</i>, +or <i>le-ow-el</i>. The curve evidently helped the English +termination, angle. + +1845. Charles Griffith, `Present State and Prospects of the +Port Phillip District of New South Wales,' p. 155: + +"The liangle is, I think, described by Sir Thomas Mitchell. +It is of the shape of a pickaxe, with only one pick. Its name +is derived from another native word, leang, signifying a tooth. +It is a very formidable weapon, and used only in war." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. II. +c. xiii. p. 479: + +"A weapon used by the natives called a Liangle, resembling a +miner's pick." + +1863. M. K. Beveridge,' Gatherings among the Gum-trees,' +p. 56: + +"Let us hand to hand attack him + With our Leeawells of Buloite." + +Ibid. (In Glossary) p. 83: + +"<i>Leeawell</i>, a kind of war club." + +1867. G. Gordon McCrae, `Mimba,' p. 9: + +"The long liangle's nascent form + Fore-spoke the distant battle-storm." + +1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 21: + +"His war-club or leeangle." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina, +p. 67: + +"Of those [waddies] possessing--we might almost say---a +national character, the shapes of which seem to have come down +generation after generation, from the remotest period, the +Leawill is the most deadly-looking weapon. It is usually three +feet long, and two and a half inches thick, having a pointed +head, very similar both in shape and size to a miner's driving +pick; in most cases the oak (Casuarina) is used in the +manufacture of this weapon; it is used in close quarters only, +and is a most deadly instrument in the hands of a ruthless foe, +or in a general melee such as a midnight onslaught." + +<hw>Leeangle</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Leawill</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Leek</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small parrot. See <i>Greenleek</i>. + +<hw>Leek, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a poisonous Australian plant, +<i>Bulbine bulbosa</i>, Haw., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. Called +also <i>Native Onion</i>. Its racemes of bright yellow flowers +make the paddocks gay in spring. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 121: + +"`Native Onion,' `Native Leek.' Mr. W. <i>n</i>. Hutchinson, Sheep +Inspector, Warrego, Queensland, reports of this plant: `Its +effects on cattle are . . . continually lying down, rolling, +terribly scoured, mucous discharge from the nose.'" + +<hw>Leg</hw>, <i>n</i>. mining term. a peculiar form of +quartz-reef, forming a nearly vertical prolongation of the +saddle. + +1890. `The Argus,' June x6th, p. 6, col. 1: + +"It may also be observed that in payable saddle formations a +slide intersects the reef above the saddle coming from the +west, and turning east with a wall of the east leg, where the +leg of reef is observed to go down deeper, and to carry a +greater amount of gold than in ordinary cases." + +<hw>Legitimacy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation. +[Old and now unused slang.] + + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 16: + +"Legitimacy--a colonial term for designating the cause of the +emigration of a certain portion of our population; i.e. +having legal reasons for making the voyage." + +[So also at p. 116, "Legitimates"] + +<hw>Leguminous Ironbark</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given by +Leichhardt to the Queensland tree <i>Erythrophaeum +laboucherii</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. +See Ironbark. + +<hw>Leichhardt</hw>, or <hw>Leichhardt-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. +an Australian timber-tree, <i>Morinda citrifolia</i>, Linn., +<i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>; called also Canary-wood and Indian +Mulberry. In Queensland, the name is applied to +<i>Sarcocephalus cordatus</i>, Miq., <i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>, +a large timber-tree of North Queensland, much used +in building. + +1874. M. K. Beveridge, `Lost Life,' p. 40: + +"Groaning beneath the friendly shade + That by a Leichhardt-tree was made." + + 1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia, p. 258: + +"The Leichhardt is a very symmetrical tree, that grows to a +height of about sixty feet, and has leaves rather like a big +laurel." + +<hw>Leichhardt-Bean</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bean</i>. + +<hw>Leichhardt's Clustered-Fig</hw>, +<i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Clustered Fig</i>. See <i>Fig</i>. + +<hw>Lemon, Desert</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Desert Lemon</i>. + +<hw>Lemon-scented Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Lemon-scented Ironbark</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to the +Queensland tree <i>Eucalyptus staigeriana</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. See <i>Ironbark</i>. The foliage of +this tree yields a large quantity of oil, equal in fragrance to +that of lemons. + +<hw>Lemon-Sole</hw>, <i>n</i>. In England, the name is applied +to an inferior species of <i>Sole</i>. In New South Wales, +it is given to <i>Plagusia unicolor</i>, Mad., of the family +<i>Pleuronectidae</i> or <i>Flat-fishes</i>. In New Zealand, +it is another name for the New Zealand <i>Turbot</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Lemon, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. a timber tree, <i>Canthium +latifolium</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>; called also +<i>Wild Orange</i>. + +<hw>Lemon-Wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the names given by +settlers to the New Zealand tree called by Maoris <i>Tarata</i> +(q.v.), or <i>Mapau</i> (q.v.). It is <i>Pittosporum +eugenoides</i>, A. Cunn., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. + +<hw>Leopard-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +<i>Flindersia maculosa</i> (or <i>Strezleckiana</i>), F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>; called also <i>Spotted-Tree </i>(q.v.), +and sometimes, in Queensland, <i>Prickly Pine</i>. + +<hw>Lerp</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal word belonging to the +Mallee District of Victoria (see <i>Mallee</i>). Sometimes +spelt <i>leurp</i>, or <i>laap</i>. The aboriginal word means +`sweet.' It is a kind of manna secreted by an insect, Psylla +eucalypti, and found on the leaves of the Mallee, <i>Eucalyptus +dumosa</i>. Attention was first drawn to it by Mr. Thomas +Dobson (see quotations). A chemical substance called +<i>Lerpamyllum</i> is derived from it; see Watts' `Dictionary +of Chemistry,' Second Supplement, 1875, s.v. + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 73: + +"The natives of the Wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the +laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee +(<i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>)." + +1850. T. Dobson, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society +of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 235: + +"The white saccharine substance called `lerp,' by the +Aborigines in the north-western parts of Australia Felix, and +which has attracted the attention of chemists, under the +impression that it is a new species of manna, originates with +an insect of the tribe of <i>Psyllidae</i>, and order +<i>Hemiptera</i>." + +1850. Ibid. p. 292:: + +"Insects which, in the larva state, have the faculty of +elaborating from the juices of the gum-leaves on which they +live a glutinous and saccharine fluid, whereof they construct +for themselves little conical domiciles." + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i. +p. 211: + +"Another variety of manna is the secretion of the pupa of an +insect of the <i>Psylla</i> family and obtains the name of +<i>lerp</i> among the aborigines. At certain seasons of the +year it is very abundant on the leaves of <i>E. dumosa</i>, +or mallee scrub . . ." + +<hw>Lift</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. to drive to market from the run. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iv. p. 45: + +"I haven't lifted a finer mob this season." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 14, p. 4, col. 2: + +"We lifted 7000 sheep." + +<hw>Light-horseman</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete name for a fish; +probably the fish now called a <i>Sweep</i> (q.v.). + +1789. W. Tench, `Expedition to Botany Bay,' p. 129: + +"The French once caught [in Botany Bay] near two thousand fish +in one day, of a species of grouper, to which, from the form of +a bone in the head resembling a helmet, we have given the name +of light horseman." + +1793. J. Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 410 [Aboriginal Vocabulary]: + +"Woolamie, a fish called a light-horseman." +[But see <i>Wollomai</i>.] + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. iv. +p. 78: + +"A boat belonging to the Sirius caught near fifty large fish, +which were called light-horsemen from a bone that grew out of +the head like a helmet." + +<hw>Lightwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to various trees. +See <i>Blackwood</i>. It is chiefly applied to <i>Acacia +melanoxylon</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. See +quotations, 1843 and 1889. + +1843. I. Backhouse. `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies,' p. 48: + +"Lightwood--<i>Acacia Melanoxylon</i> . . . It derives its +name from swimming in water, while the other woods of +V. D. Land, except the pines, generally sink. In some parts of +the Colony it is called Blackwood, on account of its dark +colour." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 515: + +"Some immense logs of `light wood,' <i>a non lucendo</i>, +darker than mahogany." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 17: + +"Arms so brown and bare, to look at them + Recalls to mind the lightwood's rugged stem." + +1866. H. Simcox, `Rustic Rambles,' p. 54: + +"The numerous lightwood trees with sombre shade + Tend to enhance the richness of the glade." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xv. p. 111: + +"The ex-owner of Lyne wished himself back among the old +lightwood trees." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 359: + +"Called `Blackwood' on account of the very dark colour of the +mature wood. It is sometimes called `Lightwood' (chiefly in +South Tasmania, while the other name is given in North Tasmania +and other places), but this is an inappropriate name. It is in +allusion to its weight as compared with Eucalyptus timbers. It +is the `Black Sally' of Western New South Wales, the `Hickory' +of the southern portion of that colony, and is sometimes +called `Silver Wattle.' This is considered by some people +to be the most valuable of all Australian timbers. + +It is hard and close-grained; much valued for furniture, +picture-frames, cabinet-work, fencing, bridges, etc., railway, +and other carriages, boat-building, for tool-handles, +gun-stocks, naves of wheels, crutches, parts of organs, +pianofortes (sound-boards and actions), etc." + +<hw>Light Yellow-wood</hw>, i.q. <i>Long-Jack</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Lignum</hw> (1), or <hw>Lignum-Vitae</hw>, <i>n</i>. +The name is applied to several trees, as <i>Myrtus +acmenioides</i>, F. v. M., called also <i>White Myrtle</i>; +<i>Acacia falcata</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, +called also <i>Hickory</i> and <i>Sally</i>; but chiefly to +<i>Eucalyptus polyanthema</i>, Schau., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 505: + +"[<i>E. polyanthema</i>.] The `Red Box' of South-eastern +Australia. Called also `Brown Box,' `Grey Box,' and `Bastard +Box.' `Poplar-leaved Gum' is another name, but it is most +commonly known as `Lignum Vitae' because of its tough and hard +wood. Great durability is attributed to this wood, though the +stems often become hollow in age, and thus timber of large +dimensions is not readily afforded. It is much sought after +for cogs, naves and felloes; it is also much in demand for +slabs in mines, while for fuel it is unsurpassed. (Mueller.) +Its great hardness is against its general use." + +(2) A bushman's contraction for any species of the wiry plants +called polygonum. + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' [writing +of the Lachlan district, New South Wales] p. 180: + +"The poor emus had got down into the creek amongst the lignum +bushes for a little shade . . . I do not know what a +botanist would call them; they are something like cane, but +with large leaves, which all animals are fond of, and they grow +about eight feet high in the creeks and gullies." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 135: + +"By mulga scrub and lignum plain." + +<hw>Lilac</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Australia to the tree +<i>Melia composita</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>, called +<i>Cape Lilac</i>. It is not endemic in Australia, and is +called "Persian Lilac "in India. In Tasmania the name of +<i>Native Lilac</i> is given to <i>Prostanthera +rotundifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Labiatae</i>, and by +Mrs. Meredith to <i>Tetratheca juncea</i>, Smith, of the +Linnean Order, <i>Octandria</i>. + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' p. 5: + +"<i>Tetratheca juncea</i>, Rushy Tetratheca [with plate]." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 69: + +"A little purple flower, which is equally common, so vividly +recalls to my mind, both by its scent and colour, an Old-World +favorite, that I always know it as the native Lilac +(<i>Tetratheca juncea</i>)." + +<hw>Lily, Darling</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bulbous plant, <i>Crinum +flaccidum</i>, Herb., <i>N.O. Amaryllideae</i>; called also the +<i>Murray Lily</i>. (See <i>Lily, Murray</i>.) + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 20: + +"The `Darling Lily.' This exceedingly handsome white-flowered +plant, which grows back from the Darling, has bulbs which yield +a fair arrowroot. On one occasion, near the town of Wilcannia, +a man earned a handsome sum by making this substance when flour +was all but unattainable." + +<hw>Lily, Flax</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Flax-Lily</i>, and +<i>Flax, New Zealand</i>. + +<hw>Lily, Giant</hw>-, or <hw>Spear</hw>-, <i>n</i>. +a fibre plant, <i>Doryanthes excelsa</i>, Corr., +<i>N.O. Amaryllideae</i>. + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 339: + +"The Doryanthes excelsa, a gigantic Lily of Australia, is a +magnificent plant, with a lofty flowering spike. The bunches +or clusters of crimson flowers are situated in the summit of +the flowering spike . . . The diameter of a cluster of +blossoms is about 14 inches . . . The flower-buds are of a +brilliant crimson, and the anthers of the stamens are, in the +recently expanded flower, of a dark-green colour." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 621: + +"`Spear Lily.' `Giant Lily.' The leaves are a mass of fibre, +of great strength, which admits of preparation either by +boiling or maceration, no perceptible difference as to quality +or colour being apparent after heckling. Suitable for brush +making, matting, etc." + +<hw>Lily, Gordon</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant +and its flower, <i>Blandfordia marginata</i>, Herb., +<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>, and other species of +<i>Blandfordia</i> (q.v.). + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 72: + +"Blandfordia nobilis. This splendid plant is common on the +west coast and on the shores of the Mersey. It bears a head of +pendulous scarlet blossoms tipped with yellow, one inch long, +rising out of a stalk of from 1 1/2 to 3 feet long, from between +two opposite series of strapshaped leaves. It is named after +George [Gordon] Marquis of Blandford, son of the second Duke of +Marlborough." + +<hw>Lily, Murray</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Darling Lily</i>. +See above. + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 119: + +"This showy genus <i>Crinum</i> furnishes also Victoria with a +beautiful species, the Murray Lily (<i>Crinum flaccidum</i>), +not however to be found away from the Murray-River southward." + +<hw>Lilly-Pilly</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a large timber +tree, <i>Eugenia smithii</i>, Poir., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. +The bark is rich in tanning. Sometimes called <i>Native +Banana</i>. + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 327: + +"The Lillypilly-trees, as they are named by the colonists, +consist of several species of <i>Acmena</i>, and are all of +elegant growth and dense and handsome foliage." + +1879. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the Linnaean +Society of New South Wales,' p. 134: + +"<i>Eugenia Smithii</i>, or Lilli pilli, and <i>Melodorum +Leichhardtii</i> are also fair eating. The latter goes by the +name of the native banana though it is very different from a +banana, and in reality allied to the custard apple." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 29: + +"`Lilly Pilly.' The fruits are eaten by aboriginals, small +boys, and birds. They are formed in profusion, are acidulous +and wholesome. They are white with a purplish tint, and up to +one inch in diameter." + +<hw>Lily, Rock</hw>, <i>n</i>. an orchid, <i>Dendrobium +speciosum</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Orchideae</i>. although not a +Lily, it is always so called, especially in Sydney, where it is +common. + +1879. H. <i>n</i>. Moseley, `Notes by Naturalist on Challenger,' +p. 270: + +"A luxuriant vegetation, with huge masses of Stagshorn Fern +(<i>Platycerium</i>) and `rock-lilies' (orchids), and a variety +of timbers, whilst there are Tree-ferns and small palms in the +lateral shady gullies." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 22: + +"`Rock Lily.' The large pseudobulbs have been eaten by the +aboriginals; they contain little nutritive matter." + +<hw>Lily, Water</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are several indigenous +native varieties of the <i>N.O. Nymphaeceae</i>--<i>Cabombia +peltata</i>, Pursh; <i>Nymphaea gigantea</i>, Hook. (<i>Blue +Water-lily</i>). + +<hw>Lily, Yellow</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for +<i>Bulbine bulbosa</i>, Haw., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. +See <i>Leek, Native</i>. + +<hw>Lime, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, <i>Citrus +australasica</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>; called also +<i>Finger Lime</i> and <i>Orange</i>. But the appellation of +<i>Native Lime</i> is more generally given to <i>Citrus +australis</i>, Planch., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 16: + +"`Native Lime. Orange.' The fruit, which is an inch and +a half in diameter, and almost globular, yields an agreeable +beverage from its acid juice." + +<hw>Ling</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. The name is given in England +to various fishes, from their length. In New Zealand and +Tasmania, it is applied to <i>Genypterus blacodes</i>, Forst.; +also called <i>Cloudy Bay Cod</i>. <i>Lotella marginata</i>, +Macl., is called <i>Ling</i>, in New South Wales, and +<i>Beardie</i>. <i>Genypterus</i> belongs to the +<i>Ophidiidae</i> and <i>Lotella</i> to the next family, +the <i>Gadidae</i>. + +<hw>Lobster</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is often carelessly used +in Australia for the <i>Crayfish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Lobster's</hw>-Claw, <i>n</i>. another name for <i>Sturt's +Desert Pea</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Locust</hw>, <i>n</i>. name popularly but quite erroneously +applied to insects belonging to two distinct orders. + +(1) Insects belonging to the order <i>Hemiptera</i>. The great +black Cicada, <i>Cicada moerens</i>, Germ., and the great green +Cicada, <i>Cyclochila australasiae</i>, Donov. + +(2) Insects belonging to the order <i>Orthoptera</i>, +such as the great green gum-tree grasshopper, <i>Locusta +vigentissima</i>, Serv., or the Australian yellow-winged +locust, <i>Oedipoda musica</i>, Fab. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. I. c. +ix. p. 285: + +"The trees swarmed with large locusts (the <i>Cicada</i>), +quite deafening us with their shrill buzzing noise." + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. iv. p. 104: + +"We heard everywhere on the gumtrees the cricket-like +insects--usually called locusts by the colonists--hissing +their reed-like monotonous noise." + +1869. J. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155: + +"The perpetual song of unnumbered locusts." + +1885. H. H. Hayter, `Carboona,' p. 5: + +"The deaf'ning hum of the locusts." + +1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Natural History of +Victoria,' Dec. 5, pl. 50: + +"Our <i>Cicada moerens</i> . . . produces an almost deafening +sound from the numbers of the individuals in the hottest days +and the loudness of their noise." "This species (<i>Cyclochila +Australasiae</i>) is much less abundant than the +<i>C. moerens</i>, and seems more confined to moist places, +such as river banks and deep ravines and gullies." + +1889. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Natural History of +Victoria,' Dec. 11, pl. 110: + +"The great size of the muscular thighs of the posterior pair of +feet enables the Locusts to jump much higher, further, and more +readily than Grasshoppers, giving an example of muscular power +almost unparalleled in the animal kingdom." + +1896. F. A. Skuse, `Records of Australian Museum,' vol. ii. +No. 7, p. 107: + +"What are commonly styled `locusts' in this country are really +<i>Cicadae</i>, belonging to a totally distinct and widely +separated order of insects. And moreover the same kind of +<i>Cicada</i> is known by different names in different +localities, such as `Miller,' `Mealyback,' etc. The true +locusts belong to the grasshoppers, while the <i>Homopterous +Cicadidae</i> have been known as <i>Cicadas</i> from times +of remote antiquity." + +<hw>Locust-tree</hw>, of New Zealand. See <i>Kowhai</i>. + +<hw>Logan-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small Queensland tree, +with an acid fruit, <i>Acronychia acidia</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +<hw>Log-hut</hw>, <i>n</i>. Log-cabin is American. +Log-hut is Australian. + + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 178: + +"Not more than ten settlers had been able to erect dwellings +better than log-huts." +[This was in Sydney, 1796.] + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. I. +c. ix. p. 287: + +"Captain Fyans was living in a log-hut on the banks of the +Marabool river." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 61: + +"Log-huts, with the walls built American fashion, of horizontal +tree-trunks." + +<hw>Log-Runner</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, called also +a Spinetail. The species are-- + +Black-headed-- + <i>Orthonyx spaldingi</i>, Ramsay; + +Spinetailed-- + <i>O. spinicauda</i>, Temm., called also <i>Pheasant's +Mother</i>. See <i>Orthonyx</i>. + +<hw>Logs</hw>, <i>n. pl.</i> the Lock-up. Originally, in the +early days, a log-hut, and often keeping the name when it was +made a more secure place. Sometimes, when there was no +lock-up, the prisoners were chained to heavy logs of trees. + +1802. G.Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 184: + +"The governor resolved on building a large log prison both at +Sydney and Paramatta, and `as the affair cried haste,' a +quantity of logs were ordered to be sent in by the various +settlers, officers and others." + +[p. 196]: "The inhabitants of Sydney were assessed to supply +thatch for the new gaol, and the building was enclosed with +a strong high fence. It was 80 feet long, the sides and ends +were of strong logs, a double row of which formed each +partition. The prison was divided into 22 cells. The floor +and the roof were logs, over which was a coat eight inches +deep of clay." + +1851. Letter from Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's +`Church of Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 164: + +"One [sentry] at the lock-up, a regular American log-hut." +[sic. But in America it would have been called a log-cabin.] + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 193: + +"Let's put him in the Logs . . . The lock-up, like most +bush ones, was built of heavy logs, just roughly squared, +with the ceiling the same sort." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 111: + +"`He'll land himself in the logs about that same calf racket +if he doesn't lookout, some day.' `Logs!' I says. `There +don't seem to be many about this part. The trees are all +too small.'" + +<hw>Log up</hw>, <i>v</i>. to make a log-support for the +windlass. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. v. p. 54: + +"We . . . had logged up and made a start with another shaft." + +<hw>Lolly</hw>, <i>n., pl</i>. <hw>Lollies</hw>. The English +word lollipop is always shortened in Australia, and is the +common word to the exclusion of others, e.g. <i>sweets</i>. +Manufacturers of sweetmeats are termed Lolly-makers. + +1871. J. J. Simpson, `Recitations,' p. 24: + +"Lollies that the children like." + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 18: + +"Common children fancy lollies, + Eat them 'gainst their parents' wills." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 16: + +"I thankfully expended the one in bile-producing cakes +and lollies." + +1893. `Evening Standard' (Melbourne), Oct. 18, p. 6, col. 2: + +"Mr. Patterson (musing over last Saturday's experiences): +You're going to raise the price of lollies. I'm a great buyer +of them myself. (Laughter.) If you pay the full duty it will, +doubtless, be patriotic for me to buy more when I go amongst +the juveniles." + +<hw>Long-fin</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the fish <i>Caprodon +schlegelii</i>, Gunth., and in New South Wales to <i>Anthias +longimanus</i>, Gunth. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 33: + +"The long-fin, <i>Anthias Iongimanus</i>, Gunth., is a good +fish that finds its way to the market occasionally . . . may be +known by its uniform red colour, and the great length of the +pectoral fins." + +<hw>Long-Jack</hw>, name given to the tree <i>Flindersia +oxleyana</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>; called also +Light Yellow-Wood. + +<hw>Long-sleever</hw>, <i>n</i>. name for a big drink and also +for the glass in which it is contained. Perhaps in allusion to +its tall, tapering, long shape. + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. p. 83: + +"Their drivers had completed their regulation half-score of +`long-sleevers' of `she-oak.'" + +<hw>Long-Tom</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Sydney to <i>Belone +ferox</i>, Gunth., a species of <i>Garfish</i> which has both +jaws prolonged to form a slender beak. See <i>Garfish</i>. + +<hw>Long-Yam</hw>. See <i>Yam</i>. + +<hw>Look</hw>, <i>v. tr.</i> to examine. + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 105: + +"Plains are scoured and every piece of timber looked." +[sc. looked-over.] + +<hw>Lope</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slow and steady gallop. From Dutch +verb <i>loopen</i>, to leap, to run. The word is American +rather than Australian. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 35: + +"Every body gallops here, or at least goes at a canter--which +they call the Australian lope." + +<hw>Loquat</hw>, a Chinese word meaning "Rush-orange," +<i>Photinia japonica</i>. Being highly ornamental and bearing +a pleasant stony juicy fruit of the colour and size of a small +orange, it has been introduced into nearly all Australian +gardens. The name <i>Native Loquat</i> has been given to an +indigenous shrub, <i>Rhodomyrtus macrocarpa</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<hw>Lorikeet</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, little <i>Lory</i> +(q.v.). The species in Australia are-- + +Blue-bellied Lorikeet-- + <i>Trichoglossus novae-hollandiae</i>, Gmel. + +Blue-faced L.-- + <i>Cyclopsitta macleayana</i>, Ramsay. + +Little L.-- + <i>Trichoglossus pusillus</i>, Shaw. + +Musk L.-- + <i>T. concinnus</i>, Shaw. + +Purple-crowned L.-- + <i>T. porphyrocephalus</i>, Dietr. + +Red-collared L.-- + <i>T. rubritorqus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Red-faced L.-- + <i>Cyclopsitta coxenii</i>, Gould. + +Scaly-breasted L.-- + <i>Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus</i>, Kuhl. + +Swift L.-- + <i>Lathamus discolor</i>, Shaw. + +Varied L.-- + <i>Trichoglossus versicolor</i>, Vig. + +The following table gives Gould's classification in 1848:-- + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. + + Plate + +<i>Lathamus discolor</i>, Swift Lorikeet ... ... 47 +<i>Trichoglossus Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Jard. and Selb., + Swainson's L. ... ... ... ... ... ... 48 +<i>T. rubritorquis</i>, Vig. and Horsf., Red-collared L. 49 +<i>T. chlorolepidotus</i>, Scaly-breasted L. ... 50 +<i>T. versicolor</i>, Vig., Varied L. ... ... 51 +<i>T. concinnus</i>, Musky L. ... ... ... ... 52 +<i>T. porphyrocephalus</i>, Dict., Porphyry-crowned L. 53 +<i>T. pusillus</i>, Little L. ... ... ... ... 54 + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 13, col. 4: + +"On the hill-sides the converse of the lorikeets as they drain +the honeycups and swing and chatter in low undertones the whole +day long." + +<hw>Lory</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. The word is Malay. (See +`Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xv.) It is often spelt +<i>Lowrie</i> in Australia. The species in Australia are-- + +Crimson-winged Lory-- + <i>Aprosmictus coccineopterus</i>, Gould. + +King L.-- + <i>A. scapulatus</i>, Bechst. + +Red-winged Lory-- + <i>A. erythropterus</i>, Gmel. + +1848. Gould's `Birds of Australia,' vol. v.: + +"<i>Aprosmictus scapulatus</i>, king lory; +<i>erythropturus</i>, red-winged lory." + +<hw>Lotus-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Parra gallinacea</i>, Temm.; +called also the <i>Jacana</i> (q.v.), and the <i>Parra</i> +(q.v.). + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 22: + +"The most striking bird on the lagoon is doubtless the +beautiful <i>Parra gallinacea</i>, which in Australia is called +the lotus-bird. It sits on the leaves that float on the water, +particularly those of the water-lily." + +<hw>Lowan</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal birdname for <i>Leipoa +ocellata</i>, Gould. The name is used for the bird in Victoria +and in the south-east district of South Australia. In the +Mallee district, it is called <i>Mallee-bird</i>, <i>Mallee +fowl</i>, <i>Mallee-hen</i> (q.v.); in South Australia, +<i>Native Pheasant</i> (q.v.); and in various parts of +Australia, the <i>Scrub-Turkey</i>. The county called Lowan, +after the bird, is in the Mallee country in the west of +Victoria. See <i>Turkey</i>. + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 171: + +"The Lowan (Mallee-hen, they're mostly called). The Lowan +eggs--beautiful pink thin-shelled ones they are, first-rate +to eat, and one of 'em a man's breakfast." + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 68: + +"To the dry, arid Mallee Scrub of the Western District is a +radical change of scene. There the so-called Mallee hen, or +Native name, Lowan (<i>Leipoa ocellata</i>), loves to dwell." + +1896. `The Argus,' Aug. 4, p. 5, col. 2: + +"The postmaster at Nhill had drawn the attention of the Deputy +Postmaster-General to the large number of letters which are +received there addressed to `Lowan.' It should be understood +that this is the name of a county containing several postal +districts, and correspondents should be more specific in their +addresses." + +<hw>Lowrie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. An Australian variant +of <i>Lory</i> (q.v.). + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 40: + +"A great many species of the parrot are found; and of these +the King Parrot is the most beautiful, and that called the +Lowrie is perhaps the most docile." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' p. 127: + +"The birds are very beautiful--the Blue Mountain and Lowrie +parrots . . .' + +<hw>Lubra</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a black woman. +The name comes from Tasmania, appearing first in the form +<i>loubra</i>, in a vocabulary given in the `Voyage de +Decouvertes de l'Astrolabe' (Paris, 1834), vol. vii. p. 9, +and was obtained from a Tasmanian woman, belonging to Port +Dalrymple on the Tamar River. It is probably a compound +of the Tasmanian words <i>loa</i> or <i>lowa</i>, a woman, +and <i>proi</i> (with variants), big. In Victoria, the use +of the word began at the Hopkins River and the vicinity, +having been introduced by settlers from Tasmania, but it was +generally adopted south of the Murray. North of the Murray +the native women were called <i>Gins</i> (q.v.). Both words +are now used indiscriminately. + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society +of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 73 : + +"The young man who wishes to marry has first to look out for a +wife amongst the girls or <i>leubras</i> of some neighbouring +tribe." + +1864. H. Simcox, `Outward Bound," p. 87: + +"Many lubras so black with their load on their back." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life," p. 23: + +"Certain stout young gins or lubras, set apart for that +purpose, were sacrificed." + +1891. `The Argus,' Nov. 7, p. 13, col. 4: + +"A few old lubras sufficiently dirty and unprepossessing." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 28: + +"Naked, and not ashamed, the old men grey-bearded and eyes +bright, watched the cooking of the fish, and the younger, with +the lubras, did the honours of reception." + +<hw>Lucerne, Native</hw>, or <hw>Paddy</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. +<i>Queensland Hemp</i>. See <i>Hemp</i>. + +1895. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 95: + +"And now lies wandering fat and sleek, + On the Lucerne flats by the Homestead Creek." + +<hw>Luderick</hw>, or <hw>Ludrick</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal +Gippsland name for a local variety of the fish <i>Girella +simplex</i>, Richards., the <i>Black-fish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Lugg</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish not identified. + +"Lug, a kind of fish." (`Walker,' 1827) + +1802. Flemming, `Journal of the Exploration of C. Grimes' +(at Port Phillip), ed. by J. J. Shillinglaw, Melbourne, 1897, +p. 27: + +"Many swans, ducks and luggs." + +<hw>Lyonsia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant. See <i>Devil's +guts</i>. + +<hw>Lyre-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, originally +called the <i>Bird of Paradise of New South Wales</i>; then +called a <i>Native Pheasant</i>, or <i>Mountain Pheasant</i>, +and still generally called a <i>Pheasant</i> by the Gippsland +bushmen. The name Lyre-bird apparently began between 1828 and +1834. It is not used by Cunningham, `Two Years in New South +Wales' (1828), vol. i. p. 303. See <i>Menura</i>. +The species are-- + +The Lyre-bird-- + <i>Menura superba</i>, Davies. + +Albert L.-b.-- + <i>M. alberti</i>, Gould. + +Victoria L.-b.-- + <i>M. victoriae</i>, Gould. + +Since 1888 the <i>Lyre-bird</i> has been the design on the +eight-penny postage-stamp of New South Wales. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 435: + +"The Bird of Paradise of New South Wales [with picture]. This +elegant bird, which by some is called the Bird of Paradise, and +by others the Maenura Superba, has a straight bill, with the +nostrils in the centre of the beak." + +1802. D. Collins, `History of English Colony of New South +Wales,' vol. ii. p. 335: + +"<i>Menura superba</i>." [But not the name lyre-bird]. + +1834. Geo. Bennett, `Wanderings in New South Wales, etc.,' +/vol./ i. p. 277: + +"The `Native or Wood-pheasant,' or `Lyre bird' of the +colonists, the `Menura superba' of naturalists, and the +`Beleck, beleck,' and `Balaugara' of the aboriginal tribes, +is abundant about the mountain ranges, in all parts of the +colony." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' +p. 132: + +"Numerous pheasants (<i>Menura superba</i>). These birds are +the mocking-birds of Australia, imitating all the sounds that +are heard in the bush in great perfection. They are about the +size of a barn-door fowl, and are not remarkable for any beauty +either in the shape or colour, being of a dirty brown, +approaching to black in some parts; their greatest attraction +consists in the graceful tail of the cock bird, which assumes +something the appearance of a lyre, for which reason some +naturalists have called them lyre-birds." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 14: + +"<i>Menura superba</i>, Davies, Lyre-bird; Pheasant of the +Colonists. Were I requested to suggest an emblem for Australia +amongst its birds, I should without the slightest hesitation +select the <i>Menura</i> as the most appropriate, being +strictly peculiar to Australia." + +1864. J. S. Moore, `Spring-Life Lyrics;' p. 92: + +"Shy as the lyre-bird, hidden away, + A glittering waif in the wild." + +1867. G. G. McCrae, `Balladeadro,' p. 30: + +"There the proud lyre-bird spreads his tail, + And mocks the notes of hill and dale + Whether the wild dog's plaintive howl + Or cry of piping water-fowl." + +1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra Manaro,' p. 54: + +"The Lyre-bird may yet be seen--more frequently heard--amongst +the gullies and ravines. It has the power of imitating every +other bird, and nearly every sound it hears in the bush-even +that of a cross-cut saw." + +1886. J. A. Fronde, `Oceana,' p. 146: + +"Here, too, for the first time, we saw a lyre-bird, which some +one had just shot, the body being like a coot's, and about the +same size, the tail long as the tail of a bird of paradise, +beautifully marked in bright brown, with the two chief feathers +curved into the shape of a Greek lyre, from which it takes its +name." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes'--Game Act, Third Schedule: + +[Close Season.] "Lyre Birds. The whole year." + +1893. `The Age,' Aug. 7, p. vi, col. 9: + +"There are more reasons than one why the lyre-bird should be +preserved. From a purely utilitarian point of view it is of +value, for it is insectivorous and preys upon insects which are +apt to prefer orchard fruit to their natural bush food. But +the bird has as well a national and sentimental value. Next to +the emu it is the most typical Australian bird. It is peculiar +to Australia, for in no other country is it to be seen. +Comparatively speaking it is a <i>rara avis</i> even in +Australia itself, for it is only to be found in the most +secluded parts of two colonies--Victoria and New South Wales. +It is the native pheasant. The aborigines call it +`Beleck-Beleck,' and whites call it the `lyre-bird' from the +shape of its tail; the ornithologists have named it +<i>Menura</i>. There are three species--the <i>Victoriae</i> +of this colony, and the <i>Alberta</i> and <i>superba</i> of +New South Wales. The general plumage is glossy brown, shaded +with black and silver grey, and the ornate tail of the male +bird is brown with black bars. They live in the densest +recesses of the fern gullies of the Dividing Range with the +yellow-breasted robin, the satin-bird, and the bell-bird as +their neighbours. They are the most shy of birds, and are +oftener heard than seen. Their notes, too, are heard more +frequently than they are recognized, for they are consummate +mimics and ventriloquists. They imitate to perfection the +notes of all other birds, the united voicing of a flock of +paraquetts [sic], the barking of dogs, the sawing of timber, +and the clink of the woodman's axe. Thus it is that the +<i>menura</i> has earned for itself the title of the Australian +mocking-bird. Parrots and magpies are taught to speak; as a +mimic the lyre-bird requires no teacher." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 9. p. 9, col. 1: + +"If the creature was lovely its beauty was marketable and +fatal--and the lyre-bird was pursued to its last retreats and +inveigled to death, so that its feathers might be peddled in +our streets." + + + +M + + +<hw>Mackerel</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, <i>Scomber +antarcticus</i>, Castln., said to be identical with <i>Scomber +pneumatophorus</i>, De la Roche, the European mackerel; but +rare. In New Zealand, <i>Scomber australasicus</i>, Cuv. and +Val. + +<hw>Macquarie Harbour Grape</hw>, or <hw>Macquarie Harbour +Vine</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Tasmanian name for <i>Muhlenbeckia +adpressa</i>, Meissn. <i>N.O. Polygonaceae</i>; called +<i>Native Ivy</i> in Australia. See <i>Ivy</i> and +<i>Grape</i>. + +1831. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 265: + +"That valuable plant called the <i>Macquarie harbour grape</i>. +It was so named by Mr. Lempriere, late of the Commissariat at +that station, who first brought it into notice as a desirable +acquisition in our gardens." + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 133: + +"<i>Polygonum adpressum</i>. The Macquarie harbour vine, +either as an insignificant trailing plant, or as a magnificent +climber, according to the soil and situation, is found on the +coast of various parts of Van Diemen's Land, and also as far +inland as within about four miles of New Norfolk. This plant +has a small but sweet fruit, formed of the thickened divisions +of the calyx of the flower, inclosing a triangular seed of +unpleasant flavour." + +<hw>Macquarie Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Macropus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for the +typical genus of <i>Macropodidae</i>, established by Shaw in +1800. From the Greek <i>makropous</i>, long-footed. It +includes the <i>Kangaroo</i> (q.v.) and <i>Wallaby</i> (q.v.). +<i>M. giganteus</i>, Zimm., is the Giant Kangaroo, or +<i>Forester</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Mado</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Sydney fish, <i>Therapon +cuvieri</i>, Bleek; called also <i>Trumpeter-Perch</i>. +<i>Atypus strigatus</i>, Gunth., is also called <i>Mado</i> +by the Sydney fishermen, who confound it with the first species. +The name is probably aboriginal. + +<hw>Magpie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a black-and-white Crow-Shrike, +present all over Australia. He resembles the English Magpie in +general appearance, but has not the long tail of that bird, +though he shares with him his kleptomania. He is often called +the <i>Bush-magpie</i> (q.v.) by townsfolk, to distinguish him +from the tamed specimens kept in many gardens, or in cages, +which are easily taught to talk. The species are-- + +Black-backed Magpie-- + <i>Gymnorhina tibicen</i>, Lath.; called also +<i>Flute-Bird</i> (q.v.). + +Long-billed M.-- + <i>G. dorsalis</i>, Campbell. + +White, or Organ M.-- + <i>G. organicum</i>, Gould; called also <i>Organ-bird</i> +(q.v.). + +White-backed M.-- + <i>G. leuconota</i>, Gould. + +In Tasmania, the name is also applied to the-- + +Black Magpie-- + <i>Strepera fuliginosa</i>, Gould; and + <i>S. arguta</i>, Gould. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffr/e/y Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 314 +[Footnote]: + +"Magpie, a large, pied crow.Of all the birds I have ever seen, +the cleverest, the most grotesque, and the most musical. The +splendid melody of his morning and evening song is as +unequalled as it is indescribable." + +1869. B. Hoare, `Figures of Fancy,' p. 97: + +"Gay magpies chant the livelong day." + +1886. T. Heney, `Fortunate Days,' p. 47: + +"The magpie swells from knoll or silent brake + His loud sweet tune." + +1887. `Melbourne Punch,' March 31: + + "The magpie maketh mute + His mellow fluent flute, +Nor chaunteth now his leuconotic hymn." + +<hw>Magpie-Goose</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common name for the +Australian Goose, <i>Anseranus melanoleuca</i>, Lath.; called +also <i>Swan-goose</i>, and <i>Pied goose</i>. +See <i>Goose</i>. + +<hw>Magpie-Lark</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian black-and-white +bird (<i>Grallina picata</i>, Lath.), resembling the Magpie in +appearance, but smaller; called also <i>Pee-wee</i>, and +<i>Mudlark</i>, from its building its nest of mud. + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 235: + +"The little magpie-lark. . . . His more elegant and graceful +figure remains in modest silence by the hedgerow in the +outskirts." + +<hw>Magpie-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a West Australian, Victorian, +and Tasmanian fish, <i>Chilodactylus gibbosus</i>, Richards.; +not a true Perch, but of family <i>Cirrhitidae</i>. + +<hw>Magra</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the sling or +pouch in which the gins carry their children on their backs. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 185: + +"Other lesser brats were in magras, gipsy-like, at their +mothers' backs." + +On p. 191, Mr. Howitt uses the form "mogra." + +<hw>Mahoe</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +Whitewood-tree, <i>Melicytus ramiflorus</i>, Forst., +<i>N.O. Violarieae</i>. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 447: + +"Mahoe (<i>Melicytus ramiflorus</i>) grows to the height +of about fifty feet, and has a fine thin spiral leaf." + +1863. Thomas Moser, `Mahoe Leaves': + +[Title of a volume of articles about the Maoris.] + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 130: + +"Mahoe, hinahina. A small tree twenty to thirty feet high; +trunk often angular and seven feet in girth. The word is soft +and not in use. . . . Leaves greedily eaten by cattle." + +<hw>Mahogany</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name, with varying epithets, +is applied to several Australian trees, chiefly +<i>Eucalypts</i>, on account of the redness or hardness of +their timber, and its applicability to purposes similar to that +of the true Mahogany. The following enumeration is compiled +from Maiden's `Useful Native Plants' + +Mahogany, <i>Tristania conferta</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. +Myrtaceae</i>; called also White Box, Red Box, Brush +Box, Bastard Box, Brisbane Box. This bark is occasionally used +for tanning. + +Bastard Mahogany, or Gippsland Mahogany, or Swamp Mahogany, +<i>Eucalyptus botryoides</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. +The Blue Gum of New South Wales coast districts. Bastard +Mahogany of Gippsland and New South Wales; called also Swamp +Mahogany in Victoria and New South Wales. It also bears the +names of Bastard Jarrah, and occasionally Woolly Butt. Sydney +workmen often give it the name Bangalay, by which it was +formerly known by the aboriginals of Port Jackson. It is one +of four colonial timbers recommended by the Victorian Carriage +Timber Board for use in the construction of railway carriages. +Specimens from Gippsland (Gippsland Mahogany) are spoken of as +"a timber of good colour, as strong as Blue Gum." + +Mahogany, or Bastard Mahogany, <i>Eucalyptus marginata</i>, +Smith, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. Universally known as +<i>Jarrah</i>. In Western Australia it also bears the name +of Mahogany, or Bastard Mahogany. + +Forest or Red Mahogany, Eucalyptus resinifera, Smith, +N.O. Myrtaceae; called also Jimmy Low (q.v.). + +Forest Mahogany, <i>Eucalyptus microcorys</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. In Queensland it is known as +Peppermint, the foliage being remarkably rich in volatile oil. +But its almost universal name is <i>Tallow Wood</i> (q.v.). +North of Port Jackson it bears the name of <i>Turpentine +Tree</i> (q.v.), and Forest Mahogany. + +Tom Russell's Mahogany, <i>Lysicarpus ternifolius</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +Swamp Mahogany, or White Mahogany, <i>Eucalyptus robusta</i>, +Smith, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, B. Fl. This tree is known as +White, or Swamp Mahogany, from the fact that it generally grows +in swampy ground. It is also called Brown Gum. This timber is +much valued for shingles, wheelwrights'work, ship-building, and +building purposes generally. As a timber for fuel, and where +no great strength is required, it is excellent, especially when +we consider its adaptability to stagnant, swampy, or marshy +places. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. iv. p. 132: + +"Mahogany, Jarrail, Eucalyptus, grows on white sandy land." + +Ibid. vol. ii. c. iv. p. 231: + +"Part of our road lay through a thick mahogany scrub." + +<hw>Mai</hw>, or <hw>Matai</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree, +now called <i>Podocarpus spicata</i>. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 440: + +"Matai, mai (<i>Dacrydium mai</i>), a tree with a fine thick +top, and leaf much resembling that of the yew. The wood is of +a slightly reddish colour, close-grained, but brittle, and +peculiarly fragrant when burnt. . . . Highly prized for fuel, +and also much used for furniture, as it works up easily and +comes next to the totara for durability." + +1876. W. <i>n</i>. Blair, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. ix. art. x. p. 157: + +"I have in this paper adhered to the popular name of black-pine +for this timber, but the native name matai is always used in +the north." + +<hw>Maiden's</hw> Blush, <i>n</i>. name given to the Australian +tree <i>Echinocarpus australis</i>, Benth., <i>N.O.</i> +<i>Tiliaceae</i>; and sometimes applied to <i>Euroschinus +falcatus</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Anacardiaceae</i>. The timber is +of a delicate rosy colour when cut. The fruit is called +<i>Hedgehog-fruit</i> (q.v.). In Tasmania, the name is applied +to <i>Convolvulus erubescens</i>, Sims., order +<i>Convolvulaceae</i>. + +<hw>Maire</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori name applied to three kinds +of trees; viz.-- + +(1) <i>Santalum cunninghamii</i>, Hook., a sandal-wood; + +2) <i>Olea</i> of various species (formerly <i>Fusanus</i>); + +(3) <i>Eugenia maire</i>, A. Cunn., native box-wood, but now +usually confined to <i>N.O. Santalaceae</i>. + +1835. W. Yate, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 41: + +"Mairi--a tree of the <i>Podocarpus</i> species." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, pp. 132-33: + +"Maire--a small tree ten to fifteen feet high, six to eight +inches in diameter; wood hard, close-grained, heavy, used by +Maoris in the manufacture of war implements. Has been used as +a substitute for box by wood-engravers. Black maire, +<i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>;also Maire-rau-nui, <i>Olea +Cunninghamii</i>. Hook., fil., Black M., forty to fifty feet +high, three to four feet in diameter, timber close-grained, +heavy, and very durable." + +<hw>Major Buller</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to one of the +fruits of the Geebong tribe. See <i>Geebong</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 82: + +"The Sergeant Baker in all probability got its local +appellation to the early history of the colony (New South +Wales), as it was called after a sergeant of that name in one +of the first detachments of a regiment; so were also two fruits +of the Geebong tribe (<i>Persoonia</i>); one was called Major +Buller, and the other Major Groce, and this latter again +further corrupted into Major Grocer." + +<hw>Major Groce</hw>, or <hw>Major Grocer</hw>, name given to +one of the fruits of the Geebung tribe. See <i>Geebung</i>, + /or <i>Geebong</i>/ and quotation under <i>Major Buller</i>. + +<hw>Major Mitchell</hw>, <i>n</i>. vernacular name of a species +of Cockatoo, <i>Cacatua leadbeateri</i>, Vig. It was called +after the explorer, Major (afterwards Sir Thomas) Mitchell, who +was Surveyor- General of New South Wales. The cry of the bird +was fancifully supposed to resemble his name. +See <i>Leadbeater</i>. + +<hw>Make a light</hw>, expressive pigeon-English. An aboriginal's +phrase for to look for, to find. "You been make a light +yarraman this morning?" i.e. Have you found or seen the +horses this morning? + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 185 +[Footnote]: + +"`Make a light,' in blackfellow's gibberish, means simply +`See.'" + +<hw>Mako</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally <i>Makomako</i>. Maori +name for a New Zealand tree, <i>Aristotelia racemosa</i>, +Hook., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>, often but incorrectly called +Mokomoko. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 130: + +"Mako, a small handsome tree, six to twenty feet high, +quick-growing, with large racemes of reddish nodding flowers. +Wood very light and white in colour." + +<hw>Mako/2/</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>Tiger- +Shark</i>. See <i>Shark</i>. The teeth of the Mako are used +for ornaments by the Maoris. + +<hw>Mallee</hw>, <i>n.</i> and <i>adj</i>. an aboriginal word. +Any one of several scrubby species of Eucalyptus in the desert +parts of South Australia and Victoria, especially <i>Eucalyptus +dumosa</i>, Cunn., and <i>E. oleosa</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O</i>. +<i>Myrtaceae</i>. They are also called <i>Mallee Gums</i>. +Accent on the first syllable. The word is much used as an +adjective to denote the district in which the shrub grows, the +"<i>Mallee District</i>," and this in late times is generally +shortened into <i>The Mallee</i>. Compare "The Lakes" for the +Lake-district of Cumberland. It then becomes used as an +epithet of Railways, Boards, Farmers, or any matters connected +with that district. + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 73: + +"The natives of the Wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the +laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee +(<i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>" + +1854. E. Stone Parker, `Aborigines of Australia,' p. 25: + +"The immense thickets of <i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>, commonly +designated the `Malle' scrub." + +1857. W. Howitt,' Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 2: + +"This mallee scrub, as it is called, consists of a dense wood +of a dwarf species of gum-tree, <i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>. +This tree, not more than a dozen feet in height, stretches its +horizontal and rigid branches around it so as to form with its +congeners a close, compact mass." + +186. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 214 +(Oxley's Expedition in 1817): + +"The country, in dead flats, was overspread with what is now +called mallee scrub, that is, the dwarf spreading eucalyptus, +to which Mr. Cunningham gave the specific name of +<i>dumosa</i>, a most pestilent scrub to travel through, +the openings betwixt the trees being equally infested with +the detestable malle-grass." + +1883. `The Mallee Pastoral Leases Act, 1883,' 47 Vict. +No. 766, p. 3: + +"The lands not alienated from the Crown and situated in the +North-Western district of Victoria within the boundaries set +forth in the First Schedule hereto, comprising in all some ten +millions of acres wholly or partially covered with the mallee +plant, and known as the Mallee Country, shall be divided into +blocks as hereinafter provided." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 13, p. 6, col. 2: + +"Mallee Selections at Horsham. A special Mallee Board, +consisting of Mr. Hayes, head of the Mallee branch of +the Lands Department, and Mr. Porter." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 24, p. 7, col. 5: + +"In the Mallee country there is abundance of work, cutting down +mallee, picking up dead wood, rabbit destruction, etc. + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 46: + +"One of the most common terms used by explorers is `Mallee' +scrub, so called from its being composed of dwarf species of +Eucalyptus, called `Mallee' by the natives. The species that +forms the `mallee' scrub of South Australia is the +<i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>, and it is probable that allied +species receive the same name in other parts of the country." + +1897. `The Argus,' March 2, p. 7, col. 1: + +"The late Baron von Mueller was firmly convinced that it would +pay well in this colony, and especially in the mallee, to +manufacture potash." + +<hw>Mallee-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, <i>Leipoa +ocellata</i>, Gould. Aboriginal name, the <i>Lowan</i> (q.v.); +see <i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Mallee-fowl</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Mallee-bird</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Mallee-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Mallee-bird</i> +(q.v.). + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule': + +[Close Season.] "Mallee-hen, from 1st day of August +to the 20th day of December next following in each year." + +1895. `The Australasian,' Oct.5, p. 652, col. 1: + +". . . the economy of the lowan or mallee-hen. . . . It +does not incubate its eggs after the manner of other birds, but +deposits them in a large mound of sand . . . Shy and timid. +Inhabits dry and scrubs. In shape and size resembles a greyish +mottled domestic turkey, but is smaller, more compact and +stouter in the legs." + +<hw>Mallee-scrub</hw>, <i>n</i>. the "scrub," or thicket, +formed by the <i>Mallee</i> (q.v.). + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 22: + +"The flat and, rarely, hilly plains . . . are covered +chiefly with thickets and `scrub' of social plants, generally +with hard and prickly leaves. This `scrub,' which is quite a +feature of the Australian interior, is chiefly formed of a +bushy Eucalyptus, which grows somewhat like our osiers to a +height of 8 or 10 feet, and often so densely covers the ground +as to be quite impenetrable. This is the `Mallee scrub' of +the explorers; while the still more dreaded `Mulga scrub' +consists of species of prickly acacia, which tear the clothes +and wound the flesh of the traveller." + +<hw>Malurus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for a genus of +Australian warblers. Name reduced from <i>Malacurus</i>, from +the Grk. <i>malakos</i>, soft, and <i>'oura</i>, a tail. The +type-species is <i>Malurus cyaneus</i> of Australia, the +<i>Superb Warbler</i> or <i>Blue-Wren</i>. See <i>Superb +Warbler</i>, <i>Wren</i>, and <i>Emu-Wren</i>. All the +<i>Maluri</i>, of which there are fifteen or sixteen species, +are popularly known as Superb Warblers, but are more correctly +called Wrens. + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 136: + +"The <i>Wrens</i> and <i>Warblers</i>--chiefly <i>Maluri</i>, +with the allied <i>Amytis</i> and <i>Stipiturus</i>--are purely +Australian. They are feeble on the wing but swift of foot." + +<hw>Mana</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori word for power, influence, +right, authority, prestige. See chapter on <i>Mana</i>, +in `Old New Zealand' (1863), by Judge Maning. + +1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 371: + +"<i>Mana</i>--command, authority, power." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 279: + +"The natives feel that with the land their `mana,' or power, +has gone likewise; few therefore can now be induced to part +with land." + +1863. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `Old New Zealand,' Intro. +p. iii: + +"The Maoris of my tribe used to come and ask me which had the +greatest `mana' (i.e. fortune, prestige, power, strength), +the Protestant God or the Romanist one." + +1873. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' +G. i, B. p. 8: + +"The Government should be asked to recognize his mana +over that territory." + +1881. J. L.Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 166: + +"We should be glad to shelter ourselves under the mana-- +the protection--of good old Kanini." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Dec 22, p. 7, col. 1: + +"A man of great lineage whose personal mana was undisputed." + +1896. `New Zealand Herald,' Feb. 14 [Leading Article]: + +"The word `mana,' power, or influence, may be said to be +classical, as there were learned discussions about its precise +meaning in the early dispatches and State papers. It may be +said that misunderstanding about what <i>mana</i> meant caused +the war at Taranaki." + +<hw>Mangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a small flying +phalanger with exquisitely fine fur. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. +p. 217: + +"Descending from the branches of an ironbark tree beside him, +a beautiful little mangaroo floated downwards on out-stretched +wings to the foot of a sapling at a little distance away, and +nimbly ascending it was followed by his mate." + +<hw>Mangi</hw>, or <hw>Mangeao</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for +a New Zealand tree, <i>Litsea calicaris</i>, Benth. and Hook. f. + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Mangi--remarkably tough and compact, used for ship-blocks +and similar purposes." + +<hw>Mango</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>Dog-fish</i> +(q.v.), a species of shark. + +<hw>Mangrove</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied to trees +belonging to different natural orders, common in all tropical +regions and chiefly littoral. Species of these, <i>Rhizophorea +mucronata</i>, Lamb, and <i>Avicennia officinalis</i>, Linn., +are common in Australia; the latter is also found in New +Zealand. + +<i>Bruguiera rheedii</i>, of the <i>N.O. Rhizophoreae</i>, +is called in Australia <i>Red Mangrove</i>, and the same +vernacular name is applied to <i>Heritiera littoralis</i>, +Dryand., <i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>, the <i>Sundri</i> of India +and the <i>Looking-glass Tree</i> of English gardeners. + +The name <i>Milky Mangrove</i> is given, in Australia, to +<i>Excaecaria agallocha</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>, +which further goes by the names of <i>River Poisonous Tree</i> +and <i>Blind-your-Eyes</i>--names alluding to the poisonous +juice of the stem. + +The name <i>River Mangrove</i> is applied to <i>AEgiceras +majus</i>, Gaertn., <i>N.O. Myrsineae</i>, which is not endemic +in Australia. + +In Tasmania, <i>Native Mangrove</i> is another name for the +<i>Boobialla</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Mangrove-Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied by Leichhardt +to the Indian tree <i>Barringtonia acutangula</i>, Gaertn. +(<i>Stravadium rubrum</i> De C.), <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 289: + +"As its foliage and the manner of the growth resemble +the mangrove, we called it the mangrove-myrtle." + +<hw>Manna</hw>, <i>n</i>. the dried juice, of sweet taste, +obtained from incisions in the bark of various trees. The +Australian manna is obtained from certain Eucalypts, especially +<i>E. viminalis</i>, Labill. It differs chemically from the +better known product of the Manna-Ash (<i>Fraxinus ornus</i>). +See <i>Lerp</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 99: + +"Several of the species yield an exudation in the spring and +summer months, which coagulates and drops from the leaves to +the ground in small irregular shaped snow white particles, +often as large as an almond [?]. They are sweet and very +pleasant to the taste, and are greedily devoured by the birds, +ants, and other animals, and used to be carefully picked up and +eaten by the aborigines. This is a sort of Manna." + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i. +p. 211: + +"Two varieties of a substance called manna are among the +natural products . . . one kind . . . being secreted by the +leaves and slender twigs of the <i>E. viminalis</i> from +punctures or injuries done to these parts of the tree. . . . +It consists principally of a kind of grape sugar and about 5 %. +of the substance called mannite. Another variety of manna is +the secretion of the pupa of an insect of the <i>Psylla</i> +family and obtains the name of <i>lerp</i> among the +aborigines. At certain seasons of the year it is very abundant +on the leaves of <i>E. dumosa</i>, or mallee scrub . . ." + +1878. W. W. Spicer, `Handbook of Plants of Tasmania, p. viii: + +"The Hemipters, of which the aphids, or plant-lice, are a +familiar example, are furnished with stiff beaks, with which +they pierce the bark and leaves of various plants for the +purpose of extracting the juices. It is to the punctures of +this and some other insects of the same Order, that the sweet +white manna is due, which occurs in large quantities during the +summer months on many of the gum-trees." + +<hw>Manna-Grass</hw>. See <i>Grass</i>. + +<hw>Manna-Gum</hw>. See <i>Manna</i> and <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Manoao</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree, +Yellow-pine, <i>Dacrydium colensoi</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 192: + +"The wood of the manoao is of a light-brown colour." + +<hw>Manucode</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is in English use for +the bird-of- paradise. It is Malay (<i>manuk-dewata</i> = bird +of the gods). The species in Australia is <i>Manucodia +gouldii</i>, Grey. See also <i>Rifle-bird</i>. + +<hw>Manuka</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for <i>Tea-tree</i> +(q.v.). Properly, the accent is on the first syllable with +broad <i>a</i>. Vulgarly, the accent is placed on the second +syllable. There are two species in New Zealand, <i>white</i> +and <i>red</i>; the first, a low bush called Scrub-Manuka, +<i>L. scoparium</i>, R. and G. Forst., the <i>Tea-tree</i> used +by Captain Cook's sailors; the second, a tree <i>Leptospermum +ericoides</i>, A. Richard. + +1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of the New +Zealanders,' p. 258: + +"This wood, called by the southern tribes <i>manuka</i>, is +remarkably hard and durable, and throughout the country is an +especial favourite with the natives, who make their spears, +paddles, fishing rods, etc., of this useful timber." + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in Northern Island of New +Zealand,' p. 75: + +"The Manuka, or, as it is called in the northern part of the +island, Kahikatoa (<i>leptospermum scoparium</i>), is a +mysterious plant, known in Van Diemen's Land as the tea tree." + +1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 28: + +"The manuka supplies the place of the tea-shrub." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 270: + +"[The house] was protected from the weather by a wooden railing +filled in with branches of the manuka. This is a shrub very +abundant in some parts. The plant resembles the teaplant in +leaves and flower, and is often used green by the whalers and +traders for the same purpose." + +1851. Mrs.Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 46: + +"It is generally made of manuka a very hard, dark, +close-grained and heavy wood." + +1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 121: + +"The manuka, a sort of scrub, has a pretty blossom like a +diminutive Michaelmas daisy, white petals and a brown centre, +with a very aromatic odour; and this little flower is +succeeded by a berry with the same strong smell and taste of +spice. The shepherds sometimes make an infusion of these when +they are very hard up for tea; but it must be like drinking a +decoction of cloves." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking about in New Zealand,' p. 70: + +"Chiefly covered with fern and tea-tree (manuka) scrub." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 149: + +"Then to a copse of manuka retreat, + Where they could safely, secretly commune." + +[Domett has the following note--"`A large shrub or small tree; +leaves used as tea in Tasmania and Australia, where the plant +is equally abundant' (Hooker). In the poem it is called +indiscriminately manuka, broom, broom-like myrtle, or +leptosperm. The settlers often call it `tea-broom.'"] + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 23: + +"A tremendous fire of broadleaf and manuka roared in the +chimney." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 123: + +"Manuka is a shrub which is rampant throughout New Zealand. +If it were less common it would be thought more beautiful. +In summer it is covered with white blossom: and there are +few more charming sights than a plain of flourishing manuka." + +<hw>Maomao</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +sea-fish, <i>Ditrema violacea</i>. + +1886. R. A. Sherrin, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 67: + +"The delicious little maomao may be caught at the Riverina +Rocks in immense quantities." + +<hw>Maori</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced so as to rhyme with +<i>Dowry</i>). (1) The name used to designate themselves by +the Polynesian race occupying New Zealand when it was +discovered by the white man, and which still survives. They +are not aboriginal as is commonly supposed, but migrated into +New Zealand about 500 years ago from Hawaii, the tradition +still surviving of the two great canoes (<i>Arawa</i> and +<i>Tainui</i>) in which the pioneers arrived. They are +commonly spoken of as the <i>Natives</i> of New Zealand. + +(2) The language of the Maori race. + +(3) <i>adj</i>. applied to anything pertaining to the Maoris or +their language. See <i>Pakeha</i>. + +There is a discussion on the word in the `Journal of Polynesian +Society,' vol. i. no. 3, vol. ii. no. 1, and vol. iii. no. i. +Bishop Williams (4th ed.) says that the word means, "of the +normal or usual kind." The Pakehas were not men to whom the +natives were accustomed. So Maori was used as opposed to the +Europeans, the white-skins. <i>Kuri Maori</i> was a name used +for a dog after the arrival of other quadrupeds called also +<i>kuri</i>. <i>Wai maori</i> was freshwater, ordinary as +opposed to sea-water. Another explanation is that the word +meant "indigenous," and that there are kindred words with that +meaning in other Polynesian languages. First, "indigenous," or +"of the native race," and then with a secondary meaning, +"ours." (See Tregear's Maori Comparative Dictionary,' s.v.) + +The form of the plural varies. The form <i>Maoris</i> +is considered the more correct, but the form <i>Maories</i> +is frequently used by good writers. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 194: + +"The Maori language is essentially a poor one, and possesses +in particular but few words which express abstract ideas." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' vol. i. c. iii. +p. 51: + +"No light is thrown on the origin of the New Zealanders from +the name Maori which they call themselves. This word, rendered +by linguists `native,' is used in contradistinction to pakeha, +or stranger." + +1864. Crosbie Ward, `Canterbury Rhymes,' `The Runaways' (2nd +edition), p. 79: + +"One morn they fought, the fight was hot, + Although the day was show'ry; + And many a gallant soldier then + Was bid <i>Memento Maori</i>." + +1891. Jessie Mackay, `The Sitter on the Rail, and other +Poems,' p. 61: + +"Like the night, the fated Maori + Fights the coming day; + Fights and falls as doth the kauri + Hewn by axe away." + +(4) Name given in New South Wales to the fish, <i>Cosis +lineolatus</i>, one of the <i>Labridae</i>, or Wrasses. + +<hw>Maori-Cabbage</hw>, <i>n</i>. the wild cabbage of New +Zealand, <i>Brassica spp</i>., <i>N.O. Cruciferae</i>, said to +be descended from the cabbages planted by Captain Cook. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 206.: + +"Every recollection of Cook is interesting. . . . But the chief +record of his having been on the island is the cabbage and +turnip which he sowed in various places: these have spread and +become quite naturalized, growing everywhere in the greatest +abundance, and affording an inexhaustible supply of excellent +vegetables." + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' +p. 131: + +"The only plant good to eat is Maori cabbage, and that is swede +turnip gone wild, from seed left by Captain Cook." + +1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xiii. art. i. p. 31 [`On the Vegetable Food of the +Ancient New Zealanders']: + +"The leaves of several smaller plants were also used as +vegetables; but the use of these in modern times, or during the +last forty or fifty years, was commonly superseded by that of +the extremely useful and favourite plant--the Maori cabbage, +<i>Brassica oleracea</i>, introduced by Cook (nani of the +Maoris at the north, and rearea at the south), of which they +carefully sowed the seeds." + +<hw>Maori-chief</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a New Zealand +Flathead-fish, <i>Notothenia maoriensis</i>, or +<i>coriiceps</i>. The name arises from marks on the fish +like tattooing. It is a very dark, almost black fish. + +1877. P. Thomson, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. x. art. xliv. p. 330: + +"Some odd fishes now and then turn up in the market, such as +the Maori-chief, cat-fish, etc." + +1878. Ibid. vol. xi. art. lii. p. 381: + +"That very dark-skinned fish, the Maori-chief, <i>Notothenia +Maoriensis</i> of Dr. Haast, is not uncommon, but is rarely +seen more than one at a time." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +"Resemblances are strange things. At first it would seem +improbable that a fish could be like a man, but in Dunedin a +fish was shown to me called Maori Chief, and with the exercise +of a little imagination it was not difficult to perceive the +likeness. Nay, some years ago, at a fishmonger's in Melbourne, +a fish used to be labelled with the name of a prominent +Victorian politician now no more. There is reason, however, +to believe that art was called in to complete the likeness." + +<hw>Maori-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. a swamp tussock, so called from +a fancied resemblance to the head of a Maori. (Compare +<i>Black-boy</i>.) It is not a grass, but a sedge +(<i>carex</i>). + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 169: + +"A boggy creek that oozed sluggishly through rich black soil, +amongst tall raupo, maori-heads, and huge flax-bushes." + +1892. W. McHutcheson, `Camp Life in Fiordland,' p. 34: + +"Amid the ooze and slime rose a rank growth of `Maori heads.'" + +<hw>Maori-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Weka</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Maoriland</hw>, <i>n</i>. a modern name for New Zealand. +It is hardly earlier than 1884. If the word, or anything like +it, such as <i>Maoria</i>, was used earlier, it meant "the +Maori parts of New Zealand." It is now used for the whole. + +1873. J. H. St. John [Title]: + +"Pakeha Rambles through Maori Lands." + +1874. J. C. Johnstone [Title]: + +"Maoria: a sketch of the Manners and Customs of the +Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand." + +1884. Kerry Nicholls [Title]: + +"The King Country, or Explorations in New Zealand. +A Narrative of 600 Miles of Travel through Maoriland." + +1884. [Title]: + +"Maoriland: an Illustrated Handbook to New Zealand." + +1886. Annie R. Butler [Title] + +"Glimpses of Maori Land." + +1890. T. Bracken [Title]: + +"Musings in Maori Land." + +1896. `The Argus,' July 22, p. 4, col. 8: + +"Always something new from Maoriland! Our New Zealand friends +are kindly obliging us with vivid illustrations of how far +demagogues in office will actually go." + +<hw>Maorilander</hw>, <i>n</i>. modern name for a white man +born in New Zealand. + +1896. `Melbourne Punch,' April 9, p. 233, col. 2: + +"Norman is a pushing young Maorilander who apparently has the +Britisher by the right ear." + +<hw>Maori, White</hw>, New Zealand miners' name for a stone. +See quotation. + +1883. `A Citizen,' `Illustrated Guide to Dunedin,' p. 169: + +"Tungstate of lime occurs plentifully in the Wakatipu district, +where from its weight and colour it is called <i>White +Maori</i> by the miners." + +<hw>Mapau</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori name for several New Zealand +trees; called also <i>Mapou</i>, and frequently corrupted by +settlers into <i>Maple</i>, by the law of Hobson-Jobson. The +name is applied to the following-- + +The Mapau-- + <i>Myrsine urvillei</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Myrsineae</i>; +sometimes called <i>Red Mapau</i>. + +Black M.-- + <i>Pittosporum tenuifolium</i>, Banks and Sol., +<i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>; Maori name, <i>Tawhiri</i>. + +White M.-- + <i>Carpodetus serratus</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>; + <i>Pittosporum eugenoides</i>, A. Cunn.; Maori name, +<i>Tarata</i> (q.v.); called also the <i>Hedge-laurel</i> +(q.v.), <i>Lemon-wood</i>, and <i>New Zealand Oak</i>. See +<i>Oak</i>. + +The first of these trees (<i>Myrsine urvillei</i>) is, +according to Colenso, the only tree to which the Maoris +themselves give the name <i>Mapau</i>. The others are +only so called by the settlers. + +1868. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. i., +`Essay on Botany of Otago,' p. 37: + +"White Mapau, or Piripiri-whata (<i>Carpodetus serratus</i>), +an ornamental shrub-tree, with mottled-green leaves, and large +cymose panicles of white flowers. . . . Red Mapau (Myrsine +Urvillei), a small tree common at Dunedin. Wood dark red, very +astringent, used as fence stuff." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 132: + +"Tawiri, white-mapou, white-birch (of Auckland). A small tree, +ten to thirty feet high; trunk unusually slender; branches +spreading in a fan-shaped manner, which makes it of very +ornamental appearance; flower white, profusely produced. +The wood is soft and tough." + + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 75: + +"By the settlers it is frequently called `black mapou' on +account of the colour of the bark. . . . With still less +excuse it is sometimes called `black maple,' an obvious +corruption of the preceding." + +<hw>Maple</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, a common settlers' +corruption for any tree called <i>Mapau</i> (q.v.); in +Australia, applied to <i>Villaresia moorei</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Olacineae</i>, called also the <i>Scrub Silky Oak</i>. +See <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Maray</hw>, <i>n</i>. New South Wales name for the fish +<i>Clupea sagax</i>, Jenyns, family <i>Clupeidae</i> or +<i>Herrings</i>, almost identical with the English pilchard. +The word <i>Maray</i> is thought to be an aboriginal name. +Bloaters are made of this fish at Picton in New Zealand, +according to the Report of the Royal Commission on Fisheries of +New South Wales, 1880. But <i>Agonostoma forsteri</i>, a +Sea-Mullet, is also when dried called the <i>Picton Herring</i> +(q.v). See <i>Herring</i> and <i>Aua</i>. + +<hw>Marble-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the <i>Tupong</i> +(q.v.) in Geelong. + +<hw>Marble-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to a +whitish-coloured mottled timber, <i>Olea paniculata</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>; called also <i>Native Olive</i> +and <i>Ironwood</i>. + +<hw>Mark, a good</hw>, Australian slang. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 233: + +"I wondered often what was the meaning of this, amongst many +other peculiar colonial phrases, `Is the man a good mark?' +I heard it casually from the lips of apparently respectable +settlers, as they rode on the highway, `Such and such a one is +a good mark,"--simply a person who pays his men their wages, +without delays or drawbacks; a man to whom you may sell +anything safely; for there are in the colony people who are +regularly summoned before the magistrates by every servant they +employ for wages. They seem to like to do everything publicly, +legally, and so become notoriously not `good marks.'" + +[So also "bad mark," in the opposite sense.] + +<hw>Mariner</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to +a marine univalve mollusc, either <i>Elenchus badius</i>, +or <i>E. bellulus</i>, Wood. + +The <i>Mariner</i> is called by the Tasmanian Fishery +Commissioners the "Pearly Necklace Shell"; when deprived of its +epidermis by acid or other means, it has a blue or green pearly +lustre. + +The shells are made into necklaces, of which the aboriginal +name is given as <i>Merrina</i>, and the name of the shell +is a corruption of this word, by the law of Hobson-Jobson. +Compare <i>Warrener</i>. + +1878. `Catalogue of the Objects of Ethnotypical Art in the +National Gallery' (Melbourne), p. 52: + +"Necklace, consisting of 565 shells (<i>Elenchus Bellulus</i>) +strung on thin, well-made twine. The native name of a cluster +of these shells was, according to one writer, <i>Merrina</i>." + +<hw>Marsh</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for a meadow. +See quotation. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 163: + +"Perhaps my use of the common colonial term `marsh' may be +misunderstood at home, as I remember that I myself associated +it at first with the idea of a swamp; but a `marsh' here is +what would in England be called a meadow, with this difference, +that in our marshes, until partially drained, a growth of +tea-trees (<i>Leptospermum</i>) and rushes in some measure +encumbers them; but, after a short time, these die off, and are +trampled down, and a thick sward of verdant grass covers the +whole extent: such is our `marsh.'" + +<hw>Marsupial</hw>, <i>adj</i>. See the Noun. + +<hw>Marsupial</hw>, <i>n</i>. an animal in which the female has +an abdominal pouch in which the young, born in a very immature +state, are carried. (Lat. Marsupium = a pouch.) At the +present day Marsupials are only found in America and the +Australian region, the greater number being confined to the +latter. See quotation 1894, Lydekker. + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 129: + +"The marsupial type exhibits the economy of nature under novel +and very interesting arrangements. . . . Australia is the +great head-quarters of the marsupial tribe." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 5: + +"I believe it was Charles Lamb who said, the peculiarity of the +small fore-feet of the Kangaroo seemed to be for picking +pockets; but he forgot to mention the singularity +characterizing the animal kingdom of Australia, that they have +pockets to be picked, being mostly marsupial. We have often +amused ourselves by throwing sugar or bread into the pouch of +the Kangaroo, and seen with what delight the animal has picked +its own pocket, and devoured the contents, searching its bag, +like a Highlander his sporran, for more." + +[See <i>Kangaroo</i>, quotation 1833.] + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 106: + +"An Act known as the Marsupial Act was accordingly passed to +encourage their destruction, a reward of so much a scalp being +offered by the Government. . . . Some of the squatters have +gone to a vast expense in fencing-in their runs with marsupial +fencing, but it never pays." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 29: + +"One of the sheep-owners told me that in the course of eighteen +months he had killed 64,000 of these animals (marsupials), +especially wallabies (<i>Macropus dorsalis</i>) and kangaroo- +rats (<i>Lagorchestes conspicillatus</i>), and also many +thousands of the larger kangaroo (<i>Macropus giganteus</i>)." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 9, col. 1: + +"In South Australia the Legislature has had to appoint a close +season for kangaroos, else would extinction of the larger +marsupials be at hand. We should have been forced to such +action also, if the American market for kangaroo-hides had +continued as brisk as formerly." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 1: + +"The great island-continent of Australia, together with the +South-eastern Austro-Malayan islands, is especially +characterized by being the home of the great majority of that +group of lowly mammals commonly designated marsupials, or +pouched-mammals. Indeed, with the exception of the still more +remarkable monotremes [q.v.], or egg-laying mammals, nearly the +whole of the mammalian fauna of Australia consists of these +marsupials, the only other indigenous mammals being certain +rodents and bats, together with the native dog, or dingo, +which may or may not have been introduced by man." + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 30: + +"The presence of a predominating marsupial order in Australia +has, besides practically establishing the long isolation of +that continent from the rest of the globe, also given rise to +a number of ingenious theories professing to account for its +survival to this last stronghold." + +<hw>Marsupial Mole</hw>, <i>n</i>. the only species of the +genus <i>Notoryctes</i> (q.v.), <i>N. typhlops</i> [from the +Greek <i>notos</i>, `south' (literally `south wind'), and +rhunchos, a `snout']; first described by Dr. Stirling of +Adelaide (in the `Transactions of the Royal Society of South +Australia,' 1891, p. 154). Aboriginal name, <i>Urquamata</i>. +It burrows with such extraordinary rapidity in the desert-sands +of Central Australia, to which it is confined, that, according +to Mr. Lydekker, it may be said to swim in the sand as a +porpoise does in the water. + +<hw>Marsupial Wolf</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Thylacine</i> and +<i>Tasmanian Tiger</i>. + +<hw>Martin, <i</hw>>n</i>. a bird common in England. +The species in Australia are-- + +Tree, + <i>Petrochelidon nigricans</i>, Vieill.; + +Fairy, + <i>Lagenoplastes ariel</i>, Gould; +called also <i>Bottle-Swallow</i> (q.v.). + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 128: + +". . . the elegant little Fairy Martins (<i>Lagenoplastes +ariel</i>), which construct a remarkable mud nest in shape not +unlike a retort." + +<hw>Mary</hw>, <i>n</i>. used in Queensland of the aborigines, +as equivalent to girl or woman. "A black Mary." Compare +"<i>Benjamin</i>," used for husband. + +<hw>Matagory</hw>, <i>n</i>. a prickly shrub of New Zealand, +<i>Discaria toumatou</i>, Raoul.; also called <i>Wild +Irishman</i> (q.v.). The Maori name is <i>Tumatahuru</i>, +of which <i>Matagory</i>, with various spellings, is a corruption, +much used by rabbiters and swagmen. The termination <i>gory</i> +evidently arises by the law of Hobson-Jobson from the fact +that the spikes draw blood. + +1859. J. T. Thomson, in `Otago Gazette,' Sept. 22, p. 264: + +"Much over-run with the scrub called `tomata-guru.'" + +Alex. Garvie, ibid. p. 280: + +"Much of it is encumbered with matakura scrub." + +1892. W. McHutcheson, `Camp Life in Fiordland,' p. 8: + +"Trudging moodily along in Indian file through +the <i>matagouri</i> scrub and tussock." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' 7th May, p. 48: + +"The tea generally tastes of birch or Matagouri." + +<hw>Matai</hw>, often abridged to <i>Mai</i>, <i>n</i>. +Maori name for a New Zealand tree, <i>Podocarpus spicata</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. Black-pine of Otago. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 124: + +"Mr. Buchanan has described a log of matai that he found had +been exposed for at least 200 years in a dense damp bush in +North-East Valley, Dunedin, as proved by its being enfolded by +the roots of three large trees of Griselinia littoralis." + +<hw>Match-box Bean</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the ripe +hard seed of the <i>Queensland Bean</i>, <i>Entada +scandens</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. A tall climbing +plant. The seeds are used for match-boxes. See under +<i>Bean</i>. + +<hw>Matipo</hw>, <i>n</i>. another Maori name for the New +Zealand trees called <i>Mapau</i> (q.v.). + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand' (ed. 1886), +p. 94: + +"The varieties of matapo, a beautiful shrub, each leaf a study, +with its delicate tracery of black veins on a yellow-green +ground." + +1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xxi. art. xlix. p. 329: + +"The tipau, or matipo (pittosporum tenuifolium), makes the best +ornamental hedge I know of." + +1879. `Tourist,' `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. iii. +p. 93: + +"An undergrowth of beautiful shrubs, conspicuous amongst these +were the Pittosporum or Matipo, which are, however, local in +their distribution, unlike the veronicas, which abound +everywhere." + +<hw>Meadow Rice-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Grass</i>. + +<hw>Mealy-back</hw>, <i>n</i>. a local name for the +<i>Locust</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Medicine-tree</hw>, i.q. <i>Horse-radish Tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Megapode</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of +Australian birds with large feet--the <i>Mound-birds</i> +(q.v.). From Greek <i>megas</i>, large, and <i>pous, +podos</i>, a foot. They are also called <i>Scrub fowls</i>. + +<hw>Melitose</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name given by Berthelot to the +sugar obtained from the manna of <i>Eucalyptus mannifera</i>. +Chemically identical with the raffinose extracted from molasses +and the gossypose extracted from cotton-seeds. + +1894. `The Australasian,' April 28, p. 732, col. 1: + +[Statement as to origin of melitose by the Baron von Mueller.] +"Sir Frederick M'Coy has traced the production of mellitose +also to a smaller cicade." + +<hw>Melon</hw>, <i>n</i>. Besides its botanical use, +the word is applied in Australia to a small kangaroo, +the <i>Paddy-melon</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Melon-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of honey-combing of the +surface in the interior plains, dangerous to horsemen, ascribed +to the work of the <i>Paddy-melon</i>. See preceding word, and +compare the English <i>Rabbit-hole</i>. The name is often +given to any similar series of holes, such as are sometimes +produced by the growing of certain plants. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 9: + +"The soil of the Bricklow scrub is a stiff clay, washed out by +the rains into shallow holes, well known by the squatters under +the name of melon-holes." + +Ibid. p: 77: + +"A stiff, wiry, leafless, polyganaceous plant grows in the +shallow depressions of the surface of the ground, which are +significantly termed by the squatters `Melon-holes,' and +abound in the open Box-tree flats." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' p. 220: + +"The plain is full of deep melon-holes, and the ground is rotten +and undermined with rats." + +<hw>Menindie Clover</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Clover</i>. + +<hw>Menura</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus of +the <i>Lyre-bird</i> (q.v.), so called from the crescent-shaped +form of the spots on the tail; the tail itself is shaped like a +lyre. (Grk. <i>maen</i>, moon, crescent, and <i>'oura</i>, +tail.) The name was given by General Davies in 1800. + +1800. T. Davies, `Description of Menura superba,' in +`Transactions of the Linnaean Society' (1802), vol. vi. p. 208: + +"The general colour of the under sides of these two [tail] +feathers is of a pearly hue, elegantly marked on the inner web +with bright rufous-coloured crescent-shaped spots, which, from +the extraordinary construction of the parts, appear wonderfully +transparent." + +<hw>Mere</hw>, or <hw>Meri</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced +<i>merry</i>), a Maori war-club; a <i>casse-te^te</i>, or a +war-axe, from a foot to eighteen inches in length, and made of +any suitable hard material--stone, hard wood, whalebone. To +many people out of New Zealand the word is only known as the +name of a little trinket of <i>greenstone</i> (q.v.) made in +imitation of the New Zealand weapon in miniature, mounted in +gold or silver, and used as a brooch, locket, ear-ring, or +other article of jewelry. + +1830. J. D. Lang, `Poems' (edition 1873), p. 116: + +"Beneath his shaggy flaxen mat + The dreadful marree hangs concealed." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 48: + +"The old man has broken my head with his meri." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' p. 140: + +"Of these the greenstone meri was the most esteemed. It weighs +six pounds, is thirteen inches long, and in shape resembles a +soda-water bottle flattened. In its handle is a hole for a +loop of flax, which is twisted round the wrist. Meris are +carried occasionally in the girdle, like Malay knives. In +conflicts the left hand grasped the enemy's hair, and one blow +from the meri on the head produced death." + +188]. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 229: + +"A land of musket and meri-armed warriors, unprovided with +a meat supply, even of kangaroo." + +1889. Jessie Mackay, `The Spirit of the Rangatira,' p. 16: + +"He brandished his greenstone mere high, + And shouted a Maori battle-cry." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 33: + +"`No, no, my peg; I thrust it in with this meri,' +yells Maori Jack, brandishing his war-club." + +<hw>Merinoes, Pure</hw>, <i>n</i>. a term often used, +especially in New South Wales, for the `very first families,' +as the pure merino is the most valuable sheep. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 116: + +"Next we have the <i>legitimates</i> . . . such as have +<i>legal</i> reasons for visiting this colony; and the +<i>illegitimates</i>, or such as are free from that stigma. +The <i>pure merinos</i> are a variety of the latter species, +who pride themselves on being of the purest blood in the +colony." + +<hw>Mersey Jolly-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Jolly-tail</i>. + +<hw>Message-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. The aboriginals sometimes +carve little blocks of wood with various marks to convey +messages. These are called by the whites, +<i>message-sticks</i>. + +<hw>Messmate</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to one of the +Gum-trees, <i>Eucalyptus amygdalina</i>, Labill., and often to +other species of Eucalypts, especially <i>E. obliqua</i>, +L'Herit. For origin of this curious name, see quotation, 1889. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 429: + +"It is also known by the name of `Messmate,' because it is +allied to, or associated with, <i>Stringy-bark</i>. This is +probably the tallest tree on the globe, individuals having been +measured up to 400 ft., 410 ft., and in one case 420 ft., with +the length of the stem up to the first branch 295 ft. The +height of a tree at Mt. Baw Baw (Victoria) is quoted at 471 +ft." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 13, col1. 4: + +"Away to the north-east a wooded range of mountains rolls along +the skyline, ragged rents showing here and there where the dead +messmates and white gums rise like gaunt skeletons from the +dusky brown-green mass into which distance tones the bracken +and the underwood." + +<hw>Mia-mia</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal hut. The word is +aboriginal, and has been spelt variously. <i>Mia-mia</i> is +the most approved spelling, <i>mi-mi</i> the most approved +pronunciation. See <i>Humpy</i>. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 103: + +"There she stood in a perfect state of nudity, a little way +from the road, by her miam, smiling, or rather grimacing." + +1852. Letter from Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's Church +in Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 167: + +"We came upon the largest (deserted) native encampment we had +ever seen. One of the mia-mias (you know what that is by this +time--the <i>a</i> is not sounded) was as large as an ordinary +sized circular summer-house, and actually had rude seats all +round, which is quite unusual. It had no roof, they never +have, being mere break-weathers, not so high as a man's +shoulder." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 366: + +"They constructed a mimi, or bower of boughs on the other, +leaving portholes amongst the boughs towards the road." + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. vii. p. 96: + +"Their thoughts wandered to their hunting-grounds and mia-mias +on the Murray." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 15: + +[Notice varied spelling in the same author.] +"Many of the diggers resided under branches of trees made into +small `miams' or `wigwams.'" + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 42: + +"The next day I began building a little `mi-mi,' to serve +as a resting-place for the night in going back at any time +for supplies." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' +(1841-1851), p. 148: + +"Of the mia-mias, some were standing; others had, wholly +or in part, been thrown down by their late occupants." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 32: + +"A few branches thrown up against the prevailing wind, +in rude imitation of the native mia-mia." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 111: + +"[The blacks] would compel [the missionaries] to carry their +burdens while travelling, or build their mia-mias when halting +to camp for the night; in fact, all sorts of menial offices had +to be discharged by the missionaries for these noble black men +while away on the wilds!" + +[Footnote]: "Small huts, made of bark and leafy boughs, built +so as to protect them against the side from which the wind +blew." + +<hw>Micky</hw>, <i>n</i>. young wild bull. "Said to have +originated in Gippsland, Victoria. Probably from the +association of bulls with Mickeys, or Irishmen." (Barere and +Leland.) + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. +p. 217: + +"The wary and still more dangerously sudden `Micky,' +a two-year-old bull." + +<hw>Micky/2/</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, a corruption of +<i>Mingi</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Midwinter</hw>, <i>n</i>. The seasons being reversed in +Australia, Christmas occurs in the middle of summer. The +English word <i>Midsummer</i> has thus dropped out of use, +and "Christmas," or <i>Christmas-time</i>, is its Australian +substitute, whilst <i>Midwinter</i> is the word used to denote +the Australian winter-time of late June and early July. See +<i>Christmas</i>. + +<hw>Mignonette, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian flower, +<i>Stackhousia linariaefolia</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O</i>. +<i>Stackhouseae</i>. + +<hw>Mihanere</hw>, <i>n</i>. a convert to Christianity; a Maori +variant of the English word <i>Missionary</i>. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +pp. 11, 12: + +"The mihanere natives, as a body, were distinctly inferior in +point of moral character to the natives, who remained with +their ancient customs unchanged. . . . A very common answer +from a converted native, accused of theft, was, `How can that +be? I am a mihanere.' . . . They were all mihanere, or +converts." + +<hw>Milk-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tall Queensland shrub, +<i>Wrightia saligna</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Apocyneae</i>; +it is said to be most valuable as a fodder-bush. + +<hw>Milk-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name, in Australia, +is given to a marine animal belonging to the class +<i>Holothurioidea</i>. The Holothurians are called +<i>Sea-cucumbers</i>, or <i>Sea-slugs</i>. The <i>Trepang</i>, +or <i>be^che-de-mer</i>, eaten by the Chinese, belongs to them. +Called also <i>Tit-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1880. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the +Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' vol. v. pt. ii. +p. 128: + +"Another species [of Trepang] is the `milk fish' or `cotton +fish,' so called from its power of emitting a white viscid +fluid from its skin, which clings to an object like shreds of +cotton." + +<hw>Milk-plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Caustic Creeper</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Milk-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree, +<i>Epicarpurus microphyllus</i>, Raoul. + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Milk-tree . . . a tall slender tree exuding a milky sap: +wood white and very brittle." + +<hw>Milk-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Northern Territory name +for <i>Melaleuca leucadendron</i>, Linn.; called also +<i>Paperbark-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Miller</hw>, <i>n</i>. a local name for the +<i>Cicada</i>. See <i>Locust</i> (quotation, 1896). + +<hw>Millet</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to several +Australian grasses. The Koda Millet of India, <i>Paspalum +scrobiculatum</i>, Linn., is called in Australia <i>Ditch +Millet</i>; <i>Seaside Millet</i> is the name given to +<i>Paspalum distichum</i>, Linn., both of the <i>N.O.</i> +<i>Gramineae</i>. But the principal species is called +<i>Australian Millet</i>, <i>Native Millet</i>, and <i>Umbrella +Grass</i>; it is <i>Panicum decompositum</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Gramineae</i>; it is not endemic in Australia. + +1896. `The Australasian,' March 14, p. 488, col. 5: + +"One of the very best of the grasses found in the hot regions +of Central Australia is the Australian millet, <i>Panicum +decompositum</i>. It is extremely hardy and stands the hot dry +summers of the north very well; it is nutritious, and cattle +and sheep are fond of it. It seeds freely, was used by the +aborigines for making a sort of cake, and was the only grain +stored by them. This grass thrives in poor soil, and starts +into rapid growth with the first autumn rains." + +<hw>Mimosa</hw>, <i>n</i>. a scientific name applied to upwards +of two hundred trees of various genera in the Old World. The +genus <i>Mimosa</i>, under which the Australian trees called +<i>Wattles</i> were originally classed, formerly included the +Acacias. These now constitute a separate genus. <i>Acacia</i> +is the scientific name for the <i>Wattle</i>; though even now +an old colonist will call the <i>Wattles "Mimosa</i>." + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' +p. 52: + +"This shrub is now not uncommon in our greenhouses, having been +raised in plenty from seeds brought from Port Jackson. It +generally bears its fragrant flowers late in the autumn, and +might then at first sight be sooner taken for a <i>Myrtus</i> +than a <i>Mimosa</i>." + +1802. Jas. Flemming, `Journal of Explorations of Charles +Grimes,' in `Historical Records of Port Phillip' (ed. 1879, +J. J. Shillinglaw), p. 25: + +"Timber; gum, Banksia, oak, and mimosa of sorts, but not large +except the gum." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 202: + +"Gum-arabic, which exudes from the mimosa shrubs." + + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 18, p. 4, col. 2: + +"`Cashmere' shawls do not grow on the mimosa trees." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 38: + +"The mimosa is a very graceful tree; the foliage is of a light +green colour. . . . The yellow flowers with which the mimosa is +decked throw out a perfume sweeter than the laburnum; and the +gum . . . is said not to be dissimilar to gum-arabic." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 175: + +"But, Yarra, thou art lovelier now, + With clouds of bloom on every bough; + A gladsome sight it is to see, + In blossom thy mimosa tree. + Like golden-moonlight doth it seem, + The moonlight of a heavenly dream; + A sunset lustre, chaste and cold, + A pearly splendour blent with gold." + + "<i>To the River Yarra</i>." + + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 255: + +"The other exports of Australia Felix consist chiefly of +tallow, cured beef and mutton, wheat, mimosa-bark, and +gumwood." + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 34: + +"The mimosa--although it sadly chokes the country--when in +flower, fills the air with fragrance. Its bark is much used +for tanning purposes; and the gum that exudes from the stem is +of some value as an export, and is used by the blacks as food." + +1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 29: + +"I have sat, and watched the landscape, latticed by the golden + curls, + Showering, like mimosa-blooms, in scented streams about my + breast." + +<hw>Minah</hw>, <i>n</i>. (also <hw>Myna</hw>, <hw>Mina</hw>, +and <hw>Minah-bird</hw>, and the characteristic Australian +change of <hw>Miner</hw>). From Hindustani <i>maina</i>, +a starling. The word is originally applied in India to +various birds of the Starling kind, especially to <i>Graculus +religiosa</i>, a talking starling or grackle. One of these +Indian grackles, <i>Acridotheres tristis</i>, was acclimatised +in Melbourne, and is now common to the house-tops of most +Australian towns. He is not Australian, but is the bird +generally referred to as the <i>Minah</i>, or <i>Minah- +bird</i>. There are <i>Minahs</i> native to Australia, +of which the species are-- + +Bell-Mina-- + <i>Manorhina melanophrys</i>, Lath. + +Bush-M.-- + <i>Myzantha garrula</i>, Lath. + +Dusky-M.-- + <i>M. obscura</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-M.-- + <i>M. lutea</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-throated M.-- + <i>M. flavigula</i>, Gould. + +1803. Lord Valentia, `Voyages,' vol. i. p. 227 [Stanford]: + +"During the whole of our stay two minahs were talking most +incessantly." + +1813. J. Forbes, `Oriental Memoirs,' vol. i. p. 47 [Yule]: + +"The mynah is a very entertaining bird, hopping about the +house, and articulating several words in the manner of the +starling." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 40: + +"While at other times, like the miners (genus, +<i>Myzantha</i>), it soars from tree to tree with the most +graceful and easy movement." + +Ibid. vol. iv. pl. 76: + +"<i>Myzantha garrula</i>, Vig. and Horsf, Garrulous +Honey-eater; miner, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land, +<i>M. flavigula</i>, Gould, Yellow-Throated miner." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' vol. i. p. 33: + +"His common name . . . is said to be given from his +resemblance to some Indian bird called mina or miner." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 72: + +"The Indian minah is as much at home, and almost as +presumptuous, as the sparrow." + +(p. 146): "Yellow-legged minahs, tamest of all Australian +birds." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265: + +"The plaintive chirp of the mina." + +<hw>Miner's</hw> Right, <i>n</i>. the licence to dig for gold. +See quotation. + + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 1: + +"A miner's right, a wonderful document, printed and written on +parchment, precisely as follows." + +[A reduced facsimile is given.] + +Ibid. p. 106: + +"You produce your Miner's Right . . . The important piece of +parchment, about the size of a bank-cheque, was handed to the +Court." + +<hw>Mingi</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally <i>mingi mingi</i>, Maori +name for a New Zealand shrub or small tree, <i>Cyathodes +acerosa</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. In south New +Zealand it is often called <i>Micky</i>. + +<hw>Minnow</hw>, <i>n</i>. name sometimes given to a very small +fish of New Zealand, <i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, Jenyns, family +<i>Galaxidae</i>; called also <i>Whitebait</i> (q.v.). The +Maori name is <i>Inanga</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Mint, Australian</hw> or <hw>Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a +plant, <i>Mentha australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Labiatea</i>. +This herb was largely used by the early colonists of South +Australia for tea. Many of the plants of the genus +<i>Mentha</i> in Australia yield oil of good flavour, among +them the common Pennyroyal. + +<hw>Mint-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, the tree is +<i>Prostanthera lasiantha</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. Labiateae</i>. + +<hw>Mirnyong</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a shell-mound, +generally supposed to be Victorian, but, by some, Tasmanian. + +1888. R. M. Johnston, `Geology of Tasmania,' p. 337: + +"With the exception of their rude inconspicuous flints, and the +accumulated remains of their feasts in the `mirnyongs,' or +native shell-mounds, along our coasts, which only have +significance to the careful observer, we have no other visible +evidence of their former existence." + +1893. R. Etheridge, jun., `Transactions of the Royal Society +of South Australia,' p. 21 [Title of Paper]: + +"The Mirrn-yong heaps at the North-West bank of the River +Murray." + +<hw>Miro</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Maori name for a <i>Robin</i> +(q.v.), and adopted as the scientific name of a genus of New +Zealand Robins. The word is shortened form of +<i>Miro-miro</i>. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 403: + +"Miro-miro (<i>Miro albifrons</i>). A little black-and-white +bird with a large head; it is very tame, and has a short +melancholy song. The miro toi-toi (<i>muscicapa toi-toi</i>) +is a bird not larger than the tom-tit. Its plumage is black +and white, having a white breast and some of the near feathers +of each wing tinged with white." + +1879. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xii. art. vii. p. 119: + +"Proverb 28: <i>Ma to kanohi miro-miro</i>, [signifying] `To be +found by the sharp-eyed little bird.' Lit. `For the miro-miro's +eye.' Used as a stimulus to a person searching for anything +lost. The miro-miro is the little petroica toi-toi, which runs +up and down trees peering for minute insects in the bark." + +1882. W. L. Buller, `Manual of the Birds of New Zealand,' +p. 23: + +"The Petroeca Iongipes is confined to the North Island, where +it is very common in all the wooded parts of the country; but +it is represented in the South Island by a closely allied and +equally common species, the <i>miro albifrons</i>." + +(2) Maori name for a New Zealand tree, <i>Podocarpus +ferruginea</i>, Don., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>; the Black-pine +of Otago. + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 308: + +"The miro-tree (<i>Podocarpus ferruginea</i>) is found in +slightly elevated situations in many of the forests in New +Zealand. Height about sixty feet. The wood varies from light +to dark-brown in colour, is close in grain, moderately hard and +heavy, planes up well, and takes a good polish." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 163: + +"The Miro is a valuable tree, common in all parts of the +colony. . . . It is usually distinguished by its ordinary +native name." + +<hw>Mistletoe</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to various +species of trees of several genera-- + +(1) In Australia, generally, to various species of +<i>Loranthus</i>, <i>N.O. Loranthaceae</i>. There are a great +number, they are very common on the Eucalypts, and they have +the same viscous qualities as the European <i>Mistletoes</i>. + +(2) In Western Australia, to <i>Nuytsia floribunda</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Loranthaceae</i>, a terrestrial species attaining the +dimensions of a tree--the <i>Flame-tree</i> (q.v.) of Western +Australia--and also curiously called there a <i>Cabbage- +tree</i>. + +(3) In Tasmania, to <i>Cassytha pubescens</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Lauraceae</i>. + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings, p. 43: + +"The English mistletoe is the well-known <i>Viscum album</i>, +whereas all the Victorian kinds belong to the genus +<i>Loranthus</i>, of which the Mediterranean +<i>L. Europaeus</i> is the prototype. The generic name arose +in allusion to the strap-like narrowness of the petals." + +[Greek <i>lowron</i>, from Lat. <i>lorum</i>, a thong, +and <i>'anthos</i>, a flower.] + +<hw>Mitchell-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian grass, +<i>Astrebla elymoides</i>, <i>A. triticoides</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. Two other species of <i>Astrebla</i> +are also called "Mitchell-grasses." See <i>Grass</i>. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 660: + +"Used for food by the natives. The most valuable fodder-grass +of the colony. True Mitchell-grass." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 78: + +"Mitchell-grass. The flowering spikes resemble ears of wheat. +. . . It is by no means plentiful." + +<hw>Moa</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is Maori, and is used by that +race as the name of the gigantic struthious bird of New +Zealand, scientifically called <i>Dinornis</i> (q.v.). It has +passed into popular Australasian and English use for all +species of that bird. A full history of the discovery of the +Moa, of its nature and habits, and of the progress of the +classification of the species by Professor Owen, from the sole +evidence of the fossil remains of its bones, is given in the +Introduction to W. L. Buller's `Birds of New Zealand,' Vol. i. +(pp. xviii-xxxv). + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of New Zealand Language' (Church +Missionary Society), p. 181: + +"Moe [sic], a bird so called." + +1839. `Proceedings of Zoological Society,' Nov. 12: + +[Description by Owen of <i>Dinornis</i> without the name +of Moa. It contained the words-- + +"So far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be +credited, I am willing to risk the reputation for it, on the +statement that there has existed, if there does not now exist, +in New Zealand a Struthious bird, nearly, if not quite equal in +size to the Ostrich."] + +1844. Ibid. vol. iii. pt. iii. p. 237: + +[Description of <i>Dinornis</i> by Owen, in which he names +the Moa, and quotes letter from Rev. W. (afterwards Bishop) +Williams, dated Feb. 28, 1842, "to which they gave the name +of Moa."] + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 137: + +"The new genus Dinornis, which includes also the celebrated +moa, or gigantic bird of New Zealand, and bears some +resemblance to the present Apteryx, or wingless bird of that +country . . . The New Zealanders assert that this +extraordinary bird was in existence in the days of their +ancestors, and was finally destroyed by their grandfathers." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand' (English translation), +p. 214: + +"First among them were the gigantic wingless Moas, +<i>Dinornis</i> and <i>Palapteryx</i>, which seem to have +been exterminated already about the middle of the seventeenth +century." + +[Query, eighteenth century?] + +1867. Ibid. p. 181: + +"By the term `Moa' the natives signify a family of birds, +that we know merely from bones and skeletons, a family +of real giant-birds compared with the little Apterygides." + +[Footnote]: "Moa or Toa, throughout Polynesia, is the word +applied to domestic fowls, originating perhaps from the Malay +word mua, a kind of peasants [sic]. The Maoris have no special +term for the domestic fowl." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' Introduction, +p. lvi. [Footnote]: + +"I have remarked the following similarity between the names +employed in the Fijian and Maori languages for the same or +corresponding birds: Toa (any fowl-like kind of bird) = Moa +(<i>Dinornis</i>)." + +<hw>Mob</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large number, the Australian noun of +multitude, and not implying anything low or noisy. It was +<i>not</i> used very early, as the first few of the following +quotations show. + +1811. G. Paterson, `History of New South Wales,' p. 530: + +"Besides herds of kangaroos, four large wolves were seen +at Western Port." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia': + +[p. 110]: "Herds of kangaroos." + +[p. 139]: "An immense herd of kangaroos." + +[p. 196]: "Flocks of kangaroos of every size." + +1835. T. B. Wilson, `Voyage round the World,' p. 243: + +"We started several flocks of kangaroos." + +1836. Dec. 26, Letter in `Three Years' Practical Experience +of a Settler in New South Wales,' p.44: + +"A man buying a flock of sheep, or a herd of cattle . . . +While I watched the mop I had collected." [This, thus spelt, +seems the earliest instance.] + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 6: + +"Droves of kangaroos." + +Of <i>Men</i>-- + +[But with the Australian and not the ordinary English +signification.] + +1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 223: + +"A contractor in a large way having a mob of men in his +employ." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug.16, p.13, Col. 2: + +"It doesn't seem possible to get a mob of steady men for work +of that sort now." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 69: + +"He, tho' living fifty miles away, was one of the `Dunmore +mob,' and aided generally in the symposia which were there +enjoyed." + +Of <i>Blackfellows</i>-- + +1822. J. West, `History of Tasmania' (1852), vol. ii. +p. 12: + +"The settlers of 1822 remember a number of natives, who roamed +about the district, and were known as the `tame mob'; they +were absconders from different tribes." + +1830. Newspaper (Tasmanian), March, (cited J. West, `History +of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 42): + +"A mob of natives appeared at Captain Smith's hut, at his run." + +1835. H. Melville, `History of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 75: + +"A mob of some score or so of natives, men, women, and +children, had been discovered by their fires." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia', p. 107: + +"A whole crowd of men on horseback get together, with a mob +of blacks to assist them." + +1892. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 134: + +"At the side of the crowd was a small mob of blacks with their +dogs, spears, possum rugs, and all complete." + +Of <i>Cattle</i>-- + +1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 14: + +"Now to the stockyard crowds the mob; + 'Twill soon be milking time." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 70: + +"A number of cattle collected together is colonially termed +a mob." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. +p. 105: + +"A mixed mob of cattle--cows, steers, and heifers-- +had to be collected." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 120: + +"`Mobs' or small sub-divisions of the main herd." + +Of <i>Sheep</i>-- + +1860. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 169: + +"It was more horrible to see the drowning, or just drowned, +huddled-up `mob' (as sheep en masse are technically called) +which had made the dusky patch we noticed from the hill." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 22, p. 34, col. 2: + +"A mob of sheep has been sold at Belfast at 1s. 10d. per +head." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 83 + +"The army of sheep--about thirty thousand in fifteen flocks-- +at length reached the valley before dark, and the overseer, +pointing to a flock of two thousand, more or less, said, +`There's your mob.'" + +Of <i>Horses</i>-- + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 27: + +"All the animals to make friends with, mobs of horses to look +at." + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 197: + +"I purchased a mob of horses for the Dunstan market." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 111: + +"The stockman came suddenly on a mob of nearly thirty horses, +feeding up a pleasant valley." + +Of <i>Kangaroos</i>-- + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 59: + +"The `old men' are always the largest and strongest in the +flock, or in colonial language `mob.'" + +1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, `The Bulla Bulla +Bunyip': + +"About a mile outside the town a four-rail fence skirted the +rough track we followed. It enclosed a lucerne paddock. +Over the grey rails, as we approached, came bounding a mob +of kangaroos, headed by a gigantic perfectly white `old man,' +which glimmered ghostly in the moonlight." + +Of <i>Ducks</i>-- + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia, p. 99: + +"They [the ducks] all came in twos and threes, and small mobs." + +Of <i>Clothes</i>-- + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 22, p. 2, col. 6: + +"They buttoned up in front; the only suit to the mob which +did so." + +Of <i>Books</i>-- + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 72: + +"If it was in your mob of books, give this copy to somebody +that would appreciate it." + +<i>More generally</i>-- + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 20: + +"A number of cattle together is here usually termed a `mob,' +and truly their riotous and unruly demeanour renders the +designation far from inapt; but I was very much amused at +first, to hear people gravely talking of `a mob of sheep,' +or `a mob of <i>lambs</i>,' and it was some time ere I became +accustomed to the novel use of the word. Now, the common +announcements that `the cuckoo hen has brought out a rare mob +of chickens,' or that `there's a great mob of quail in the big +paddock,' are to me fraught with no alarming anticipations." + +1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia,' p. 114: + +"`There will be a great mob of things going down to-day,' said +one to another, which meant that there would be a heavy cargo +in number; we must remember that the Australians have a patois +of their own." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 135: + +"What a mob of houses, people, cabs, teams, men, women and +children!" + +<hw>Mocking-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in +Australia to the <i>Lyre-bird</i> (q.v.), and in New Zealand +to the <i>Tui</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Mock-Olive</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree. Called also +<i>Axe-breaker</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Mock-Orange</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +i.q. <i>Native Laurel</i>. See <i>Laurel</i>. + +<hw>Mogo</hw>, <i>n</i>. the stone hatchet of the aborigines +of New South Wales. + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 204: + +"I heard from the summit the mogo of a native at work on some +tree close by." + +1868. W. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 20: + +"One mute memorial by his bier, + His mogo, boomerang, and spear." + +<hw>Moguey</hw>, <i>n</i>. English corruption of <i>Mokihi</i> +(q.v.). + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 52: + +"Moguey, a Maori name for a raupo or flax-stick raft." + +<hw>Moki</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the <i>Bastard +Trumpeter</i> (q.v.) of New Zealand, <i>Latris ciliaris</i>, +Forst., family <i>Cirrhitidae</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 182: + +"Moki, <i>s</i>. A fish so called." + +<hw>Mokihi</hw>, or <hw>Moki</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name +for a raft; sometimes anglicised as <i>Moguey</i>. + +1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealanders,' +vol. ii. p. 226: + +"In the absence of canoes, a quantity of dried bulrushes are +fastened together, on which the native is enabled to cross a +stream by sitting astride and paddling with his hands; these +humble conveyances are called moki, and resemble those made use +of by the Egyptians in crossing among the islands of the Nile. +They are extremely buoyant, and resist saturation for a longer +period." + +1858. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' +c. iii. p. 18: + +"We crossed the river on mokis. By means of large mokis, +carrying upwards of a ton. . . . Moki navigation." + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82: + +"For the benefit of the unlearned in such matters, let me here +explain that a `Mokihi' is constructed of Koradies, +<i>Anglice</i>, the flowering stalks of the flax,--three +faggots of which lashed firmly in a point at the small ends, +and expanded by a piece of wood at the stern, constitute the +sides and bottom of the frail craft, which, propelled by a +paddle, furnishes sufficient means of transport for a single +individual." + +<hw>Moko</hw>, <i>n</i>. the system of tattooing practised by +the Maoris. See <i>Tattoo</i>. It is not a fact--as popularly +supposed--that the "moko" was distinctive in different +families; serving, as is sometimes said, the purpose of a +coat-of-arms. The "moko" was in fact all made on the same +pattern--that of all Maori carvings. Some were more elaborate +than others. The sole difference was that some were in outline +only, some were half filled in, and others were finished in +elaborate detail. + +1769. J. Banks, `Journal,' Nov. 22 (Sir J. D. Hooker's edition, +1896), p. 203: + +"They had a much larger quantity of <i>amoca</i> [sic] or +black stains upon their bodies and faces. They had almost +universally a broad spiral on each buttock, and many had their +thighs almost entirely black, small lines only being left +untouched, so that they looked like striped breeches. In this +particular, I mean the use of <i>amoca</i>, almost every tribe +seems to have a different custom." + +1896. `The Times' (Weekly Edition), July 17, p. 498 col. 3: + +"In this handsome volume, `Moko or Maori Tattooing,' +Major-General Robley treats of an interesting subject with a +touch of the horrible about it which, to some readers, will +make the book almost fascinating. Nowhere was the system of +puncturing the flesh into patterns and devices carried out in +such perfection or to such an extent as in New Zealand. Both +men and women were operated upon among the Maoris." + +<hw>Moko-moko</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Maori name for the Bell-bird +(q.v.), <i>Anthornis melanura</i>, Sparrm. + +1888. A. W. Bathgate, `Sladen's Australian Ballads,' p. 22: + +[Title]: "To the Moko-moko, or Bell-bird." + +[Footnote]: "Now rapidly dying out of our land," sc. New +Zealand. + +(2) Maori name for the lizard, <i>Lygosoma ornatum</i>, Gray, +or <i>Lygosoma moko</i>, Durn. and Bib. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 182: + +"Moko-moko, a small lizard." + +<hw>Mole, Marsupial</hw>. See <i>Marsupial Mole</i>. + +<hw>Moloch</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian lizard, <i>Moloch +horridus</i>, Gray; called also <i>Mountain Devil</i> (q.v.). +There is no other species in the genus, and the adjective +(Lat. <i>horridus</i>, bristling) seems to have suggested the +noun, the name probably recalling Milton's line (`Paradise +Lost,' i. 392) + +"First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood." + +Moloch was the national god of the Ammonites (1 Kings xi. 7), +and was the personification of fire as a destructive element. + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Narrative, p. 41: + +"Numerous lizards such as the strange <i>Moloch horridus</i>, +the bright yellow, orange, red and black of which render it in +life very different in appearance from the bleached specimens +of museum cases." + +<hw>Mongan</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the animal named +in the quotation. + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 173: + +"Jimmy, however, had, to my great delight, found mongan +(<i>Pseudochirus herbertensis</i>), a new and very pretty +mammal, whose habitat is exclusively the highest tops of the +scrubs in the Coast Mountains." + +<hw>Monk</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Friar Bird</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Monkey-Bear</hw>, or <hw>Monkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. +<i>Native Bear</i>. See <i>Bear</i>. + +1853. C. St. Julian and E. K. Silvester, `The +Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' +p. 30: + +"The <i>Kola</i>, so called by the aborigines, but more +commonly known among the settlers as the native bear or monkey, +is found in brush and forest lands . . ." + +1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,' +p. 9: + +"A little monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only +gum-tree that grew on the premises, grunting and whimpering." + +<hw>Monkey-shaft</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A shaft rising from a lower +to a higher level (as a rule perpendicularly), and differing +from a blind-shaft only in that the latter is sunk from a +higher to a lower level." (Brough Smyth's `Glossary.') + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 69: + +"They began to think they might be already too deep for it, +and a small `monkey'-shaft was therefore driven upwards +from the end of the tunnel." + +<hw>Monkeys</hw>, <i>n</i>. bush slang for sheep. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. +p. 88: + +"No one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of +`monkeys,' as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the +head-station." + +<hw>Monotreme</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of an order +of Australian mammals (<i>Monotremata</i>). "The Monotremes +derive their name from the circumstance that there is, as in +birds and reptiles, but a single aperture at the hinder +extremity of the body from which are discharged the whole of +the waste-products, together with the reproductive elements; +the oviducts opening separately into the end of this passage, +which is termed the cloaca. [Grk. <i>monos</i>, sole, and +<i>traema</i>, a passage or hole.] Reproduction is effected by +means of eggs, which are laid and hatched by the female parent; +after [being hatched] the young are nourished by milk secreted +by special glands situated within a temporary pouch, into which +the head of the young animal is inserted and retained. . . . +It was not until 1884 that it was conclusively proved that the +Monotremes did actually lay eggs similar in structure to those +of birds and reptiles." (R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia and +Monotremata,' 1894, p. 227.) + +The Monotremes are strictly confined to Australia, Tasmania, +and New Guinea. They are the <i>Platypus</i> (q.v.), and the +<i>Echidna</i> (q.v.), or <i>Ant-eating Porcupine</i>. + +<hw>Mooley-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Emu-Apple</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Moor-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name +(<i>Gallinula</i>). The Australian species are-- + +the Black, <i>Gallinula tenebrosa</i>, Gould; +Rufous-tailed, <i>G. ruficrissa</i>, Gould. + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 169: + +"The Rail-like bird, the Black-tailed Tribonyx, or Moor-Hen of +the colonists, which, when strutting along the bank of a river, +has a grotesque appearance, with the tail quite erect like that +of a domestic fowl, and rarely resorts to flight." [The +Tribonyx is called <i>Native Hen</i>, not <i>Moorhen</i>.] + +<hw>Moon</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. a process in opossum-shooting, +explained in quotations. + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 182: + +"`Mooning' opossums is a speciality with country boys. The +juvenile hunter utilises the moon as a cavalry patrol would his +field-glass for every suspected point." + +1890. E. Davenport Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 66: + +"They had to go through the process known as `mooning.' +Walking backwards from the tree, each one tried to get the +various limbs and branches between him and the moon, and then +follow them out to the uttermost bunch of leaves where the +'possum might be feeding." + +<hw>Mopoke</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for an Australian +bird, from its note "Mopoke." There is emphasis on the first +syllable, but much more on the second. Settlers very early +attempted to give an English shape and sense to this name. +The attempt took two forms, "<i>More pork</i>," and +"<i>Mopehawk</i>"; both forms are more than fifty years old. +The <i>r</i> sound, however, is not present in the note of +the bird, although the form <i>More-pork</i> is perhaps even +more popular than the true form <i>Mopoke</i>. The form +<i>Mope-hawk</i> seems to have been adopted through dislike +of the perhaps coarser idea attaching to "pork." The quaint +spelling <i>Mawpawk</i> seems to have been adopted for a +similar reason. + +The bird is heard far more often than seen, hence confusion +has arisen as to what is the bird that utters the note. +The earlier view was that the bird was <i>Podargus cuvieri</i>, +Vig. and Hors., which still popularly retains the name; +whereas it is really the owl, <i>Ninox boobook</i>, that +calls "morepork" or "mopoke" so loudly at night. Curiously, +Gould, having already assigned the name <i>Morepork</i> to +<i>Podargus</i>, in describing the <i>Owlet Night-jar</i> +varies the spelling and writes, "little <i>Mawepawk</i>, +Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." The New Zealand Morepork +is assuredly an owl. The <i>Podargus</i> has received the +name of <i>Frogmouth</i> and the <i>Mopoke</i> has sometimes +been called a <i>Cuckoo</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Boobook</i>, +<i>Frogsmouth</i>. + +The earliest ascertained use of the word is-- + +1827. Hellyer (in 1832), `Bischoff, Van Diemen's Land,' +p. 177: + +"One of the men shot a `more pork.'" + +<i>The Bird's note</i>-- + +1868. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 19: + +"The Austral cuckoo spoke + His melancholy note--`Mo-poke.'" + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs and Wattle Bloom,' p. 236: + +"Many a still night in the bush I have listened to the weird +metallic call of this strange bird, the mopoke of the natives, +without hearing it give expression to the pork-shop +sentiments." + +<i>Podargus</i>-- + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 4: + +"<i>Podargus Cuvieri</i>, Vig. and Horsf, More-pork +of the Colonists." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 33: + +"We are lulled to sleep by the melancholy, sleep-inspiring, and +not disagreeable voices of the night bird <i>Podargus</i>-- +`More-pork! more-pork!'" + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule.': + +"<i>Podargus</i> or Mopoke. [Close Season.] The whole year." + +<i>Vague name of Cuckoo</i>-- + +1854. G. H. Haydon, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 110: + +"The note of the More-pork, not unlike that of a cuckoo with a +cold." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 98: + +"The distant monotone of the more-pork--the nocturnal cuckoo +of the Australian wilds." + +<i>Incorrect</i>-- + +1858. W. H. Hall, `Practical Experiences at the Diggings in +Victoria,' p. 22: + +"The low, melancholy, but pleasing cry of the Mope-hawk." + +1877. William Sharp, `Earth's Voices': + +"On yonder gum a mopoke's throat + Out-gurgles laughter grim, + And far within the fern-tree scrub + A lyre-bird sings his hymn." + +[This is confusion worse confounded. It would seem as if the +poet confused the <i>Laughing Jackass</i> with the +<i>Mopoke</i>, q.v.] + +1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Long Years in Australia,' p. 145: + +"How the mope-hawk is screeching." + +<i>Owl</i>-- + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 71: + +"A bird of the owl species, called by the colonists morepork, +and by the natives whuck-whuck, derives both its names from the +peculiarity of its note. At some distance it reminds one of +the song of the cuckoo; when nearer it sounds hoarse and +discordant." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 1: + +"<i>AEgotheles Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Vig. and Horsf, Owlet +Nightjar; Little Mawepawk, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. +p. 253: + +"The Mawpawk, More Pork, or Mope Hawk, is common in most parts +of the colony, and utters its peculiar two-syllable cry at +night very constantly. Its habits are those of the owl, and +its rather hawkish appearance partakes also of the +peculiarities of the goat-sucker tribe. . . . The sound +does not really resemble the words `more pork,' any more than +`cuckoo,' and it is more like the `tu-whoo' of the owl than +either." + +1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 14: + +"Just as our sportsman, fresh from the legal precincts of +Gray's Inn Square, was taking a probably deadly aim, the +solitary and melancholy note of `More-pork! more-pork!' from +the Cyclopean, or Australian owl, interfered most opportunely +in warding off the shot." + +1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45. `The Bulla Bulla +Bunyip': + +"The locusts were silent, but now and then might be heard +the greedy cry of the `morepork,' chasing the huge night-moths +through the dim dewy air." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 274: + +"Owls are also numerous, the Mopoke's note being a familiar +sound in the midnight darkness of the forest." + +<i>By transference to a man</i>.-- + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 233: + +"`A more-pork kind of a fellow' is a man of cut-and-dry +phrases, a person remarkable for nothing new in common +conversation. This by some is thought very expressive, +the more-pork being a kind of Australian owl, notorious +for its wearying nightly iteration, `More pork, more pork'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 125: + +"What a regular more-pork I was to be sure to go and run my +neck agin' a roping-pole." + +<hw>Morepork</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The Australian bird, or +birds, described under <i>Mopoke</i> (q.v.). + +(2) The New Zealand Owl, formerly <i>Athene +novae-zelandiae</i>, Gray; now <i>Spiloglaux +novae-zelandiae</i>, Kaup. + +1849. W. T. Power, `Sketches in New Zealand,' p. 74: + +"This bird gave rise to a rather amusing incident in the Hutt +Valley during the time of the fighting. . . . A strong +piquet was turned out regularly about an hour before daybreak. +On one occasion the men had been standing silently under arms +for some time, and shivering in the cold morning air, when they +were startled by a solemn request for `more pork.' The officer +in command of the piquet, who had only very recently arrived in +the country, ordered no talking in the ranks, which was +immediately replied to by another demand, distinctly +enunciated, for `more pork.' So malaprop a remark produced a +titter along the ranks, which roused the irate officer to the +necessity of having his commands obeyed, and he accordingly +threatened to put the next person under arrest who dared make +any allusion to the unclean beast. As if in defiance of the +threat, and in contempt of the constituted authorities, `more +pork' was distinctly demanded in two places at once, and was +succeeded by an irresistible giggle from one end of the line to +the other. There was no putting up with such a breach of +discipline as this, and the officer, in a fury of indignation, +went along the line in search of the mutinous offender, when +suddenly a small chorus of `more pork' was heard on all sides, +and it was explained who the real culprits were." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 100: + +"The last cry of a very pretty little owl, called from its +distinctly uttered words the `more-pork.'" + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 84: + +"Sleeping alone where the more-pork's call + At night is heard." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 192: + +"<i>Spiloglaux Novae-Zelandiae</i>, Kaup., More-pork of the +colonists. Every New Zealand colonist is familiar with this +little owl, under the name of `morepork.'" + +<hw>Moreton-Bay</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name formerly given to the +district of New South Wales which is now the colony of +Queensland. The Brisbane river (on which is situated Brisbane, +the capital of Queensland) enters it. See below. + +<hw>Moreton-Bay Ash</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ash</i>. + +<hw>Moreton-Bay Chestnut</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bean-tree</i>. + +<hw>Moreton-Bay Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Fig</i>. + +<hw>Moreton-Bay Laurel</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Laurel</i>. + +<hw>Moreton-Bay Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See Pine. + +<hw>Moriori</hw>, <i>n</i>. a people akin to, but not identical +with, the Maoris. They occupied the Chatham Islands, and were +conquered in 1832 by the Maoris. In 1873, M. Quatrefages +published a monograph, `Moriori et Maori.' + +<hw>Morwong</hw>, <i>n</i>. the New South Wales name for the +fish <i>Chilodactylus macropterus</i>, Richards.; also called +the <i>Carp</i> (q.v.) and <i>Jackass-fish</i>, and in New +Zealand by the Maori name of <i>Tarakihi</i>. The Melbourne +fishermen, according to Count Castelnau, call this fish the +<i>Bastard Trumpeter</i> (q.v.), but this name is also applied +to <i>Latris forsteri</i>, Castln. See also <i>Trumpeter</i> +and <i>Paper-fish</i>. The <i>Red Morwong</i> is +<i>Chilodactylus fuscus</i>, Castln., also called <i>Carp</i> +(q.v.). The <i>Banded Morwong</i> is <i>Chilodactylus +vittatus</i>, Garrett. + +<hw>Moses, Prickly</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bushman's name for +<i>Mimosa</i> (q.v.). + +1887. `The Australian,' April: + +"I cannot recommend . . . [for fishing rods] . . . that awful +thing which our philosopher called `prickly moses.'" + +<hw>Moulmein Cedar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cedar</i>. + +<hw>Mound-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. the jungle-hen of Australia. +The birds scratch up heaps of soil and vegetable matter, in +which they bury their eggs and leave them to be hatched by the +heat of decomposition. Scientifically called <i>Megapodes</i> +(q.v.). + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 76: + +"Next to these, as a special Australian type. . . . come +the bush-turkeys or mound-makers . . . all these birds have +the curious reptilian character of never sitting on their eggs, +which they bury under mounds of earth or decaying vegetable +matter, allowing them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, +or that produced by fermentation." + +<hw>Mountain</hw>- (as epithet): + +Mountain-Apple-tree-- + <i>Angophora lanceolata</i>, Cav., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +M.-Ash-- + A name applied to various Eucalypts, and to the tree <i>Alphitonia +excelsa</i>, Reiss. + +M.-Beech-- + The tree <i>Lomatia longifolia</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.0. Proteaceae</i>. + +M.-Bloodwood-- + The tree <i>Eucalyptus eximia</i>, Schau. + +M.-Cypress-pine-- + The tree <i>Frenela parlatori</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.0. Coniferae</i>. + +M.-Ebony-- + See <i>Ebony</i>. + +M.-Gentian-- + The name is applied to the Tasmanian species, <i>Gentiana +saxosa</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Gentianeae</i>. + +M.-Gums-- + See <i>Gum</i>. + +M.- Oak-- + See <i>Oak</i>. + +M.-Parrot-- + Another name for the <i>Kea</i> (q.v.). + +M.-Rocket-- + The name is applied to the Tasmanian species <i>Bellendena +montana</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +M.-Tea-tree-- + See <i>Tea-tree</i>. + +<hw>Mountain-Devil</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the +strange-looking Australian lizard, <i>Moloch horridus</i>, +Gray. See <i>Moloch</i>. Also called <i>Spiny Lizard</i>. + +1853. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 515 [November 9]: + +"A spirit preparation of the Spiny Lizard (<i>Moloch +horridus</i>) of Western Australia." + +<hw>Mountain Thrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian thrush, +<i>Oreocincla lunulata</i>, Gould. See <i>Thrush</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 7: + +"<i>Oreocincla lunulatus</i>, Mountain Thrush, Colonists of Van +Diemen's Land. In all localities suitable to its habits and +mode of life, this species is tolerably abundant, both in Van +Diemen's Land and in New South Wales; it has also been observed +in South Australia, where however it is rare." + +<hw>Mountain-Trout</hw>, <i>n</i>. species of <i>Galaxias</i>, +small cylindrical fishes inhabiting the colder rivers of +Australasia, Southern Chili, Magellan Straits, and the Falkland +Islands. On account of the distribution of these fish and of +other forms of animals, it has been suggested that in a remote +geological period the area of land above the level of the sea +in the antarctic regions must have been sufficiently extended +to admit of some kind of continuity across the whole width of +the Pacific between the southern extremities of South America +and Australia. + +<hw>Mud-fat</hw>, <i>adj</i>. fat as mud, very fat. + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 142: + +"There's half this fine body of veal, mud-fat and tender +as a chicken, worth a shilling a pound there." + +<hw>Mud-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of Westland, New Zealand, +<i>Neochanna apoda</i>, Gunth. Guenther says <i>Neochanna</i> +is a "degraded form of <i>Galaxias</i> [see +<i>Mountain-Trout</i>], from which it differs by the absence +of ventral fins. This fish has hitherto been found only in +burrows, which it excavates 1n clay or consolidated mud, at +a distance from water." + +<hw>Mud-lark</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the Magpie-lark, +<i>Grallina picata</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Mulberry-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the Australian +bird <i>Sphecotheres maxillaris</i>, Lath.; called also +<i>Fig-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1891. A. J. North, `Records of the Australian Museum,' vol. +i. no. 6, p. 113: + +"Southern Sphecotheres. Mr. Grime informs me it is fairly +common on the Tweed River, where it is locally known as the +`Mulberry-bird,' from the decided preference it evinces for +that species of fruit amongst many others attacked by this +bird." + +Mulberry, Native, <i>n</i>. name given to three Australian trees, +viz.-- + +<i>Hedycarya cunninghami</i>, Tull., <i>N.O. Monimiaceae</i>. +Called also <i>Smooth Holly</i>. + +<i>Piturus propinquus</i>, Wedd., <i>N.O. Urticeae</i>. Called +also <i>Queensland Grasscloth Plant</i>. + +<i>Litsaea ferruginea</i>, Mart., <i>N.O. Laurineae</i>. +Called also <i>Pigeonberry-tree</i>. + +The common English garden fruit-tree is also acclimatised, and +the Victorian Silk Culture Association, assisted by the +Government, are planting many thousands of the <i>White +Mulberry</i> for silk culture. + +<hw>Mulga</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal word. (1) Name given +to various species of Acacia, but especially <i>A. aneura</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.0. Leguminosae</i>. See also <i>Red Mulga</i>. + +1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Explorations in Australia,' +p. 154: + +"We arrived at the foot nearly naked, and got into open sandy +rises and valleys, with mulga and plenty of grass, amongst +which there is some spinifex growing." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 126, Note: + +"Mulga is an Acacia. It grows in thick bushes, with thin twigs +and small leaves. Probably it is the most extensively +distributed tree in all Australia. It extends right across +the continent." + +1888. Baron F. von Mueller, `Select Extra-tropical Plants' +[7th ed.], p. 1: + +"Acacia aneura, F. v. M. Arid desert interior of extra-tropic +Australia. A tree never more than 25 feet high. The principal +`Mulga' tree. . . . Cattle and sheep browse on the twigs of +this and some allied species, even in the presence of plentiful +grass, and are much sustained by such acacias in seasons of +protracted drought." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 43: + +"Not a drop of rain! And for many and many a day the jackaroo +will still chop down the limbs of the mulga-tree, that of its +tonic leaves the sheep may eat and live." + +1894. `The Argus,' Sept. 1, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The dull green of the mulga-scrub at their base." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 85: + +"Flax and tussock and fern, + Gum and mulga and sand, + Reef and palm--but my fancies turn + Ever away from land." + +(2) A weapon, made of mulgawood. + +(a) A shield. + +1878. `Catalogue of Ethnotypical Art in the National Gallery' +(Melbourne), p. 19: + +"<i>Mulga</i>. Victoria. Thirty-six inches in length. This +specimen is 37 inches in length and 5 inches in breadth at the +broadest part. The form of a section through the middle is +nearly triangular. The aperture for the hand (cut in the solid +wood) is less than 4 inches in length. Ornamentation +:Herring-bone, the incised lines being filled in with white +clay. Some figures of an irregular form are probably the +distinguishing marks of the owner's tribe. This shield was +obtained from Larne-Gherin in the Western District." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 349: + +"Mulga is the name of a long narrow shield of wood, +made by the aboriginals out of acacia-wood." + +(b) In one place Sir Thomas Mitchell speaks of it as a club. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 267: + +"The malga [sic] . . . with which these natives were +provided, somewhat resembled a pick-axe with one half broken +off." + +<hw>Mulga-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. a gall formed on the +Mulga-tree, <i>Acacia aneura</i>, F. v. M. (q.v.). See also +<i>Apple</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 3: + +"In Western New South Wales two kinds of galls are found on +these trees. One kind is very astringent, and not used; but +the other is less abundant, larger, succulent and edible. +These latter galls are called `mulga-apples,' and are said to +be very welcome to the thirsty traveller." + +1889. E. Giles, `Australia Twice Traversed,' p. 71: + +"The mulga bears a small woody fruit called the mulga apple. +It somewhat resembles the taste of apples and is sweet." + +<hw>Mulga-down</hw>, <i>n</i>. hills covered with <i>Mulga</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 201: + +"Fascinating territories of limitless mulga-downs." + +<hw>Mulga-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian grass, +<i>Danthonia penicillata</i>, F. v. M.; also <i>Neurachne +mitchelliana</i>, Nees. See also <i>Grass</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 82: + +"Mulga Grass. . . . Peculiar to the back country. It derives +its vernacular name from being only found where the mulga-tree +(<i>Acacia aneura</i> and other species) grows; it is a very +nutritious and much esteemed grass." + +<hw>Mulga-scrub</hw>, <i>n</i>. thickets of <i>Mulga-trees</i>. + +1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Explorations in Australia,' +p. 190: + +"For the first three miles our course was through a very thick +mulga scrub, with plenty of grass, and occasionally a little +spinifex." + +1875. John Forrest, `Explorations in Australia,' p. 220: + +"Travelled till after dark through and over spinifex plains, +wooded with acacia and mulga scrub, and camped without water +and only a little scrub for the horses, having travelled +nearly forty miles." + +1876. W. Harcus, `South Australia,' p. 127: + +"The road for the next thirty miles, to Charlotte Waters +Telegraph Station, is characterized by mulga-scrub, open +plains, sand-hills, and stony rises poorly grassed." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 47: + +"Still more dreaded by the explorer is the `Mulga' scrub, +consisting chiefly of dwarf acacias. These grow in spreading +irregular bushes armed with strong spines, and where matted +with other shrubs form a mass of vegetation through which it +is impossible to penetrate." + +<hw>Mulga-studded</hw>, <i>adj</i>. with Mulga growing here +and there. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 201: + +"The frown on the face of the mulga-studded lowlands deepened." + +<hw>Mullet</hw>, <i>n</i>. Various species of this fish are +present in Australasia, all belonging to the family +<i>Mugilidae</i>, or Grey-Mullets. They are the-- + +Flat-tail Mullet-- + <i>Mugil peronii</i>, Cuv. and Val. + +Hard-gut M.-- + <i>M. dobula</i>, Gunth. + +Sand-M., or Talleygalanu-- + <i>Myxus elongatus</i>, Gunth. (called also <i>Poddy</i> +in Victoria). + +Sea-M.-- + <i>M. grandis</i>, Castln. + +In New Zealand, the Mullet is <i>Mugil perusii</i>, called +the Silver-Mullet (Maori name, <i>Kanae</i>); and the Sea-Mullet, +<i>Agonostoma forsteri</i> (Maori name, <i>Aua</i>, q.v.); +abundant also in Tasmanian estuaries. + +The Sand-Mullet in Tasmania is <i>Mugil cephalotus</i>, +Cuv. and Val. See also <i>Red-Mullet</i>. + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Fisheries Act, Second Schedule': + +[Close Season.] "Sand-mullet or poddies." + +<hw>Mullock</hw>, <i>n</i>. In English, the word is obsolete; +it was used by Chaucer in the sense of refuse, dirt. In +Australia, it is confined to" `rubbish, dirt, stuff taken out +of a mine--the refuse after the vein-stuff is taken away' +(Brough Smyth's `Glossary')." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 26: + +"A man each windlass-handle working slow, + Raises the mullock from his mate below." + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels, p. 77: + +"But still we worked on--same old tune + For nothin' but mullock come up." + +<hw>Mullock over</hw>, <i>v</i>. Shearing slang. +See quotation. + +1893. `The Age,' Sept. 23, p. 14, col. 4: + +"I affirm as a practical shearer, that no man could shear 321 +sheep in eight hours, although I will admit he might do what we +shearers call `mullock over' that number; and what is more, no +manager or overseer who knows his work would allow a shearer to +do that number of sheep or lambs in one day." + +<hw>Munyeru</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the small black seeds +of <i>Claytonia balonnensis</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Portulaceae</i>, which are ground up and mixed with +water so as to form a paste. It forms a staple article of diet +amongst the Arunta and other tribes of Central Australia. + +1896. E. C. Stirling, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Anthropology, p. 56: + +"In these districts `Munyeru' takes the place of the spore +cases of `Nardoo' (<i>Marsilea quadrifolia</i>), which is so +much used in the Barcoo and other districts to the south and +east, these being treated in a similar way." + +<hw>Murray-Carp</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Carp</i>. + +<hw>Murray-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. an important fresh-water +food-fish, <i>Oligorus macquariensis</i>, Cuv. and Val., called +<i>Kookoobal</i> by the aborigines of the Murrumbidgee, and +<i>Pundy</i> by those of the Lower Murray. A closely allied +species is called the <i>Murray-Perch</i>. Has been known to +reach a weight of 120 lbs. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior +of Eastern Australia,' vol. i. p. 95: + +"We soon found that this river contained . . . the fish we +first found in the Peel, commonly called by the colonists `the +cod,' although most erroneously, since it has nothing whatever +to do with malacopterygious fishes." + +1880. Guenther, `Introduction to Study of Fishes,' p. 392 +(`O.E.D.'): + +"The first (<i>Oligorus macquariensis</i>) is called by the +colonists `Murray-cod,' being plentiful in the Murray River and +other rivers of South Australia. It attains to a length of +more than 3 feet and to a weight of nearly 100 lbs." + +<hw>Murray-Lily</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Murray-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a freshwater fish, <i>Oligorus +mitchelli</i>, Castln., closely allied to <i>Oligorus +macquariensis</i>, the Murray-Cod, belonging to the family +<i>Percidae</i>. + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 124: + +"Our noble old 1400-mile river, the Murray, well christened +the Nile of Australia, . . . produces `snags,' and that finny +monster, the Murray cod, together with his less bulky, equally +flavourless congener, the Murray perch." + +<hw>Murr-nong</hw>, <i>n</i>. a plant. The name used by the +natives in Southern Australia for <i>Microseris forsteri</i>, +Hook., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 209: + +"Murr-nong, or `Mirr-n'yong', a kind of yam (<i>Microseris +Forsteri</i>) was usually very plentiful, and easily found in +the spring and early summer, and was dug out of the earth by +the women and children." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 45: + +"Murr-nong, or `Mirr n'yong' of the aboriginals of New South +Wales and Victoria. The tubers were largely used as food by +the aboriginals. They are sweet and milky, and in flavour +resemble the cocoa-nut." + +<hw>Murrumbidgee Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Mushroom</hw>, <i>n</i>. The common English mushroom, +<i>Agaricus campestris</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Fungi</i>, abounds +in Australia, and there are many other indigenous edible +species. + +<hw>Musk-Duck</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Australian bird, <i>Biziura +lobata</i>, Shaw. See <i>Duck</i>. + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 30: + +"The ungainly musk-duck paddles clumsily away from the passing +steamer, but hardly out of gunshot, for he seems to know that +his fishy flesh is not esteemed by man." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 159: + +"That's a musk duck: the plumage is very sombre and loose +looking--not so thick as most other ducks; the tail, too, is +singular, little more than a small fan of short quills. The +head of the male has a kind of black leathery excrescence under +the bill that gives it an odd expression, and the whole bird +has a strange odour of musk, rendering it quite uneatable." + +<hw>Musk-Kangaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hypsiprymnodon</i> +and <i>Kangaroo</i>. + +<hw>Musk-Parrakeet</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian parrakeet. +See <i>Parrakeet</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 5: + +"<i>Trichoglossus Concinnus</i>, Vig. and Horsf. +(<i>Australis</i>, Wagl.), Musky-Parrakeet; +Musk-Parrakeet, Colonists of New South Wales, +from the peculiar odour of the bird." + +<hw>Musk-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied to <i>Marlea +vitiense</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Cornaceae</i>, with edible nuts, +which is not endemic in Australia, and to two native trees of +the <i>N.O. Compositae</i>--<i>Aster argophyllus</i>, Labill., +called also <i>Musk-wood</i>, from the scent of the timber; +and <i>Aster viscosus</i>, Labill., called also the <i>Dwarf +Musk-tree</i>. + +1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's `Church +in Victoria during the Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 71: + +"Also there is some pretty underwood, a good deal of the +musk-tree--which is very different from our musk-plant, growing +quite into a shrub and having a leaf like the laurel in shape." + +1888. Mrs. M'Cann, `Poetical Works,' p. 143: + +"The musk-tree scents the evening air + Far down the leafy vale." + +<hw>Musk-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Musk-tree</i>. + +<hw>Mussel</hw>, <i>n</i>. Some Australasian species of this +mollusc are-- +<i>Mytilus latus</i>, Lamark., Victoria, Tasmania, +and New Zealand; +<i>M. tasmanicus</i>, Tenison Woods, Tasmania; +<i>M. rostratus</i>, Dunker, Tasmania and Victoria; +<i>M. hirsutus</i>, Lamark., Tasmania, South Australia, +Victoria, New Zealand; +<i>M. crassus</i>, Tenison-Woods, Tasmania. + +Fresh-water Mussels belong to the genus <i>Unio</i>. + +<hw>Mutton-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is ordinarily applied +to the Antarctic Petrel, <i>AEstrelata lessoni</i>. In +Australasia it is applied to the Puffin or Short-tailed Petrel, +<i>Puffinus brevicaudus</i>, Brandt. The collection of the +eggs of this Petrel, the preparation of oil from it, the +salting of its flesh for food, form the principal means of +subsistence of the inhabitants, half-caste and other, of the +islands in Bass Straits. + +1839. W. Mann, `Six Years' Residence in the Australian +Provinces,' p. 51: + +"They are commonly called <i>mutton</i> birds, from their +flavour and fatness; they are migratory,and arrive in Bass's +Straits about the commencement of spring, in such numbers that +they darken the air." + +1843. J. Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies' (1832), p. 73: + +"Mutton birds were in such vast flocks, that, at a distance, +they seemed as thick as bees when swarming." + +Ibid. p. 91: + +"The Mutton-birds, or Sooty Petrels, are about the size of +the Wood Pigeon of England; they are of a dark colour, +and are called `Yola' by the natives." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +p. 264: + +"The principal occupation of these people during this month of +the year is taking the Sooty Petrel, called by the Colonists +the Mutton Bird, from a fancied resemblance to the taste of +that meat." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' +p. 47: + +"The mutton-bird, or sooty petrel . . . is about the size of +the wood-pigeon of England, and is of a dark colour. These +birds are migratory, and are to be seen ranging over the +surface of the great southern ocean far from land . . . Many +millions of these birds are destroyed annually for the sake of +their feathers and the oil of the young, which they are made to +disgorge by pressing the craws." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 382: + +"The titi, or mutton-bird, is a seabird which goes inland at +night just as the light wanes. The natives light a bright +fire, behind which they sit, each armed with a long stick. The +titis, attracted by the light, fly by in great numbers, and are +knocked down as quickly as possible; thus in one night several +hundreds are often killed, which they preserve in their own fat +for future use." + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 121: + +"The young titi (mutton-bird), a species of puffin, is caught +by the natives in great quantities, potted in its own fat, and +sent as a sort of `<i>pa^te de foie gras</i>' to inland friends." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 232: + +"The natives in the South [of Stewart's Island] trade largely +with their brethren in the North, in supplies of the mutton- +bird, which they boil down, and pack in its own fat in the +large air-bags of sea-weed." + +1879. H. <i>n</i>. Moselep `Notes by Naturalist on Challenger, +p. 207: + +"Besides the prion, there is the `mutton-bird' of the whalers +(<i>AEstrelata lessoni</i>), a large Procellanid, as big as a +pigeon, white and brown and grey in colour." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 49: + +"The crest of the Cape [Wollomai] is a favourite haunt of those +elegant but prosaically-named sea-fowl, the `mutton-birds.'. . +One of the sports of the neighbourhood is `mutton-birding.' + +1888. A. Reischek, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xxi. art. xlix. p. 378: + +"Passing through Foveaux Strait, clothed with romantic little +islands, we disturbed numerous flocks of mutton-birds +(<i>Puffinus tristis</i>), which were playing, feeding, or +sleeping on the water." + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 14, p. 963, col. 1 (`A Lady in +the Kermadecs'): + +"The mutton-birds and burrowers come to the island in millions +in the breeding season, and the nesting-place of the burrowers +is very like a rabbit-warren; while the mutton-bird is content +with a few twigs to do duty for a nest." + +1891. Rev. J. Stack, `Report of Australasian Association for +the Advancement of Science,' vol. iii. p. 379: + +"Wild pigeons, koko, tui, wekas, and mutton-birds were cooked +and preserved in their own fat." + +<hw>Mutton-bird Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, <i>Senecio +rotundifolius</i>, Hook.: so called because the mutton-birds, +especially in Foveaux Straits, New Zealand, are fond of sitting +under it. + +<hw>Mutton-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marine univalve mollusc, +<i>Haliotis naevosa</i>, Martyn: so called from its flavour +when cooked. The empty earshell of Haliotis<i></i>, especially +in New Zealand, <i>Haliotis iris</i>, Martyn, is known as +<i>Venus' Ear</i>; Maori name, <i>Paua</i> (q.v.). A species +of the same genus is known and eaten at the Cape and in the +Channel Islands. (French name <i>Ormer</i>, sc. <i>Oreille +de mer</i>.) + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish and Fisheries of New +South Wales,' p. 92: + +"Then mutton fish were speared. This is the ear-shell fish +(<i>Haliotis naevosa</i>), which was eagerly bought by the +Chinese merchants. Only the large muscular sucking disc on +foot is used. Before being packed it is boiled and dried. +About 9d. per lb. was given." + +Myall, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. aboriginal word with two +different meanings; whether there is any connection between +them is uncertain. + +(1) <i>n</i>. An acacia tree, <i>Acacia pendula</i>, A. Cunn., +and its timber. Various species have special epithets: +<i>Bastard, Dalby, True</i>, <i>Weeping</i>, etc. + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 38: + +"The myall-tree (<i>Acacia pendula</i>) is the most picturesque +tree of New South Wales. The leaves have the appearance of +being frosted, and the branches droop like the weeping +willow. . . . Its perfume is as delightful, and nearly as +strong, as sandal-wood." + +(p. 10): "They poison the fish by means of a sheet of bark +stripped from the Myall-tree (<i>Acacia pendula</i>)." + +1846. T. L. Mitchell, Report quoted by J. D. Lang, +`Cooksland,' p. 495: + +"The myall-tree and salt-bush, <i>Acacia pendula</i> and +<i>salsolae</i> [sic], so essential to a good run, are also +there." + +1864. J. S. Moore, `Spring Life Lyrics,' p. 170: + +"The guerdon's won! What may it be? + A grave beneath a myall-tree." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 193 [Note]: + +"This acacia, which has much the habit of the weeping willow, +is found very extensively on the wet, alluvial flats of the +west rivers. It sometimes forms scrubs and thickets, which +give a characteristic appearance to the interior of this part +of Australia, so that, once seen, it can never be again +mistaken for scenery of any other country in the world. The +myall scrubs are nearly all of <i>Acacia pendula</i>." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 280: + +"The myall-wood weapons made at Liverpool Plains were +exchanged with the coast natives for others." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 46: + +"<i>Lignum-vitae</i> and bastard-myall bushes were very +common." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 115: + +"Weeping or true Myall. . . . Stock are very fond of the +leaves of this tree [<i>Acacia pendula</i>], especially in +seasons of drought, and for this reason, and because they eat +down the seedlings, it has almost become exterminated in parts +of the colonies." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 27: + +"A strip of the swaying, streaming myall, of a colour more +resembling blue than black." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The soft and silvery grace of the myalls." + +1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 50: + +"Miall, a wood having a scent similar to raspberry jam, +and very hard and well-grained." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 130: + +"Stock-whips with myall handles (the native wood that smells +like violets)." + +(2) <i>adj</i>. and <i>n</i>. wild, wild natives, used +especially in Queensland. The explanation given by Lumholtz +(1890) is not generally accepted. The word <i>mail</i>, +or <i>myall</i>, is the aboriginal term for "men," on the Bogan, +Dumaresque, and Macintyre Rivers in New South Wales. It is the +local equivalent of the more common form <i>murrai</i>. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 41: + +"On my arrival I learnt from the natives that one party was +still at work a considerable distance up the country, at the +source of one of the rivers, called by the natives `Myall,' +meaning, in their language, Stranger, or a place which they +seldom or never frequent." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 192: + +"This tribe gloried in the name of `Myall,' which the natives +nearer to the colony apply in terror and abhorrence to the +`wild blackfellows,' to whom they usually attribute the most +savage propensities." + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' Aug. i, p. 4, col. 4: + +"Even the wildest of the Myall black fellows--as cannibals +usually are--learned to appreciate him." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 447: + +"Words quite as unintelligible to the natives as the +corresponding words in the vernacular language of the white men +would have been, were learned by the natives, and are now +commonly used by them in conversing with Europeans, as English +words. Thus <i>corrobbory</i>, the Sydney word for a general +assembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense at +Moreton Bay; but the original word there is <i>yanerwille</i>. +<i>Cabon</i>, great; <i>narang</i> little; <i>boodgeree</i>, +good; <i>myall</i>, wild native, etc. etc., are all words of +this description, supposed by the natives to be English words, +and by the Europeans to be aboriginal words of the language of +that district." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 171: + +"A more intimate acquaintance with the ways and customs of the +whites had produced a certain amount of contempt for them among +the myalls." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 209: + +"I had many conversations with native police officers +on the subject of the amelioration of the wild myalls." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 150: + +"Suddenly he became aware that half-a-dozen of these `myalls,' +as they are called, were creeping towards him through the long +grass. Armed with spears and boomerangs . . ." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 76: + +"These so-called civilized blacks look upon their savage +brethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall." + +[Footnote]: "A tree (<i>Acacia pendula</i>) which grows +extensively in the less civilized districts is called by the +Europeans <i>myall</i>. This word was soon applied by the +whites as a term for the wild blacks who frequented these large +remote <i>myall</i> woods. Strange to say, the blacks soon +adopted this term themselves, and used it as an epithet of +abuse, and hence it soon came to mean a person of no culture." + +1893. M. Gaunt, `English Illustrated,' March, p. 367: + +"He himself had no faith in the myall blacks; they were +treacherous, they were cruel." + +(3) By transference, wild cattle. + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4, `Getting in the +Scrubbers': + +"To secure these myalls we took down sixty or seventy head of +quiet cows, as dead homers as carrier pigeons, some of them +milking cows, with their calves penned up in the stockyard." + +<hw>Myrmecobius</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the +Australian genus with only one species, called the <i>Banded +Ant-eater</i> (q.v.). (Grk. <i>murmaex</i>, an ant, and +<i>bios</i> life.) + +<hw>Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. The true <i>Myrtle, Myrtus +communis</i>, is a native of Asia, but has long been +naturalised in Europe, especially on the shores of the +Mediterranean. The name is applied to many genera of the +family, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, and has been transferred to many +other trees not related to that order. In Australia the name, +with various epithets, is applied to the following trees-- + +<i>Backhousia citriodora</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +called the <i>Scrub Myrtle</i> and <i>Native Myrtle</i>. + +<i>Backhousia myrtifolia</i>, Hook. and Herv., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, called <i>Scrub Myrtle</i>, or <i>Native +Myrtle</i>, or <i>Grey Myrtle</i>, and also <i> Lancewood</i>. + +<i>Diospyrus pentamera</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Ebenaceae</i>, +the <i>Black Myrtle</i> and <i>Grey Plum</i> of Northern New +South Wales. + +<i>Eugenia myrtifolia</i>, Sims, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +known as <i>Native Myrtle</i>, <i>Red Myrtle</i> and <i>Brush +Cherry</i>. + +<i>Eugenia ventenatii</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +the <i>Drooping Myrtle</i> or <i>Large-leaved Water-gum</i>. + +<i>Melaleuca decussata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<i>Melaleuca genistifolia</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +which is called <i>Ridge Myrtle</i>, and in Queensland +<i>Ironwood</i>. + +<i>Myoporum serratum</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myoporineae</i>, +which is called <i>Native Myrtle</i>; and also called +<i>Blue-berry Tree</i>, <i>Native Currant</i>, <i>Native +Juniper</i>, <i>Cockatoo-Bush</i>, and by the aborigines +<i>Palberry</i>. + +<i>Myrtus acmenioides</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +which is the <i>White Myrtle</i> of the Richmond and Clarence +Rivers (New South Wales), and is also called +<i>Lignum-vitae</i>. + +<i>Rhodamnia argentea</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +called <i>White Myrtle</i>, the <i>Muggle-muggle</i> +of the aboriginals of Northern New South Wales. + +<i>Syncarpia leptopetala</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +which is called <i>Myrtle</i> and also <i>Brush-Turpentine</i>. + +<i>Tristania neriifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, +called <i>Water Myrtle</i>, and also <i>Water Gum</i>. + +<i>Trochocarpa laurina</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>, +called <i>Brush-Myrtle</i>, <i>Beech</i> and <i>Brush +Cherry</i>. + +In Tasmania, all the <i>Beeches</i> are called Myrtles, +and there are extensive forests of the Beech <i>Fagus +cunninghamii</i>, Hook., which is invariably called "Myrtle" +by the colonists of Tasmania. + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 206: + + Table of Tasmanian Woods. + + Hgt. Dia. Where found. Use. + ft. in. + +Scented Myrtle 15 6 Low, marshy Seldom used + + Red " 40 12 Swampy As pine + +White " 20 9 Low, marshy House-carpentry + +Yellow " 20 9 " " do. + +Brown " 20 30 " " do. and + joiners' planes + + + + +N + + +<hw>Nailrod</hw>, <i>n</i>. a coarse dark tobacco smoked by +bushmen. The name alludes to the shape of the plug, which +looks like a thin flat stick of liquorice. It is properly +applied to the imported brand of "Two Seas," but is +indiscriminately used by up-country folk for any coarse stick +of tobacco. + +1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 118: + +"`You can give me half-a-pound of nailrod,' he said, +in a quiet tone.'" + +<hw>Nail-tailed Wallaby</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Onychogale</i>. + +<hw>Namma hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a native well. <i>Namma</i> +is an aboriginal word for a woman's breast. + +1893. `The Australasian,' August 5, p. 252, col. 4: + +"The route all the way from York to Coolgardie is amply +watered, either `namma holes' native wells) or Government +wells being plentiful on the road." + +1896. `The Australasian,' March 28, p. 605, col. 1: + +"The blacks about here [far west of N.S.W.] use a word nearly +resembling `namma' in naming waterholes, viz., `numma,' +pronounced by them `ngumma,' which means a woman's breast. It +is used in conjunction with other words in the native names of +some waterholes in this district, e.g., `Tirrangumma' = +Gum-tree breast; and ngumma-tunka' = breast-milk, the water in +such case being always milky in appearance. In almost all +native words beginning with <i>n</i> about here the first +<i>n</i> has the <i>ng</i> sound as above." + +<hw>Nancy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the flower +<i>Anguillaria</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Nankeen Crane</hw>, or <hw>Nankeen Bird</hw>, or +<hw>Nankeen Night Heron</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Australian bird +<i>Nycticorax caledonicus</i>, Gmel. Both the Nankeen Bird and +the Nankeen Hawk are so called from their colour. Nankeen is +"a Chinese fabric, usually buff, from the natural colour of a +cotton grown in the Nanking district" of China. (`Century.') + +1838. James, `Six Months in South Australia, p. 202: + +"After shooting one or two beautiful nankeen birds." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 121: + +"The nankeen crane (<i>Nycticorax caledonicus</i>), a very +handsome bright nankeen-coloured bird with three long white +feathers at the back of the neck, very good eating." + +<hw>Nankeen Gum</hw>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Nankeen Hawk</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, +<i>Tinnunculus cenchroides</i>, Vig. and Hors., which +is otherwise called <i>Kestrel</i> (q.v.). + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 184: + +"`This bird,' as we are informed by Mr. Caley, `is called +Nankeen Hawk by the settlers. It is a migratory species.'" + +<hw>Nannygai</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for an Australian +fish, <i>Beryx affinis</i>, Gunth. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 52: + +"Amongst the early colonists it used also to be called `mother +nan a di,' probably a corruption of the native name, mura ngin +a gai." + +1884. E. P. Ramsay, `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' vol. v. +p. 308: + +"Known among the fishermen of Port Jackson as the `nannagai,' +or as it is sometimes spelt `nannygy.' It is a most delicious +fish, always brings a high price, but is seldom found in +sufficient numbers." + +<hw>Nardoo</hw>, or <hw>Nardu</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal word +for the sporocarp of a plant, <i>Marsilea quadrifolia</i>, +Linn., used as food by the aboriginals, and sometimes popularly +called <i>Clover-fern</i>. The explorers Burke and Wills +vainly sought the means of sustaining life by eating flour made +from the spore-cases of nardoo. "Properly <i>Ngardu</i> in the +Cooper's Creek language (Yantruwunta)." (A. W. Howitt.) +Cooper's Creek was the district where Burke and Wills perished. +In South Australia <i>Ardoo</i> is said to be the correct form. + +1861. `Diary of H. J. Wills, the Explorer,' quoted in Brough +Smyth's `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 216: + +"I cannot understand this nardoo at all; it certainly will +not agree with me in any form. We are now reduced to it alone, +and we manage to get from four to five pounds a day between us. +. . . It seems to give us no nutriment. . . . Starvation +on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness +one feels and the utter inability to move oneself, for, as far +as appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest +satisfaction." + +1862. Andrew Jackson, `Burke and the Australian Exploring +Expedition of 1860,' p. 186: + +"The [wheaten] flour, fifty pounds of which I gave them, they +at once called `whitefellow nardoo,' and they explained that +they understood that these things were given to them for having +fed King." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 247: + +"They now began to inquire of the blacks after the nardoo seed, +imagining it the produce of a tree; and received from the +natives some of their dried narcotic herbs, which they chew, +called pitchery. They soon found the nardoo seed in abundance, +on a flat, and congratulated themselves in the idea that on +this they could subsist in the wilderness, if all other food +failed, a hope in which they were doomed to a great +disappointment." + +1877. F. von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 130: + +"Of <i>Marsiliaceae</i> we have well known examples in the +nardoo (<i>Marsilea quadrifolia</i>, with many varieties), +the foliage resembling that of a clover with four leaflets." + +1878. R. Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 209: + +"They seem to have been unacquainted generally with the use, as +a food, of the clover-fern, Nardoo, though the natives of the +North Western parts of Victoria must have had intercourse with +the tribes who use it, and could have obtained it, sparingly, +from the lagoons in their own neighbourhood." + +1879. J. D. Wood, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' p. 288: + +"Ardoo, often described by writers as Nardoo. A very hard +seed, a flat oval of about the size of a pea. It is crushed +for food." + +1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song': + +"Hurrah for the Roma Railway! + Hurrah for Cobb and Co.! + Hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse + To carry me Westward Ho! + To carry me Westward Ho! my boys; + That's where the cattle pay, + On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, + A thousand miles away." + +1879. S. Gason, in `The Native Tribes of South Australia,' +p. 288: + +"<i>Ardoo</i>. Often described in news papers and by writers +as Nardoo. A very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of +a split pea; it is crushed or pounded, and the husk winnowed. +In bad seasons this is the mainstay of the native sustenance, +but it is the worst food possible, possessing very little +nourishment, and being difficult to digest." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the of the +Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' p. 82 [Botanical Notes on +Queensland]: + +"<i>Sesbania aculeata</i>. The seeds of this plant are eaten +by the natives. It grows in all warm or marshy places in +Queensland. By many it is thought that this was the Nardoo +which Burke and Wills thought came from the spores of a +<i>Marsilea</i>. It is hard to suppose that any nourishment +would be obtained from the spore cases of the latter plant, +or that the natives would use it. Besides this the spore-cases +are so few in number." + +1890. E. D. Cleland, `White Kangaroo,' p. 113: + +"The great thing with the blacks was nardoo. This is a plant +which sends up slender stems several inches high; at the tip is +a flower-like leaf, divided into four nearly equal parts. It +bears a fruit, or seed, and this is the part used for food. It +is pounded into meal between two stones, and is made up in the +form of cakes, and baked in the ashes. It is said to be +nourishing when eaten with animal food, but taken alone to +afford no support." + +<hw>Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. This word, originally applied, as +elsewhere, to the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, is now +used exclusively to designate white people born in Australia. +The members of the "Australian Natives' Association" (A.N.A.), +founded April 27, 1871, pride themselves on being +Australian-born and not immigrants. Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in +the `Times' of Nov. 1895, published a poem called " The +Native-Born," sc. born in the British Empire, but outside Great +Britain. As applied to Plants, Animals, Names, etc., the word +<i>Native</i> bears its original sense, as in "Native Cabbage," +"Native Bear," "Native name for," etc., though in the last case +it is now considered more correct to say in Australia +"Aboriginal name for," and in New Zealand "Maori name for." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. v. p. 161: + +"Three Sydney natives (`currency' not aboriginal) were in the +coach, bound for Melbourne." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 43: + +"They were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain +side." + +<hw>Native</hw>, or <hw>Rock-Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name +given to the fish called <i>Schnapper</i>, after it has ceased +to "school." See <i>Schnapper</i>. + +<hw>Native Arbutus</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wax-cluster</i>. + +<hw>Native Banana</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Lilly-pilly</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Native Banyan</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for <i>Ficus +rubiginosa</i>. See <i>Fig</i>. + +<hw>Native Bear</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bear</i>. + +<hw>Native Beech</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Beech</i>. + +<hw>Native Blackberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Blackberry</i>. + +<hw>Native Borage</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Borage</i>. + +<hw>Native Box</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Box</i>. + +<hw>Native Bread</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bread</i>. + +<hw>Native Broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Broom</i>. + +<hw>Native Burnet</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Burnet</i>. + +<hw>Native Cabbage</hw>, <i>n</i>. The <i>Nasturtium +palustre</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Cruciferae</i>, is so called, +but in spite of its name it is not endemic in Australia. +In New Zealand, the name is sometimes applied to the +<i>Maori Cabbage</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Native Carrot</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Carrot</i>. + +<hw>Native Cascarilla</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cascarilla</i>. + +<hw>Native Cat</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cat</i>. + +<hw>Native Celery</hw>, or <hw>Australian Celery</hw>, +<i>n</i>. See <i>Celery</i>. + +<hw>Native Centaury</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Centaury</i>. + +<hw>Native Cherry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cherry</i>. + +<hw>Native-Companion</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird-name, +<i>Grus australasianus</i>, Gould. See also <i>Crane</i>. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 125: + +"Here we saw the native-companion, a large bird of the crane +genus . . . five feet high, colour of the body grey, the wings +darker, blue or black." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 38: + +"With native-companions (<i>Ardea antigone</i>) strutting +round." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 48: + +"<i>Grus Australasianus</i>, Gould, Australian Crane; +Native-Companion of the Colonists." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 146: + +"A handsome tame `native-companion,' which had been stalking +about picking up insects, drew near. Opening his large +slate-coloured wings, and dancing grotesquely, the interesting +bird approached his young mistress, bowing gracefully from side +to side as he hopped lightly along; then running up, he laid +his heron-like head lovingly against her breast." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 21: + +"The most extraordinary of Riverina birds is the +native-companion." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 145: + +"A row of native-companions, of course, standing on one leg-- +as is their wont--like recruits going to drill." + +[Query, did the writer mean going "through" drill.] + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne,' p. 23: + +"In this paddock are some specimens of the Native Companion, +whose curious habit of assembling in groups on the plains and +fantastically dancing, has attracted much attention. This +peculiarity is not confined to them alone, however, as some of +the other large cranes (notably the crowned cranes of Africa) +display the same trait." + +<hw>Native Cranberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cranberry</i>. + +<hw>Native Currant</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Currant</i>. + +<hw>Native Daisy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Daisy</i>. + +<hw>Native Damson</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Damson</i>. + +<hw>Native Dandelion</hw>, <i>n</i>. +See <i>Dandelion</i>. + +<hw>Native Daphne</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Daphne</i>. + +<hw>Native Date</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Date</i>. + +<hw>Native Deal</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Deal</i>. + +<hw>Native Dog</hw>, <i>n</i>. Another name for the +<i>Dingo</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Native Elderberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Elderberry</i>. + +<hw>Native Flag</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Flax, Native</i>, +and <i>New Zealand</i>. + +<hw>Native Fuchsia</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Fuchsia</i>. + +<hw>Native Furze</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hakea</i>. + +<hw>Native Ginger</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ginger</i>. + +<hw>Native Grape</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Grape, Gippsland</i>. + +<hw>Native-hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to various species +of the genus <i>Tribonyx</i> (q.v.). The Australian species +are-- + +<i>Tribonyx mortieri</i>, Du Bus., called by Gould the +<i>Native Hen</i> of the Colonists; + +Black-tailed N.-h., + <i>T. ventralis</i>, Gould; + +and in Tasmania, + <i>Tribonyx gouldi</i>, Sclater. See <i>Tribonyx</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 71: + +"<i>Tribonyx Mortierii</i>, Du Bus., native-hen of the +colonists." + +<hw>Native Hickory</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hickory</i>. + +<hw>Native Holly</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Holly</i>. + +<hw>Native Hops</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hops</i>. + +<hw>Native Hyacinth</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hyacinth</i>. + +<hw>Native Indigo</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Indigo</i>. + +<hw>Native Ivy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ivy</i>, and <i>Grape, +Macquarie Harbour</i>. + +<hw>Native Jasmine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Jasmine</i>. + +<hw>Native Juniper</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Native +Currant</i>. See under <i>Currant</i>. + +<hw>Native Kumquat</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Desert Lemon</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Native Laburnum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Laburnum</i>. + +<hw>Native Laurel</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Laurel</i>. + +<hw>Native Lavender</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Lavender</i>. + +<hw>Native Leek</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Leek</i>. + +<hw>Native Lilac</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant. +See <i>Lilac</i>. + +<hw>Native Lime</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Lime</i>. + +<hw>Native Lucerne</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Queensland Hemp</i>. +See under <i>Hemp</i>. + +<hw>Native Mangrove</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for the +<i>Boobialla</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Native Mignonette</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Mignonette</i>. + +<hw>Native Millet</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Millet</i>. + +<hw>Native Mint</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Mint</i>. + +<hw>Native Mistletoe</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Mistletoe</i>. + +<hw>Native Mulberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Mulberry</i>. + +<hw>Native Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Myrtle</i>. + +<hw>Native Nectarine</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Emu-Apple</i>. See under <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>Native Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Native Olive</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Olive</i> and +<i>Marblewood</i>. + +<hw>Native Onion</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Native Leek</i>. +See <i>Leek</i>. + +<hw>Native Orange</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Orange</i>. + +<hw>Native Passion-flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. +See <i>Passion-flower</i>. + +<hw>Native Peach</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Quandong</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Native Pear</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hakea</i> +and <i>Pear</i>. + +<hw>Native Pennyroyal</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pennyroyal</i>. + +<hw>Native Pepper</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pepper</i>. + +<hw>Native Plantain</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Plantain</i>. + +<hw>Native Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Plum, Wild</i>. + +<hw>Native Pomegranate</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Orange, +Native</i>. + +<hw>Native Potato</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Potato</i>. + +<hw>Native Quince</hw>, <i>n</i>. Another name for +<i>Emu-Apple</i>. See <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>Native Raspberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Raspberry</i>. + +<hw>Native Rocket</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Rocket</i>. + +<hw>Native Sandalwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Sandalwood</i> +and <i>Raspberry-Jam Tree</i>. + +<hw>Native Sarsaparilla</hw>, <i>n</i>. +See <i>Sarsaparilla</i>. + +<hw>Native Sassafras</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Sassafras</i>. + +<hw>Native Scarlet-runner</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Kennedya</i>. + +<hw>Native Shamrock</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Shamrock</i>. + +<hw>Native Sloth</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Bear</i>. +See <i>Bear</i>. + +<hw>Native Speedwell</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Speedwell</i>. + +<hw>Native Tamarind</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tamarind-tree</i>. + +<hw>Native Tiger</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tasmanian Tiger</i>. + +<hw>Native Tobacco</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tobacco</i>. + +<hw>Native Tulip</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Waratah</i>. + +<hw>Native Turkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Wild Turkey</i>. +A vernacular name given to <i>Eupodotis australis</i>, Gray, +which is not a turkey at all, but a true <i>Bustard</i>. See +<i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Native Vetch</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Vetch</i>. + +<hw>Native Willow</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Boobialla</i> and +<i>Poison-berry Tree</i>. + +<hw>Native Yam</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Yam</i>. + +<hw>Necho</hw>, and <hw>Neko</hw>. See <i>Nikau</i>. + +<hw>Nectarine, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Emu-Apple</i>. See <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>Needle-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to two Australian +trees, <i>Hakea leucoptera</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>; +called also <i>Pin-bush</i> and <i>Water-tree</i> (q.v.) +and <i>Beefwood</i>; <i>Acacia rigens</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. +Leguminosae</i> (called also <i>Nealie</i>). Both trees have +fine sharp spines. + +<hw>Negro-head</hw> Beech, <i>n</i>. See <i>Beech</i>. + +<hw>Neinei</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for New Zealand shrub, +<i>Dracophyllum longifolium</i>, R. Br., also +<i>D. traversii</i>, <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +1865. J. Von Haast, `A Journey to the West Coast, 1865' (see +`Geology of Westland,' p. 78): + +"An undescribed superb tree like <i>Dracophyllum</i>, not +unlike the <i>D. latifolium</i> of the North Island, began to +appear here. The natives call it <i>nene</i>. (Named +afterwards <i>D. traversii</i> by Dr. Hooker.) It has leaves +a foot long running out into a slender point, of a reddish brown +colour at the upper part, between which the elegant flower- +panicle comes forth." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 128: + +"Neinei, an ornamental shrub-tree, with long grassy leaves. +Wood white, marked with satin-like specks, and adapted for +cabinet-work." + +1888. J. Adams, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. +xxi. art. ii. p. 40: + +"On the flat and rounded top the tallest plants are stunted +neinei." + +<hw>Nephrite</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Greenstone</i>. + +<hw>Nestor</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of New +Zealand Parrots. See <i>Kaka</i> and <i>Kea</i>. + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 58: + +"There was a kind of dusky, brownish-green parrot too, which +the scientific call a Nestor. What they mean by this name I +know not. To the unscientific it is a rather dirty-looking +bird, with some bright red feathers under its wings. It is +very tame, sits still to be petted, and screams like a parrot." + +<hw>Nettle-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. Two species of +<i>Laportea</i>, <i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>, large scrub-trees, are +called by this name--Giant Nettle, <i>L. gigas</i>, Wedd., and +Small-leaved Nettle, <i>L. photiniphylla</i>, Wedd.; they have +rigid stinging hairs. These are both species of such magnitude +as to form timber-trees. A third, <i>L. moroides</i>, Wedd., +is a small tree, with the stinging hairs extremely virulent. +See also preceding words. /??/ + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 34: + +"In the scrubs is found a tree, commonly called the nettle- +tree (<i>Urtica gigas</i>). It is often thirty feet in height, +and has a large, broad, green leaf. It is appropriately named; +and the pain caused by touching the leaf is, I think, worse +than that occasioned by the sting of a wasp." + +<hw>Never, Never Country</hw>, or <hw>Never, Never Land</hw>. +See quotations. Mr. Cooper's explanation (1857 quotation) is +not generally accepted. + +1857. F. de Brebant Cooper, `Wild Adventures in Australia,' +p. 68: + +"With the aid of three stock-keepers, soon after my arrival at +Illarrawarra, I had the cattle mustered, and the draft destined +for the Nievah vahs ready for for the road." + +[Footnote]: "Nievah vahs, sometimes incorrectly pronounced +never nevers, a Comderoi term signifying unoccupied land." + +1884. A. W. Stirling, `The Never Never Land: a Ride in +North Queensland,' p. 5: + +"The `Never Never Land,' as the colonists call all that portion +of it [Queensland] which lies north or west of Cape Capricorn." + +1887. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. i. p. 279: + +"In very sparsely populated country, such as the district of +Queensland, known as the Never Never Country--presumably +because a person, who has once been there, invariably +asseverates that he will never, never, on any consideration, +go back." + +1890. J. S. O'Halloran, Secretary Royal Colonial Institute, +<i>apud</i> Barrere and Leland: + +"The Never, Never Country means in Queensland the occupied +pastoral country which is furthest removed from the more +settled districts." + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 85: + +"The weird `Never, Never Land,' so called by the earliest +pioneers from the small chance they anticipated, on reaching +it, of ever being able to return to southern civilization." + +<hw>Newberyite</hw>, <i>n</i>. [Named after J. Cosmo Newbery +of Melbourne.] "A hydrous phosphate of magnesium occurring in +orthorhombic crystals in the bat-guano of the Skipton Caves, +Victoria." (`Century.') + +<hw>New Chum</hw>, <i>n</i>. a new arrival, especially from the +old country: generally used with more or less contempt; what in +the United States is called a `tenderfoot.' + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 99: + +"He was also what they termed a `new chum,' or one newly +arrived." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366: + +"`New Chum,' in opposition to `Old Chum.' The former +`cognomen' peculiarizing [sic] the newly-arrived Emigrant; +the latter as a mark of respect attached to the more experienced +Colonist." + +1855. `How to Settle in Victoria,' p. 15: + +"They appear to suffer from an apprehension of being under- +sold, or in some other way implicated by the inexperience of, +as they call him, the `new chum.'" + +1865. `Once a Week,' `The Bulla Bulla Bunyip': + +"I was, however, comparatively speaking, a `new chum,' +and therefore my explanation of the mystery met with +scant respect." + +1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 17: + +"To be a new chum is not agreeable--it is something like being +a new boy at school--you are bored with questions for some time +after your arrival as to how you like the place, and what you +are going to do; and people speak to you in a pitying and +patronizing manner, smiling at your real or inferred simplicity +in colonial life, and altogether `sitting upon' you with much +frequency and persistence." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 32: + +"A new chum is no longer a new chum when he can plait a +stock-whip." + +1886. P. Clarke [Title]: + +"The New Chum in Australia." + +1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt [Title]: + +"The New Chum in the Queensland Bush." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152: + +"I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another. +They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then +there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in +Queensland." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 4: + +"The buggy horse made a bolt of it when a new-chum Englishman +was driving her." + +1892. Mrs. H. E. Russell, `Too Easily jealous,' p. 155: + +"One man coolly told me it was because I was a new chum, +just as though it were necessary for a fellow to rusticate for +untold ages in these barbarous solitudes, before he is allowed +to give an opinion on any subject connected with the colonies." + +<hw>New Chumhood</hw>, <i>n</i>. the period and state of being +a <i>New Chum</i>. + +1883. W. Jardine Smith, in `Nineteenth Century,' November, +p. 849: + +"The `bumptiousness' observable in the early days of `new +chumhood.'" + +<hw>New Holland</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name, now extinct, first +given to Australia by Dutch explorers. + +1703. Capt. William Dampier,' Voyages,' vol. iii. [Title]: + +"A Voyage to New Holland, &c., in the Year 1699." + +1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Intro. p. ii: + +"The vast regions to which this voyage was principally +directed, comprehend, in the western part, the early +discoveries of the Dutch, under the name of New Holland; and in +the east, the coasts explored by British navigators, and named +New South Wales." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 2: + +"The Spaniards at the commencement of the seventeenth century +were the discoverers of New Holland; and from them it received +the name of Australia. It subsequently, however, obtained its +present name of New Holland from the Dutch navigators, who +visited it a few years afterwards." + +[The Spaniards did <i>not</i> call New Holland <i>Australia</i> +(q.v.). The Spaniard Quiros gave the name of <i>Australia del +Espiritu Santo</i> to one of the New Hebrides (still known as +Espiritu Santo), thinking it to be part of the `Great South +Land.' See Captain Cook's remarks on this subject in +`Hawkesworth's Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 602.] + +1850. J. Bonwick, `Geography for Australian Youth,' p. 6: + +"Australasia, or Australia, consists of the continent of New +Holland, or Australia, the island of Tasmania, or Van Diemen's +Land, and the islands of New Zealand." + +[In the map accompanying the above work `<i>Australia</i>' is +printed across the whole continent, and in smaller type <i>`New +Holland</i>' stretches along the Western half, and `<i>New +South Wales</i>' along the whole of the Eastern.] + +<hw>New South Wales</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name of the oldest and +most important colony in Australia. The name "New Wales" was +first given by Captain Cook in 1770, from the supposed +resemblance of the coast to that of the southern coast of +Wales; but before his arrival in England he changed the name to +"New South Wales." It then applied to all the east of the +continent. Victoria and Queensland have been taken out of the +parent colony. It is sometimes called by the slang name of +<i>Eastralia</i>, as opposed to <i>Westralia</i> (q.v). + +<hw>New Zealand</hw>, <i>n</i>. This name was given to the +colony by Abel Jansz Tasman, the Dutch navigator, who visited +it in 1642. He first called it <i>Staaten-land</i>. It is now +frequently called <i>Maoriland</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>New Zealand Spinach</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Spinach</i>. + +<hw>Ngaio, <i</hw>>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree, +<i>Myoporum laetum</i>, Forst.; generally corrupted into +<i>Kaio</i>, in South Island. + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Ngaio: wood light, white and tough, used for gun-stocks." + +1876. J. C. Crawford, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. ix. art. xiv. p. 206: + +"A common New Zealand shrub, or tree, which may be made +useful for shelter, viz. the Ngaio." + +1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xiii. art. i. p. 33: + +"The fruits of several species of Rubus, and of the Ngaio +(<i>Myoporum laetum</i>), were also eaten, especially by +children." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 3, `Native Trees': + +"<i>Myoporum Laetum (Ngaio</i>). This is generally called kio +by colonists. It is a very rapid-growing tree for the first +five or six years after it has been planted. They are very +hardy, and like the sea air. I saw these trees growing at +St. Kilda, near Melbourne, thirty years ago." + +<hw>Nicker Nuts</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Bonduc Nuts</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Nigger</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian black or aboriginal. +[Of course an incorrect use. He is not a negro, any more than +the Hindoo is.] + +1874. M. C., `Explorers,' p. 25: + +"I quite thought the niggers had made an attack." + +1891. `The Argus,' Nov. 7, p. 13, col. 5: + +"The natives of Queensland are nearly always spoken of as +`niggers' by those who are brought most directly in contact +with them." + +<hw>Nigger-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Name given in New Zealand +to hard blackstones found at the Blue Spur and other mining +districts. They are prized for their effectiveness in aiding +cement-washing. The name is applied in America to a round +piece of basic igneous rock. + +(2) Name used in Queensland for blocks of coral above water. + +1876. Capt. J. Moresby, R. N., `Discoveries and Surveys in +New Guinea,' pp. 2-3: + +"The gigantic Barrier Reef is submerged in parts, generally to +a shallow depth, and traceable only by the surf that breaks on +it, out of which a crowd of `nigger heads,' black points of +coral rock, peep up in places . . ." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 111: + +"Abundantly on the Queensland coast, especially on the coral +reefs, where all the outstanding blocks of coral (nigger-heads) +are covered with them." + +<hw>Nightjar</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name, applied in +Australia to the following species-- + +Large-tailed Nightjar-- + <i>Caprimulgus macrurus</i>, Hors. + +Little N.-- + <i>AEgotheles novae-hollandiae</i>, Gould. + +Spotted N.-- + <i>Eurostopodus guttatus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +White-throated N.-- + <i>E. albogularis</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +<hw>Nikau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +palm-tree, <i>Areca sapida</i>, <i>N.O. Palmeae</i>. Spelt +also <i>Necho</i> and <i>Neko</i>. + +1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses, +Session II. No. xvii. of the former legislative Council of +New Zealand': + +[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.] + +"Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of every +building constructed wholly or in part of <i>raupo, nikau, +toitoi</i>, <i>wiwi, kakaho</i>, straw or thatch of any +description [ . . . L20]." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 270: + +[The house was] "covered with thick coating of the leaves of +the nikau (a kind of palm) and tufts of grass." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' [Note] p. 75: + +"The <i>necho</i> or <i>neko</i> is a large tree-like plant +known elsewhere as the mountain cabbage." + +1862. `All the Year Round,' `From the Black Rocks on Friday,' +May 17, No. 160: + +"I found growing, as I expected, amongst the trees abundance +of the wild palm or nikau. The heart of one or two of these +I cut out with my knife. The heart of this palm is about the +thickness of a man's wrist, is about a foot long, and tastes +not unlike an English hazel-nut, when roasted on the ashes of +a fire. It is very nutritious." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 86: + +"The pale green pinnate-leaved nikau." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. +p. 210: + +"With the exception of the kauri and the nekau-palm nearly +every tree which belongs to the colony grows in the +`seventy-mile bush' of Wellington." + +<hw>Nipper</hw>, <i>n</i>. local name in Sydney for <i>Alphaeus +socialis</i>, Heller, a species of prawn. + +<hw>Nobbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. a glass of spirits; lit. that which +nobbles or gets hold of you. Nobble is the frequentative form +of <i>nab</i>. No doubt there is an allusion to the bad spirits +frequently sold at bush public-houses, but if a teetotaler had +invented the word he could not have invented one involving +stronger condemnation. + +1852. G. F. P., `Gold Pen and Pencil Sketches,' canto xiv.: + +"The summit gained, he pulls up at the Valley, + To drain a farewell `nobbler' to his Sally." + +1859. Frank Fowler, `Southern Lights and Shadows,' p. 52: + +"To pay for liquor for another is to `stand,' or to `shout,' +or to `sacrifice.' The measure is called a `nobbler,' or a +`break-down.'" + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 201: + +"A nobbler is the proper colonial phrase for a drink at a +public-house." + +1876. J. Brenchley, `May Bloom,' p. 80: + +"And faster yet the torrents flow + Of nobblers bolted rapidly." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 249: + +"When cruising about . . . with a crew of Kurnai . . . I +heard two of my men discussing where we could camp, and one, on +mentioning a place, said, speaking his own language, that there +was `le-en (good) nobler.' I said, `there is no nobler there.' +He then said in English, `Oh! I meant water.' On inquiry I +learned that a man named Yan (water) had died shortly, before, +and that not liking to use that word, they had to invent a new +one." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 36: + +"Only to pull up again at the nearest public-house, to the +veranda of which his horse's bridle was hung until he had +imbibed a nobbler or two." + +<hw>Nobblerise</hw>, v. to drink frequent <i>nobblers</i> +(q.v.). + +1864. J. Rogers, `The New Rush,' p. 51: + +"And oft a duffer-dealing digger there + Will nobblerize in jerks of small despair . ." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 268: + +"The institution of `nobblerising' is carried out in far +different places." + +<hw>Noddy</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English name for the sea-bird. +The species observed in Australia are-- + +The Noddy-- + <i>Anous stolidus</i>, Linn. + +Black-cheeked N.-- + <i>A. melanogenys</i>, Gray. + +Grey N.-- + <i>A. cinereus</i>, Gould. + +Lesser N.-- + <i>A. tenuirostris</i>, Temm. + +White-capped N.-- + <i>A. leucocapillus</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Nonda</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a tree, +<i>Parinarium Nonda</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>, +of Queensland. It has an edible, mealy fruit, rather +like a plum. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 315: + +"We called this tree the `Nonda,' from its resemblance to a +tree so called by the natives in the Moreton Bay district." + +<hw>Noogoora Bur</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland plant, +<i>Xanthium strumarium</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Noon-flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. a rare name for the +<i>Mesembryanthemum</i>. See <i>Pig-face</i>. + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The thick-leaved noon-flower that swings from chalk cliffs +and creek banks in the auriferous country is a delectable salad." + +<hw>Norfolk Island Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Note</hw>, <i>n</i>. short for Bank-note, and always used +for a one-pound note, the common currency. A note = L1. + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 28: + +"A note's so very trifling, it's no sooner chang'd than gone; + For it is but twenty shillings." + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for Mail,' p. 39: + +"And even at half fifty notes a week + You ought to have made a pile." + +1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 92: + +"I lent poor Dick Snaffle a trotting pony I had, and he sold +him for forty notes." + +<hw>Notornis</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand allied to +the <i>Porphyrio</i> (q.v.), first described from a fossil +skull by Professor Owen (1848), and then thought to be extinct, +like the Moa. Professor Owen called the bird <i>Notornis +mantelli</i>, and, curiously enough, Mr. Walter Mantell, in +whose honour the bird was named, two years afterwards captured +a live specimen; a third specimen was captured in 1879. The +word is from the Greek <i>notos</i>, south, and <i>'ornis</i>, +bird. The Maori names were <i>Moho</i> and <i>Takahe</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Notoryctes</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +to which belongs the <i>Marsupial Mole</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Nugget</hw>, <i>n</i>. a lump of gold. The noun nugget is +not Australian, though often so supposed. Skeat (`Etymological +Dictionary,' s.v.) gives a quotation from North's `Plutarch' +with the word in a slightly different shape, viz., +<i>niggot</i>. "The word nugget was in use in Australia many +years before the goldfields were heard of. A thick-set young +beast was called `a good nugget.' A bit of a fig of tobacco +was called `a nugget of tobacco.'" (G. W. Rusden.) + +1852. Sir W. T. Denison, `Proceedings of the Royal Society +of Van Diemen s Land,' vol. ii. p. 203: + +`In many instances it is brought to market in lumps, or +`nuggets' as they are called, which contain, besides the gold +alloyed with some metal, portions of quartz or other extraneous +material, forming the matrix in which the gold was originally +deposited, or with which it had become combined accidentally." + +1869. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher' (reprint), +p. 51: + +"They lead a peaceful, happy, pastoral life--dig in a hole all +day, and get drunk religiously at night. They are respected, +admired, and esteemed. Suddenly they find a nugget, and lo! +the whole tenor of their life changes." + +<hw>Nugget</hw>, v. Queensland slang. See quotation. + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iii. p. 25: + +"To nugget: in Australian slang, to appropriate your +neighbours' unbranded calves." + +Ibid. c. xviii. p. 182: + +"If he does steal a calf now and then, I know several squatters +who are given to nuggeting." + +<hw>Nuggety</hw>, <i>adj</i>. applied to a horse or a man. +Short, thick-set and strong. See G. W. Rusden's note under +<i>Nugget</i>. + +1896. Private Letter, March 2: + +"<i>Nuggety</i> is used in the same sense as <i>Bullocky</i> +(q.v.), but with a slight difference of meaning, what we should +say `compact.' <i>Bullocky</i> has rather a sense of +over-strength inducing an awkwardness of movement. +<i>Nuggety</i> does not include the last suggestion." + +<hw>Nulla-nulla</hw>, <i>n</i>. (spellings various) aboriginal +name. A battle club of the aborigines in Australia. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior of +Eastern Australia,' vol. i. p. 71: + +"He then threw a club, or <i>nulla-nulla</i>, to the foot +of the tree." + +1853. C. Harpur, `Creek of the Four Graves': + + "Under the crushing stroke + Of huge clubbed nulla-nullas." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 61: + +"Lay aside thy nullah-nullahs + Is there war betwixt us two?" + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 9: + +"The blacks . . . battered in his skull with a nulla-nulla." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 11: + +"They would find fit weapons for ghastly warriors in the long +white shank-bones gleaming through the grass--appropriate +gnulla-gnullas and boomerangs." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' +p. 67: + +"The nulla-nulla is another bludgeon which bears a distinctive +character . . . merely a round piece of wood, three feet long +and two and a half inches thick, brought to a blunt point at +the end. The mallee is the wood from which it is generally +made." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 72: + +"I frequently saw another weapon, the `nolla-nolla' or club, +the warlike weapon of the Australian native most commonly in +use. It is a piece of hard and heavy wood sharpened to a point +at both ends. One end is thick and tapers gradually to the +other end, which is made rough in order to give the hand a more +secure hold; in using he weapon the heavy end is thrown back +before it is hurled." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 73: + +"One of the simplest of Australian clubs, the `nulla-nulla' +resembles the root of a grass-tree in the shape of its head +. . . in shape something like a child's wicker-rattle." + +<hw>Nut</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Slang. Explained in quotation. + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 60: + +"The peculiar type of the Australian native (I do not mean the +aboriginal blackfellow, but the Australian white), which has +received the significant <i>sobriquet</i> of `The Nut,' may be +met with to all parts of Australia, but more particularly . . . +in far-off inland bush townships. . . . What is a Nut? . . . +Imagine a long, lank, lantern jawed, whiskerless, colonial +youth . . . generally nineteen years of age, with a smooth +face, destitute of all semblance of a crop of `grass,' as he +calls it in his vernacular." + +(2) Dare-devil, etc. "Tommy the Nut" was the <i>alias</i> of +the prisoner who, according to the story, was first described +as "a-larrikin," by Sergeant Dalton. See <i>Larrikin</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Bonduc</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bonduc Nut</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Burrawang</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Burrawang</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Candle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Candle-nut</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Nicker</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Bonduc Nut</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Queensland</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Queensland Nut</i>. + +<hw>Nut, Union</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Union Nut</i>. + +<hw>Nut-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian plant, <i>Cyperus +rotundus</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>. The specific and +the vernacular name both refer to the round tubers of the +plant; it is also called <i>Erriakura</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Nutmeg, Queensland</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Queensland +Nutmeg</i>. + +<hw>Nut-Palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, <i>Cycas media</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Cycadeae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 21: + +"Nut-Palm. Employed by the aborigines as food. An excellent +farina is obtained from it." + + + +O + + +Oak, <i>n</i>. The Oak of the Northern Hemisphere +(<i>Quercus</i>) is not found among the indigenous trees +of Australia; but the name <i>Oak</i> is applied there to +the trees of the genus <i>Casuarina</i> (q.v.), and usually +in the curious form of <i>She-Oak</i> (q.v.). The species +have various appellations in various parts, such as +<i>Swamp-Oak</i>, <i>River-Oak</i>, <i>Bull-Oak</i>, +<i>Desert-Oak</i>; and even the word <i>He-Oak</i> is applied +sometimes to the more imposing species of <i>She-Oak</i>, +though it is not recognised by Maiden, whilst the word +<i>Native Oak</i> is indiscriminately applied to them all. + +The word <i>Oak</i> is further extended to a few trees, not +<i>Casuarinae</i>, given below; and in New Zealand it is also +applied to <i>Matipo</i> (q.v.) and <i>Titoki</i>, or +<i>Alectryon</i> (q.v.). + +The following table of the various trees receiving the name of +Oak is compiled from J. H. Maiden's `Useful Native Plants'-- + +Bull-Oak-- + <i>Casuarina equisetifolia</i>, Forst.; + <i>C. glauca</i>, Sieb. + +Forest-O.-- + <i>Casuarina equisetifolia</i>, Forst.; + <i>C. suberosa</i>; Otto and Diet.; + <i>C. torulosa</i>, Ait. + +Mountain-O.-- + Queensland name for <i>Casuarina torulosa</i>, Ait. + +River Black-O.-- + <i>Casuarina suberosa</i>, Otto and Diet. + +River-O.-- + <i>Callistemon salignus</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; + <i>Casuarina cunninghamii</i>, Miq.; + <i>C. distyla</i>, Vent.; + <i>C. stricta</i>, Ait.; + <i>C. torulosa</i>, Ait. + +Scrub Silky-O.-- + <i>Villaresia moorei</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Olacineae</i>. +Called also <i>Maple</i>. + +She-Oak:-- + + Coast S.-O.-- + <i>Casuarina stricta</i>, + + Desert S.-0.-- + <i>C. glauca</i>, Sieb. + + Erect S.-O.-- + <i>C. suberosa</i>, Otto and Diet. + + River S.-O.-- + <i> C. glauca</i>, Sieb. + + Scrub S.-O.-- + <i>C. cunninghamii</i>, Miq. + + Stunted S.-O.-- + <i>C. distyla</i>, Vent. + +Shingle-O.-- + <i>Casuarina stricta</i>, Ait.; + <i>C. suberosa</i>, Otto and Diet. + +Silky-O.-- + <i>Stenocarpus salignus</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>; +called also <i>Silvery-Oak</i>. See also <i>Grevillea</i> +and <i>Silky-Oak</i>. + +Swamp-O.-- + <i>Casuarina equisetifolia</i>, Forst.; + <i>C. glauca</i>, Sieb.; + <i>C. suberosa</i>, Otto and Diet.; + <i>C. stricta</i>, Ait.; called also <i>Saltwater Swamp-Oak</i>. + +White-O.-- + <i>Lagunaria patersoni</i>, G. Don., <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>. + +<i>Botany-Bay Oak</i>, or <i>Botany-Oak</i>, is the name given +in the timber trade to the <i>Casuarina</i> . + +The `Melbourne Museum Catalogue of Economic Woods' (1894) +classes the <i>She-Oak</i> in four divisions-- + +Desert She-Oak-- + <i>Casuarina glauca</i>, Sieb. + +Drooping S.-O.-- + <i>C. quadrivalvis</i>, Labill. + +Shrubby S.-O.-- + <i>C. distyla</i>, Vent. + +Straight S.-O.-- + <i>C. suberosa</i>, Otto. + +1770. Captain Cook, `Journal,' Sunday, May 6 (edition Wharton, +1893, pp. 247, 248): + +"The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander +found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Botany +Bay. . . . Although wood is here in great plenty, yet there +is very little Variety; . . . Another sort that grows tall +and Strait something like Pines--the wood of this is hard and +Ponderous, and something of the Nature of America live Oak." + +1770. R. Pickersgill, `Journal on the Endeavour' (in +`Historical Records of New South Wales'), p. 215: + +"May 5, 1770.--We saw a wood which has a grain like Oak, +and would be very durable if used for building; the leaves +are like a pine leaf." + +1802. Jas. Flemming, `Journal of Explorations of Charles +Grimes,' in `Historical Records of Port Phillip' (edition +1879, J. J. Shillinglaw), p. 22: + +"The land is a light, black-sand pasture, thin of timber, +consisting of gum, oak, Banksia, and thorn." + +[This combination of timbers occurs several times in the +`Journal.' It is impossible to decide what Mr. Flemming meant +by Oak.] + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 38: + +"We found lofty blue-gum trees (<i>Eucalyptus</i>) growing on +the flats near the Peel, whose immediate banks were overhung by +the dense, umbrageous foliage of the casuarina, or `river-oak' +of the colonists." + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 38: + +"The river-oak grows on the banks and rivers, and having thick +foliage, forms a pleasant and useful shade for cattle during +the heat of the day; it is very hard and will not split. The +timber resembles in its grain the English oak, and is the only +wood in the colony well adapted for making felloes of wheels, +yokes for oxen, and staves for casks." + +1846. C. Holtzapffel, `Turning,' p. 75: + +"Botany-Bay Oak, sometimes called Beef-wood, is from New South +Wales. . . . In general colour it resembles a full red mahogany, +with darker red veins." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 323: + +"The <i>Casuarina</i> trees, with their leafless, thin, +thread-like, articulated branches, have been compared to the +arborescent horse-tails (<i>Equisetaceae</i>), but have a much +greater resemblance to the Larch-firs; they have the colonial +name of Oaks, which might be changed more appropriately to that +of Australian firs. The dark, mournful appearance of this tree +caused it to be planted in cemeteries. The flowers are +unisexual; the fruit consists of hardened bracts with winged +seeds. The wood of this tree is named Beef-wood by the +colonists." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 56: + +"The wail in the native oak." + +1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' +p. 54: + +"It may here be remarked that the term `oak' has been very +inaptly--in fact ridiculously--applied by the early Australian +settlers; notably in the case of the various species of +<i>Casuarina</i>, which are commonly called `she-oaks." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 252: + +"They chose a tall He-oak, lopped it to a point." + +1885. J. Hood, `Land of the Fern,' p. 53: + +"The sighing of the native oak, + Which the light wind whispered through." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 27: + +"A peculiar class of trees, called by the scientific name of +<i>Casuarina</i>, is popularly known as oaks, `swamp-oaks,' +`forest-oaks,' `she-oaks,' and so forth, although the trees +are not the least like oaks. They are melancholy looking +trees, with no proper leaves, but only green rods, like those +of a pine-tree, except that they are much longer, and hang like +the branches of a weeping-willow." + +<hw>Oak-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Cone of the <i>Casuarina</i> +or <i>She-Oak</i> tree. + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 32: + +"The small apple of this tree (she-oak) is also dark green . . . +both apple and leaf are as acid as the purest vinegar. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 15: + +"In cases of severe thirst, great relief may be obtained from +chewing the foliage of this and other species [of +<i>Casuarina</i>], which, being of an acid nature, produces a +flow of saliva--a fact well-known to bushmen who have traversed +waterless portions of the country. This acid is closely allied +to citric acid, and may prove identical with it. Children chew +the young cones, which they call `oak-apples.'" + +<hw>Oamaru Stone</hw>, <i>n</i>. Oamaru is a town on the east +coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It produces a fine +building stone. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand', p. 64: + +"A white, granular limestone, called the Oamaru stone, is +worked in extensive quarries in the Oamaru district. . . . +A considerable quantity has been exported to Melbourne." + +<hw>Oat-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Anthistiria avenacea</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. A species of <i>Kangaroo- +Grass</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Grass</i>. + +<hw>Oat-shell</hw>, <i>n</i>. the shell of various species of +<i>Columbella</i>, a small marine mollusc used for necklaces. + +<hw>Oats, Wild</hw>, an indigenous grass, <i>Bromus +arenarius</i>, Labill, <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>.Called also +<i>Seaside Brome-Grass</i>. "It makes excellent hay." (Maiden, +p. 79.) + +<hw>Officer Plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Christmas-Bush</i> (q.v.), so called "because of its bright +red appearance." (Maiden, p. 404.) + +<hw>Old Chum</hw>, <i>n</i>. Not in common use: the opposite +to a new chum. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366: + +"`New chum,' in opposition to `old chum.' The former +`cognomen' peculiarizing [sic] the newly-arrived emigrant; +the latter as a mark of respect attached to the more +experienced colonist." + +<hw>Old Hat</hw>, a Victorian political catch-word. + +1895. `The Argus,' May 11, p. 8, col. 3: + +"Mr. Frank Stephen was the author of the well-known epithet +`Old Hats,' which was applied to the rank and file of Sir James +M'Culloch's supporters. The phrase had its origin through +Mr. Stephen's declaration at an election meeting that the +electors ought to vote even for an old hat if it were put +forward in support of the M'Culloch policy." + +<hw>Old Lady</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a moth, <i>Erebus +Pluto</i>. + +<hw>Old Man</hw>, <i>n</i>. a full-grown male Kangaroo. +The aboriginal corruption is <i>Wool-man</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 160: + +"To your great relief, however, the `old man' turns out to +possess the appendage of a tail, and is in fact no other than +one of our old acquaintances, the kangaroos." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 141: + +"If he (greyhound) has less ferocity when he comes up with an +`old man,' so much the better. . . . The strongest and most +courageous dog can seldom conquer a wool-man alone, and not one +in fifty will face him fairly; the dog who has the temerity is +certain to be disabled, if not killed." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 33: + +"Mr. Gilbert started a large kangaroo known by the familiar +name of `old man.'" + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 172: + +"The settlers designate the old kangaroos as `old men' and +`old women;' the full-grown animals are named `flyers,' and are +swifter than the British hare." + +1864. W. Westgarth, `Colony of Victoria,' p. 451: + +"The large kangaroo, the `old man,' as he is called, timorous +of every unwonted sound that enters his large, erected ears, +has been chased far from every busy seat of colonial industry." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 39: + +"Where the kangaroo gave hops, + The old man fleetest of the fleet." + +1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 66: + +"The animals, like the timber, too, are strange. Kangaroo and +wallaby are as fond of grass as the sheep, and after a +pelican's yawn there are few things funnier to witness than +the career of an `old man' kangaroo, with his harem after him, +when the approach of a buggy disturbs the family at their +afternoon meal. Away they go, the little ones cantering +briskly, he in a shaggy gallop, with his long tail stuck out +for a balance, and a perpetual see-saw maintained between it +and his short front paws, while the hind legs act as a mighty +spring under the whole construction. The side and the back +view remind you of a big St. Bernard dog, the front view of a +rat. You begin an internal debate as to which he most +resembles, and in the middle of it you find that he is sitting +up on his haunches, which gives him a secure height of from +five to six feet, and is gravely considering you with the air +of the old man he is named from." + +Old-Man, <i>adj</i>. large, or bigger than usual. Compare the +next two words. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 233: + +"I stared at a man one day for saying that a certain allotment +of land was `an old-man allotment': he meant a large allotment, +the old-man kangaroo being the largest kangaroo." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 7: + +"Who that has ridden across the Old-Man Plain . . ." + +<hw>Old-Man Fern</hw>, a Bush-name in Tasmania for the +<i>Tree-fern</i> (q.v.). + +<Mhw>Old-Man Salt-Bush</hw>, <i>Atriplex nummularium</i>, +Lindl. See <i>Salt-Bush</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 118: + +"One of the tallest and most fattening and wholesome of +Australian pastoral salt-bushes; also highly recommended for +cultivation, as natural plants. By close occupation of the +sheep and cattle runs, have largely disappeared, and as this +useful bush is not found in many parts of Australia, sheep and +cattle depastured on saltbush country are said to remain free +of fluke, and get cured of Distoma-disease, and of other allied +ailments (Mueller)." + +<hw>Old-Wife</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales fish, +<i>Enoplosus armatus</i>, White, family <i>Percidae</i>. +The local name <i>Old-Wife</i> in England is given to +a quite different fish, one of the Sea-Breams. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 32: + +"The `old-wife' (<i>Enoplosus armatus</i>, White) is another +fish which from its small size is not esteemed nearly so highly +as it ought to be. It is a most exquisite fish." + +<hw>Olive, Mock</hw>, i.q. <i>Axe-breaker</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Olive, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the many names given +to four trees-- + +<i>Bursaria spinosa</i>, Cav., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>,; +<i>Elaeocarpus cyaneus</i>, Ait., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>; +<i>Notelaea ovala</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>,; +and, in Queensland, to <i>Olea paniculata</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>,, a tree of moderate size, with ovoid +fruit resembling a small common Olive. + +<hw>Olive, Spurious</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the tree +<i>Notelaea ligustrina</i>, Vent. See <i>Ironwood</i>. + +<hw>On</hw>, <i>prep</i>. Used for <i>In</i>, in many cases, +especially of towns which sprang from Goldfields, and where the +original phrase was, e.g. "on the Ballarat diggings, +or goldfield." Thus, an inhabitant still speaks of living +<i>On</i> Ballarat, <i>On</i> Bendigo; <i>On</i> South +Melbourne (formerly Emerald Hill). + +1869. J. F. Blanche, `The Prince's Visit,' p. 21: + +"When came Victoria's son on Ballarat." + +1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils, etc.' p. 3: + +"After tea they would sit on a log of the wood-heap, . . +and yarn about Ballarat and Bendigo--of the days when we spoke +of being `on' a place oftener than `at' it: <i>on</i> Ballarat, +<i>on</i> Gulgong, <i>on</i> Lambing Flat, <i>on</i> Creswick." + +<hw>Onion, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Leek</i>. See +<i>Leek</i>. + +<hw>Onychogale</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +containing the <i>Nail-tailed Wallabies</i> (q.v.). They +derive their name from the presence of a peculiar horny +appendage to their tails. (Grk. <i>'onux, 'onuchos</i>, +a claw, and <i>galae</i>, a weasel.) For the species, +see <i>Wallaby</i>. + +<hw>Opossum</hw>, <i>n</i>. The marsupial animal, frequent all +over Australia, which is called an <i>Opossum</i>, is a +<i>Phalanger</i> (q.v.). He is not the animal to which the +name was originally applied, that being an American animal of +the family <i>Didelphyidae</i>. See quotations below from +`Encycl. Brit.' (1883). Skeat (`Etym. Dict.') says the word is +West Indian, but he quotes Webster (presumably an older edition +than that now in use), "Orig. opassom, in the language of the +Indians of Virginia," and he refers to a translation of +Buffon's Natural History' (Lond. 1792), Vol. i. p. 214. By +1792 the name was being applied in Australia. The name opossum +is applied in Australia to all or any of the species belonging +to the following genera, which together form the sub-family +<i>Phalangerinae</i>, viz.--<i>Phalanger, Trichosurus</i>, +<i>Pseudochirus, Petauroides</i>, <i>Dactylopsila, +Petaurus</i>, <i>Gymnobelideus, Dromicia</i>, <i>Acrobates</i>. + +The commoner forms are as follows:-- + +Common Dormouse O.-- + <i>Dromicia nana</i>, Desm. + +Common Opossum-- + <i>Trichosurus vulpecula</i>, Kerr. + +Common Ring-tailed-O.-- + <i>Pseudochirus peregrinus</i>, Bodd. + +Greater Flying-O.-- + <i>Petauroides volans</i>, Kerr. + +Lesser Dormouse O.-- + <i>Dromicia lepida</i>, Thomas. + +Lesser Flying-O.-- + <i>Petaurus breviceps</i>, Water. + +Pigmy Flying-O.- + <i>Acrobates pygmaeus</i>. + +Short-eared-O.-- + <i>Trichosurus caninus</i>, W. Ogilby. + +Squirrel Flying-O., or Flying Squirrel-- + <i>Petaurus sciureus</i>, Shaw. + +Striped O.-- + <i>Dactylopsila trivirgata</i>, Gray. + +Tasmanian, or Sooty O.-- + <i>Trichosurus vulpecula</i>, var. <i>fuliginosus</i>. + +Tasmanian Ring-tailed-O.-- + <i>Pseudochirus cooki</i>, Desm. + +Yellow-bellied Flying-O.-- + <i>Petaurus australis</i>, Shaw. + +Of the rare little animal called Leadbeater's Opossum, +only one specimen has been found, and that in Victoria; +it is <i>Gymnobelideus leadbeateri</i>, and is the only +species of this genus. + +1608. John Smith, `Travels, Adventures, and Observations in +Europe, Asia, Africke, and America, beginning about 1593, and +continued to 1629;' 2 vols., Richmond, U.S., reprinted 1819; +vol. i. p. 124 [On the American animal; in the part about +Virginia, 1608]: + +"An Opassom hath a head like a Swine,--a taile like a Rat, and +is of the bigness of a Cat. Under the belly she hath a bagge, +wherein she lodgeth, carrieth and suckleth her young." + +[This is the American opossum. There are only two known genera +of living marsupials outside the Australian region.] + +1770. `Capt. Cook's Journal' (edition Wharton, 1893), p. 294 +[at Endeavour River, Aug. 4, 1770]: + +"Here are Wolves, Possums, an animal like a ratt, and snakes." + +1770. J. Banks, `Journal,' July 26, (edition Hooker, 1896, +p. 291): + +"While botanising to-day I had the good fortune to take an +animal of the opossum (<i>Didelphis</i>) tribe; it was a +female, and with it I took two young ones. It was not unlike +that remarkable one which De Buffon has described by the name +of <i>Phalanger</i> as an American animal. It was, however, +not the same. M. de Buffon is certainly wrong in asserting +that this tribe is peculiar to America, and in all probability, +as Pallas has said in his <i>Zoologia</i>, the <i>Phalanger</i> +itself is a native of the East Indies, as my animals and that +agree in the extraordinary conformation of their feet, in which +they differ from all others." + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage to Botany Bay,' p. 104: + +"The pouch of the female, in which the young are nursed, +is thought to connect it rather with the opossum tribe." + +[p. 147]: "A small animal of the opossum kind." + +[p. 293]: "Black flying-opossum. [Description given.] The fur +of it is so beautiful, and of so rare a texture, that should it +hereafter be found in plenty, it might probably be thought a +very valuable article of commerce." + +1793. J. Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 68: + +"The opossum is also very numerous here, but it is not exactly +like the American opossum: it partakes a good deal of the +kangaroo in the strength of its tail and make of its fore-legs, +which are very short in proportion to the hind ones; like that +animal it has the pouch, or false belly, for the safety of its +young in time of danger." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' fol. i. +p. 562: + +"At an early age the females wear round the waist a small line +made of the twisted hair of the opossum, from the centre of +which depend a few small uneven lines from two to five inches +long. This they call bar-rin." + +1809. G. Shaw, `Zoological Lectures,' vol. i. p. 93: + +"A still more elegant kind of New Holland opossum is the +petaurine opossum . . . has the general appearance of a +flying-squirrel, being furnished with a broad furry membrane +from the fore to the hind feet, by the help of which it springs +from tree to tree. . . . Known in its native regions by the +name of hepoona roo." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 67: + +"Their food consists of fish when near the coasts, but when in +the woods, of oppossums [sic], bandicoots, and almost any +animal they can catch." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 143: + +"The sharp guttural noises of opossums." + +Ibid. p. 174 [`The Native Woman's Lament']: + +"The white man wanders in the dark, + We hear his thunder smite the bough; + The opossum's mark upon the bark + We traced, but cannot find it, now." + +1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 324: + +"The opossums usually abound where grass is to be found, +lodging by day in the holes and hollows of trees. The most +common species is the <i>Phalangista vulpina</i> (Shaw), under +which are placed both the black and grey opossums. . . . The +ringtail opossum (<i>Phalangista</i> or <i>Hepoona Cookii</i>, +Desm.) is smaller, less common, and less sought after, for +dogs will not eat the flesh of the ringtail even when roasted." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 200: + +"Dogs, immediately on coming into the Australian forest, become +perfectly frantic in the pursuit of opossums." + +1883. `Encyclopaedia Britannica' (ed. 9) [On the Australian +animal], vol. xv. p. 382: + +"A numerous group, varying in size from that of a mouse to a +large cat, arboreal in their habits and abundantly distributed +throughout the Australian region . . . have the tail more or +less prehensile. . . . These are the typical phalangers or +`opossums,' as they are commonly called in Australia. (Genus +<i>Phalangista</i>.)" + +Ibid. p. 380 [On the American animal]: + +"The <i>Didelphidae</i>, or true opossums, differ from all +other marsupials in their habitat, being peculiar to the +American continent. They are mostly carnivorous or +insectivorous in their diet, and arboreal in habits." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 11: + +"Among the colonists the younger generation are very zealous +opossum hunters. They hunt them for sport, going out by +moonlight and watching the animal as it goes among the trees +to seek its food." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"We see two fine pairs of the Tasmanian sooty opossum +(<i>Phalangista fuliginosa</i>); this species is unapproached +by any other in regard to size and the beauty of its fur, which +is of a rich, fulvous brown colour. This opossum is becoming +scarce in Tasmania on account of the value of its fur, which +makes it much sought after. In the next compartment are a pair +of short-eared opossums (<i>P. canina</i>), the mountain +opossums of Southern Australia. The next is a pair of vulpine +opossums; these are the common variety, and are found all over +the greater part of Australia, the usual colour of this kind +being grey." + +1893. `Melbourne Stock and Station Journal,' May 10 +(advertisement): + +"Kangaroo, wallaby, opossum, and rabbit skins. . . . +Opossum skins, ordinary firsts to 7s. 6d; seconds to 3s.; +thirds to 1s. 6d; silver greys up to 9s. per doz.; do. +mountain, to 18s. per doz." + +<hw>Opossum-Mouse</hw>, <i>n</i>. the small Australian +marsupial, <i>Acrobates pygmaeus</i>, Shaw; more correctly +called the <i>Pigmy Flying-Phalanger</i>. See <i>Flying- +Phalanger</i>. This is the animal generally so denoted, +and it is also called the <i>Flying-Mouse</i>. But there +is an intermediate genus, <i>Dromicia</i> (q.v.), with no +parachute expansion on the flanks, not "flying," of which +the name of <i>Dormouse-Phalanger</i> is the more proper +appellation. The species are the-- + +Common Dormouse-Phalanger-- + <i>Dromicia nana</i>, Desm. + +Lesser D.-Ph.-- + <i>D. lepida</i>, Thomas. + +Long-tailed D.-Ph.-- + <i>D. caudata</i>, M. Edw. + +Western D.-Ph.-- + <i>D. concinna</i>, Gould. + +One genus, with only one species, the +<i>Pentailed-Phalanger</i>, <i>Distaechurus pennatus</i>, +Peters, is confined to New Guinea. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 28: + +"The opossum-mouse is about the size of our largest +barn-mouse." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 118: + +"Resembling a common mouse in size, and hence known to the +colonists as the flying-mouse or opossum-mouse, this little +animal is one of the most elegant of the Australian +marsupials." + +<hw>Opossum-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a timber-tree, <i>Quintinia +sieberi</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. + +<hw>Orange</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Lime</i>, <i>Citrus +australis</i>. See <i>Lime</i>. + +<hw>Orange, Mock</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Laurel</i>. +See <i>Laurel</i>. + +<hw>Orange, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to two Australian +trees. (1) <i>Capparis mitchelli</i>, Lindl., +<i>N.O. Capparideae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 12: + +"`Small Native Pomegranate,' `Native Orange.' The fruit is +from one to two inches in diameter, and the pulp, which has +an agreeable perfume, is eaten by the natives." + +(2) <i>Citriobatus pauciflorus</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 16: + +"`Native Orange,' `Orange Thorn.' The fruit is an orange +berry with a leathery skin, about one inch and a half in +diameter. It is eaten by the aboriginals." + +<hw>Orange, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Wild Lemon</i>. +See under <i>Lemon</i>. + +<hw>Orange-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Orange-spotted Lizard</hw> (of New Zealand), <i>Naultinus +elegans</i>, Gray. + +<hw>Orange-Thorn</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Orange, Native</i>(2). + +<hw>Orange-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The <i>New Zealand +Orange-Tree</i> is a name given to the <i>Tarata</i> (q.v.), +from the aromatic odour of its leaves when crushed. + +<hw>Organ-Bird</hw>, or <hw>Organ-Magpie</hw>, <i>n</i>. +other names for one of the <i>Magpies</i> (q.v.). + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 48: + +"<i>Gymnorrhina organicum</i>, Gould, Tasmanian crow-shrike; +Organ-Bird and White-Magpie of the Colonists. Resembling the +sounds of a hand-organ out of tune." + +1848. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia,' p. 176: + +"The burita, or <i>Gymnorrhina</i>, the organ-magpie, +was here represented by a much smaller bird." + +<hw>Ornithorhynchus</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Platypus</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Orthonyx</hw>, <i>n</i>. a scientific name of a remarkable +Australian genus of passerine birds, the spine-tails. It long +remained of uncertain position . . . and finally it was made +the type of a family, <i>Orthonycidae</i>. In the type +species, <i>O</i>. spinacauda . . . the shafts of the +tail-feathers are prolonged beyond the legs. (`Century.') +Thename is from the Greek <i>'orthos</i>, straight, and +<i>'onux</i>, a claw. See <i>Log-Runner</i> and +<i>Pheasant's Mother</i>. + +<hw>Osprey</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Fish-Hawk</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Ounce</hw>, <i>n</i>. used as <i>adj</i>. Yielding an +ounce of gold to a certain measure of dirt, as a dish-full, a +cradle-full, a tub-full, etc. Also used to signify the number +of ounces per ton that quartz will produce, as "ounce-stuff," +"three-ounce stuff," etc. + +Out-run, <i>n</i>. a sheep-run at a distance from the +<i>Head-station</i> (q.v.). + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. vi. p. 47 +(1890): + +"They'd come off a very far out-run, where they'd been, +as one might say, neglected." + +<hw>Out-station</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sheep or cattle station +away from the <i>Head-station</i> (q.v.). + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 11, p. 1, col. 3: + +"There are four out-stations with huts, hurdles . . . +and every convenience." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +c. 8, p. 231: + +"The usual fare at that time at the out-stations--fried pork +and kangaroo." + +1870. Paul Wentworth, `Amos Thorne,' c. iii. p. 26: + +"He . . . at last on an out-station in the Australian bush +worked for his bread." + +<hw>Overland</hw>, <i>v</i>. to take stock across the country. + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. xiii. +p. 232: + +"Herds used to be taken from New South Wales to South Australia +across what were once considered the deserts of Riverina. That +used to be called `overlanding.'" + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. ix. p. 74: + +"Several gentlemen were away from the two nearest stations, +`overlanding,' i.e. taking sheep, cattle, and flour to +Melbourne." + +<hw>Overlander</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) In the days before +railways, and when much of the intervening country was not +taken up, to travel between Sydney and Melbourne, or Melbourne +and Adelaide, was difficult if not dangerous. Those who made +either journey were called <i>Overlanders</i>. In this sense +the word is now only used historically, but it retains the +meaning in the general case of a man taking cattle a long +distance, as from one colony to another. + +(2) A slang name for a <i>Sundowner</i> (q.v.). + +1843. Rev. W. Pridden, `Australia: Its History and Present +Condition,' p. 335: + +"Among the beings which, although not natives of the bush, +appear to be peculiar to the wilds of Australia, the class of +men called Overlanders must not be omitted. Their occupation +is to convey stock from market to market, and from one colony +to another." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. c. +vi. p. 237: + +"The Eastern extent of the country of South Australia was +determined by the overlanders, as they call the gentlemen +who bring stock from New South Wales." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 11: + +"Overlanders from Sydney and Melbourne to Adelaide were making +great sums of money." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 69: + +"He gave us the advice of an experienced overlander." + +1880. A. J. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 262: + +"An `overlander,'--for, as you havn't any of the breed in New +Zealand, I'll explain what that is,--is Queensland-English for +a long-distance drover; and a rough, hard life it generally is. +. . . Cattle have to be taken long distances to market +sometimes from these `up-country' runs." + +1890. `Melbourne Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 1: + +"Then came overlanders of another sort--practical men who went +out to develop and not to explore." + +<hw>Owl</hw>, <i>n</i>. an English bird-name. The species in +Australia are-- + +Boobook Owl-- + <i>Ninox boobook</i>, Lath. + +Chestnut-faced O.-- + <i>Strix castanops</i>, Gould. + +Grass O.-- + <i>S. candida</i>, Tickell. + +Lesser Masked O.-- + <i>S. delicatula</i>, Lath. + +Masked O.-- + <i>S. novae-hollandiae</i>, Steph. + +Powerful O.-- + <i>Ninox strenua</i>, Gould. + +Sooty O.-- + <i>Strix tenebricosa</i>, Gould. + +Spotted O.-- + <i>Ninox maculata</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Winking O.-- + <i>N. connivens</i>, Lath. + +In New Zealand, the species are--Laughing Jackass, or L. Owl, +<i>Sceloglaux albifacies</i>, Kaup (Maori name, <i>Whekau</i>, +q.v.), and the Morepork, formerly <i>Athene +novae-zelandiae</i>, Gray, now <i>Spiloglaux +novae-zelandiae</i>, Kaup. (See <i>Morepork</i>.) + +See also <i>Barking Owl</i>. + +<hw>Owl-Parrot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand. See +<i>Kakapo</i>. + +<hw>Oyster</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian varieties +are--Mud-Oyster, <i>Ostrea angasi</i>, Sow. (sometimes +considered only a variety of <i>O. edulis</i>, Linn., the +European species): New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South +Australia. <i>O. rutupina</i>, Jeffreys, "the native" of +Colchester, England, is a variety and occurs in Tasmania. +Drift-O., <i>O. subtrigona</i>, Sow., called so because its +beds are thought to be shifted by storms and tides: New South +Wales and Queensland. Rock-O., <i>O. glomerata</i>, Gould, +probably the same species as the preceding, but under different +conditions: all Eastern Australia. And other species more or +less rare. See also <i>Stewart Islander</i>. Australian +oysters, especially the Sydney Rock-Oyster, are very plentiful, +and of excellent body and flavour, considered by many to be +equal if not superior to the Colchester native. They cost +1s. a dozen; unopened in bags, they are 6d. a dozen--a contrast +to English prices. + +<hw>Oyster-Bay Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +1857. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 155: + +"16 August, 1848 . . . A sample of the white resin of the +Oyster Bay Pine (<i>Callitris Australis</i>, Brown) lay on the +table. The Secretary stated that this tree has only been met +with along a comparatively limited and narrow strip of land +bordering the sea on the eastern coast of Tasmania, and upon +Flinders and Cape Barren Islands in Bass's Straits; that about +Swanport and the shores of Oyster Bay it forms a tree, always +handsome and picturesque, and sometimes 120 feet in height, +affording useful but not large timber, fit for all the ordinary +purposes of the house carpenter and joiner in a country +district." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 222: + +"Those most picturesque trees, the Oyster Bay pines, which, +vividly green in foliage, tapering to a height of eighty or one +hundred feet, and by turns symmetrical or eccentric in form, +harmonise and combine with rugged mountain scenery as no other +of our trees here seem to do." + +<hw>Oyster-catcher</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +The Australasian species are--Pied, <i>Haematopus +longirostris</i>, Vieill.; Black, <i>H. unicolor</i>, Wagler; +and two other species--<i>H. picatus</i>, Vigors, and +<i>H. australasianus</i>, Gould, with no vernacular name. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. vii. p. 174: + +"Our game-bag was thinly lined with small curlews, +oyster-catchers, and sanderlings." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 274: + +"Slim oyster-catcher, avocet, + And tripping beach-birds, seldom met + Elsewhere." + + + +P + + +<hw>Pa</hw>, or <hw>Pah</hw>, <i>n</i>. The former is now +considered the more correct spelling. A Maori word to signify +a native settlement, surrounded by a stockade; a fort; +a fighting village. In Maori, the verb <i>pa</i> means, +to touch, to block up. <i>Pa</i> = a collection of houses +to which access is blocked by means of stockades and ditches. + +1769. `Captain Cook's Journal' (edition Wharton, 1893), +p. 147: + +"I rather think they are places of retreat or stronghold, +where they defend themselves against the attack of an enemy, +as some of them seemed not ill-design'd for that purpose." + +Ibid. p. 156: + +"Have since learnt that they have strongholds--or hippas, +as they call them--which they retire to in time of danger." + +[Hawkesworth spelt it, Heppahs; <i>he</i> = Maori definite +article.] + +1794. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 175: + +"[On the coast of New Zealand] they passed many huts and a +considerable <i>hippah</i>, or fortified place, on a high round +hill, from the neighbourhood of which six large canoes were +seen coming towards the ship." + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in New Zealand' (Hobart Town), +p. 27: + +"A native pa, or enclosed village, is usually surrounded by a +high stockade, or irregular wooden fence, the posts of which +are often of great height and thickness, and sometimes headed +by the frightful carving of an uncouth or indecent image." + +1858. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' E-4, +p. 4: + +"They seem, generally speaking, at present inveterate in their +adherence to their dirty native habits, and to their residence +in pas." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, M.D., `Story of New Zealand,' p. 132: + +"The construction of the war pas . . . exhibits the inventive +faculty of the New Zealanders better than any other of their +works. . . . Their shape and size depended much on the +nature of the ground and the strength of the tribe. They had +double rows of fences on all unprotected sides; the inner +fence, twenty to thirty feet high, was formed of poles stuck in +the ground, slightly bound together with supple-jacks, withes, +and torotoro creepers. The outer fence, from six to eight feet +high, was constructed of lighter materials. Between the two +there was a dry ditch. The only openings in the outer fence +were small holes; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. +Stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with +gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. At every corner were +stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet +high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged +darts at the enemy. Suspended by cords from an elevated stage +hung a wooden gong twelve feet long, not unlike a canoe in +shape, which, when struck with a wooden mallet, emitted a sound +heard in still weather twenty miles off. Previously to a siege +the women and children were sent away to places of safety." + +1863. T. Moser, `Mahoe Leaves,' p. 14: + +"A pah is strictly a fortified village, but it has ceased to +be applied to a fortified one only, and a collection of huts +forming a native settlement is generally called a pah +now-a-days." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 22: + +"They found the pah well fortified, and were not able to +take it." + +1879. Clement Bunbury, `Fraser's Magazine, June, p. 761: + +"The celebrated Gate Pah, where English soldiers in a panic ran +away from the Maoris, and left their officers to be killed." + +1889. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 46: + +"A sally was made from the pah, but it was easily repulsed. +Within the pah the enemy were secure." + +<hw>Pachycephala</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for the +typical genus of <i>Pachycephalinae</i>, founded in 1826 by +Vigors and Horsfield. It is an extensive group of thick-headed +shrikes, containing about fifty species, ranging in the Indian +and Australian region, but not in New Zealand. The type is +<i>P. gutturalis</i>, Lath., of Australia. (`Century.') They +are singing-birds, and are called <i>Thickheads</i> (q.v.), +and often <i>Thrushes</i> (q.v.). The name is from the Greek +<i>pachus</i>, thick, and <i>kephalae</i>, the head. + +<hw>Packer</hw>, <i>n</i>. used for a pack-horse. + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for Mail,' p. 59: + +"The boys took notice of a horse, some old packer he looked +like." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 1: + +"The Darling drover with his saddle-horses and packers." + +<hw>Paddock</hw>. (1) 1n England, a small field; in Australia, +the general word for any field, or for any block of land +enclosed by a fence. The `Home-paddock' is the paddock near +the Homestation, and usually very large. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. vi. p. 148: + +"There is one paddock of 100 acres, fenced on four sides." + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 25, p. 3, col. 6: + +"A 300-acre grass paddock, enclosed by a two-rail fence." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 42: + +"The paddocks are so arranged that hills may afford shelter, +and plains or light-timbered flats an escape from the enormous +flies and other persecuting enemies." + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 141: + +"`Paddocks,' as the various fields are called (some of these +`paddocks' contain 12,000 acres)." + +(2) An excavation made for procuring wash-dirt in shallow +ground. A place built near the mouth of a shaft where quartz +or wash-dirt is stored. (Brough Smyth, `Glossary of Mining +Terms,' 1869.) + +1895. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 21, p. 22, col. 5: + +"A paddock was opened at the top of the beach, but rock-bottom +was found." + +<hw>Paddock</hw>, v. to divide into paddocks. + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. xx. +p. 302: + +"When a run is paddocked shepherds are not required; +but boundary riders are required." + +<hw>Paddy Lucerne</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Queensland Hemp</i>. +See under <i>Hemp</i>. + +<hw>Paddymelon</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name of a small +<i>Wallaby</i> (q.v.), <i>Macropus thetidis</i>, Less. It is +certainly a corruption of an aboriginal name, and is spelt +variously <i>pademelon, padmelon</i>, and <i>melon</i> simply. +(See <i>Melon-holes</i>.) This word is perhaps the best +instance in Australia of the law of Hobson-Jobson, by which a +strange word is fitted into a language, assuming a likeness to +existing words without any regard to the sense. The Sydney +name for kangaroo was <i>patagorang</i>. See early quotations. +This word seems to give the first half of the modern word. +<i>Pata</i>, or <i>pada</i>, was the generic name: <i>mella</i> +an adjective denoting the species. <i>Paddymalla</i> (1827) +marks an intermediate stage, when one-half of the word had been +anglicised. At Jervis Bay, New South Wales, the word +<i>potalemon</i> was used for a kangaroo. + +1793. J. Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 547: + +"The pattagorang and baggaray frequently supplied our +colonists with fresh meals, and Governor Phillip had three +young ones, which were likely to live: he has not the least +doubt but these animals are formed in the false belly." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' vol. i. p. 548: + +"The pat-ta-go-rang or kangooroo was (bood-yer-re) good, and +they ate it whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 310: + +"The wallabee and paddymalla grow to about sixty pounds each." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 212: + +"Had hunted down a paddymelon (a very small species of +kangaroo, which is found in the long grass and thick brushes)." + +1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia, from Port Macquarie to +Moreton Bay,' p. 45: + +"The brush-kangaroos or pademellas were thus gradually +enclosed." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 47: + +"A small species of the kangaroo tribe, called by the sealers +paddymelon, is found on Philip Island, while none have been +seen on French Island." + +1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 129: + +"The small kind of kangaroo, however, called by the natives +`Paddy Melon,' and which inhabits the dense brushes or jungles, +forms a more frequent, and more easily obtained article of +food." + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings,' p. 41: + +"An apron made from skin of Paddie-Melon." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' +p. 107: + +"In the scrub beyond, numbers of a small kind of kangaroo +called `Paddy- Mellans,' resort." + +[Footnote] "I cannot guarantee the spelling." + +1888. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 90: + +"The kangaroo and his relatives, the wallaby and the +paddymelon." + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association for the Advancement of Science,' p. 62: + +"<i>Onychogale fraenatus</i> and its ally <i>O. lunatus</i>. +Mr. Le Souef reports that the former are fairly numerous in the +Mallee country to the north-west of the Colony, and are there +known as Pademelon." [This seems to be only a local use.] + +1893. J. L. Purves, Q.C., in `The Argus,' Dec. 14, p. 9, +col. 7: + +"On either side is a forest, the haunt of wombats and +tree-bears, and a few paddymelons." + +<hw>Paddymelon-Stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. a stick used by the +aborigines for knocking <i>paddymelons</i> (q.v.) on the head. + +1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. +ii. p. 129: + +"These are hunted in the brushes and killed with paddy mellun +sticks with which they are knocked down. These sticks are +about 2 feet long and an inch or less in diameter." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. +p. 56: + +"Nulla-mullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, +and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction." + +<hw>Pah</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Pa</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pake</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a coarse mat used +against rain. A sack thrown over the shoulders is called by +the settlers a <i>Pake</i>. + +<hw>Pakeha</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a white man. The +word is three syllables, with even accent on all. A Pakeha +Maori is an Englishman who lives as a Maori with the Maoris. +Mr. Tregear, in his `Maori Comparative Dictionary,' +s.v. <i>Pakepakeha</i>, says: "Mr. John White [author of +`Ancient History of the Maoris'] considers that <i>pakeha</i>, +a foreigner, an European, originally meant `fairy,' and states +that on the white men first landing sugar was called +`fairy-sand,' etc." Williams' `Maori Dictionary' (4th edit.) +gives, "a foreigner: probably from <i>pakepakeha</i>, imaginary +beings of evil influence, more commonly known as +<i>patupaiarehe</i>, said to be like men with fair skins." +Some express this idea by "fairy." Another explanation is that +the word is a corruption of the coarse English word, said to +have been described by Dr. Johnson (though not in his +dictionary), as "a term of endearment amongst sailors." The +first <i>a</i> in Pakeha had something of the <i>u</i> sound. +The sailors' word would have been introduced to New Zealand by +whalers in the early part of the nineteenth century. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 187: + +"Pakeha, <i>s</i>. an European; a white man." + +1832. A. Earle, `Narrative of Nine Months' Residence in New +Zealand,' p. 146: + +"The white taboo'd day, when the packeahs (or white men) put on +clean clothes and leave off work" [sc. Sunday]. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 73: + +"We do not want the missionaries from the Bay of Islands, +they are pakeha maori, or whites who have become natives." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' canto iii. p. 44: + +"Aiding some vile pakehas + In deeds subversive of the laws." + +1876. F. E. Maning [Title]: + +"Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of the Maori,' p. 15: + +"Long ere the pale pakeha came to the shrine." + +<hw>Palberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. a South Australian name for the +<i>Native Currant</i>. See <i>Currant</i>. The word is a +corruption of the aboriginal name <i>Palbri</i>, by the law +of Hobson-Jobson. + +<hw>Palm, Alexandra</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland timber-tree, +<i>Ptychosperma alexandrae</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Palmeae</i>. + +<hw>Palm, Black</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland timber-tree, +<i>Ptychosperma normanbyi</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Palmeae</i>. + +<hw>Palm, Cabbage</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Cabbage-tree</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Palm Nut</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Nut</i>. + +<hw>Palm, Walking-Stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland plant, +<i>Bacularia monostachya</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Palmeae</i>. +So called because the stem is much used for making +walking-sticks. + +<hw>Panel</hw>, <i>n</i>. the part between two posts in a +post-and-rail fence. See also <i>Slip-panel</i>. + +1876. A. L. Gordon, `Sea-spray,' p. 148: + +"In the jar of the panel rebounding, + In the crash of the splintering wood, + In the ears to the earth-shock resounding, + In the eyes flashing fire and blood." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. +p. 226: + +"A panel of fencing is not quite nine feet in length." + +<hw>Pan</hw>, or <hw>Pan-wash</hw>, <hw>Pan-out</hw>, +<hw>Pan-off</hw>, <i>verbs</i>, to wash the dirt in the pan +for gold. Some of the forms, certainly <i>pan-out</i>, +are used in the United States. + +1870. J. O. Tucker, `The Mute,' p. 40: + +"Others to these the precious dirt convey, + Linger a moment till the panning's through." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Gold fields,' p. 4: + +"On the very day of their arrival they got a lesson +in pan-washing." + +Ibid. p. 36: + +"All the diggers merely panned out the earth." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vii. p. 79: + +"These returned gnomes having been brought to light, at once +commenced to pan off according to the recognized rule and +practice." + +<hw>Pannikin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small tin cup for drinking. +The word is not Australian. Webster refers to Marryat and +Thackeray. The `Century' quotes Blackmore. This diminutive +of <i>pan</i> is exceedingly common in Australia, though not +confined to it. + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 200: + +"He went to the spring and brought me a pannican full." + +(p. 101): "Several tin pannicans." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 87: + +"We caught the rain in our pannikins as it dropt from our +extended blankets." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 190: + +"There is a well-known story of two bullock-drivers, who, at a +country public-house on their way to the town, called for a +dozen of champagne, which they first emptied from the bottles +into a bucket, and then deliberately drank off from their tin +pannikins." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 6: + +"He was considered sufficiently rewarded in having the +`honour' to drink his `pannikin' of tea at the boss's deal +table." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 44: + +"A small pannikin full of gold dust." + +<hw>Pannikin-boss</hw>, or <hw>Pannikin-overseer</hw>, +<i>n</i>. The term is applied colloquially to a man on a +station, whose position is above that of the ordinary +station-hand, but who has no definite position of authority, or +is only a `boss' or overseer in a small way. + +<hw>Papa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a bluish clay found +along the east coast of the North Island. + +<hw>Paper-bark Tree</hw>, or <hw>Paper-barked Tea-tree</hw>, +<i>n</i>. Called also <i>Milk-wood</i> (q.v.). Name given to +the species <i>Melaleuca leucodendron</i>, Linn. Its bark is +impervious to water. + +1842. `Western Australia,' p. 81: + +"There is no doubt, from the partial trial which has been made +of it, that the wood of the <i>Melaleuca</i>, or tea-tree, +could be rendered very serviceable. It is sometimes known by +the name of the paper-bark tree from the multitudinous layers +(some hundreds) of which the bark is composed. These layers +are very thin, and are loosely attached to each other, peeling +off like the bark of the English birch. The whole mass of the +bark is readily stripped from the tree. It is used by the +natives as a covering for their huts." + +[Compare the New Zealand <i>Thousand-jacket</i>.] + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries of Australia,' vol. i. c. v. +p. 106: + +"The face of the country was well but not too closely covered +with specimens of the red and white gum, and paper-bark tree." + +1847. E. W. Landor, `The Bushman; or, Life in a New +Country,' p. 212: + +"Fish and other things are frequently baked in the bark of the +papertree." + +1857. J. Askew, `Voyage to Australia and New Zealand,' +p. 433: + +"The dead bodies are burnt or buried, though some in North +Australia place the corpse in the paper bark of the tea-tree, +and deposit it in a hollow tree." + +<hw>Paper-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name. See +<i>Bastard Trumpeter</i> and <i>Morwong</i>. + +1883. `Royal Commission on Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. xxxvi: + +"The young [of the bastard trumpeter] are always coloured, more +or less, like the red, and are known by some as `paper-fish.' +The mature form of the silver bastard is alone caught. This is +conclusive as favouring the opinion that the silver is simply +the mature form of the red." + +<hw>Paradise, Bird of</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name, +originally applied in Australia to the <i>Lyre-bird</i> (q.v.), +now given to <i>Manucoda gouldii</i>, Gray. Called also the +<i>Manucode</i> (q.v.). + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 300: + +"By him [Wilson, a convict] the first bird of paradise ever +seen in this country had been shot." +[This was the <i>Lyre-bird</i>.] + +<hw>Paradise-Duck</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name applied to the New +Zealand duck, <i>Casarca variegata</i>, Gmel. See <i>Duck</i> +quotation, 1889, Parker. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. 1. +p. 57: + +"These (wild ducks of different sorts) are principally the +black, the grey, the blue-winged, and the paradise-duck, or +`pu tangi tangi,' as it is called by the natives. The last +is nearly as large as a goose, and of beautiful plumage." + +<hw>Paradoxus</hw>, <i>n</i>. a shortened form of the former +scientific name of the Platypus, <i>Paradoxus +ornithorrhynchus</i>. Sometimes further abbreviated to +<i>Paradox</i>. The word is from the Greek <i>paradoxos</i>, +`Contrary to opinion, strange, incredible.' (`L. & S.') + +1817. O'Hara, `The History of New South Wales,' p. 452: + +"In the reaches or pools of the Campbell River, the very +curious animal called the paradox, or watermole, is seen in +great numbers." + +<hw>Paramatta</hw>/sic/, <i>n</i>. "A fabric like merino, of +worsted and cotton. So named from <i>Paramatta</i>, a town +near Sydney, New South Wales." (Skeat, `Etymological +Dictionary,' s.v.) According to some, the place named +<i>Parramatta</i> means, in the local Aboriginal dialect, "eels +abound," or "plenty of eels." Others rather put it that +<i>para</i> = fish, and <i>matta</i>= water. There is a river +in Queensland called the Paroo, which means "fish-river." + +NOTE.--The town Parramatta, though formerly often spelt with +one <i>r</i>, is now always spelt with two. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 367: + +"A peculiar tweed, made in the colony, and chiefly at Paramatta, +hence the name." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 19: + +"Paramattas, fine cloths originally made from the Paramatta +wool, with silk warps, though now woollen." + +<hw>Pardalote</hw>, <i>n</i>. anglicised form of the scientific +bird-name <i>Pardalotus</i> (q.v.), generally called <i>Diamond +birds</i> (q.v.); a genus of small short-tailed birds like the +Flycatchers. The species are-- + +Black-headed Pardalote-- + <i>Pardalotus melanocephalus</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-rumped P.-- + <i>P. uropygialis</i>, Gould. + +Forty-spotted P.-- + <i>P. quadragintus</i>, Gould; called also <i>Forty-Spot</i> +(q.v.). + +Orange-tipped P.-- + <i>P. assimilis</i>, Ramsay. + +Red-browed P.-- + <i>P. rubricatus</i>, Gould. + +Red-tipped P.-- + <i>P. ornatus</i>, Temm. + +Spotted P.-- + <i>P. punctatus</i>, Temm.; the bird originally called +the <i>Diamond Bird</i> (q.v.). + +Yellow-rumped P.-- + <i>P. xanthopygius</i>, McCoy. + +Yellow-tipped P.-- + <i>P. affinis</i>, Gould.-- + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 35: + +"No species of the genus to which this bird belongs is more +widely and generally distributed than the spotted pardalote, +<i>Pardalotus punctatus</i>." + +<hw>Pardalotus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of +Australian birds, called <i>Diamond birds</i> (q.v.), and also +<i>Pardalotes</i> (q.v.), from Grk. <i>pardalowtos</i>, spotted +like the pard. + +<hw>Parera</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the genus +<i>Duck</i> (q.v.). + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 407: + +"Family, <i>Anatida</i>--Parera, turuki (<i>Anas +superciliosa</i>), the duck; very similar to the +wild duck of England." + +<hw>Parra</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular use for the fuller +scientific name <i>Parra gallinacea</i>. Called also +the <i>Jacana</i> (q.v.), and the <i>Lotus-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 6: + +"The egg of the comb-crested parra shines amongst its +neighbours so vividly that it at once catches the eye, and +suggests a polished agate rather than an egg. The bird itself +is something of a gem, too, when seen skipping with its long +water-walking claws over the floating leaves of pink and blue +water-lilies." + +<hw>Parrakeet</hw>, <i>n</i>. (various spellings). From +French. Originally from Spanish <i>periquito</i>, dim. of +sp. <i>perico</i>, a little parrot. Hence used generally in +English to signify any small parrot. The Australian species +are-- + +Alexandra Parrakeet-- + <i>Spathopterus (Polytelis) alexandra</i>, Gould. + +Beautiful P.-- + <i>Psephotus pulcherrimus</i>, Gould. + +Black-tailed P.-- + <i>Polytelis melanura</i>, Vig. and Hors.; +called also <i>Rock-pebbler</i>. + +Blue-cheeked P.-- + <i>Platycercus amathusiae</i>, Bp. + +Cockatoo P.-- + <i>Calopsittacus novae-hollandiae</i> Gmel. + +Crimson-bellied P.-- + <i>Psephotus haematogaster</i>, Gould. + +Golden-shouldered P.-- + <i>Psephotus chrysopterygius</i>, Gould. + +Green P.-- + <i>Platycercus flaviventris</i>, Temm. + +Ground P.-- + <i>Pezoporus formosus</i>, Lath. + +Mallee P.-- + <i>Platycercus barnardi</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Many-coloured P.-- + <i>Psephotus multicolor</i>, Temm. + +Night P.-- + <i>Pezoporus occidentalis</i>, Gould. + +Pale-headed P:-- + <i>Platycercus pallidiceps</i>, Vig. + +Pheasant P.-- + <i>P. adelaidensis</i>, Gould. + +Red-backed P.-- + <i>Psephotus haematonotus</i>, Gould. + +Red-capped P.-- + <i>P. spurius</i>, Kuhl. + +Rock P.-- + <i>Euphema petrophila</i>, Gould. + +Smutty P.-- + <i>Platycercus browni</i>, Temm. + +Yellow P.-- + <i>P. flaveolus</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-banded P. + <i>P. zonarius</i>, Shaw. + +Yellow-cheeked P. + <i>P. icterotis</i>, Temm. + +Yellow-collared P.-- + <i>P. semitorquatus</i>, Quoy and Gaim.; +called also <i>Twenty-eight</i> (q.v.). + +Yellow-mantled P.-- + <i>P. splendidus</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-vented P.-- + <i>Psephotus xanthorrhous</i>, Gould. + +See also <i>Grass-Parrakeet</i>, <i>Musk-Parrakeet</i>, +<i>Rosella</i>, and <i>Rosehill</i>. The New Zealand Green +Parrakeet (called also <i>Kakariki</i>, q.v.) has the +following species-- + +Antipodes Island P.- + <i>Platycercus unicolor</i>, Vig. + +Orange-fronted P.-- + <i>P. alpinus</i>, Buller. + +Red-fronted P.-- + <i>P. novae-zelandiae</i>, Sparrm. + +Rowley's Parrakeet-- + <i>Platycercus rowleyi</i>, Buller. + +Yellow-fronted P.-- + <i>P. auriceps</i>, Kuhl. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Journal,' p. 80: + +"The cockatoo-parrakeet of the Gwyder River (<i>Nymphicus +Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Gould)." + +1867. A. G. Middleton, `Earnest,' p. 93: + +"The bright parroquet, and the crow, black jet, + For covert, wing far to the shade." + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 118: + +"There are three species of parrakeet, the red-fronted +(<i>Platycercus Novae-Zelandiae</i>), the yellow-fronted +<i>(P. auriceps</i>), and the orange-fronted <i>(P. alpinus</i>). +The genus <i>Platycercus</i> is found in New Zealand, New Guinea, +and Polynesia." + +<hw>Parrot-bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Kaka-bill</i>. + +<hw>Parrot-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Australia to +<i>Pseudoscarus pseudolabrus</i>; called in the Australian +tropics <i>Parrot-perch</i>. In Victoria and Tasmania, there +are also several species of Labricthys. In New Zealand, it is +<i>L. psittacula</i>, Rich. + +<hw>Parrot-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Parrot-fish</i>. + +<hw>Parrot's-food</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to the +plant <i>Goodenia ovata</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Goodeniaceae</i>. + +<hw>Parsley, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Apium leptophyllum</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Umbelliferae</i>. Parsley grows wild in +many parts of the world, especially on the shores of the +Mediterranean, and this species is not endemic in Australia. + +<hw>Parsnip, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. a poisonous weed, +<i>Trachymene australis</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Umbelliferae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 142: + +"Recently (Dec. 1887) the sudden death of numbers of cattle in +the vicinity of Dandenong, Victoria, was attributed to their +having eaten a plant known as the wild parsnip. . . . Its +action is so powerful that no remedial measures seem to be of +any avail." + +<hw>Parson-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. the New Zealand bird +<i>Prosthemadera novae-zelandiae</i>, Gmel.; Maori name, +<i>Tui</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Poe</i>. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 401: + +"Cook named this beautiful and lively bird the parson and +mocking-bird. It acquired the first name from its having two +remarkable white feathers on the neck like a pair of +clergyman's bands." + +[Mr. Taylor is not correct. Cook called it the Poe-bird +(q.v.). The name `Parson-bird' is later.] + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 118: + +"The most common, and certainly the most facetious, individual +of the ornithology is the tui (parson-bird). Joyous +Punchinello of the bush, he is perpetual fun in motion." + +1858. C. W., `Song of the Squatters,' `Canterbury Rhymes' +(2nd edit.), p. 47: + +"So the parson-bird, the tui, + The white-banded songster tui, + In the morning wakes the woodlands + With his customary music. + Then the other tuis round him + Clear their throats and sing in concert, + All the parson-birds together." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 93: + +"The tui, or parson-bird, most respectable and clerical-looking +in its glossy black suit, with a singularly trim and dapper +air, and white wattles of very slender feathers--indeed they are +as fine as hair--curled coquettishly at each side of his throat, +exactly like bands." + +1888. Dr. Thomson, apud Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. +i. p. 95: + +"Sitting on the branch of a tree, as a <i>pro tempore</i> +pulpit, he shakes his head, bending to one side and then to +another, as if he remarked to this one and to that one; and +once and again, with pent-up vehemence, contracting his muscles +and drawing himself together, his voice waxes loud, in a manner +to awaken sleepers to their senses." + +1890. W. Colenso, `Bush Notes,' `Transactions of the New +Zealand Institute,' vol. xxxiii. art. lvii. p. 482: + +"It is very pleasing to hear the deep rich notes of the +parson-bird--to see a pair of them together diligently occupied +in extracting honey from the tree-flowers, the sun shining on +their glossy sub-metallic dark plumage." + +<hw>Partridge-Pigeon</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian pigeon. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 8: + +"The partridge-pigeon (<i>Geophaps scripta</i>) abounded in the +Acacia groves." + +<hw>Partridge-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Cabbage-Palm</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Passion-flower, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. Several species +of the genus <i>Passiflora</i> are so called in Australia; +some are indigenous, some naturalised. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 398: + +"The native passion-flower, scarlet and orange, was tangled up +with the common purple sarsaparilla and the English honeysuckle +and jessamine." + +<hw>Pastoralist</hw>, <i>n</i>. The squatters are dropping +their old name for this new one. A Pastoralist is a sheep or +cattle-farmer, the distinction between him and an Agriculturist +being, that cultivation, if he undertakes it at all, is a minor +consideration with him. + +1891. March 15 [Title]: + +"The Pastoralists' Review," No. 1. + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 147: + +"A combination has been formed by the squatters under the name +of the Pastoralists' Union." + +<hw>Patagorang</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the aboriginal names for +the <i>Kangaroo</i> (q.v.), and see <i>Paddy-melon</i>. + +<hw>Pataka</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for storehouse, +supported on a post to keep off rats. See <i>Whata</i>. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 283: + +"We landed at the pataka, or stage." + +<hw>Patiki</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the +<i>Flounder</i> (q.v.). The accent is on the first +syllable of the word. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 190: + +"Patiki, <i>s</i>. a fish so called." + +1844. F. Tuckett, `Diary,' May 31: + +"A fine place for spearing soles or <i>patike</i> +(the best of fish)." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 412: + +"Patiki, common name for the sole and flat-fish; the latter +is found in rivers, but decreases in size as it retires from +the sea." + +1879. Captain Mair, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xii. art. xlvi. p. 316: + +"Large patiki, flat-fish, are occasionally speared up the +river." + +<hw>Patriot</hw>, <i>n</i>. Humorously applied to convicts. + +1796. In `History of Australia,' by G. W. Rusden (1894), +p. 49 [Footnote]: + +"In 1796 the Prologue (erroneously imputed to a convict +Barrington, but believed to have been written by an officer) +declared: + +`True patriots we, for be it understood + We left our country for our country's good.'" + +<hw>Patter</hw>, <i>v</i>. to eat. Aboriginal word, and used +in pigeon- English, given by Collins in his vocabulary of the +Port Jackson dialect. Threlkeld says, <i>ta</i> is the root of +the verb, meaning "to eat." + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. ii. c. vii. p. 223: + +"He himself did not patter (eat) any of it." + +<hw>Patu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori generic term for all +hand-striking weapons. The <i>mere</i> (q.v.) is one kind. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 82: + +"It (fern-root) was soaked, roasted, and repeatedly beaten +with a small club (patu) on a large smooth stone till it was +supple." + +<hw>Paua</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the <i>Mutton- +fish</i> (q.v.). Also used as the name for Maori fishhooks, +made of the <i>paua</i> shell; the same word being adopted +for fish, shell, and hook. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 191: + +"Paua, <i>s</i>. a shell-fish so called." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 416: + +"Pawa (<i>Haliotis iris</i>), or mutton-fish. This beautiful +shell is found of considerable size; it is used for the +manufacture of fish-hooks." + +1855. Ibid. p.397: + +"The natives always tie a feather or two to their paua, or +fish-hooks." + +1877. W. L. Buller, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. x. art. xix. p. 192: + +"Elaborately carved, and illuminated with <i>paua</i> shell." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 162: + +"Immense piles of paua shells (<i>Haliotis iris</i>), heaped +up just above the shore, show how largely these substantial +molluscs were consumed." + +<hw>Payable</hw>, <i>adj</i>. In Australia, able to be worked +at a profit: that which is likely to pay; not only, as in +England, due for payment. + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 38: + +"We . . . expect to strike a payable lead on a hill near . . . +A shaft is bottomed there, and driving is commenced to find the +bottom of the dip." + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 15: + +"Good payable stone has been struck." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5, col. 5: + +"Good payable reefs have been found and abandoned through +ignorance of the methods necessary to obtain proper results." + +<hw>Pea, Coral</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Coral Pea</i>. + +<hw>Pea, Darling</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Darling Pea</i>. + +<hw>Pea, Desert</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Sturt's Desert Pea</i>. + +<hw>Pea, Flat</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Flat Pea</i>. + +<hw>Pea, Glory</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name +for the <i>Clianthus</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pea, Heart</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Balloon-Vine</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pea-plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. The term is applied sometimes to +any one of various Australian plants of the +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Peach-berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian berry, <i>Lissanthe +strigosa</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +<hw>Peach, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Quandong</i> (q.v.), and for <i>Emu-Apple</i> (q.v.). + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings, p. 42: + +"The so-called native Peach-tree of our desert tracts is a true +<i>Santalum, S. acuminatum</i>." + +<hw>Peacocking</hw>, vb. <i>n</i>. Australian slang. To +<i>peacock</i> apiece of country means to pick out the +<i>eyes</i> of the land by selecting or buying up the choice +pieces and water-frontages, so that the adjoining territory is +practically useless to any one else. + +1894. W. Epps, `Land Systems of Australasia,' p. 28: + +"When the immediate advent of selectors to a run became +probable, the lessees endeavoured to circumvent them by +dummying all the positions which offered the best means of +blocking the selectors from getting to water. This system, +commonly known as `peacocking' . . ." + +<hw>Pear, Native</hw>, name given to a timber-tree, +<i>Xylomelum pyriforme</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i> +(called also <i>Wooden Pear</i>), and to <i>Hakea acicularis</i>. +See <i>Hakea</i>. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219: + +"The pear-tree is, I believe, an eucalyptus, and bears a pear +of solid wood, hard as heart of oak." + +[It is <i>not</i> a eucalypt.] + +<hw>Pear, Wooden</hw>, i.q. <i>Native Pear</i>. See above. + +<hw>Pearl-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a rare marine fish of New South +Wales, excellent for food, <i>Glaucosoma scapulare</i>, Ramsay, +family <i>Percidae</i>. + +<hw>Pedgery</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Pituri</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pee-wee</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales name for the +<i>Magpie-Lark</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Peg-out</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. to mark out a gold-claim under +the Mining Act, or a <i>Free-Selection</i> (q.v.) under the +Land Act, by placing pegs at the corners of the land selected. +Used also metaphorically. + +1858. W. H. Hall, `Practical Experiences at the Diggings in +Victoria,' p. 23: + +"I selected an unoccupied spot between two holes . . . pegged +out eight square feet, paid the licence fee." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 58: + +"He was in high hopes that he might be one of the first to peg +out ground on the goldfield." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 32: + +"The pegging out, that is, the placing of four stout sticks, +one at each corner, was easy enough." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 8: + +"Making their way to Heemskirk, where they were the first to +peg out land for ten." + +Ibid. Preface: + +"The writer . . . should be called on to defend his conduct +in pegging out an additional section on the outskirts of the +field of literature." + +<hw>Pelican</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. The pelicans +occur in nearly all temperate or tropical regions. The +Australian species is <i>Pelecanus conspicillatus</i>, Temm. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 256 [Title of +chapter 39]: + +"Where the pelican builds her nest." + +<hw>Penguin</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +The species in Australia are-- + +Crested Penguin-- + <i>Catarractes chrysocome</i>, Lath. + +Fairy P.-- + <i>Eudyptula undina</i>, Gould. + +Little P.-- + <i>E. minor</i>, Forst. + +For the New Zealand species, see the quotation, +and also <i>Korora</i>. + +1889. Professor Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 119: + +"The Penguins are characteristic Southern Hemisphere sea-birds, +being represented in the Northern by the Puffins. They are +flightless, but their wings are modified into powerful fins or +flappers. Among the most interesting forms are the following-- +the King Penguin, <i>Aptenodytes longirostris</i>; Rock Hopper +P., <i>Pygoscelis taeniatus</i>; Yellow-Crowned P., <i>Eudyptes +antipodum</i>; Crested P., <i>E. pachyrhynchus</i>; Little Blue +P., <i>E. minor</i> and <i>undina</i>." + +<hw>Pennyroyal, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Mentha gracilis</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Labiatae</i>. Much more acrid than the +European species of <i>Mentha</i>; but used widely as a herbal +medicine. Very common in all the colonies. See also +<i>Mint</i>. + +<hw>Pepper, Climbing</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Piper +novae-hollandiae</i>, Miq., <i>N.O. Piperaceae</i>. Called +also Native Pepper, and <i>Native Pepper-vine</i>. A tall +plant climbing against trees in dense forests. + +<hw>Peppermint</hw>, or <hw>Peppermint-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a name given to various Eucalypts, from the aromatic nature +of their leaves or extracted essence. See quotation below +from White, 1790. There are many species, and various +vernacular names, such as <i>Brown Peppermint</i>, +<i>Dandenong P</i>., <i>Narrow-leaved P</i>., <i>White P</i>., +etc. are given in various parts to the same species. +See Maiden's note on <i>Eucalyptus amygdalina</i>, +under <i>Gum</i>. Other vernacular names of different +species are <i>Bastard-Peppermint</i>, <i>Peppermint-Box</i>, +<i>Peppermint-Gum</i>. + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales' (Appendix by Dr. +Smith or John Hunter), pp. 226-27: + +"The Peppermint Tree, <i>Eucalyptus piperita</i>. . . . +The name of peppermint-tree has been given to this plant by +Mr. White on account of the very great resemblance between the +essential oil drawn from its leaves and that obtained from the +Peppermint (<i>Mentha piperita</i>) which grows in England. +This oil was found by Mr. White to be much more efficacious in +removing all cholicky complaints than that of the English +Peppermint, which he attributes to its being less pungent and +more aromatic." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 23: + +"The peppermint, so called from the leaves imparting to the +taste that flavour, grows everywhere throughout the island." + +1874. Garnet Walch, I Head over Heels,' p. 75: + +"Well, mate, it's snug here by the logs + That's peppermint--burns like a match." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 30: + +"A woody gully filled with peppermint and stringy-bark trees." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' +p. 231: + +"The peppermints rose like pillars, with funereal branches + hung, + Where the dirge for the dead is chanted, + And the mourning hymn is sung." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 116: + +"Down among the roots of a peppermint bush." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' 439: + +"It [<i>Eucalyptus capitella</i>, Smith] is one of the +numerous `peppermints' of New South Wales and Victoria, +and is noteworthy as being the first eucalypt so called, +at any rate in print." + +<hw>Pepper, Native</hw>, i.q. <i>Climbing Pepper</i> +(see above), <i>Piper Novae-Hollandiae</i>, Miq. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 198: + +"`Native Pepper.' An excellent tonic to the mucous +membrane. . . . One of the largest native creepers, +the root being at times from six inches to a foot in diameter. +The plant climbs like ivy to the tops of the tallest trees, +and when full-grown weighs many tons, so that a good supply +of the drug is readily obtainable." + +<hw>Pepper-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to two +trees, neither of which are the true pepper of commerce +(<i>Piper</i>). They are-- + +(1) <i>Schinus molle</i>, which is a native of South America, +of the Cashew family, and is largely cultivated for ornament +and shade in California, and in the suburbs and public parks +and gardens of all Australian towns where it has been +naturalised. It is a very fast growing evergreen, with +feathery leaves like a small palm or fern, drooping like a +weeping willow. It flowers continuously, irrespective of +season, and bears a cluster of red-berries or drupes, strongly +pungent,-whence its name. + +(2) The other tree is indigenous in Australia and Tasmania; it +is <i>Drimys aromatica</i>, F. v. M., formerly called +<i>Tasmania aromatica</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Magnoliaceae</i>. +In New Zealand the name is applied to <i>Drimys</i> /corr./ +<i>axillaris</i>, Forst. (Maori, <i>Horopito</i>; q.v.). + +1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 65: + +"A thick grove of the pepper-shrub, <i>Tasmania fragrans</i> of +Smith. It grows in a close thicket to the height of from six +to ten feet. When in blossom, in the spring months of November +or December, the farina of the flower is so pungent, especially +if shaken about by the feet of horses or cattle, that it is +necessary to hold a handkerchief to the nose in order to avoid +continual sneezing." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior +of Eastern Australia,' vol. ii. p. 280: + +"We also found the aromatic tree, <i>Tasmania aromatica</i>. +. . . The leaves and bark of this tree have a hot, biting, +cinnamon-like taste, on which account it is vulgarly called +the pepper-tree." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 231: + +"The handsome red-stemmed shrub known as native pepper. . . . +Something like cayenne and allspice mixed, . . . the aromatic +flavour is very pleasant. I have known people who, having +first adopted its use for want of other condiments, continue +it from preference." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. +p. 138: + +"Bright green pepper-trees with their coral berries." + +<hw>Peragale</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +of Australian marsupial animals called <i>Rabbit- +Bandicoots</i>. See <i>Bandicoot</i>. (Grk. <i>paera</i>, +a bag or wallet, and <i>galae</i>, a weasel.) + +<hw>Perameles</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the typical +genus of the family of Australian marsupial animals called +<i>Bandicoots</i> (q.v.), or <i>Bandicoot-Rats</i>. The word +is from Latin <i>pera</i> (word borrowed from the Greek), a bag +or wallet, and <i>meles</i> (a word used by Varro and Pliny), +a badger. + +<hw>Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. This English fish-name is applied +with various epithets to many fishes in Australia, some of the +true family <i>Percidae</i>, others of quite different +families. These fishes have, moreover, other names attached to +them in different localities. See <i>Black Perch</i>, +<i>Fresh-water P</i>., <i>Golden P</i>., <i>Magpie P</i>., +<i>Murray P</i>., <i>Pearl P</i>., <i>Red P</i>., <i>Red Gurnet +P</i>., <i>Rock P</i>., <i>Sea P</i>., <i>Parrot Fish</i>, +<i>Poddly</i>, <i>Burramundi</i>, <i>Mado</i>, and <i>Bidyan +Ruffe</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 31: + +"<i>Lates colonorum</i>, the perch of the colonists . . , +really a fresh-water fish, but . . . often brought to the +Sydney market from Broken Bay and other salt-water +estuaries. . . . The perch of the Ganges and other East Indian +rivers (<i>L. calcarifer</i>) enters freely into brackish +water, and extends to the rivers of Queensland." + +[See <i>Burramundi</i>. <i>L. colonorum</i> is called the +<i>Gippsland Perch</i>, in Victoria.] + +1882. Ibid. p. 45: + +"The other genus (<i>Chilodactylus</i>) is also largely +represented in Tasmania and Victoria, one species being +commonly imported from Hobart Town in a smoked and dried state +under the name of `perch.'" + +<hw>Perish, doing a</hw>, modern slang from Western Australia. +See quotation. + +1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5, col. 4: + +"When a man (or party) has nearly died through want of water +he is said to have `done a perish.'" + +<hw>Perpetual Lease</hw>, though a misnomer, is a statutory +expression in New Zealand. Under the former Land Acts, the +grantee of a perpetual lease took a term of thirty years, with +a right of renewal at a revalued rent, subject to conditions as +to improvement and cultivation, with a right to purchase the +freehold after six years' occupation. + +<hw>Perriwinkle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation. The most +popular form in Melbourne is <i>Turbo undulatus</i>, Chemnitz. +<i>T. constricta</i> is also called the <i>Native Whelk</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish and Fisheries of New +South Wales,' p. 122: + +"<i>Trochocochlea constricta</i>, Lam., is used as a substitute +for the British perriwinkle, but it is only consumed to a very +small extent." + +<hw>Perth Herring</hw>, i.q. <i>Sardine</i> (q.v.), +and see <i>Herring</i>. + +<hw>Petaurist</hw>, <i>n</i>. the general name for a +<i>Flying-Phalanger</i> (q.v.), <i>Flying-Opossum</i> (q.v.), +<i>Australian Flying-Squirrel</i> (q.v.). (Grk. +<i>petauristaes</i>, a rope-dancer or tumbler). +See <i>Petaurus</i>. + +<hw>Petauroides</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus closely allied to +<i>Petaurus</i> (q.v.), containing only one species, the +<i>Taguan Flying-Phalanger</i>. + +<hw>Petaurus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name given by Shaw +in 1793 to the Australian genus of <i>Petaurists</i> (q.v.), or +so-called <i>Flying-Squirrels</i> (q.v.), or +<i>Flying-Phalangers</i> (q.v.), or <i>Flying-Opossums</i>. +The name was invented by zoologists out of Petaurist. In +Greek, <i>petauron</i> was the perch or platform from which a +"rope-dancer" stepped on to his rope. `L. & S.' say probably +from <i>pedauros</i>, Aeolic for <i>meteowros</i>, high in air. + +<hw>Pething-pole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a harpoon-like weapon used for +pething (pithing) cattle; that is, killing them by piercing the +spinal cord (pith, or provincial peth). + +1886. P. Clarke, `New Chum in Australia,' p. 184 (`Century'): + +"So up jumps Tom on the bar overhead with a long pething-pole, +like an abnormally long and heavy alpenstock, in his hand; he +selects the beast to be killed, stands over it in breathless . +. . silence, adjusts his point over the centre of the vertebra, +and with one plunge sends the cruel point with unerring aim +into the spinal cord." + +<hw>Petrogale</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for a +<i>Rock-Wallaby</i> (q.v.). The name was given by J. E. Gray, +in the `Magazine of Natural History' (vol. i. p. 583), 1837. +(Grk. <i>petra</i>, rock, and <i>galae</i>, a weasel.) + +<hw>Pezoporus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus of +Parrakeets peculiar to Australia, of which one species only is +known, <i>P. formosus</i>, the Ground Parrakeet, or <i>Swamp +Parrakeet</i>. From Grk. <i>pezoporos</i>, "going on foot." +It differs from all the other <i>psittaci</i> in having a long +hind toe like that of a lark, and is purely terrestrial in its +habits. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pl. 46: + +"<i>Pezoporus Formosus</i>, Ill., Ground-parrakeet; +Swamp-parrakeet, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land; +Ground-parrakeet, New South Wales and Western Australia." + +<hw>Phalanger</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for the +animal called an <i>Opossum</i> (q.v.) in Australia, and +including also the <i>Flying-squirrel</i> (q.v.), and other +Marsupials. See also <i>Flying-Phalanger</i>. The word is +sometimes used instead of <i>Opossum</i>, where precise +accuracy is desired, but its popular use in Australia is rare. +The Phalangers are chiefly Australian, but range as far as the +Celebes. The word is from the Greek <i>phalanx</i>, one +meaning of which is the bone between the joints of the fingers +or toes. (The toes are more or less highly webbed in the +<i>Phalanger</i>.) + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 249: + +"The cry of the night-bird, the rustle of the phalangers and +the smaller marsupials, as they glided through the wiry frozen +grass or climbed the clear stems of the eucalypti." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"A pair of the Short-headed Phalanger (<i>Belideus +breviceps</i>) occupy the next division." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 75: + +"The second great family of the herbivorous Diprotodont +Marsupials is typically represented by the creatures properly +known as phalangers, which the colonists of Australia persist +in misnaming opossums. It includes however several other +forms, such as the Flying-Phalangers [q.v.] and the Koala +[q.v.]." + +<hw>Phascolarctus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus of the <i>Koala</i> (q.v.) or <i>Native Bear</i>, of +which there is only one species, <i>P. cinereus</i>. It is, +of course, marsupial.(Grk. <i>phaskowlos</i>, a leather apron, +and <i>'arktos</i>, a bear.) See <i>Bear</i>. + +<hw>Phascologale</hw>, <i>n</i>. contracted often to +<i>Phascogale</i>: the scientific name for the genus of little +marsupials known as the <i>Kangaroo-Mouse</i> or +<i>Pouched-Mouse</i> (q.v.). (Grk. <i>phaskowlos</i>, a leather +apron, and <i>galae</i>, a weasel.) "The pretty little animals +belonging to the genus thus designated, range over the whole of +Australia and New Guinea, together with the adjacent islands +and are completely arboreal and insectivorous in their habits. +The [popular] name of <i>Pouched-Mouse</i> is far from being +free from objection, yet, since the scientific names of neither +this genus nor the genus <i>Sminthopsis</i> lend themselves +readily for conversion into English, we are compelled to use +the colonial designation as the vernacular names of both +genera. . . . The largest of the thirteen known species does +not exceed a Common Rat in size, while the majority are +considerably smaller." (R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 166.) + +1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 324: + +"The phascogales are small insectivorous animals found on the +mountains and in the dense forest-parts of the island, and +little is known of their habits." + +<hw>Phascolome</hw>, and <hw>Phascolomys</hw>, <i>n</i>. The +first is the anglicised form of the second, which is the +scientific name of the genus called by the aboriginal name of +<i>Wombat</i> (q.v.) (Grk. <i>phaskowlos</i> = leathern bag, +and <i>mus</i> = mouse.) + +<hw>Phasmid</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name for the insects of +the genus <i>Phasma</i> (Grk. <i>phasma</i> = an appearance), +of the family <i>Phasmidae</i>, curious insects not confined +to Australia, but very common there. The various species +are known as <i>Leaf-insects</i>, <i>Walking leaves</i>, +<i>Stick-caterpillars</i>, <i>Walking-sticks</i>, +<i>Spectres</i>, etc., from the extraordinary illusion with +which they counterfeit the appearance of the twigs, branches, +or leaves of the vegetation on which they settle. Some have +legs only, which they can hold crooked in the air to imitate +twigs; others have wings like delicate leaves, or they are +brilliant green and covered with thorns. They imitate not only +the colour and form of the plant, but its action or motion when +swayed slightly by the wind. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 209: + +"A span-long Phasmid then he knew, + Stretching its fore-limbs like a branching twig." + +<hw>Pheasant</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English bird-name +is applied in Australia to two birds, viz.-- + +(1) The <i>Lyre-bird</i> (q.v.). + +(2) The <i>Lowan</i> (q.v.), and see <i>Turkey</i>. + +For Pheasant-fantail, see <i>Fantail</i>. + +1877 (before). Australie, `From the Clyde to Braidwood,' +quoted in `Australian Ballads and Rhymes' (edition Sladen, +p. 10): + + ". . . Echoing notes + Of lyre-tailed pheasants, in their own rich notes, + Mocking the song of every forest-bird." + +1885. Wanderer, `Beauteous Terrorist, etc., p. 60: + +"And have we no visions pleasant + Of the playful lyre-tail'd pheasant?" + +<hw>Pheasant-Cuckoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Coucal</i> (q.v.), <i>Centropus phasianellus</i>, Gould. +See also <i>Swamp-Pheasant</i>. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +c. vi. p. 125: + +"I shot over the island and enjoyed some very fair sport, +especially with the pheasant-cuckoo." + +<hw>Pheasant's Mother</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old name of an +Australian bird. See <i>Orthonyx</i>. + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 180: + +"That remarkable little bird, the `Pheasant's Mother' of the +colonists, or Spine-tailed Orthonyx (<i>Orthonyx +spinicauda</i>), about which also ornithologists have some +difference of opinion respecting its situation in the natural +system:' + +<hw>Philander</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old scientific name, now +abandoned, for certain species of the Kangaroo family. The +word was taken from the name of the explorer, <i>Philander de +Bruyn</i>. See quotation. + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 36: + +"Aru Island Wallaby. <i>Macropus brunnii</i>, Cuvier (1817). +<i>Didelphys brunnii</i>, Schreber (1778). . . Distribution.-- +Aru and Kei Islands. This species has an especial interest +as being the first member of the Kangaroo-family known to +Europeans, specimens having been seen in the year 1711 by +[Philander de] Bruyn living in the gardens of the Dutch +Governor of Batavia. They were originally described +under the name of Philander or Filander." + +<hw>Phormium</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the genus to +which <i>New Zealand Flax</i> (<i>P. tenax</i>) belongs. See +<i>Flax</i>. (Grk. <i>phormion</i>, dim. of <i>phormos</i>, +anything plaited of reeds or rushes.) + +<hw>Pialler</hw>, v. used as pigeon-English, especially in +Queensland and New South Wales, in the sense of <i>yabber</i>, +to speak. + +1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar,' p. 10: + +[As a barbarism] "<i>piyaller</i>, to speak." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 314: + +"Hester seized the shrinking black and led him forward, wildly +crying that she would `pialla' the Great Spirit, so that no +evil should befall him." + +<hw>Piccaninny</hw>, and <hw>Pickaninny</hw>, <i>n</i>. a +little child. The word is certainly not Australian. It comes +from the West Indies (Cuban <i>piquinini</i>, little, which is +from the Spanish <i>pequeno</i>, small, and <i>nino</i>, +child). The English who came to Australia, having heard the +word applied to negro children elsewhere, applied it to the +children of the aborigines. After a while English people +thought the word was aboriginal Australian, while the +aborigines thought it was correct English. It is +pigeon-English. + +1696. D'Urfey's `Don Quixote,' pt. iii. c. v. p. 41 +(Stanford): + +"Dear pinkaninny [sic], + If half a guiny + To Love wilt win ye." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 12: + +"`I tumble down pickaninny here,' he said, meaning that he was +born there." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 103: + +"Two women, one with a piccaninny at her back." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 520: + +"Bilge introduced several old warriors . . . adding always the +number of piccaninies that each of them had." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 305: + +"We can even trace words which the Europeans have imported from +the natives of other countries--for example <i>picaninny</i>, +a child. This word is said to have come originally from the +negroes of Africa, through white immigrants. In America the +children of negroes are called picaninny. When the white men +came to Australia, they applied this name to the children of +the natives of this continent." + +<hw>Piccaninny</hw>, used as <i>adj</i>. and figuratively, +to mean little. + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 104: + +"The hut would be attacked before `piccaninny sun.'" + +[Footnote]: "About daylight in the morning." + +1884. J. W. Bull, `Early Life in South Australia,' p. 69: + +[An Englishman, speaking to blacks] "would produce from his +pocket one of his pistols, and say, `Picaninny gun, plenty +more.'" + +<hw>Pick-it-up</hw>, <i>n</i>. a boys' name for the <i>Diamond +bird</i> (q.v.). + +1896. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' part ii. Zoology, Aves, p. 69: + +"<i>Pardalotus ornatus</i> and <i>Pardalotus affinis</i> give +forth a treble note which has secured for them the name of +`Pick-it-up' from our country boys." + +<hw>Picnic</hw>, <i>n</i>. Besides the ordinary meaning of +this word, there is a slang Australian use denoting an awkward +adventure, an unpleasant experience, a troublesome job. In +America the slang use is "an easy or agreeable thing." +(`Standard.') The Australasian use is an ironical inversion of +this. + +1896. Modern: + +"If a man's horse is awkward and gives him trouble, he will +say, `I had a picnic with that horse,' and so of any +misadventure or disagreeable experience in travelling. So also +of a troublesome business or other affair; a nursemaid, for +instance, will say, `I had a nice picnic with Miss Nora's +hair.'" + +<hw>Picton Herring</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name for several fishes +when dried (like "kipper"), especially for the +<i>Sea-Mullet</i>, or <i>Makawhiti</i> or <i>Aua</i> (q.v.) +(Maori names); and for the New South Wales fish called +<i>Maray</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pieman Jolly-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Jolly-tail</i>. + +<hw>Pig-Dog</hw>, <i>n</i>. a dog used in hunting wild pigs. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. ii. +p. 6: + +"The pig-dogs are of rather a mongrel breed, partaking largely +of the bull-dog, but mixed with the cross of mastiff and +greyhound, which forms the New South Wales kangaroo-dog" [q.v.] + +1877. R. Gillies, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. x. art. xliii. p. 321: + +"A pig-dog of the bull-terrier breed." + +<hw>Pigeon</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian species are-- + +Bronze-wing Pigeon (q.v.)-- + <i>Phaps chalcoptera</i>, Lath. + +Brush Bronze-wing P.-- + <i>P. elegans</i>, Temm. + +Crested P.-- + <i>Ocyphaps lophotes</i>, Temm. + +Flock or Harlequin Bronze-wing (called also <i>Squatter</i>, +q.v.)-- + <i>Phaps histrionica</i>, Gould. + +Little-Green P.-- + <i>Chalcophaps chrysochlora</i>, Wagl. + +Naked-eye Partridge-P.-- + <i>Geophaps smithii</i>, Jard. and Selb. + +Nutmeg P.-- + <i>Carpophaga spilorrhoa</i>, G. R. Gray. + +Partridge-P.-- + <i>Geophaps scripta</i>, Temm. + +Pheasant-tailed P.-- + <i>Macropygia phasianella</i>, Temm. + +Plumed P.-- + <i>Lophophaps plumifera</i>, Gould. + +Red-plumed Pigeon-- + <i>Lophophaps ferruginea</i>, Gould. +[He gives vernacular "Rust-coloured."] + +Rock P.-- + <i>Petrophassa albipennis</i>, Gould. + +Top-knot P.-- + <i>Lopholaimus antarcticus</i>, Shaw. + +White-bellied Plumed P.-- + <i>Lophophaps leucogaster</i>, Gould. + +Wonga-wonga P. (q.v.)-- + <i>Leucosarcia picata</i>, Lath. + +See also <i>Fruit-Pigeon</i>, <i>Harlequin Pigeon</i>, +<i>Partridge-Pigeon</i>, <i>Torres Straits Pigeon</i>. + +For New Zealand Pigeon, see <i>Kuku</i>. + +<hw>Pigeon-berry Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native +Mulberry</i>. See <i>Mulberry</i>. + +<hw>Pig-face</hw>, <hw>Pig-faces</hw>, and <hw>Pig's-face</i>, +or <i>Pig's-faces</i>. Names given to an indigenous +"iceplant," <i>Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale</i>, Haw., +<i>N.O. Ficoideae</i>, deriving its generic name from +the habit of expanding its flower about noon. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 133: + +"<i>Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale</i>, pig faces; called by +the aborigines by the more elegant name of canagong. The pulp +of the almost shapeless, but somewhat ob-conical, fleshy seed +vessel of this plant, is sweetish and saline; it is about an +inch and a half long, of a yellowish, reddish, or green +colour." + +1844. Mrs. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' +p. 45: + +"Great green mat-like plants of the pretty <i>Mesembryanthemum +aequilaterale</i>, or fig-marigold, adorned the hot sandy banks +by the road-side. It bears a bright purple flower, and a +five-sided fruit, called by the children `pig-faces.'" + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 132: + +"The pig's face is an extremely common production of the +Australian soil, growing like a thick and fleshy grass, with +its three-sided leaf and star-shaped pink or purple flower, +occupying usually a rocky or dry light soil." + +1879. C. W. Schuermann, in `The Native Tribes of South +Australia,' p. 217: + +"Though this country is almost entirely destitute of indigenous +fruits of any value to an European, yet there are various kinds +which form very valuable and extensive articles of food for the +aborigines; the most abundant and important of these is the +fruit of a species of cactus, very elegantly styled pig's-faces +by the white people, but by the natives called karkalla. The +size of the fruit is rather less than that of a walnut, and it +has a thick skin of a pale reddish colour, by compressing +which, the glutinous sweet substance inside slips into the +mouth." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 44: + +"Pig-faces. It was the <i>canajong</i> of the Tasmanian +aboriginal. The fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: +the leaves are eaten baked." + +<hw>Pig-faced Lady</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old name in Tasmania for +the <i>Boar-fish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pig-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the fish <i>Agriopus +leucopaecilus</i>, Richards., in Dunedin; called also the +<i>Leather-jacket</i> (q.v.). In Sydney it is <i>Cossyphus +unimaculatus</i>, Gunth., a Wrasse, closely related to the +Blue-groper. In Victoria, <i>Heterodontus phillipi</i>, +Lacep., the <i>Port Jackson Shark</i>. See <i>Shark</i>. + +<hw>Pig-footed Bandicoot</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to +<i>Choeropus castanotis</i>, Gray, an animal about the size +of a rabbit, belonging to the family <i>Peramelidae</i>, +which includes all the bandicoots. It lives in the sandy, +dry interior of the continent, making a small nest for itself +on the surface of the ground out of grass and twigs. +The popular name is derived from the fact that in the fore-feet +the second and third toes are alone well developed, the first +and fifth being absent, and the fourth very rudimentary, +so that the foot has a striking resemblance to that of a pig. +See also <i>Bandicoot</i>. + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Expeditions into Eastern Australia,' +p. 131: + +"The feet, and especially the fore feet, were singularly +formed, the latter resembling those of a hog." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' p. 68: + +"Another peculiar form, the Choeropus, or pig-footed +bandicoot." + +<hw>Pigmeater</hw>, <i>n</i>. a beast only fit for pigs to eat: +one that will not fatten. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xiv. p. 105: + +"Among them was a large proportion of bullocks, which declined +with fiendish obstinacy to fatten. They were what are known by +the stock-riders as `ragers' [q.v.] or `pig-meaters.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 218: + +"`Pig-meaters!' exclaimed Ernest; `what kind of cattle do +you call those? Do bullocks eat pigs in this country?' `No, +but pigs eat them, and horses too, and a very good way of +getting rid of rubbish.'" + +<hw>Piharau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for <i>Geotria +chilensis</i>, Gray, a New Zealand <i>Lamprey</i> (q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. +ii. p. 15: + +"We procured an abundant supply of piarau, a `lamprey,' which +is taken in large numbers in this river, and some others in the +neighbourhood, when the waters are swollen." + +<hw>Pihoihoi</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +bird, the Ground-lark (q.v.). The word has five syllables. + +<hw>Pike</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied in Australia and Tasmania +to two species of marine fish--<i>Sphyraena obtusata</i>, +Cuv. and Val.; <i>S. novae-hollandiae</i>; Gunth. See also +<i>Sea-pike</i>. + +<hw>Pilchard</hw>, <i>n</i>. The fish which visits the +Australian shores periodically, in shoals larger than the +Cornish shoals, is <i>Clupea sagax</i>, Jenyns, the same +as the Californian Pilchard, and closely related to the +English Pilchard, which is <i>Clupea pilchardus</i>. + +<hw>Pilgrims, Canterbury</hw>, <i>n</i>. The first settlers +in Canterbury, New Zealand, were so called in allusion to the +pilgrims to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Chaucer's +`Canterbury Tales' were told by such pilgrims. The name was +given probably by Mr. William Lyon, who in 1851 wrote the +`Dream.' See quotation, 1877. + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 20: + +"The `Pilgrims,' as the first comers are always called. +I like the name; it is so pretty and suggestive." + +1877. W. Pratt, `Colonial Experiences or Incidents of +Thirty-four Years in New Zealand,' p. 234: + +"In the `Dream of a Shagroon,' which bore the date Ko Matinau, +April 1851, and which first appeared in the `Wellington +Spectator' of May 7, the term `Pilgrim' was first applied to +the settlers; it was also predicted in it that the `Pilgrims' +would be `smashed,' and the Shagroons left in undisputed +possession of the country for their flocks and herds." + +<hw>Pilot-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. This name is given to +a sea-bird of the Caribbean Islands. In Australia it +is applied to <i>Pycnoptilus floccosus</i>, Gould. + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 6: + +"Here, close together, are eggs of the lyre-bird and the +pilot-bird--the last very rare, and only found quite lately in +the Dandenong Ranges, where the lyre-bird, too, has its home." + +<hw>Pimelea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a large genus +of shrubs or herbs, <i>N.O. Thymeleaceae</i>. There are over +seventy species, all confined to Australia and New Zealand. +They bear terminal or axillary clusters of white, rose, or +yellow flowers, and being very beautiful plants, are frequently +cultivated in conservatories. A gardener's name for some of +the species is <i>Rice-flower</i>. Several of the species, +especially <i>P. axiflora</i>, F. v. M., yield excellent fibre, +and are among the plants called <i>Kurrajong</i> (q.v.); +another name is <i>Toughbark</i>. For etymology, see +quotation, 1793. + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' +p. 32: + +"Gaertner . . . adopted the name of <i>Pimelea</i> from +the manuscripts of Dr. Solander. It is derived from +<i>pimelae</i>, fat, but is rather a pleasantly sounding +than a very apt denomination, unless there may be anything +oily in the recent fruit." + +<hw>Pimlico</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Friar-bird</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Pin-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Needle-bush</i> (q.v.) + +<hw>Pinch-out</hw>, v. to thin out and disappear (of +gold-bearing). This use is given in the `Standard,' but +without quotations; it may be American. + +18W. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 22: + +"Sometimes 100 to 200 tons of payable quartz would be raised +from one of these so-called reefs, when they would pinch out, +and it would be found that they were unconnected with other +leaders or veins." + +<hw>Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Pines are widely distributed +in Australasia, and include some of the noblest species. +The name, with various epithets, is given to a few other +trees besides those of the Natural Order <i>Coniferae</i>,; +the following is a list of the various <i>Pines</i> +in Australasia. They belong to the Natural Order <i>Coniferae</i>,, +unless otherwise indicated-- + +Black Pine-- + <i>Frenela endlicheri</i>, Parlat. + <i>Irenela robusta</i>,A. Cunn. + +(Of Otago)-- + <i>Podocarpus ferruginea</i>,Don.; Maori name, <i>Miro</i> +(q.v.).; + <i>P. spicata</i>, R. Br.; Maori name, <i>Mai</i>, or +<i>Matai</i> (q.v.). + +Celery-topped P. (q.v.)-- + (In Australia)-- + <i>Phyllocladus rhomboidalis</i>, Rich. + +(In New Zealand)-- + + <i>P. trichomanoides</i>, Don.; Maori name, <i>Tanekaha</i> +(q.v.); + <i>P. glauca</i>, and + <i>P. alpinus</i>; Maori name, <i>Toatoa</i>, and often also +called <i>Tanekaha</i>. + +Colonial P.-- + <i>Araucaria cunninghamii</i>, Ait. + +Common P.-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i>, A. Cunn. + +Cypress P.-- + <i>Frenela endlicheri</i>, Parlat. + <i>F. rhomboidea</i>, Endl. + <i>F. robusta</i> (var. <i>microcarpa</i>), A. Cunn. + <i>F. robusta</i> (var. <i>verrucosa</i>), A. Cunn. + +Dark P.-- +(In Western New South Wales)-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i>, A. Cunn. + +Dundathu P.-- + <i>Dammara robusta</i>, F. v. M. + +Hoop P.-- + <i>Araucaria cunninghamii</i>, Ait. + +Huon P. (q.v.)-- + <i>Dacrydium franklinii</i>, Hook. + +Illawarra Mountain P.-- + <i>Frenela rhomboidea</i>, Endl. + +Kauri P. (q.v.) + <i>Agathis australis</i>, Salis. + +Lachlan P.-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i>, A. Cunn. + +Light P.-- + (Of Western New South Wales)-- + <i>Frenela rhomboidea</i>, Endl. + +Macquarie P.-- + <i>Dacrydium franklinii</i>, Hook. + +Mahogany Pine-- + <i>Podocarpus totara</i>, A. Cunn.; Maori name, <i>Totara</i>, +(q.v.). + +Moreton Bay P.-- + <i>Araucaria cunninghamii</i>, Ait. + +Mountain Cypress P.-- + <i>Frenela parlatorii</i>, F. v. M. + +Murray P.-- + <i>Frenela endlicheri</i>, Parlat. + +Murrumbidgee P.-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i>, A. Cunn. + +New Caledonian P.-- + (Of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides)-- + <i>Araucaria cookii</i>, Cook. + +Norfolk Island P.-- + <i>Araucaria excelsa</i>, Hook. + +Oyster Bay P. (q.v.)-- + (In Tasmania)-- + <i>Frenela rhomboidea</i>, Endl. + +Port Macquarie P.-- + <i>Frenela macleayana</i>, Parlat. + +Prickly P.-- + (In Queensland)-- + <i>Flindersia maculosa</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>; +called also <i>Leopard Tree</i> (q.v.). + +Queensland Kauri P.-- + <i>Dammara robusta</i>, F. v. M. + +Red P.-- + (In Australia)-- + <i>Frenela endlicheri</i>, Parlat. + (In New Zealand)-- + <i>Dacrydium cupressinum</i>, Soland; called also <i>Rimu</i> +(q.v.). + +Rock P.-- + (In Western New South Wales)-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i> (var. <i>verrucosa</i>), A. Cunn. + +Screw P.-- + <i>Pandanus odoratissimus</i>, Linn., <i>N.O. Pandaneae</i>; +not endemic in Australia. + +Scrub P.-- + <i>Frenela endlicheri</i>, Parlat. + +She P.-- + <i>(In Queensland</i>)-- + <i>Podocarpus elata</i>, R. Br. + +Silver P.-- + <i>Dacrydium colensoi</i>, Hook.; i.q. <i>Yellow Pine</i>. + +Stringy Bark P.-- + <i>Frenela parlatorei</i>, F. v. M. + +Toatoa P.-- + <i>Phyllocladus alpinus</i>, Hook.; Maori name, <i>Toatoa</i> +(q.v.). + +White P.-- + (In Australia)-- + <i>Frenela robusta</i>, A. Cunn. + <i>F. robusta</i> (var. <i>microcarpa</i>), A. Cunn. + <i>Podocarpus elata</i>, R. Br. + +(In New Zealand)-- + <i>P. dacryoides</i>, A. Rich.; Maori name, <i>Kahikatea</i> +(q.v.). + +Yellow P.-- + <i>Dacrydium colensoi</i>, Hook.; Maori name, <i>Manoao</i> +(q.v.). + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 180: + +"The Green Forest . . . comprises myrtle, sassafras, +celery-top pine, with a little stringy-bark." + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol- i. p. 51. + +"On the little hill beside the river hung pines (<i>Callitris +pyramidalis</i>) in great abundance." + +<hw>Piner</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Tasmania, a man employed in +cutting Huon Pine. + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 43: + +"The King River is only navigable for small craft . . . Piners' +boats sometimes get in." + +<hw>Pinkwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name for a Tasmanian wood of a +pale reddish mahogany colour, <i>Eucryphia billardieri</i>, +Sparrm., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>,, and peculiar to Tasmania; +also called <i>Leatherwood</i>; and for the <i>Wallaby- +bush</i>, <i>Beyera viscosa</i>, Miq., <i>N.O. +Euphorbiaceae</i>, common to all the colonies of Australasia. + +<hw>Piopio</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a thrush of New +Zealand, <i>Turnagra crassirostris</i>, Gmel. See +<i>Thrush</i>. + +<hw>Pipe</hw>, <i>n</i>. an obsolete word, explained in +quotations. + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 105: + +"These were the days of `pipes.' Certain supposed home +truths . . . were indited in clear and legible letters on a +piece of paper which was then rolled up in the form of a pipe, +and being held together by twisting at one end was found at the +door of the person intended to be instructed on its first +opening in the morning." + +1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 107: + +"Malice or humour in the early days expressed itself in what +were called <i>pipes</i>--a ditty either taught by repetition +or circulated on scraps of paper: the offences of official men +were thus hitched into rhyme. These pipes were a substitute +for the newspaper, and the fear of satire checked the +haughtiness of power." + +<hw>Pipe-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. common fishname. The species +present in Australia and New Zealand is <i>Ichthyocampus +filum</i>, Gunth., family <i>Syngnathidae</i>, or +<i>Pipe-fishes</i>. + +<hw>Piper</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Auckland name for the +<i>Garfish</i> (q.v.). The name is applied to other +fishes in the Northern Hemisphere. + +1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 118: + +"Angling for garfish in Auckland Harbour, where it is known as +the piper, is graphically described in `The Field,' London, +Nov. 25, 1871. +. . . the pipers are `just awfu' cannibals,' and you will be +often informed on Auckland wharf that `pipers is deeth on piper.'" + +<hw>Pipi</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name of a shellfish, sometimes +(erroneously) called the cockle, <i>Mezodesma +novae-zelandiae</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 193: + +"Pipi, <i>s</i>. a cockle." + +1881. J. L.Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 107: + +"With most deliciously cooked kumeras, potatoes and peppies" +[sic]. + +Ibid. p. 204: + +"The <i>dernier ressort</i>--fern-root, +flavoured with fish and pippies." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p.25: + +"Each female is busily employed in scraping the potatoes +thoroughly with pipi-shells." + +<hw>Piping-Crow</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied sometimes +to the <i>Magpie</i> (q.v.). + +1845. `Voyage to Port Phillip,' etc., p. 53: + +"The warbling melops and the piping crow, + The merry forest fill with joyous song." + +<hw>Pipit</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for <i>Ground-Lark</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Pitau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>Tree-fern</i>. +In Maori, the word means--(1) Soft, tender, young shoots. The +verb <i>pihi</i> means "begin to grow"; <i>pi</i> means "young +of birds," also "the flow of the tide." (2) Centre-fronds of a +fern. (3) Name of a large fern. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 57: + +"The pitau, or tree-ferns, growing like a palm-tree, +form a distinguishing ornament of the New Zealand forest." + +<hw>Pitchi</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a wooden receptacle +hollowed out of a solid block of some tree, such as the +<i>Batswing Coral</i> (<i>Erythrina vespertio</i>), or +<i>Mulga</i> (<i>Acacia aneura</i>), and carried by native +women in various parts of Australia for the purpose of +collecting food in, such as grass seed or bulbs, and sometimes +for carrying infants. The shape and size varies much, and the +more concave ones are used for carrying water in. The origin +of the word is obscure; some think it aboriginal, others think +it a corruption of the English word <i>pitcher</i>. + +1896. E. C. Stirling, `Home Expedition in Central Australia, +Anthropology, pt. iv. p. 99: + +"I do not know the origin of the name `Pitchi,' which is in +general use by the whites of the parts traversed by the +expedition, for the wooden vessels used for carrying food and +water and, occasionally, infants." + +<hw>Pitta</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is <i>Telugu</i> for the +Indian Ant-thrush; a few species are confined to Australia; +they are-- + +Blue-breasted Pitta-- + <i>Pitta macklotii</i>, Mull. and Schleg. + +Noisy P.-- + <i>P. strepitans</i>, Temm. + +Rainbow P.-- + <i>P. iris</i>, Gould. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 1: + +"<i>Pitta strepitans</i>, Temm., Noisy Pitta. +There are also Rainbow Pitta, Pitta iris, +and Vigor's Pitta, <i>P. Macklotii</i>. + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement): + +"<i>Pitta Macklotii</i>, Mull. and Schleg." + +<hw>Pittosporum</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus of plants +so called from the viscous pulp which envelops the seeds. +(Grk. <i>pitta</i>, pitch, and <i>sporos</i>, seed.) +There are about fifty species, which are found in Africa and Asia, +but chiefly in Australasia. They are handsome evergreen shrubs, +and some grow to a great height; the white flowers, being very +fragrant, have been sometimes likened to orangeblossoms, and +the rich evergreen leaves obtain for some of them the name of +Laurels. They are widely cultivated in the suburbs of cities +as ornamental hedges. See <i>Mock-Orange</i>, +<i>Hedge-Laurel</i>, <i>Native Laurel</i>, etc. + +<hw>Pituri</hw>, or <hw>Pitchery</hw>, <i>n</i>. Native name +for <i>Duboisia hopwoodii</i>, F. v. M., a shrub growing in the +sand-hills of certain districts of Queensland, New South Wales, +and Central Australia. The leaves are chewed as a narcotic by +the natives of many parts, and form a valuable commodity of +barter. In some parts of Central Australia the leaf is not +chewed, but is only used for the purpose of making a decoction +which has the power of stupefying emus, which under its +influence are easily captured by the natives. Other spellings +are <i>Pitchiri</i>, <i>Pedgery</i>, and <i>Bedgery</i>. +Perhaps from <i>betcheri</i>, another form of +<i>boodjerrie</i>, good, expressing the excellent qualities +of the plant. Compare <i>Budgerigar</i>. + +1863. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's +Land,' April, p. 1: + +"`Pitcherry,' a narcotic plant brought by King, the explorer, +from the interior of Australia, where it is used by the natives +to produce intoxication. . . . In appearance it resembled the +stem and leaves of a small plant partly rubbed into a coarse +powder. . . . On one occasion Mr. King swallowed a small pinch +of the powder, and described its effects as being almost +identical with those produced by a large quantity of spirits." + +1883. F. M. Bailey,' Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 350: + +"Pitury of the natives. The leaves are used by the natives of +Central Australia to poison emus, and is chewed by the natives +as the white man does the tobacco." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. +p. 101: + +"In one part of Central Australia the leaves and twigs of a +shrub called pidgery by the natives are dried and preserved in +closely woven bags. . . . A small quantity has an exhilarating +effect, and pidgery was highly prized." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 49: + +"The leaves contain a stimulant, which possesses qualities +similar to those of tobacco and opium, and are chewed by +several tribes in the interior of Australia. Pituri is highly +valued as a stimulant, and is taken for barter far and wide." + +1890. A. S. Vogan, `Black Police,' p. 94: + +"One of the virtues that the native drug Pitchurie is supposed +to possess when used by the old men is the opening up of this +past life, giving them the power and perquisites of seers." + +1893. Mr. Purcell, `Lecture before Geographical Society, +Sydney,' Jan.: + +"Mr. Purcell had travelled over nearly the whole of Queensland, +and had only seen the plant growing in a very limited area west +of the Mullyan River, 138th meridian of east long., and on the +ranges between the 23rd and 24th parallel of south latitude. +He had often questioned the Darling blacks about it, and they +always replied by pointing towards the north west. The blacks +never, if they could possibly help it, allowed white men to see +the plant. He himself had not been allowed to see it until he +had been initiated into some of the peculiar rites of the +aborigines. Mr. Purcell showed what he called the pitchery +letter, which consisted of a piece of wood covered with +cabalistic marks. This letter was given to a pitchery +ambassador, and was to signify that he was going to the +pitchery country, and must bring back the amount of pitchery +indicated on the stick. The talisman was a sure passport, and +wherever he went no man molested the bearer. This pitchery was +by no means plentiful. It grew in small clumps on the top of +sandy ridges, and would not grow on the richer soil beneath. +This convinced him that it never grew in any other country than +Australia. The plant was cooked by being placed in an +excavation in which a fire had been burning. It then became +light and ready for transport. As to its use in the form of +snuff, it was an excellent remedy for headaches, and chewed it +stopped all craving for food. It had been used with success in +violent cases of neuralgia, and in asthma also it had proved +very successful. With regard to its sustaining properties, +Mr. Purcell mentioned the case of a blackboy who had travelled +120 miles in two days, with no other sustenance than a chew of +pitchery." + +<hw>Pivot City, The</hw>, a nickname for Geelong. + +1860. W. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 160 +[Footnote]: + +"The Pivot City is a sobriquet invented by the citizens to +symbolize it as the point on which the fortunes of the colony +would culminate and revolve. They also invented several other +original terms--a phraseology christened by the Melbourne press +as the Geelongese dialect." + +<hw>Piwakawaka</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the <i>Pied +Fantail</i> (<i>Rhipidura flabellifera</i>, Gray). + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 57: + +"Piwakawaka, or tirakaraka. This restless little bird is +continually on the wing, or hopping from twig to twig." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 403: + +"Piwakawaka, tirakaraka, the fantailed fly-catcher, a pretty, +restless, lively bird; very sociable, and fond of displaying +its beautiful little fan-tail. It has a head like the +bullfinch, with one black-and-white streak under the neck +coming to a point in the centre of the throat. Wings very +sharp and pointed. It is very quick and expert in catching +flies, and is a great favourite, as it usually follows the +steps of man. It was sacred to Maui." + +1885. A. Reischek, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xviii. art. xviii. p. 102: + +"Rhipidura--fantail (Piwakawaka). Every one admires the two +species of these fly-catchers, and their graceful evolutions +in catching their prey." + +1890. C. Colenso, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute: +Bush Notes,' vol. xxiii. art. lvii. p. 482: + +"During this extended visit of mine to the woods, I have +noticed the piwakawaka, or fly-catcher (<i>Rhipidura +flabellifera</i>). This interesting little flycatcher, with +its monotonous short cry, always seems to prefer making the +acquaintance of man in the forest solitudes." + +1895. W. S.Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 53: + +"The pied fantail, Piwakawaka (Rhipidura flabellifera) is the +best flycatcher New Zealand possesses, but it will not live in +confinement. It is always flitting about with broadly expanded +tail in pursuit of flies. It frequently enters a house and +soon clears a room of flies, but if shut in all night it frets +itself to death before morning." + +<hw>Plain</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australian use, the word not only +implies flatness, but treelessness. + +1824. Edward Curr, `Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's +Land,' p. 55: + +"The district called Macquarie Plains, the greater part of +which rises into hills of moderate height, with open and +fertile valleys interspersed, while the plains bear a strong +resemblance to what are called sheep downs in England." + +1848. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia,' p. 136: + +"The country was grassy, and so open as almost to deserve the +colonial name of `plain.'" + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 250: + +"Squatters who look after their own runs always live in the +bush, even though their sheep are pastured on plains." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 73: + +"One day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, +although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, +like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick +brushwood. The Australian cassowary is found in Northern +Queensland from Herbert river northwards, in all the large +vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high +mountains of the coasts." + +<hw>Plain Currant</hw>, <i>n</i>. a wild fruit, <i>Grewia +polygama</i>, Roxb., <i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 295: + +"I found a great quantity of ripe Grewia seeds, and on eating +many of them, it struck me that their slightly acidulous taste, +if imparted to water, would make a very good drink; I therefore +. . . boiled them for about an hour; the beverage . . . was +the best we had tasted on our expedition." + +<hw>Plain Wanderer</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, +<i>Pedionomus torquatus</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Plant</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. and <i>n</i>. common in Australia +for <i>to hide</i>, and for the thing hidden away. As remarked +in the quotations, the word is thieves' English. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 59: + +"A number of the slang phrases current in St. Giles's +<i>Greek</i> bid fair to become legitimatized in the dictionary +of this colony: <i>plant, swag</i>, <i>pulling up</i>, and +other epithets of the Tom and Jerry school, are established-- +the dross passing here as genuine, even among all ranks." + +1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in `Canon Goodman's Church +in Victoria during the Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 78: + +". . . Shady Creek, where he `planted' some tea and sugar for +his brother on his return. Do you know what `planting' is? It +is hiding the tea, or whatever it may be, in the hollow of a +tree, or branch, or stone, where no one is likely to find it, +but the one for whom it is meant." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 22: + +"Some refreshments planted there for us by the Major--for that +is the colonial phrase, borrowed from the slang of London +burglars and thieves, for any article sent forward or left +behind for consumption in spots only indicated to those +concerned--after the manner of the ca^ches of the French +Canadian trappers on the American prairies. To `spring' a +plant is to discover and pillage it." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 36: + +"The way he could hide, or, as it is called in the bush, +`plant' himself, was something wonderful." + +1889. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 178: + +"The gold had not been handed over to the Commissioner at all, +but was planted somewhere in the tent." + +1893. `The Age,' May 9, p. 5, col. 4: + +"A panic-smitten lady plants her money." + +[Title of short article giving an account of an old lady during +the bank panic concealing her money in the ground and being +unable to find it.] + +<hw>Plantain, Native</hw>, an Australian fodder plant, +<i>Plantago varia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Plantagineae</i>. + +<hw>Plant-Caterpillar</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Australasia +to species of caterpillars which are attacked by spores of +certain fungi; when chrysalating in the earth the fungus grows +inside the body of the caterpillar, kills the latter, and then +forces its way out between the head joints, and sends an +upgrowth which projects beyond the surface of the ground and +gives rise to fresh spores. Many examples are known, of which +the more common are--<i>Cordyceps robertsii</i>, Hook., in New +Zealand; <i>Cordyceps gunnii</i>, Berk, in Tasmania; +<i>Cordyceps taylori</i>, Berk, in Australia. See +<i>Aweto</i>. + +1892. M. C. Cooke, `Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms,' +p. 139: + +"The New Zealanders' name for this plant-caterpillar is +`Hotete,' `Aweto,' `Weri,' and `Anuhe.'. . The interior of the +insect becomes completely filled by the inner plant, orthallus +(mycelium): after which the growing head of the outer plant or +fungus, passing to a state of maturity, usually forces its way +out through the tissue of the joint between the head and the +first segment of the thorax . . . it is stated that this +caterpillar settles head upward to undergo its change, when the +vegetable developes /sic/ itself." + +<hw>Planter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a cattle-thief, so called from +hiding the stolen cattle. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxv. p. 352: + +"What's a little money . . . if your children grow up +duffers [sc. cattle-duffers, q.v.] and planters?" + +<hw>Platycercus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus of +Parrakeets, represented by many species. The word is from the +shape of the tail. (Grk. <i>platus</i>, broad, and +<i>kerkos</i>, tail.) The genus is distributed from the Malay +Archipelago to the Islands of the Pacific. The name was first +given by Vigors and Horsfield in 1825. + +See <i>Parrakeet</i> and <i>Rosella</i>. + +<hw>Platypus</hw>, <i>n</i>. a remarkable <i>Monotreme</i> +(q.v.), in shape like a Mole, with a bill like a Duck. +Hence its other names of <i>Duck-bill</i> or <i>Duck-Mole</i>. +It has received various names--<i>Platypus anatinus</i>, +<i>Duck-billed Platypus</i>, <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, +<i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>, <i>Paradoxus</i>, +<i>Water-mole</i>, etc. (Grk. <i>platus</i> = broad, +<i>pous</i> = foot, <i>'ornithos</i> = of a bird, +<i>runchos</i> = beak or bill.) The name <i>Platypus</i> +is now the name by which it is always popularly known in +Australia, but see quotation from Lydekker below (1894). +From the British Museum Catalogue of Marsupials and Monotremes +(1888), it will be found that the name <i>Platypus</i>, given +by Shaw in 1799, had been preoccupied as applied to a beetle +by Herbst in 1793. It was therefore replaced, in scientific +nomenclature, by the name <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, by Blumenbach +in 1800. In view of the various names, vernacular and +scientific, under which it is mentioned by different writers, +all quotations referring to it are placed under this word, +<i>Platypus</i>. The habits and description of the animal +appear in those quotations. From 1882 to 1891 the +<i>Platypus</i> figured on five of the postage stamps of +Tasmania. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xi. +p. 425: + +"This animal, which has obtained the name of <i>Ornithorhynchus +paradoxus</i>, is still very little known." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' vol. ii. p. 35: + +[List of Engravings.] +"<i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>." + +[At p. 63]: + +<i>"Ornithorhynchus</i> (an amphibious animal of the mole +kind)." + +1809. G. Shaw, `Zoological Lecturer,' vol. i. p. 78: + +"This genus, which at present consists but of a single species +and its supposed varieties, is distinguished by the title of +<i>Platypus</i> or <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>. . . Its English +generic name of duckbill is that by which it is commonly +known." + +1815. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 447: + +"In the reaches or pools of the Campbell River, the very +curious animal called the paradox, or watermole, is seen in +great numbers." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' +vol. i. p. 325: + +"I cannot omit to mention likewise the <i>Ornithorynchus</i>, +that remarkable animal which forms a link between the bird and +beast, having a bill like a duck and paws webbed similar to +that bird, but legs and body like those of a quadruped, +covered with thick coarse hair, with a broad tail to steer by." + +1836. C. Darwin, `Naturalist's Voyage,' c. xix. p. 321: + +"Had the good fortune to see several of the <i>Ornithorhynchus +paradoxus</i>. . . . Certainly it is a most extraordinary +animal; a stuffed specimen does not at all give a good idea of +the appearance of the head and beak when fresh, the latter +becoming hard and contracted." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 131: + +"The specimen which has excited the greatest astonishment is +the <i>Ornithorynchus paradoxus</i>, which, fitted by a series +of contrivances to live equally well in both elements, unites +in itself the habits and appearance of a bird, a quadruped, +and a reptile." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 42: + +"Platypus, water-mole or duckbill." + +1860. G.Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 96: + +"The <i>Ornithorhynchus</i> is known to the colonists by +the nme of the watermole, from some resemblance which it +is supposed to bear to the common European mole (<i>Talpa +Europoea</i>, Linn.)" + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 95: + +"When first a preserved skin was sent to England, it excited +great distrust, being considered a fraud upon the +naturalist. . . It was first described and figured by Shaw in +the year 1799, in the `Naturalist's Miscellany,' vol. x., by +the name of <i>Platypus anatinus</i>, or Duck-billed Platypus, +and it was noticed in Collins's `New South Wales' 2nd ed. +[should be vol. ii. <i>not</i> 2nd ed.], 4to. p. 62, 1802, +where it is named <i>Ornithorhyncus paradoxus</i>, Blum. . . +There is a rude figure given of this animal in Collins's work." + +1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 177: + +"The Platypus Club is in Camomile Street, and the Platypi are +very haughty persons." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--the Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +[Close Season.] "Platypus. The whole year." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 30: + +"In the Dee river . . . I observed several times the remarkable +platypus (<i>Ornithorhynchus anatinus</i>) swimming rapidly +about after the small water-insects and vegetable particles +which constitute its food. It shows only a part of its back +above water, and is so quick in its movements that it +frequently dives under water before the shot can reach it." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"In the next division the platypus and its burrows are shown. +These curious oviparous animals commence their long burrows +under water, and work upwards into dry ground. The nest is +constructed in a little chamber made of dry leaves and grass, +and is very warm and comfortable; there is a second entrance on +dry ground. The young are found in the months of September and +October, but occasionally either a little earlier or later; +generally two or three at a time." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 273: + +"The platypus is covered with fur like an otter, and has four +webbed feet, like those of a duck, and a black duck-like bill. +It makes a burrow in a river bank, but with an opening below +the level of the water. It swims and dives in quiet shady +river-bends, and disappears on hearing the least noise." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 233: + +"The duck-bill was originally described under the name of +<i>Platypus anatinus</i>, which was Anglicised into duck-billed +platypus, but since the generic name [<i>Platypus</i>] had been +previously employed for another group of animals, it had, +by the rules of zoological nomenclature, to give place to the +later <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, although Shaw's specific name +of<i>anatina</i> still holds good. On these grounds it is +likewise preferable to discard the Anglicised term Duck-billed +Platypus in favour of the simpler Duck-bill or Duck-Mole." + +[Mr. Lydekker is a scientific Englishman, who has not lived +in Australia, and although the names of <i>Duck-bill</i> +and <i>Duck-mole</i> are perhaps preferable for more exact +scientific use, yet by long usage the name Platypus has become +the ordinary vernacular name, and is the one by which the +animal will always be known in Australian popular language.] + +<hw>Plover</hw>, <i>n</i>. The bird called the Plover exists +all over the world. The species present in Australia are-- + +Black-breasted Plover-- + <i>Sarciophorus pectoralis</i>, Cuv. + +Golden P.-- + <i>Charadrius fulvus</i>, Gmel. + +Grey P.-- + <i>C. helveticus</i>, Linn. + +Long-billed Stone P.-- + <i>Esacus magnirostris</i>, Geoff. + +Masked P.-- + <i>Lobivanellus personatus</i>, Gould. + +Spur-winged P.-- + <i>Lobivanellus lobatus</i>, Lath. + +Stone P.-- + <i>OEdicnemus grallarius</i>, Lath. + +And in New Zealand--Red-breasted Plover, <i>Charadrius +obscurus</i>, Gmel. (Maori name, <i>Tututuriwhata</i>); +Crook-billed, <i>Anarhynchus frontalis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. +The authorities vary in the vernacular names and in the +scientific classification. See also <i>Sand-Plover</i> +and <i>Wry-billed-Plover</i>. + +<hw>Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes called <i>Acacia Plum</i>, +a timber tree, <i>Eucryphia moorei</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>; called also <i>Acacia</i> +and "<i>White Sally</i>." + +<hw>Plum, Black</hw>, <i>n</i>. the fruit of the tree +<i>Cargillia australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Ebenaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 14: + +"The fruits are of the size of a large plum and of a dark +purple colour. They are eaten by the aboriginals." + +<hw>Plum, Burdekin</hw>, or <hw>Sweet Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a timber tree, <i>Spondias pleiogyna</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Anacardiaceae</i>. Wood like American walnut. + +<hw>Plum, Grey</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A timber-tree. +One of the names for <i>Cargillia pentamera</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Ebenaceae</i>. Wood used for tool-handles. +(2) Provincial name for the <i>Caper-Tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Plum, Native</hw>, or <hw>Wild Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. +another name for the <i>Brush-Apple</i>. See <i>Apple</i>. +The <i>Native Plum</i>, peculiar to Tasmania, and called also +<i>Port-Arthur Plum</i>, is <i>Cenarrhenes nitida</i>, Lab., +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +<hw>Plum, Queensland</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Sweet Plum</i> +(q.v. infra). + +<hw>Plum, Sour</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Emu-Apple</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Plum, Sweet</hw>, <i>n</i>. a wild fruit, <i>Owenia +venosa</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 49: + +"Queensland Plum, Sweet Plum. This plant bears a fine juicy +red fruit with a large stone. . . . It is both palatable and +refreshing." + +<hw>Plum, White</hw>, <i>n</i>. local name for <i>Acacia</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Plum, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Native Plum</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Plum-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. the tree, <i>Buchanania +mangoides</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Anacardiaceae</i>. + +<hw>Podargus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus of +Australian birds, called the <i>Frogsmouth</i> (q.v.) and +<i>Mopoke</i>. From Grk. <i>podargos</i>, swift or +white-footed. (Hector's horse in the `Iliad' was named +Podargus.--`Il.' viii. 185.) + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +[Close Season.] "Podargus or Mopokes, the whole year." + +<hw>Poddly</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand and Australian fish, +<i>Sebastes percoides</i>, Richards.; called in Victoria +<i>Red-Gurnet Perch</i>. The name is applied in England +to a different fish. + +1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 108: + +"The pohuia-karou is the proper sea-perch of these waters, +that name having been applied by mistake to a small wrasse, +which is generally called the spotty or poddly." + +<hw>Poddy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Victorian name for the +<i>Sand-Mullet</i>. See <i>Mullet</i>. + +<hw>Poe</hw>, <i>n</i>. same as <i>Tui</i> (q.v.) +and <i>Parson-bird</i> (q.v.). The name, which was +not the Maori name, did not endure. + +17]7. Cook's' Voyage towards the South Pole and round the +World' [2nd Voyage], vol. i. pp. 97, 98: + +"Amongst the small birds I must not omit to particularise the +wattlebird, poy-bird. . . . The poy-bird is less than the +wattle-bird; the feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except those +of its neck, which are of a most beautiful silver-grey. . . . +Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled snow-white +feathers, called its poies, which being the Otaheitean word for +ear-rings occasioned our giving that name to the bird, which is +not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the +sweetness of its note." + +[In the illustration given it is spelt <i>poe-bird</i>, +and in the list of plates it is spelt <i>poi</i>.] + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 111: + +"This bird they called the Wattlebird, and also the Poy-bird, +from its having little tufts of curled hair under its throat, +which they called poies, from the Otaheitan word for ear-rings. +The sweetness of this bird's note they described as +extraordinary, and that its flesh was delicious, but that it +was a shame to kill it." + +<hw>Pohutukawa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a magnificent +New Zealand tree, <i>Metrosideros tomentosa</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, called Christmas-tree and Fire-tree by +the settlers. There is a Maori <i>verb, pohutu</i>, to splash. +<i>Kawa (n</i>.) is a sprig of any kind used in religious +ceremonies; the name would thus mean <i>Splashed sprig</i>. +The wood of the tree is very durable, and a concoction of the +inner bark is useful in dysentery. + +1835. W. Yate, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 46: + +"Pohutukawa (<i>Callistemon ellipticus</i>). This is a tree +of remarkably robust habits and diffuse irregular growth." + +1855. G. Grey, `Polynesian Mythology,' p. 142: + +"On arrival of Arawa canoe, the red flowers of the pohutakawa +were substituted for the red ornaments in the hair." + +1862. `All the Year Round,' `From the Black Rocks on Friday,' +May 17, 1862, No. 160: + +"In the clefts of the rocks were growing shrubs, with here and +there the larger growth of a pohutukawa, a large crooked-limbed +evergreen tree found in New Zealand, and bearing, about +Christmas, a most beautiful crimson bloom. The boat-builders +in New Zealand use the crooked limbs of this tree for the knees +and elbows of their boats." + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Pohutukawa for knees, ribs, and bent-pieces, invaluable to +ship-builder. It surpasses English oak. Confined to Province +of Auckland." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 310: + +"The pohutukawa-tree (<i>Metrosideros tomentosa</i>) requires +an exposed situation . . . is crooked, misshapen. . . . +The natives speak of it (the timber) as very durable." + +1886. J. A. Fronde, `Oceana,' p. 308: + +"Low down on the shore the graceful native Pokutukawa [sic] was +left undisturbed, the finest of the Rata tribe--at a distance +like an ilex, only larger than any ilex I ever saw, the +branches twisted into the most fantastic shapes, stretching out +till their weight bears them to the ground or to the water. +Pokutukawa, in Maori language, means `dipped in the sea-spray.' +In spring and summer it bears a brilliant crimson flower." + +<hw>Pointers</hw>, <i>n</i>. two of the bullocks in a team. +See quotation. + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 36: + +"Twelve bullocks is the usual number in a team, the two polers +and the leaders being steady old stagers; the pair next to the +pole are called the `pointers,' and are also required to be +pretty steady, the remainder being called the `body bullocks,' +and it is not necessary to be so particular about their being +thoroughly broken in." + +<hw>Poison-berry Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Pittosporum +phillyroides</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 588: + +"Butter-Bush of Northern Australia; Willow-Tree of York +Peninsula; Native Willow, Poison-berry Tree (South Australia). +The berries are not poisonous--only bitter." + +<hw>Poison-Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a genus of +poisonous Australian shrubs, <i>Gastrolobium</i> (q.v.). + +Out of the thirty-three described species of the genus +<i>Gastrolobium</i>, only one is found out of Western +Australia; <i>G. grandiflorum</i>, F. v. M., is the +poison-bush of the Queensland interior and of Central +Australia. The name is also given to <i>Swainsonia Greyana</i>, +Lindl., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +The <i>Darling-Pea</i> (q.v.), or <i>Indigo-Plant</i> (q.v.), +has similar poisonous effects to the <i>Gastrolobium</i>. +These species of Gastrolobium go under the various names of +<i>Desert Poison-Bush</i>, <i>York-Road Poison-Bush</i>, +<i>Wallflower</i>; and the names of <i>Ellangowan +Poison-Bush</i> (Queensland), and <i>Dogswood Poison-Bush</i> +(New South Wales), are given to <i>Myoporum deserti</i>, +A. Cunn., <i>N.O. Myoporineae</i>, while another plant, +<i>Trema aspera</i>, Blume., <i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>, +is called <i>Peach-leaved Poison-Bush</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 129: + +"These plants are dangerous to stock, and are hence called +`Poison Bushes.' Large numbers of cattle are lost annually in +Western Australia through eating them. The finest and strongest +animals are the first victims; a difficulty of breathing is +perceptible for a few minutes, when they stagger, drop down, +and all is over with them. . . . It appears to be that the +poison enters the circulation, and altogether stops the action +of the lungs and heart." + +Ibid. p. 141: + +"This plant [<i>S. greyana</i>] is reported to cause madness, +if not death itself, to horses. The poison seems to act on the +brain, for animals affected by it refuse to cross even a small +twig lying in their path, probably imagining it to be a great +log. Sometimes the poor creatures attempt to climb trees, or +commit other eccentricities." + +<hw>Poison-Tree</hw>, or <hw>Poisonous Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. +another name for the <i>Milky Mangrove</i>. See <i>Mangrove</i>. +The <i>Scrub Poison-Tree</i> is <i>Exsaecaria dallachyana</i>, +Baill., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. + +<hw>Pomegranate, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Caper-tree</i>(q.v.). + +<hw>Pomegranate, Small Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +the <i>Native Orange</i>. See <i>Orange</i>. + +<hw>Pongo</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the +<i>Flying-Squirrel</i> (q.v.). + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 149: + +"Then an old 'possum would sing out, or a black-furred +flying-squirrel--pongos, the blacks call `em--would come sailing +down from the top of an ironbark tree, with all his stern sails +spread, as the sailors say, and into the branches of another, +looking as big as an eagle-hawk." + +<hw>Poor-Soldier</hw>, or <hw>Soldier-Bird</hw> (q.v.), +<i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Friar-bird</i> (q.v.), +and so named from its cry. + +<hw>Poplar</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Queensland, a timber-tree, +<i>Carumbium populifolium</i>, Reinw., +<i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. In Central Australia, +the <i>Radish-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Poplar-Box</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Box</i>. + +<hw>Poplar-leaved Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Porangi</hw>, <i>adj</i>. Maori word for <i>sad, +sorry</i>, or <i>sick</i>; <i>cranky</i>. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' +vol. i. p. 137: + +"The combatants . . . took especial pains to tell us that +it was no fault of ours, but the porangi or `foolishness' +of the Maori." + +Ibid. vol. ii. p. 238: + +"Watanui said E Abu was porangi, `a fool.'" + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 435: + +"`Twas nothing--he was not to mind her--she + Was foolish--was `<i>porangi</i>'--and would be + Better directly--and her tears she dried." + +1882. R. C. Barstow, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xv. art. liii. p. 423: + +"A man who told such marvellous stories that he was deemed +to be porangi or insane." + +<hw>Porcupine, Ant-eating</hw>, i.q. <i>Echidna</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Porcupine-Bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird inhabiting the +<i>Porcupine-Grass</i> (q.v.) of Central Australia; the +<i>Striated Grass Wren</i>, <i>Amytis striata</i>, Gould. +See <i>Wren</i>. + +1886. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Part ii. Zoology, <i>Aves</i>, p. 79: + +"<i>Amytis Striata</i>, Gould. Striated Wren. . . . They +are found almost throughout Central Australia wherever the +porcupine grass abounds, so much so, that they are generally +known as the `Porcupine bird.'" + +<hw>Porcupine-Fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to several +species of the genus <i>Diodon</i>, family <i>Gymnodontes</i>, +poisonous fishes; also to <i>Dicotylichthys punctulatus</i>, +Kaup., an allied fish 1n which the spines are not erectile as +in <i>Diodon</i>, but are stiff and immovable. +<i>Chilomycterus jaculiferus</i>, Cuv., another species, has +also stiff spines, and <i>Atopomycterus nycthemerus</i>, Cuv., +has erectile spines. See <i>Toad-fish</i> and +<i>Globe-fish</i>. + +<hw>Porcupine-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name given to certain +species of <i>Triodia</i>, of which the more important are +<i>T. mitchelli</i>, Benth., <i>T. pungens</i>, R. Br., and +<i>T. irritans</i>, R. Br. This grass forms rounded tussocks, +growing especially on the sand-hills of the desert parts of +Australia, which may reach the size of nine or ten feet in +diameter. The leaves when dry form stiff, sharp-pointed +structures, which radiate in all directions, like +knitting-needles stuck in a huge pincushion. In the writings +of the early Australian explorers it is usually, but +erroneously, called <i>Spinifex</i> (q.v.). The aborigines +collect the resinous material on the leaves of +<i>T. pungens</i>, and use it for various purposes, such as +that of attaching pieces of flint to the ends of their +yam-sticks and spear-throwers. + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 284: + +"It [<i>Triodia</i>] grows in tufts like large beehives, or +piles of thrift grass, and the leaves project out rigidly in +all directions, just like <i>Chevaux-de-frise</i>. Merely +brushing by will cause the points to strike into the limbs, +and a very short walk in such country soon covers the legs with +blood. . . . Unfortunately two or three species of it extend +throughout the whole continent, and form a part of the +descriptions in the journal of every explorer." + +1880 (before). P. J. Holdsworth, `Station-hunting on the +Warrego,' quoted in `Australian Ballads and Rhymes' (ed. +Sladen), p. 115: + + "Throughout that night, + Cool dews came sallying on that rain-starved land, + And drenched the thick rough tufts of bristly grass, + Which, stemmed like quills (and thence termed porcupine), + Thrust hardily their shoots amid the flints + And sharp-edged stones." + +1889. E. Giles, `Australia Twice Traversed,' vol. i. p. 76: + +"No porcupine, but real green grass made up a really pretty +picture, to the explorer at least." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 148: + +"These were covered with spinifex, or porcupine-grass, the +leaves of which are needle-pointed." + +1896. R. Tate, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' Botany, +p. 119: + +"In the Larapintine Region . . . a species of Triodia +(`porcupine grass' or, incorrectly, `spinifex' of explorers +and residents) dominates sand ground and the sterile slopes +and tops of the sandstone table-lands." + +<hw>Porcupine-grass Ant</hw>, <i>n</i>. popular name given to +<i>Hypoclinea flavipes</i>, Kirby, an ant making its nest round +the root of the Porcupine grass (<i>Triodia pungens</i>), +and often covering the leaves of the tussock with tunnels of +sandgrains fastened together by resinous material derived from +the surface of the leaves. + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Home Expedition in Central Australia.' + +"Watching the Porcupine-grass ants, which are very small and +black bodies with yellowish feet, I saw them constantly running +in and out of these chambers, and on opening the latter found +that they were always built over two or more Coccidae attached +to the leaf of the grass." + +<hw>Porcupine-Parrot</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation. + +1896. G. A. Keartland, `Report of the Horne Expedition in +Central Australia,' Part ii. Zoology, <i>Aves</i>, p. 107: + +"Geopsittacus occidentalis. Western Ground Parrakeet. . . . +As they frequent the dense porcupine grass, in which they +hide during the day, a good dog is necessary to find them. +They are locally known as the `Porcupine Parrot.'" + +<hw>Poroporo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the flowering +shrub <i>Solanum aviculare</i>, Forst.; called in Australia, +<i>Kangaroo Apple</i>. Corrupted into <i>Bullybul</i> +(q.v.). /See, rather, Bull-a-bull/ + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the South, +p. 136: + +"The poroporo, the nicest or least nasty of the wild fruits, is +a sodden strawberry flavoured with apple-peel; but if rashly +tasted an hour before it is ripe, the poroporo is an alum pill +flavoured with strychnine." + +1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xiii. art. i. p. 32: + +"The large berry of the poro-poro (<i>Solanum aviculare</i>) +was also eaten; it is about the size of a small plum, and when +ripe it is not unpleasant eating, before it is ripe it is very +acrid. This fruit was commonly used by the early colonists in +the neighbourhood of Wellington in making jam." + +<hw>Porphyrio</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Sultana-bird, or Sultana. +The bird exists elsewhere. In Australia it is generally called +the <i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.). + +1875. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 213: + +"The crimson-billed porphyrio, that jerking struts + Among the cool thick rushes." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-the Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +[Close Season.] ". . . Land-rail, all other members of the +Rail family, Porphyrio, Coots, &c. From the First day of +August to the Twentieth day of December following." + +<hw>Port-Arthur Plum</hw>. See <i>Plum, Native</i>. + +<hw>Port-Jackson Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Fig</i>. + +<hw>Port-Jackson Shark</hw>, <i>Heterodontus phillipii</i>, +Lacep., family <i>Cestraciontidae</i>; called also the +<i>Shell-grinder</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 10: + +"The <i>Cestracion</i> or Port Jackson shark +(<i>Heterodontus</i>)." + +Ibid. p. 97: + +"It was supposed that Port Jackson alone had this shark . . . +It has since been found in many of the coast bays of +Australia." + +<hw>Port-Jackson Thrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. the best known bird +among the Australian <i>Shrike-thrushes</i> (q.v.), +<i>Colluricincla harmonica</i>, Lath.; called also the +<i>Austral Thrush</i>, and <i>Harmonic Thrush</i> by Latham. +It is also the <i>C. cinerea</i> of Vigors and Horsfield and +the <i>Turdus harmonicus</i> of Latham, and it has received +various other scientific and vernacular names; Colonel Legge +has now assigned to it the name of <i>Grey Shrike-Thrush</i>. +Gould called it the "Harmonious Colluricincla." + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 157: + +"The Port-Jackson thrush, of which a plate is annexed, inhabits +the neighbourhood of Port Jackson. The top of head +blueish-grey; back is a fine chocolate brown; wings and tail +lead-colour; under part dusky white. . . . The bill, dull +yellow; legs brown." + +1822. John Latham, `General History of Birds,' vol. v. +p. 124: + +"Austral Thrush. [A full description.] Inhabits New South +Wales." + +[Latham describes two other birds, the <i>Port Jackson +Thrush</i> and the <i>Harmonic Thrush</i>, and he uses +different scientific names for them. But Gould, regarding +Latham's specimens as all of the same species, takes all +Latham's scientific and vernacular names as synonyms for the +same bird.] + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 74: + +"The Colluricincla harmonica is one of the oldest known of the +Australian birds, having been described in Latham's `Index +Ornithologicus,' figured in White's `Voyage' and included in +the works of all subsequent writers." + +<hw>Port-Macquarie Pine</hw>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Post-and-Rail Tea</hw>, slang name for strong bush-tea: so +called because large bits of the tea, or supposed tea, float +about in the billy, which are compared by a strong imagination +to the posts and rails of the wooden fence so frequent in +Australia. + +1851. `The Australasian' (a Quarterly), p. 298: + +"<i>Hyson-skin</i> and <i>post-and-rail</i> tea have been +superseded by Mocha, claret, and cognac." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 163: + +"A hot beverage in a tin pot, which richly deserved the +colonial epithet of `post-and-rail' tea, for it might well have +been a decoction of `split stuff,' or `ironbark shingles,' for +any resemblance it bore to the Chinese plant." + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. i. p. 28: + +"The shepherd's wife kindly gave us the invariable mutton-chop +and damper and some post-and-rail tea." + +1883. Keighley, `Who are you?' p. 36: + +"Then took a drink of tea. . . . + Such as the swagmen in our goodly land + Have with some humour named the `post-and-rail.'" + +<hw>Potato-Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fern (<i>Marattia +fraxinea</i>, Smith) with a large part edible, sc. the basal +scales of the frond. Called also the <i>Horseshoe-fern</i>. + +<hw>Potato, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sort of Yam, <i>Gastrodia +sesamoides</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Orchideae</i>. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 131: + +"Produces bulb-tubers growing one out of another, of the size, +and nearly the form, of kidney potatoes; the lowermost is +attached by a bundle of thick fleshy fibres to the root of the +tree from which it derives its nourishment. These roots are +roasted and eaten by the aborigines; in taste they resemble +beet-root, and are sometimes called in the colony native +potatoes." + +1857. F. R. Nixon, `Cruise of the Beacon,' p. 27: + +"And the tubers of several plants of this tribe were largely +consumed by them, particularly those of <i>Gastrodi +sessamoides</i> [sic], the native potato, so called by the +colonists, though never tasted by them, and having not the most +remote relation to the plant of that name, except in a little +resemblance of the tubers, in shape and appearance, to the +kidney potato." + +<hw>Potoroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a +<i>Kangaroo-Rat</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Potorous</i> +and <i>Roo</i>. + +1790. John White, `Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,' +p. 286: + +"The Poto Roo, or Kangaroo Rat." [Figure and description.] +"It is of a brownish grey colour, something like the brown or +grey rabbit, with a tinge of a greenish yellow. It has a pouch +on the lower part of its belly." + +<hw>Potorous</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +of the <i>Kangaroo-Rats</i> (q.v.). The aboriginal name was +<i>Potoroo</i>; see <i>Roo</i>. They are also called +<i>Rat-Kangaroos</i>. + +<hw>Pouched-lion</hw>, or <hw>Marsupial Lion</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a large extinct <i>Phalanger</i> (q.v.), <i>Thylacoleo +carnifex</i>, Owen. The popular name was given under the idea, +derived from the presence of an enormous cutting-tooth, that +the animal was of fierce carnivorous habits. But it is more +generally regarded as closely allied to the phalangers, who are +almost entirely vegetarians. + +<hw>Pouched-Mouse</hw>, <i>n</i>. the vernacular name adopted +for species of the genera <i>Phascologale</i> (q.v.), +<i>Sminthopsis, Dasyuroides</i> and <i>Antechinomys</i>. +They are often called <i>Kangaroo-mice</i> (q.v.). +The species are-- + +Brush-tailed Pouched-Mouse-- + <i>Phascologale penicillata</i>, Shaw. + +Chestnut-necked P.-M.-- + <i>P. thorbechiana</i>, Schl. + +Crest-tailed P.-M.-- + <i>P. cristicauda</i>, Krefft. + +Fat-tailed P.-M.-- + <i>P. macdonnellensis</i>, Spencer. + +Freckled P.-M.--- + <i>P. apicalis</i>, Gray. + +Lesser-tailed P.-M.-- + <i>P. calura</i>, Gould. + +Little P.-M.-- + <i>P. minima</i>, Geoff. + +Long-tailed P.-M.-- + <i>P. longicaudata</i>, Schleg. + +Orange-bellied P.-M.-- + <i>P. doria</i>, Thomas. + +Pigmy P.-M.-- + <i>P. minutissima</i>, Gould. + +Red-tailed P.-M.-- + <i>P. wallacii</i>, Grey. + +Swainson's P.-M.-- + <i>P. swainsoni</i>, Water. + +Yellow-footed Pouched-Mouse-- + <i>Phascologale flavipes</i>, Water. + +The <i>Narrow-footed Pouched-Mice</i> belong to the genus +<i>Sminthopsis</i>, and differ from the <i>Phascologales</i> +in being entirely terrestrial in their habits, whereas the +latter are usually arboreal; the species are-- + +Common Narrow-footed Pouched-Mouse-- + <i>Sminthopsis murina</i>, Water. + +Finke N.-f. P.-M.-- + <i>S. larapinta</i>, Spencer. + +Sandhill N.-f. P.-M.-- + <i>S. psammophilus</i>, Spencer. + +Stripe-faced N.-f. P.-M.-- + <i>S. virginiae</i>, De Tarrag. + +Thick-tailed N.-f. P.-M.-- + <i>S. crassicaudata</i>, Gould. + +White-footed N.-f. P.-M. + <i>S. leucopus</i>, Grey. + +The third genus, <i>Dasyuroides</i>, has only one species-- +Byrne's Pouched-Mouse, <i>D. byrnei</i>, Spencer. + +The fourth genus, <i>Antechinomys</i>, has only one known +species--the <i>Long-legged Jumping Pouched-Mouse</i>, +<i>A. laniger</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Pounamu</hw>, or <hw>Poenamu</hw>, <i>n</i>. +the Maori name for <i>Nephrite, Jade</i>, or <i>Greenstone</i> +(q.v.). In the second spelling the <i>e</i> is hardly sounded. + +1773. Hawkesworth, `Cook's Voyages,' vol. ii. p. 400: + +"Two Whennuas or islands [afterwards called New Zealand] which +might be circumnavigated in a few days, and which he called +Tovy Poenammoo; the literal translation of this word is `the +water of green talc,' and probably if we had understood him +better we should have found that Tovy Poenammoo was the name of +some particular place where they got the green talc or stone of +which they make their ornaments and tools, and not a general +name for the whole southern district." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 362: + +"A magnificent Mere punamu, a battle-axe, fifteen inches long, +and cut out of the most beautiful, transparent nephrite, an +heirloom of his illustrious ancestors, which he kept as a +sacred relic." + +1881. J. L. Campbell [Title of book describing early days of +New Zealand]: + +"Poenamo." + +<hw>Pratincole</hw>, <i>n</i>. The bird called a +<i>Pratincole</i> (inhabitant of meadows: Lat. <i>pratum</i> +and <i>incola</i>) exists elsewhere, and more often under the +familiar name of <i>Chat</i>. The Australian species +are--<i>Glareola grallaria</i>, Temm.; Oriental, +<i>G. orientalis</i>, Leach. + +<hw>Pre-empt</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slang abbreviation for +pre-emptive right. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxiv. +p. 322: + +"My friend has the run and the stock and the pre-empts all in +his own hands." + +<hw>Pretty-Faces</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fancy name for a small +kangaroo. Not very common. + +1887. W. S. S.Tyrwhitt, `The New Chum in the Queensland +Bush,' p. 145: + +"Kangaroos are of several different kinds. First, the large +brown variety, known as kangaroo proper; next the smaller kind, +known as pretty faces or whip tails, which are rather smaller +and of a grey colour, with black and white on the face." + +<hw>Prickfoot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant, <i>Eryngium +vesiculosum</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Umbelliferae</i>. + +<hw>Prickly Fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Alsophila australis</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Filices</i>. + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"Prickly fern-tree (<i>Alsophila Australis</i>, Br.). This +very handsome ferntree occasionally attains a height of thirty +feet. It is not, by any means, so common a fern-tree as +<i>Dicksonia antarctica</i> (Lab.)." + +<hw>Prickly Mimosa</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Mimosa</i> +and <i>Prickly Moses</i>, under <i>Moses</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 6: + +<i>Acacia verticillata</i>. Whorl leaved Acacia, or Prickly +Mimosa, so called from its sharp pointed leaves standing out in +whorls round the stem like the spokes of a wheel." + +<hw>Prickly Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Prickly Wattle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wattle</i>. + +<hw>Primage</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is of old commercial use, +for a small sum of money formerly paid to the captain or master +of the ship, as his personal perquisite, over and above the +freight charges paid to the owners or agents, by persons +sending goods in a ship. It was called by the French +<i>pot-de-vin du maitre</i>,--a sort of <i>pourboire</i>, +in fact. Now-a-days the captain has no concern with the +freight arrangements, and the word in this sense has disappeared. +It has re-appeared in Australia under a new form. In 1893 +the Victorian Parliament imposed a duty of one per cent. +on the <i>Prime</i>, as the Customs laws call the first entry +of goods. This tax was called <i>Primage</i>, and raised such +an outcry among commercial men that in 1895 it was repealed. + +<hw>Primrose, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in +Tasmania to <i>Goodenia geniculata</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Goodeniaceae</i>. There are many species of +<i>Goodenia</i> in Australia, and they contain a tonic bitter +which has not been examined. + +<hw>Prion</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sea-bird. See <i>Dove-Petrel</i>. +(Grk. <i>priown</i>, a saw.) The sides of its bill are like +the teeth of a saw. + +1885. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 448: + +"The name Prion, as almost universally applied elsewhere to the +Blue Petrels, has been kept [in Australia] as an English name." + +<HW>Prop</HW>, <i>v</i>. of a horse: to stop suddenly. + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 194: + +"Another man used to teach his horse (which was free from +vice) to gallop full speed up to the verandah of a house, and +when almost against it, the animal would stop in his stride (or +prop), when the rider vaulted lightly over his head on to the +verandah." + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p.52: + +"How on a sudden emergency the sensible animal will +instantaneously check his impetuosity, `prop,' and swing round +at a tangent." + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood,' Melbourne Memories,' c. xxi. p. 152: + +"Traveller's dam had an ineradicable taste for propping." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 153: + +"His horse propped short, and sent him flying over its head." + +<hw>Prop</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sudden stop. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xvi. p. 115: + +"The `touchy' mare gave so sudden a `prop,' accompanied by a +desperate plunge, that he was thrown." + +<hw>Prospect</hw>, v. to search for gold. In the word, and in +all its derivatives, the accent is thrown back on to the first +syllable. This word, in such frequent use in Australia, is +generally supposed to be of Australian origin, but it is in +equal use in the mining districts of the United States of +America. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 10: + +"The forest seemed alive with scouts `prospecting.'" + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. i. p. 18: + +"Behold him, along with his partner set out, + To <i>prospect</i> the unexplor'd ranges about." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 46: + +"A promising place for prospecting. Yet nowhere did I see the +shafts and heaps of rock or gravel which tell in a gold country +of the hasty search for the precious metal." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 10, p. 4, col. 6: + +"The uses of the tin dish require explanation. It is for +prospecting. That is to say, to wash the soil in which you +think there is gold." + +<hw>Prospect</hw>, <i>n</i>. the result of the first or +test-dish full of wash-dirt. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' c. v. p. 54: + +"The first prospect, the first pan of alluvial gold drift, +was sent up to be tested." + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 17: + +"I have obtained good dish prospects after crudely crushing +up the quartz." + +<hw>Prospecting</hw>, <i>verbal n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. +See <i>Prospect, v</i>. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 16: + +"Prospecting in my division is on the increase." + +Ibid. p. 13: + +"The Egerton Company are doing a large amount of prospecting +work." + +<hw>Prospecting Claim</hw> = the first claim marked in a +gold-lead. See <i>Reward Claim</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' c. v. p. 53: + +"This, however, would be but half the size of the premier or +prospecting claim." + +<hw>Prospector</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who searches for gold on a +new field. See <i>Prospect, v</i>. + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 19: + +"The Government prospectors have also been very successful." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 11: + +"He incidentally mentioned his gold find to another prospector +. . . The last went out to the grounds and prospected, with +the result that he discovered the first payable gold on the +West Coast, for which he obtained a reward claim." + +<hw>Pseudochirus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the +genus of Ring-tailed Phalangers. (See <i>Opossum</i>.) They +have prehensile tails, by which they hold in climbing, as with +a hand. (Grk. <i>pseudo-</i>, false, and <i>cheir</i>, hand.) + +<hw>Psophodes</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus +of birds peculiar to Australia, and represented there by two +species. See <i>Coach-whip Bird</i>. The name comes from +the bird's peculiar note. (Grk. <i>psophowdaes</i>, noisy.) + +<hw>Ptilonorhynchinae</hw>, <i>n</i>. pl. scientific name +assigned to the Australian group of birds called the +<i>Bower-birds</i> (q.v.). (Grk. <i>ptilon</i>, a feather, +<i>rhunchos</i>, a beak.) + +<hw>Pudding-ball</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish; corruption of the +aboriginal name of it, <i>puddinba</i> (q.v.), by the law +of Hobson-Jobson. + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 96: + +"The species of fish that are commonest in the Bay (Moreton) +are mullet, bream, puddinba (a native word corrupted by the +colonists into pudding-ball) . . . The puddinba is like a +mullet in shape, but larger, and very fat; it is esteemed a +great delicacy." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407 col. 4: + +"`Pudding-ball' is the name of a fish. It has nothing to do +with pudding, nothing with any of the various meanings of ball. +The fish is not specially round. The aboriginal name was +`pudden-ba.' <i>Voila tout</i>." + +<hw>Pukeko</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the bird +<i>Porphyrio melanonotus</i>, the <i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.). + +1896. `Otago Witness,' June 11, p. 51: + +"Two <i>pukaki</i> [sic] flew across their path." + +<hw>Punga</hw>, <i>n</i>. the trunk of the tree-fern that is +known as <i>Cyathea medullaris</i>, the "black fern " of the +settlers. It has an edible pith. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 115: + +"Some of the trees were so alarmed that they held down +their heads, and have never been able to hold them up since; +amongst these were the ponga (a fern-tree) and the kareao +(supple-jack), whose tender shoots are always bent." + +1888. J. White, `Ancient History of Maori,' vol. iv. +p. 191: + +"When Tara-ao left his pa and fled from the vengeance of +Karewa, he and his people were hungry and cut down ponga, +and cooked and ate them." + +1888. J. Adams, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xxi. art. ii. p. 36: + +"The size and beauty of the puriri, nikau, and ponga +(<i>Cyathea medullaris</i>) are worthy of notice." + +1892. E. S. Brookes, `Frontier Life,' p. 139: + +"The Survey Department graded a zigzag track up the side to the +top, fixing in punga steps, so that horses could climb up." + +<hw>Punga-punga</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the pollen of +the <i>raupo</i> (q.v.). + +1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xiii. art. i. p. 28: + +"Another curious article of vegetable food was the punga-punga, +the yellow pollen of the raupo flowers. To use it as food it +is mixed with water into cakes and baked. It is sweetish and +light, and reminds one strongly of London gingerbread." + +<hw>Puriri</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +tree, <i>Vitex littoralis</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Verbenaceae</i>; called also <i>New Zealand Oak</i>, +<i>New Zealand Teak</i>, and <i>Ironwood</i>. It is very hard. + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in New Zealand' (Hobart Town), +p. 200: + +"Puriri, misnamed <i>Vitex littoralis</i>, as it is not found +near the sea-coast." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 311: + +"The Puriri Tree (<i>Vitex littoralis</i>). The stems +. . . vary from straight to every imaginable form of curved +growth. . . The fruit, which is like a cherry, is a favourite +food of the woodpigeon." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 86: + +"A deep ravine, over which grey-stemmed purtris stretched out +afar their gnarled trunks, laden with deep green foliage, +speckled with the warm gleam of ruddy blossoms." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 102: + +"The darker, crimped and varnished leaf of the puriri, +with its bright cherry-like berry." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 209: + +"The Puriri . . . on account of the strength of its timber +it is sometimes termed by the settlers `New Zealand Oak,' but +it would be far more correct to name it `New Zealand Teak.'" + +<hw>Purple Berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for +<i>Billardiera longiflora</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. +See <i>Pittosporum</i>. + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 11 +[Note]: + +"<i>Billardiera longiflora</i>, the well-known beautiful +climber, with pale greenish bell-flowers and purple fruit." +[Also pl. i.] + +<hw>Purple Broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Broom</i>. + +<hw>Purple Coot</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Purple Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Fig-tree</i>. + +<hw>Push</hw>, <i>n</i>. a gang. The word is of late very +common in Australia. It was once a prison term. Barrere and +Leland quote from M. Davitt's `Leaves from a Prison Diary,' +"the upper ten push." In Thieves' English it is--(1) a crowd; +(2) an association for a particular robbery. In Australia, its +use began with the <i>larrikins</i> (q.v.), and spread, until +now it often means clique, set, party, and even jocularly so +far as "the Government House Push." + +1890. `The Argus,' July 26, p. 4, col. 3: + +"`Doolan's push' were a party of larrikins working . . . +in a potato paddock near by." + +1892. A topical song by E. J. Lonnen began: + +"I've chucked up my Push for my Donah." + +1893. `The Australasian,' June 24, p. 1165, col. 4: + +"He [the young clergyman] is actually a member of every `push' +in his neighbourhood, and the effect has been not to degrade +the pastor, but to sweeten and elevate the `push.'" + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' June 26, p. 8, col. 7: + +"For a long time past the `push' at Miller's Point, which +consists of young fellows for the most part under twenty-one +years of age, have been a terrible source of annoyance, and, +indeed, of actual danger. A few years ago the police by +resolute dealings with the larrikin pest almost put it down +in the neighbourhood, the part of it which was left being +thoroughly cowed, and consequently afraid to make any +disturbance. Within the past eighteen months or two years the +old `push' has been strengthened by the addition of youths just +entering on manhood, who, gradually increasing in numbers, have +elbowed their predecessors out of the field. Day by day the +new `push' has become more daring. From chaffing drunken men +and insulting defenceless women, the company has taken to +assault, to daylight robbery." + +1893. `The Argus,' July 1, p. 10, col. 7: + +"The Premier, in consultation with the inspector-general of the +police, has made arrangements to protect life and property +against the misconduct of the lawless larrikin `pushes' now +terrorising Sydney." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost): + +"The word larrikin is excellently descriptive of the +irresponsible, mischievous, anti-social creature whose +eccentric action is the outcome of too much mutton. This +immoral will-o'-the-wisp, seized with a desire to jostle, or +thump, or smash, combines for the occasion with others like +himself, and the shouldering, shoving gang is well called a +push." + +<hw>Pyrrholaemus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the genus +of the Australian birds called the <i>Red-throats</i>; +from Grk. <i>purros</i>, "flame-coloured," "red," and +<i>laimos</i>, "throat." + + + +Q + + +<hw>Quail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird which exists under some form +all over the world. The Australian species are-- + +Black-breasted Quail-- + <i>Turnix melanogaster</i>, Gould. + +Brown Q.-- + <i>Synoicus australis</i>, Lath. +[Called also <i>Swamp-Quail</i>.] + +Chestnut-backed Q.-- + <i>Turnix castanotus</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-bellied Q.-- + <i>Excalfatoria australis</i>, Gould. + +Little Q.-- + <i>Turnix velox</i>, Gould. + +Painted Q.-- + <i>T. varies</i>, Lath. [<i>Haemipodius melinatus</i>, +Gould.] + +Red-backed Q.-- + <i>T. maculosa</i>, Gould. + +Red-chested Q.-- + <i>T. pyrrhothorax</i>, Gould. + +Stubble Q.-- + <i>Coturnix pectoralis</i>, Gould. + +In New Zealand there is a single species, <i>Coturnix +novae-zelandiae</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. vii. p. 259: + +"It is known to the colonists as the painted quail; and has +been called by Mr. Gould . . . <i>Haemipodius melinatus</i>." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 298: + +"The painted quail, and the brush quail, the largest of +Australian gamebirds, I believe, whirred away from beneath +their horses' feet." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 67: + +"The swamp fowl and timorous quail . . . + Will start from their nests." + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 117: + +"This group also is represented by a single species, the New +Zealand quail (<i>Coturnix Novae-Zelandiae</i>), belonging to a +widely distributed genus. It was formerly very abundant in New +Zealand; but within the last fifteen or twenty years has been +completely exterminated, and is now only known to exist on the +Three Kings Island, north of Cape Maria Van Diemen." + +<hw>Quail-Hawk</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the bird +<i>Falco</i>, or <i>Harpa novae-zelandiae</i>. +See <i>Hawk</i>. + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 37: + +"In New Zealand the courageous family of the <i>Raptores</i> +is very feebly represented; the honourable post of head of the +family in all fairness must be assigned to the falcon, which +is commonly known by the name of the quail- or sparrow-hawk, +not that it is identical with, or that it even bears much +resemblance to, the bold robber of the woods of Great +Britain--`the hardy sperhauke eke the quales foe,' as Chaucer +has it." + +<hw>Quandong</hw>, <i>n</i>. (various spellings) aboriginal +name for--(1) a tree, <i>Santalum acuminatum</i>, De C., +<i>S. persicarium</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Santalaceae</i>. +In the Southern Colonies it is often called the <i>Southern +Quandong</i>, and the tree is called the <i>Native +Peach-Tree</i> (q.v.). The name is given to another large +scrub-tree, <i>Elaeocarpus grandis</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. The fruit, which is of a blue colour +and is eaten by children, is also called the <i>Native +Peach</i>. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 135: + +"In all these scrubs on the Murray the <i>Fusanus +acuminatus</i> is common, and produces the quandang +nut (or kernel)." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 41: + +"Abundance of fig, and medlar and quince trees, cherries, +loquots, quondongs, gooseberry, strawberry, and raspberry +trees." + +1867. G. G. McCrae, `Balladeadro,' p. 10: + +"Speed thee, Ganook, with these swift spears-- + This firebrand weeping fiery tears, + And take this quandang's double plum, + 'Twill speak alliance tho' 'tis dumb." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xx. p. 199: + +"They came upon a quantong-tree, and pausing beneath it, began +to pick up the fallen fruit. . . . There were so many +berries, each containing a shapely nut, that Honoria might +string a dozen necklaces." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. ix. p. 79: + +"I have forgotten to mention the quandong, a shrub bearing +a fruit the size and colour of cherries." + +(2) The fruit of this tree, and also its kernel. + +1885. J. Hood, `Land of the Fern,' p. 53: + +"She had gone to string on a necklet of seeds from the +quongdong tree.' + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xix. +p. 196: + +"Miss Longleat was wild after quandongs." + +[Footnote]: "A berry growing in the scrub, the kernels of which +are strung into necklaces." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 9: + +"Another fruit of fraudulent type growing on the plains +is the quandong. Something in shape and colour like a +small crab-apple, it is fair enough to the eye, but in +taste thoroughly insipid." + +<hw>Quart-pot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tin vessel originally imported +as a measure, and containing an exact imperial quart. It had no +lid, but a side handle. Before 1850 the word <i>Quart-pot</i>, +for a kettle, was as universal in the bush as "<i>Billy</i>" +(q.v.) is now. The billy, having a lid and a wire handle by +which to suspend it over the fire, superseded the quart-pot +about 1851. In addition to the <i>Billy</i>, there is a +<i>Quart-pot</i> still in use, especially in South Australia +and the back-blocks. It has two sidehandles working in +sockets, so as to fold down flat when travelling. The lid is +an inverted <i>pannikin</i> fitted into it, and is used as a +drinking-cup. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 43: + +"`Look out there!' he continued; `quart-pot corroborree,' +springing up and removing with one hand from the fire one +of the quart-pots, which was boiling madly." + +<hw>Quart-pot Tea</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotations. +Cf. <i>Billy-tea</i>. + + +1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Long Years in Australia,' p. 87: + +"Ralph, taking a long draught of the quart-pot tea, pronounced +that nothing was ever like it made in teapots, and Ethel +thought it excellent, excepting that the tea-leaves were +troublesome." + +188. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia, p. 111: + +"`Quart-pot' tea, as tea made in the bush is always called, is +really the proper way to make it. . . . The tea is really +made with boiling water, which brings out its full flavour, and +it is drunk before it has time to draw too much." + +<hw>Quartz</hw>, <i>n</i>. a mineral; the common form of native +silica. It is abundantly diffused throughout the world, and +forms the common sand of the sea-shore. It occurs as veins or +lodes in metamorphic rocks, and it is this form of its presence +in Australia, associated with gold, that has made the word of +such daily occurrence. In fact, the word <i>Quartz</i>, in +Australian mining parlance, is usually associated with the idea +of <i>Gold-bearing Stone</i>, unless the contrary be stated. +Although some of the following compound words may be used +elsewhere, they are chiefly confined to Australia. + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 21: + +"Quartz is the mother of gold, and wherever there is an +abundance of it, gold may reasonably be expected to exist +somewhere in the neighbourhood." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 16, p. 6. col. 1: + +"Two runaway apprentices from a ship are said to have first +crushed quartz." + +1890. R. A. F. Murray, `Reports and Statistics of the +Mining Department [of Victoria] for the Quarter ending 31st +December': + +"The quartz here is very white and crystalline, with +ferruginous, clayey joints, and--from a miner's point of +view--of most unpromising or `hungry' appearance." + +<hw>Quartz-battery</hw>, <i>n</i>. a machine for crushing +quartz, and so extracting gold. + +1890. `The Argus,' July 26, p. 4, col. 4: + +"There was a row [noise] like a quartz-battery." + +<hw>Quartz-blade</hw>, <i>n</i>. blade of a miner's +knife used for picking lumps of gold out of the stone. + +1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2: + + "They had slashed open his loins with a quartz-blade knife." + +<hw>Quartz-crushing</hw>, <i>adj</i>. See <i>Quartz</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxxix. p. 341: + +"The dull reverberating clash of the quartz-crushing +batteries." + +<hw>Quartz-field</hw>, <i>n</i>. a non-alluvial goldfield. + +1890. `The Argus,' June 16, p. 6, col. 1: + +"Our principal quartz-field." + +<hw>Quartz-lodes</hw>, and <hw>Quartz-mining</hw>. +See <i>Quartz</i>. + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 32: + +"He chose the piece which the New North Clunes now occupy for +quartz-mining; but the quartz-lodes were very difficult to +follow." + +<hw>Quartz-reefer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a miner engaged in +<i>Quartz-reefing</i>, as distinguished from one digging +in alluvial. See above. + +<hw>Quartz-reefing</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The operation of +mining. See <i>Reef</i>, verb. (2) A place where there +is gold mixed with quartz. + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 133: + +"You'd best go to a quartz-reefin'. I've been surfacing this +good while; but quartz-reefin's the payinest game, now." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxix. p. 263: + +"[He] had located himself in a quartz-reefing district." + +<hw>Queensland</hw>, <i>n</i>. a colony named after the Queen, +on the occasion of its separation from New South Wales, in +1859. Dr. J. D. Lang wanted to call it "Cooksland," and +published a book under that title in 1847. Before separation +it was known as "the Moreton Bay District." + +<hw>Queensland Asthma-Herb</hw>, <i>n</i>. +See <i>Asthma-Herb</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Bean</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Bean</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Beech</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Beech</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Ebony</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ebony</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Hemp</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Hemp</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Kauri</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Dundathu Pine</i>. See <i>Kauri</i> and <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Nut</hw>, <i>n</i>. a wild fruit-tree, +<i>Macadamia ternifolia</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 40: + +"`Queensland Nut.' This tree bears an edible nut of excellent +flavour, relished both by Aborigines and Europeans. As it forms +a nutritious article of food to the former, timber-getters are +not permitted to fell the trees. It is well worth extensive +cultivation, for the nuts are always eagerly bought." + +<hw>Queensland Nutmeg</hw>, <i>n</i>. a timber-tree, +<i>Myristica insipida</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myristiceae</i>. +Not so strongly aromatic as the true nutmeg. + +<hw>Queensland Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Plum, Sweet</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Poplar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Poplar</i>. + +<hw>Queensland Sorrel</hw>, <i>n</i>. a plant, <i>Hibiscus +heterophyllus</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Malvaceae</i>, chewed +by the aborigines, as boys chew English Sorrel. + +<hw>Queenwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a timber-tree, <i>Davidsonia +pruriens</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Quince, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Bitter-bark</i>, +<i>Emu-Apple</i>, and <i>Quinine-tree</i>, all which see. + +<hw>Quince, Wild</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Black +Ash-tree</i>. See <i>Ash</i>. + +<hw>Quinine-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Horseradish Tree</i> +(q.v.), and used also for the <i>Bitter-bark</i> or +<i>Emu-Apple Tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Quoll</hw>, <i>n</i>. the aboriginal name for the <i>Native +Cat</i> (q.v.), but not now in use. + +1770. J. Banks, `Journal,' Aug. 26 (edition Hooker, 1896), +p. 301: + +"Another animal was called by the natives <i>je-quoll</i>; +it is about the size of, and something like, a pole-cat, +of a light brown, spotted with white on the back, and white +under the belly. . . . I took only one individual." + +Ibid. p. 323: + +"They very often use the article ge, which seems to answer to +our English <i>a</i>, as <i>ge gurka</i>--a rope." + +[In Glossary]: + +"Gurka--a rope." /?/ + + + +R + + +<hw>Rabbiter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man who lives by trapping +rabbits, or who is employed to clear stations from them. + +1892. E. W. Hornung, `Under Two Skies,' p. 114: + +"He would give him a billet. He would take him on as a +rabbiter, and rig him out with a tent, camp fixings, traps, +and perhaps even a dog or two." + +<hw>Rabbit-rat</hw>, <i>n</i>. name sometimes given +to a<i>hapalote</i> (q.v.), in New South Wales. + +<hw>Radish-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber-tree, +<i>Codonocarpus cotinifolius</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Phytolaceae</i>; called also <i>Poplar</i> +in Central Australia. + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods,' No. 61: + +"Radish-Tree: occurs in the Mallee-scrub very sparingly; +attaining a height of thirty feet. The poplar of the Central +Australian explorers. Whole tree strong-scented." + +<hw>Rager</hw>, <i>n</i>. an old and fierce bullock or cow, +that always begins to rage in the stock-yard. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xiv. p. 105: + +"Amongst them was a large proportion of bullocks, which +declined with fiendish obstinacy to fatten. They were what are +known by the stockriders as `ragers,' or `pig-meaters'" +[q.v.]. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvi. p. 196: + +"Well, say a hundred off for ragers.'" + +<hw>Rail</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English birdname. There are +many varieties in New Zealand and Australia, especially in the +former colony, and the authorities differ as to whether some +should be classed as distinct species. Some are common to +Australasia, others endemic in New Zealand or Australia; their +distribution in this respect is marked below in parentheses. +Several species receive more than one vernacular name, as the +following list shows-- + +Banded Rail (N.Z. and A.)-- + <i>Rallus philippensis</i>, Linn. + +Chestnut-bellied R. (A.)-- + <i>Eulabeornis castaneiventris</i>, Gould. + +Dieffenbach's R. (see quotation below)-- + <i>Rallus dieffenbachii</i>, Gray. + +Hutton's R. (N.Z.)-- + <i>Cabalus modestus</i>, Hutton. + +Land R. (N.Z. and A.)-- + <i>Rallus philippensis</i>, Linn. + +Marsh R. (Australasia)-- + <i>Ortygometra tabuensis</i>, Finsch. and Hard. + +Pectoral R. (N.Z. and A.)-- + <i>Rallus philippensis</i>, Linn. + +Red-necked R. (A.)-- + <i>Rallina tricolor</i>, Gray. + +Slate-breasted R. (A.)-- + <i>Hypotaenidia brachipus</i>, Swains. + +Swainson's R. (N.Z. and A.)-- + <i>Rallina brachipus</i>, Swains. + +Swamp R. (Australasia)-- + <i>Ortygometra tabuensis</i>, Finsch. and Hard. + +Tabuan R. (Australasia)-- + <i>O. tabuensis</i>, Finsch. and Hard. + +Weka R. (N.Z. See <i>Weka</i>.)-- + +See also <i>Takahe</i> and <i>Notornis</i>. + +1888. W.L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' p. 121: + +"Dieffenbach's Rail. . . . This beautiful Rail was brought +from the Chatham Islands by Dr. Dieffenbach in 1842, and named +by Mr. Gray in compliment to this enterprising naturalist. +The adult specimen in the British Museum, from which my +description was taken, is unique, and seems likely to remain +so." + +1893. Prof Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 116: + +"Hutton's rail, the third of the endemic rails . . . is +confined to the Chatham Islands." + +<hw>Rain-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is popularly given in +many parts of the world to various birds. The <i>Rain-bird</i> +of Queensland and the interior is the Great Cuckoo or +Channel-bill (<i>Scythrops novae-hollandiae</i>, Lath., q.v.). + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 283: + +"We discovered a nest of full-fledged birds of the Australian +Shrike or Butcher-bird, also called Rain-bird by the colonists +(<i>Vanga destructor</i>). They were regarded by our +companions as a prize, and were taken accordingly to be caged, +and instructed in the art of whistling tunes, in which they are +great adepts." + +<hw>Rainbow-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand fish, +<i>Heteroscharus castelnaui</i>, Macl. + +<hw>Rama-rama</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +shrub, <i>Myrtus bullata</i>, Banks and Sol. The name is used +in the North Island. It is often corrupted into <i>Grama</i>. + +<hw>Rangatira</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a chief, +male or female; a master or mistress (Williams); +therefore an aristocrat, a person of the gentle class, +distinguished from a <i>tau-rikarika</i>, a nobody, +a slave. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 200: + +"Ranga tira, a gentleman or lady." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' +c. i. p. 173: + +"I took care to tell them that the rangatira, or `chief' +missionaries, would come out with the settlers." + +Ibid. c. ii. p. 461: + +"Rangatira is Maori for `chief,' and Rangatira-tango is +therefore truly rendered `chieftainship.'" + +1893. `Otago Witness, `Dec. 21, p. 11: + +"Te Kooti is at Puketapu with many Rangatiras; he is a great +warrior,--a fighting chief. They say he has beaten the pakehas" +(q.v.). + +<hw>Ranges</hw>, <i>n</i>. the usual word in Australia for +"mountains." Compare the use of "<i>tiers</i>" in Tasmania. + +<hw>Rangy</hw>, <i>adj</i>. mountainous. + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 89: + +"He tramps over the most rangy and inaccessible regions of the +colonies." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' +(1841-1851), p. 46: + +"The country being rangy, somewhat scrubby, and destitute of +prominent features." + +<hw>Raspberry, Wild</hw>, or <hw>Native</hw>, +<i>n</i>. <i>Rubus gunnianus</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>; +peculiar to Tasmania, and so called there. In Australia, +the species is <i>Rubus rosafolius</i>, Smith. See also +<i>Lawyer</i> and <i>Blackberry</i>. + +<hw>Raspberry-jam Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to <i>Acacia +acuminata</i>, Benth., especially of Western Australia. Though +Maiden does not give the name, he says (Useful Native Plants,' +p. 349), "the scent of the wood is comparable to that of +raspberries." + +1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' +p. 328: + +"Plains with groves or thickets of the raspberry-jam-tree." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. iv. p. 132: + +"Raspberry-jam . . . acacia sweet-scented, grown on good +ground." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 68: + +"The other trees besides the palm were known to the men by +colonial appellations, such as the bloodwood and the +raspberry-jam. The origin of the latter name, let me inform my +readers, has no connection whatever with any produce from the +tree." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Feb. 15, p. 313: + +"The raspberry-jam-tree is so called on account of the strong +aroma of raspberries given out when a portion is broken." + +[On the same page is an illustration of these trees growing +near Perth, Western Australia.] + +<hw>Rasp-pod</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a large Australian +tree, <i>Flindersia australis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. +Meliaceae</i>. + +<hw>Rat</hw>, <i>n</i>. True Rodents are represented in +Australia and Tasmania by six genera; viz., <i>Mus</i>, +<i>Conilurus (= Hapalotis</i>), <i>Xeromys, Hydromys, +Mastacomys</i>, <i>Uromys</i>, of which the five latter +are confined to the Australian Region. + +The genus <i>Hydromys</i> contains the <i>Eastern Water +Rat</i>, sometimes called the <i>Beaver Rat</i> (<i>Hydromys +chrysogaster</i>, Geoffroy), and the <i>Western Water Rat</i> +(<i>H. fulvolavatus</i>, Gould). + +<i>Conilurus</i> contains the <i>Jerboa Rats</i> (q.v.). + +<i>Xeromys</i> contains a single species, confined to +Queensland, and called <i>Thomas' Rat</i> (<i>Xeromys +myoides</i>, Thomas). + +<i>Mastacomys</i> contains one species, the <i>Broad-toothed +Rat</i> (<i>M. fuscus</i>, Thomas), found alive only in +Tasmania, and fossil in New South Wales. + +<i>Uromys</i> contains two species, the <i>Giant Rat</i> +(<i>U. macropus</i>, Gray), and the <i>Buff-footed Rat</i> +(<i>U. cervinipes</i>, Gould). + +<i>Mus</i> contains twenty-seven species, widely distributed +over the Continent and Tasmania. + +1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 301: + +"The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter of the +Rev. W. Colenso to Ronald C. Gunn, Esq., of Launceston, dated +Waitangi, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, 4th September, 1850:-- +`I have procured two specimens of the ancient, and all +but quite extinct, New Zealand Rat, which until just now +(and notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed, too, by large +rewards) I never saw. It is without doubt a true <i>Mus</i>, +smaller than our English black rat (<i>Mus Rattus</i>), and not +unlike it. This little animal once inhabited the plains and +<i>Fagus</i> forests of New Zealand in countless thousands, +and was both the common food and great delicacy of the natives-- +and already it is all but quite classed among the things which +were." + +1880. A. R. Wallace, `Island Life,' p. 445: + +"The Maoris say that before Europeans came to their country a +forest rat abounded, and was largely used for food . . . +Several specimens have been caught . . . which have been +declared by the natives to be the true Kiore Maori--as they +term it; but these have usually proved on examination to be +either the European black rat or some of the native Australian +rats . . . but within the last few years many skulls of a rat +have been obtained from the old Maori cooking-places and from +a cave associated with moa bones, and Captain Hutton, who has +examined them, states that they belong to a true Mus, but +differ from the <i>Mus rattus</i>." + +<hw>Rata</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for two New Zealand erect +or sub-scandent flowering trees, often embracing trunks of +forest trees and strangling them: the Northern Rata, +<i>Metrosideros robusta</i>, A. Cunn., and the Southern Rata, +<i>M. lucida</i>, Menz., both of the <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. +The tree called by the Maoris <i>Aka</i>, which is another +species of <i>Metrosederos (M. florida</i>), is also often +confused with the Rata by bushmen and settlers. + +In Maori, the <i>adj</i>. <i>rata</i> means red-hot, and there +may be a reference to the scarlet appearance of the flower in +full bloom. The timber of the <i>Rata</i> is often known as +<i>Ironwood</i>, or <i>Ironbark</i>. The trees rise to sixty +feet in height; they generally begin by trailing downwards from +the seed deposited on the bark of some other tree near its top. +When the trailing branches reach the ground they take root +there and sprout erect. For full account of the habit of the +trees, see quotation 1867 (Hochstetter), 1879 (Moseley), and +1889 (Kirk). + +1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' p. 224: + +"The venerable rata, often measuring forty feet in +circumference and covered with scarlet flowers--while its stem +is often girt with a creeper belonging to the same family +(<i>metrosideros hypericifolia</i>?)." + +1848. Rev. R. Taylor, `Leaf from the Natural History of New +Zealand,' p. 21: + +"Rata, a tree; at first a climber; it throws out aerial roots; +clasps the tree it clings to and finally kills it, becoming a +large tree (metrosideros robusta). A hard but not durable +wood." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' canto 1, p. 14: + +"Unlike the neighbouring rata cast, + And tossing high its heels in air." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 135: + +"The Rata (<i>Metrosideros robusta</i>), the trunk of which, +frequently measuring forty feet in circumference, is always +covered with all sorts of parasitical plants, and the crown +of which bears bunches of scarlet blossoms." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 264: + +"Nay, not the Rata! howsoe'er it bloomed, + Paling the crimson sunset; for you know, + Its twining arms and shoots together grow + Around the trunk it clasps, conjoining slow + Till they become consolidate, and show + An ever-thickening sheath that kills at last + The helpless tree round which it clings so fast." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 310: + +"The Rata-Tree (<i>Metrosideros robusta</i>). This magnificent +tree. . . . height 80 to 100 feet . . . a clear stem to 30 +and even 40 feet . . . very beautiful crimson polyandrous +flowers . . . wood red, hard, heavy, close-grained, strong, +and not difficult to work." + +1879. H. <i>n</i>. Moseley, `Notes of a Naturalist on Challenger,' +p. 278: + +One of the most remarkable trees . . . is the Rata. . . . +This, though a Myrtaceous plant, has all the habits of the +Indian figs, reproducing them in the closest manner. It starts +from a seed dropped in the fork of a tree, and grows downward +to reach the ground; then taking root there, and gaining +strength, chokes the supporting tree and entirely destroys it, +forming a large trunk by fusion of its many stems. +Nevertheless, it occasionally grows directly from the soil, +and then forms a trunk more regular in form." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 39: + +"That bark shall speed where crimson ratas gleam." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. +p. 210: + +"The foliage of many of the large trees is quite destroyed by +the crimson flowering rata, the king of parasites, which having +raised itself into the upper air by the aid of some unhappy +pine, insinuates its fatal coils about its patron, until it has +absorbed trunk and branch into itself, and so gathered +sufficient strength to stand unaided like the chief of forest +trees, flaunting in crimson splendour." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 263: + +"It is invariably erect, never climbing, although bushmen and +settlers frequently state that it climbs the loftiest trees, +and sooner or later squeezes them to death in its iron clasp. +In proof of this they assert that, when felling huge ratas, +they often find a dead tree in the centre of the rata: this is +a common occurrence, but it by no means follows that this +species is a climber. This error is simply due to imperfect +observation, which has led careless observers to confuse +<i>Metrosideros florida</i> [the Akal which is a true climber, +with M. robusta." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 10 [`Native Trees']: + +"Rata, or Ironwood. It would be supposed that almost every +colonist who has seen the rata in bloom would desire to possess +a plant." + +1893. `The Argus,' Feb. 4 [Leading Article]: + +"The critic becomes to the original author what the New Zealand +rata is to the kauri. That insidious vine winds itself round +the supporting trunk and thrives on its strength and at its +expense, till finally it buries it wholly from sight and +flaunts itself aloft, a showy and apparently independent tree." + +<hw>Rat-tail Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to-- +(1) <i>Ischaemum laxum</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 92: + +"Rat-tail Grass. An upright, slender growing grass; found +throughout the colony, rather coarse, but yielding a fair +amount of feed, which is readily eaten by cattle." + +(2) <i>Sporobolus indicus</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 109: + +"Rat-tail Grass. A fine, open, pasture grass, found throughout +the colonies. Its numerous penetrating roots enable it to +resist severe drought. It yields a fair amount of fodder, much +relished by stock, but is too coarse for sheep. The seeds form +the principal food of many small birds. It has been suggested +as a paper-making material." + +[See <i>Grass</i>.] + +<hw>Raupo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand +bulrush, <i>Typha angustifolia</i>, Linn. The leaves are used +for building native houses. The pollen, called +<i>Punga-Punga</i> (q.v.), was collected and made into bread +called <i>pua</i>. The root was also eaten. It is not endemic +in New Zealand, but is known in many parts, and was called by +the aborigines of Australia, <i>Wonga</i>, and in Europe +"Asparagus of the Cossacks." Other names for it are +<i>Bulrush</i>, <i>Cat's Tail</i>, <i>Reed Mace</i>, and +<i>Cooper's Flag</i>. + +1827. Augustus Earle, `Narrative of Nine Months' Residence in +New Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 67: + +"Another party was collecting rushes, which grow plentifully in +the neighbourhood, and are called raupo." + +1833. Henry Williams's Diary, `Carleton's Life,' p. 151: + +"The Europeans were near us in a raupo whare [rush-house]." + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 205: + +"To engage the natives to build raupo, that is, rush-houses." + +1842. W. R. Wade, `A Journey in the North Island of New +Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 122: + +"The raupo, the reed-mace of New Zealand, always grows in +swampy ground. The leaves or blades when full grown are cut +and laid out to dry, forming the common building material with +which most native houses are constructed." + +1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses, +Session II. No. xvii. of the former Legislative Council of +New Zealand': + +[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.] + +"Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of every +building constructed wholly or in part of <i>raupo, nikau</i>, +<i>toitoi, wiwi, kakaho</i>, straw or thatch of any +description [ . . . L20]." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 380: + +"These [the walls], nine feet high and six inches thick, were +composed of neatly packed bunches of raupo, or bulrushes, lined +inside with the glazed reeds of the tohe-tohe, and outside with +the wiwi or fine grass." + +1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 5: + +"Entangled in a foul morass, + A raupo swamp, one name we know." + +1864. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `The War in the North,' +p. 16: + +"Before a war or any other important matter, the natives used +to have recourse to divination by means of little miniature +darts made of rushes or reeds, or often of the leaf of the +cooper's flag (raupo)." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 308: + +"The favourite material of the Maoris for building purposes +is Raupo (<i>Typha</i>), a kind of flag or bulrush, which +grows in great abundance in swampy places." + +1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences, or Incidents of +Thirty-Four Years in New Zealand,' p. 10: + +"It was thatched with raupo or native bulrush, and had sides +and interior partitions of the same material." + +<hw>Raven</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. The Australian +species is <i>Corvus coronoides</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +<hw>Razor-grinder</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, <i>Seisura +inquieta</i>, Lath. Called also <i>Dishwasher</i> and +<i>Restless Fly-catcher</i>. See <i>Fly-catcher</i>. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol.ii. +p. 159: + +"Neither must you be astonished on hearing the razor-grinder +ply his vocation in the very depths of our solitudes; for here +he is a flying instead of a walking animal." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 87: + +"<i>Seisura Inquieta</i>, Restless Flycatcher; the Grinder +of the Colonists of Swan River and New South Wales." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 332: + +"The razor-grinder, fitly so called from making a grinding +noise as it wavers in one position a foot or two from the +ground." + +<hw>Ready up</hw>, <i>v</i>. See quotation. + +1893. `The Age,' Nov. 25, p. 13, col. 2: + +"<i>Mr. Purees</i>: A statement has been made that is very +serious. It has been said that a great deal has been `readied +up' for the jury by the present commissioners. That is a +charge which, if true, amounts to embracery. + +"<i>His Honor</i>: I do not know what `readying up' means. + +"<i>Mr. Purves</i>: It is a colonial expression, meaning that +something is prepared with an object. If you `ready up' a +racehorse, you are preparing to lose, or if you `ready up' +a pack of cards, you prepare it for dealing certain suits." + +<hw>Red Bass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of Moreton Bay (q.v.), +<i>Mesoprion superbus</i>, Castln., family <i>Percidae</i>. + +<hw>Redberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to Australian plants +of the genus <i>Rhagodia</i>, bearing spikes or panicles of +red berries. Called also <i>Seaberry</i>. +See also <i>Saloop-bush</i>. + +<hw>Red-bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name given to +<i>Estrelda temporalis</i>, Lath. It is also applied +to the <i>Oyster-catchers</i> (q.v.); and sometimes +to the <i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.). + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 345: + +"Lieut. Flinders taking up his gun to fire at two red-bills +. . . the natives, alarmed, ran to the woods." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 259: + +"`This bird,' says Mr. Caley, `which the settlers call +Red-bill, is gregarious, and appears at times in very large +flocks. I have killed above forty at a shot.'" + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 82: + +"<i>Estrelda temporalis</i>. Red-eyebrowed Finch. +Red-Bill of the Colonists." + +`<hw>Red Bream</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the +<i>Schnapper</i> when one year old. See <i>Schnapper</i>. + +<hw>Red Cedar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Cedar</i>. + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 434: + +"M'Leay river, New South Wales, Lat. 30 degrees 40'. This +forest was found to contain large quantities of red cedar +(Cedrela toona) and white cedar (Melia azederach), which, +though very different from what is known as cedar at home, +is a valuable wood, and in much request by the colonists." + +<hw>Red Currant</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Native +Currant</i> of Tasmania, <i>Coprosma nitida</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Rubiaceae</i>. See <i>Currant, Native</i>. + +<hw>Red Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A tree. See <i>Gum</i>. The +two words are frequently made one with the accent on the first +syllable; compare <i>Blue-gum</i>. + +(2) A medicinal drug. An exudation from the bark of +<i>Eucalyptus rostrata</i>, Schlecht, and other trees; +see quotation, 1793. Sir Ranald Martin introduced it +into European medical practice. + +177 J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 178: + +"At the heart they [the trees] are full of veins, through which +an amazing quantity of an astringent red gum issues. This gum +I have found very serviceable in an obstinate dysentery." + +Ibid. p. 233: + +"A very powerfully astringent gum-resin, of a red colour, +much resembling that known in the shops as Kino, and, +for all medical purposes, fully as efficacious." + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' +p. 10: + +"This, Mr. White informs us, is one of the trees (for there are +several, it seems, besides the <i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>, +mentioned in his Voyage, p. 231) which produce the red gum." + +[The tree is <i>Ceratopetalum gummiferum</i>, Smith, called by +him <i>Three-leaved Red-gum Tree</i>. It is now called +<i>Officer Plant</i> or <i>Christmas-bush</i> (q.v.).] + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 42: + +"The usual red gum was observed oozing out from the bark, and +this attracted their notice, as it did that of every explorer +who had landed upon the continent. This gum is a species of +kino, and possesses powerful astringent, and probably staining, +qualities." + +<hw>Red Gurnet-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Victoria to +the fish <i>Sebastes percoides</i>, Richards., family +<i>Scorpaenidae</i>. It is also called <i>Poddly</i>; <i>Red +Gurnard</i>, or <i>Gurnet</i>; and in New Zealand, +<i>Pohuikaroa</i>. See <i>Perch</i> and <i>Gurnet</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 48: + +"<i>Sebastes percoides</i>, a fish of a closely allied genus +of the same family [as <i>Scorpaena cruenta</i>, the red +rock-cod]. It is caught at times in Port Jackson, but has no +local name. In Victoria it is called the Red Gurnet-perch." + +<hw>Redhead</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Firetail</i>. + +<hw>Red-knee</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes called the <i>Red-kneed +Dottrel</i>, <i>Charadrius ruftveniris</i>, formerly +<i>Erythrogonys cinctus</i>, Gould. A species of a genus +of Australian plovers. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 21: + +"<i>Erythrogonys Cinctus</i>, Gould; Banded Red-knee." + +<hw>Red Mulga</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a species of +Acacia, <i>A. cyperophylla</i>, F. v. M., owing to the red +colour of the flakes of bark which peel off the stem. See +<i>Mulga</i>. + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Home Expedition in Central Australia,' +Narrative, pt. i. p. 16: + +"We crossed a narrow belt of country characterized by the +growth along the creek sides of red mulga. This is an Acacia +(<i>A. cyperophylla</i>) reaching perhaps a height of twenty +feet, the bark of which, alone amongst Acacias, is deciduous +and peels off, forming little deep-red coloured flakes." + +<hw>Red Mullet</hw>, <i>n</i>. New South Wales, <i>Upeneoides +vlamingii</i>, Cuv. and Val., and <i>Upeneus porosus</i>, +Cuv. and Val., family <i>Mullidae</i>. See <i>Mullet</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 38: + +"The name of this family is a source of much confusion. It is +derived from the Latin word <i>mullus</i>, which in the form of +`Mullet' we apply to the well-known fishes of quite a different +family, the <i>Mugilidae</i>. Another fish to which the term +`Red-Mullet' is applied is of the family <i>Cottidae</i> or +Gurnards." + +<hw>Red Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to the +fish <i>Anthias rasor</i>, Richards.; also called the Barber. +In Australia, it is <i>Anthias longimanus</i>, Gunth. + +<hw>Red Rock-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in New South Wales +to the fish <i>Scorpaena cardinalis</i>, Richards., family +<i>Scorpaenidae</i>, marine fishes resembling the Sea-perches. +<i>S. cardinalis</i> is of a beautiful scarlet colour. + +<hw>Red-streaked Spider</hw>, or <hw>Black-and-red Spider</hw>, +an Australasian spider (<i>Latrodectus scelio</i>, Thorel.), +called in New Zealand the <i>Katipo</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Red-throat</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small brown Australian +singing-bird, with a red throat, <i>Pyrrholaemus brunneus</i>, +Gould. + +<hw>Reed-mace</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wonga</i> +and <i>Raupo</i>. + +<hw>Reef</hw>, <i>n</i>. term in gold-mining; a vein of +auriferous quartz. Called by the Californian miners a vein, or +lode, or ledge. In Bendigo, the American usage remains, the +words <i>reef, dyke</i>, and <i>vein</i> being used as +synonymous, though reef is the most common. (See quotation, +1866.) In Ballarat, the word has two distinct meanings, +viz. the <i>vein</i>, as above, and the <i>bed-rock</i> or +<i>true-bottom</i>. (See quotations, 1869 and 1874.) Outside +Australia, a <i>reef</i> means "a chain or range of rocks lying +at or near the surface of the water." (`Webster.') + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of New South Wales,' c. xiv. +p. 213: + +"A party . . . discovered gold in the quartz-reefs of the +Pyrenees [Victoria]." + +1860. W. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 148: + +"If experience completely establishes the fact, at least, under +existing systems, that the best-paying reefs are those that are +largely intersected with fissures--more inclined to come out in +pebbles than in blocks--or, if I might coin a designation, +`rubble reefs,' as contradistinguished from `boulder reefs,' +showing at the same time a certain degree of ignigenous +discoloration . . . still, where there are evidences of +excessive volcanic effect . . . the reef may be set down as +poor . . ." + +1866. A. R. Selwyn, `Exhibition Essays,' Notes on the +Physical Geography, Geology, and Mineralogy of Victoria: + +"Quartz occurs throughout the lower palaeozoic rocks in veins, +`dykes' or `reefs,' from the thickness of a thread to 130 +feet." + +1869. R. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields Glossary,' p. 619: + +"Reef. The term is applied to the tip-turned edges of the +palaeozoic rocks. The reef is composed of slate, sandstone, +or mudstone. The bed-rock anywhere is usually called the reef. +A quartz-vein; a lode." + +1874. Reginald A. F. Murray, `Progress Report, Geological +Survey, Victoria,' vol. i. p. 65 [Report on the Mineral +Resources of Ballarat]: + +"This formation is the `true bottom,' `bed rock' or `reef,' +of the miners." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5, col. 5: + +"In looking for reefs the experienced miner commences on the +top of the range and the spurs, for the reason that +storm-waters have carried the soil into the gullies and left +the bed-rock exposed." + +<hw>Reef</hw>, <i>v</i>. to work at a reef. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 30: + +"The University graduate . . . was to be seen patiently +sluicing, or reefing, as the case might be." + +[See also <i>Quartz-reefing</i>.] + +<hw>Regent-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) An Australian Bower-bird, +<i>Sericulus melinus</i>, Lath., named out of compliment to the +Prince Regent, afterwards George IV. (therefore named before +1820). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 161: + +"Mr. Gilbert observed the female of the Regent-bird." + +(2) <i>Mock Regent-bird</i>, now <i>Meliphaga phrygia</i>, +Lath. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 48: + +"<i>Zanthomyza Phrygia</i>, Swains., Warty-faced Honey-eater +[q.v.]; Mock Regent-Bird, Colonists of New South Wales." + +<hw>Remittance-man</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who derives the means +of an inglorious and frequently dissolute existence from the +periodical receipt of money sent out to him from Europe. + +1892. R. L. Stevenson, `The Wrecker,' p. 336: + +"<i>Remittance men</i>, as we call them here, are not so rare +in my experience; and in such cases I act upon a system." + +<hw>Rewa-rewa</hw>, <i>n</i>. pronounced <i>raywa</i>, Maori +name for the New Zealand tree <i>Knightia excelsa</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>, the Honey-suckle of the New Zealand +settlers. Maori verb, <i>rewa</i>, to float. The seed-vessel +is just like a Maori canoe. + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the +South,' vol. i. p. 143: + +"Rewarewa (honeysuckle), a handsome flowering tree common on +the outskirts of the forests. Wood light and free-working: the +grain handsomely flowered like the Baltic oak." + +1878. R. C. Barstow, `On the Maori Canoe,' `Transactions +of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. 73: + +"Dry <i>rewarewa</i> wood was used for the charring." + +1880. W. Colenso, `Traditions of the Maoris,' `Transactions +of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xiii. p. 53: + +"The boy went into the forest, and brought back with him a +seed-pod of the rewarewa tree (<i>Knightia excelsa</i>). . . . +He made his way to his canoe, which was made like the pod of +the rewarewa tree." + +1983. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 129: + +"Rewarewa, a lofty, slender tree, 100 feet high. Wood +handsome, mottled red and brown, used for furniture and +shingles, and for fencing, as it splits easily. It is a most +valuable veneering wood." + +<hw>Reward-Claim</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Australian legal term for +the large area granted as a "reward" to the miner who first +discovers valuable gold in a new district, and reports it to +the Warden of the Goldfields. The first great discovery of +gold in Coolgardie was made by Bayley in 1893, and his +reward-claim, sold to a syndicate, was known as "Bayley's +Reward." See also <i>Prospecting Claim</i>, and <i>Claim</i>. + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 11: + +"Prospected with the result that he discovered the first +payable gold on the West Coast, for which he obtained +a reward claim." + +<hw>Rhipidura</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus of +Australasian birds, called <i>Fantail</i> (q.v.). They are +Fly-catchers. The word is from Grk. <i>rhipidos</i>, `of a +fan,' and <i>'oura</i>, `a tail.' + +<hw>Ribbed Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Fig</i>. + +<hw>Ribbonwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. All species of +<i>Plagianthus</i> and <i>Hoheria</i> are to the colonists +<i>Ribbonwood</i>, especially <i>Plagianthus betulinus</i>, +A. Cunn., and <i>Hoheria populnea</i>, A. Cunn., the bark of +which is used for cordage, and was once used for making a +demulcent drink. Alpine Ribbon-wood, <i>Plagianthus +lyalli</i>, Hook. Other popular names are <i>Houhere</i>, +<i>Houi</i> (Maori), <i>Lace-bark</i> (q.v.), and +<i>Thousand-Jacket</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Ribgrass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the <i>Native +Plantain</i>. See <i>Plantain</i>. + +<hw>Rice-flower</hw>, <i>n</i>. a gardeners' name for the +cultivated species of <i>Pimalea</i> (q.v.). The +<i>Rice-flowers</i> are beautiful evergreens about three feet +high, and bear rose-coloured, white, and yellow blooms. + +<hw>Rice-shell</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied elsewhere +to various shells; in Australia it denotes the shell of various +species of <i>Truncatella</i>, a small marine mollusc, so +called from a supposed resemblance to grains of rice, +and used for necklaces. + +<hw>Richea</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian <i>Grasstree</i> (q.v.), +<i>Richea pandanifolia</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. + +1850. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' May 8, vol. i. p. 278: + +"A section . . . of the stem of the graceful palm-like Richea +(<i>Richea pandanifolia</i>), found in the dense forests +between Lake St. Clair and Macquarie Harbour, where it attains +the height of 40 to 50 feet in sheltered positions,--the +venation, markings, and rich yellow colouring of which were +much admired." + +1878. Rev. W. W. Spicer, `Handbook of the Plants of +Tasmania,' p. 125: + +Richea pandanifolia, H. Giant Grass Tree. Peculiar to +Tasmania. Dense forests in the interior and SW." + +<hw>Ridge-Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Myrtle</i>. + +<hw>Rifle-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes called also +<i>Rifleman</i> (q.v.); a bird of paradise. The male is of a +general velvety black, something like the uniform of the Rifle +Brigade. This peculiarity, no doubt, gave the bird its name, +but, on the other hand, settlers and local naturalists +sometimes ascribe the name to the resemblance they hear in the +bird's cry to the noise of a rifle being fired and its bullet +striking the target. The <i>Rifle-bird</i> is more famed for +beauty of plumage than any other Australian bird. There are +three species, and they are of the genus <i>Ptilorhis</i>, +nearly related to the Birds of Paradise of New Guinea, where +also is found the only other known species of <i>Ptilorhis</i>. +The chief species is <i>Ptilorhis paradisea</i>, Lath., the +other two species were named respectively, after the Queen and +the late Prince Consort, <i>Victoriae</i> and <i>Alberti</i>, +but some naturalists have given them other generic names. + +As to the name, see also quotation, 1886. See <i>Manucode</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 194: + +"We saw . . . a rifle-bird." + +1886. `Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xx. p. 553: + +"Rifleman-Bird, or Rifle-Bird, names given . . . probably +because in coloration it resembled the well-known uniform of +the rifle-regiments of the British army, while in its long and +projecting hypochondriac plumes and short tail a further +likeness might be traced to the hanging pelisse and the jacket +formerly worn by the members of those corps."-- [Footnote]: +"Curiously enough its English name seems to be first mentioned +in ornithological literature by Frenchmen--Lesson and +Garnot--in 1828, who say (<i>Voy. `Coquille,' Zoologie</i>, +p. 669) that it was applied `pour rappeler que ce fut un soldat +de la garnison [of New South Wales] qui le tua le premier,' +which seems to be an insufficient reason, though the statement +as to the bird's first murderer may be true." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 171: + +"It was an Australian bird of paradise, the celebrated +Rifle-bird (<i>Ptilorhis victoriae</i>), which, according to +Gould, has the most brilliant plumage of all Australian birds." + +<hw>Rifleman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand, +<i>Acanthidositta chloris</i>, Buller; Maori name, +<i>Titipounamu</i>. See quotation. The name is sometimes +applied also to the <i>Rifle-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 113: + +"<i>Acanthidositta chloris</i>, Buller. The rifleman is the +smallest of our New Zealand birds. It is very generally +distributed." + +[Footnote]: "This has hitherto been written +<i>Acanthisitta</i>; but Professor Newton has drawn my +attention to the fact of its being erroneous. I have therefore +adopted the more classic form of <i>Acanthidositta</i>, the +etymology of which is <i>'akanthid</i>,--crude form of +<i>'akanthis</i> = Carduelis, and <i>sitta</i> = sitta." + +1888. W. Smith, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xxi. art. xxi. p. 214: + +"<i>Acanthisitta chloris</i> (Rifleman). The feeble note of +this diminutive bird is oftener heard in the bush than the bird +is seen." + +<hw>Right-of-Way</hw>, <i>n</i>. a lane. In England the word +indicates a legal right to use a particular passage. In +Australia it is used for the passage or lane itself. + +1893. `The Argus,' Feb. 3: + +"The main body of the men was located in the right-of-way, +which is overlooked by the side windows of the bureau." + +<hw>Rimu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree, +<i>Dacrydium cupressinum</i>, <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>; also +called <i>Red pine</i>. <i>Rimu</i> is generally used +in North Island; <i>Red pine</i> more generally in the South. +See <i>Pine</i>. + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 40: + +"Rimu. This elegant tree comes to its greatest perfection in +shaded woods, and in moist, rich soil." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 117: + + "He lay + Couched in a rimu-tree one day." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 306: + +"The Rimu Tree. Height, eighty to 100 feet, fully forty to +fifty feet clear of branches . . . moderately hard . . . +planes up smoothly, takes a good polish, would be useful to the +cabinetmaker." + +1879. Clement Bunbury, `Fraser's Magazine,' June, p. 761: + +"Some of the trees, especially the rimu, a species of yew, here +called a pine, were of immense size and age." + +<hw>Ring</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. (1) To cut the bark of a tree +round the trunk so as to kill it. The word is common in the +same sense in English forestry and horticulture, and only seems +Australasian from its more frequent use, owing to the +widespread practice of clearing the primeval forests and +generally destroying trees. "Ringed" is the correct past +participle, but "rung" is now commonly used. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +c. x. p. 315: + +"What they call ringing the trees; that is to say, they cut +off a large circular band of bark, which, destroying the trees, +renders them easier to be felled." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 56: + +The gum-trees, ringed and ragged, from the mazy margins rise." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. xx. p. 312: + +"Trees to be `rung.' The ringing of trees consists of cutting +the bark through all round, so that the tree cease to suck up +the strength of the earth for its nutrition, and shall die." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' +(1841-1851), p. 81: + +"Altogether, fences and tree-ringing have not improved the +scene." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 58: + +"The trees are `rung,' that there may be more pasture for the +sheep and cattle." + +(2) To make cattle move in a circle. [Though specifically used +of cattle in Australia, the word has a similar use in England +as in Tennyson's `Geraint and Enid' + +. . . "My followers ring him round: + He sits unarmed."--Line 336.] + +1874. W. H. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 111: + +"They are generally `ringed,' that is, their galop is directed +into a circular course by the men surrounding them." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 126: + +"I'll tell you what, you'll have to ring them. Pass the word +round for all hands to follow one another in a circle, at a +little distance apart." + +(3) To move round in a circle. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' p. 20: + +"The cattle were uneasy and `ringed' all night." + +(4) To make the top score at a shearing-shed. +See <i>Ringer</i>. + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 136: + +"The man that `rung' the Tubbo shed is not the ringer here." + +<hw>Ring-bark</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. Same meaning as <i>Ring</i> +(1). + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 204: + +"The selector in a timbered country, without troubling himself +about cause and effect, is aware that if he destroys the tree +the grass will grow, and therefore he `ring-barks' his timber." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 9: + +"Our way led us through a large but not dense wood of leafless +gumtrees. My companion told me that the forest was dead as a +result of `ring-barking.' To get the grass to grow better, the +settler removes a band of bark near the root of the tree. In a +country where cattle-raising is carried on to so great an +extent, this may be very practical, but it certainly does not +beautify the landscape. The trees die at once after this +treatment, and it is a sad and repulsive sight to see these +withered giants, as if in despair, stretching their white +barkless branches towards the sky." + +1893. `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' p. 232: + +"We were going through ring-barked country. You don't know +what that is? Well, those giant gum-trees absorb all the +moisture and keep the grass very poor, so the squatters kill +them by ring-barking--that is, they have a ring described round +the trunk of each tree by cutting off a couple of feet of bark. +Presently the leaves fall off; then the rest of the bark +follows, and eventually the tree becomes nothing but a strange +lofty monument of dry timber." + +<hw>Ring-dollar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation; +and see <i>Dump</i> and <i>Holy Dollar</i>. + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. iii. p. 131: + +"The Spanish dollar was much used. A circular piece was struck +out of the centre about the size of a shilling . . . and the +rest of the dollar, called from the circular piece taken out a +`ring-dollar,' was valued at four shillings." + +<hw>Ring-eye</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the many names for the +birds of the genus <i>Zosterops</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Ringer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sheep-shearing term. See +quotations. Mr. Hornung's explanation of the origin +(quotation, 1894) is probably right. See <i>Rings</i>. + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 6: + +"A `ringer' being the man who by his superior skill and +expertness `tops the score'--that is, shears the highest number +of sheep per day." + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1: + +"Whence came the term `ringer,' as applied to the quickest +shearer, I don't know. It might possibly have some association +with a man who can get quoits on to the peg, and again, it +might not, as was remarked just now by my mate, who is camped +with me." + +1894. E. W. Hornung, `Boss of Taroomba,' p. 101: + +"They call him the ringer of the shed. That means the fastest +shearer--the man who runs rings round the rest, eh?" + +1894. `Geelong Grammar School Quarterly,' April, p. 26: + +"Another favourite [school] phrase is a `regular ringer.' +Great excellence is implied by this expression." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162: + +"The Shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong, + After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along + The `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn + before, + And the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half a + score." + +<hw>Ring-neck</hw>, <i>n</i>. the equivalent of <i>Jackaroo</i> +(q.v.). A term used in the back blocks in reference to the +white collar not infrequently worn by a <i>Jackaroo</i> on his +first appearance and when unaccustomed to the life of the bush. +The term is derived from the supposed resemblance of the collar +to the light- coloured band round the neck of the Ring-neck +Parrakeet. + +<hw>Rings, to run round</hw>: to beat out and out. A +picturesque bit of Australian slang. One runner runs straight +to the goal, the other is so much better that he can run round +and round his competitor, and yet reach the goal first. + +1891. `The Argus,' Oct.10, p. 13, col. 3: + +"Considine could run rings round the lot of them." + +1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 15, p. 6, col. 5: + +"As athletes the cocoons can run rings round the beans; +they can jump out of a tumbler." + +<hw>Ring-tail</hw>, or <hw>Ring-tailed Opossum</hw>, <i>n</i>. +See <i>Pseudochirus</i> and <i>Opossum</i>. + +<hw>Rinka-sporum</hw>, <i>n</i>. a mis-spelt name for the +Australian varieties of the tribe of <i>Rhyncosporeae</i>, +<i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>. This tribe includes twenty-one genera, +of which <i>Rhynchospora</i> (the type), <i>Schaenus</i>, +<i>Cladium</i>, and <i>Remirea</i> are widely distributed, +and the others are chiefly small genera of the Southern +Hemisphere, especially Australia. (`Century.') + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 93: + +"Rinka-sporum, a mass of white bloom." + +<hw>Riro-riro</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird. Maori name for the +Grey-Warbler of New Zealand, <i>Gerygone flaviventris</i>, +Gray. See <i>Gerygone</i>. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 44: + +[A full description.] + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 163: + +"A little wren managed to squeeze itself through, and it flew +off to Kurangai-tuku, and cried, `Kurangai-tuku, the man is +riro, riro, riro!'--that is, gone, gone, gone. And to this day +the bird is known as the riro-riro." + +<hw>River-Oak</hw>. See <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Roa</hw>, <i>n</i>. another Maori name for the largest or +<i>Brown Kiwi</i> (q.v.). In Maori the word <i>roa</i> means +long or big. + +<hw>Roaring Horsetails</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slang name for the +<i>Aurora Australis</i>. + +<hw>Robin</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name, in consequence of their +external resemblance to the familiar English bird, is applied, +in Australia, to species of the various genera as follows:-- + +Ashy-fronted Fly-Robin-- + <i>Heteromyias cinereifrons</i>, Ramsay. + +Buff-sided R.-- + <i>Poecilodryas cerviniventris</i>, Gould. + +Dusky R.-- + <i>Amaurodryas vittata</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Flame-breasted Robin-- + <i>Petroica phoenicea</i>, Gould. + +Hooded R.-- + <i>Melanodryas bicolor</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Pied R.-- + <i>M. picata</i>, Gould. + +Pink-breasted R.-- + <i>Erythrodryas rhodinogaster</i>, Drap. + +Red-capped R.-- + <i>Petroica goodenovii</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Red-throated R.-- + <i>P. ramsayi</i>, Sharp. + +Rose-breasted R.-- + <i>Erythrodryas rosea</i>, Gould. + +Scarlet-breasted R.-- + <i>Petroica leggii</i>, Sharp. + +Scrub R.-- + <i>Drymodes brunneopygia</i>, Gould. + +White-browed R. + <i>Poecilodryas superciliosa</i>, Gould. + +White-faced Scrub-R.-- + <i>Drymodes superciliaris</i>, Gould. + +The New Zealand species are-- + +Chatham Island Robin-- + <i>Miro traversi</i>, Buller. + +North Island R.-- + <i>M. australis</i>, Sparrm. + +South Island R.-- + <i>M. albifrons</i>, Gmel. + +Gould's enumeration of the species is given below. [See +quotations, 1848, 1869.] + +See also <i>Shrike-Robin</i>, <i>Scrub-Robin</i>, +and <i>Satin-Robin</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 242: + +"`This bird,' Mr. Caley says, `is called yellow-robin by the +colonists. It is an inhabitant of bushes'" + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii: + + Plate +<i>Petroica superciliosa</i>, Gould, White-eyebrowed + Robin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 + +<i>Drymodes brunneopygia</i>, Gould, Scrub Robin. . 10 + +<i>Eopsaltria leucogaster</i>, Gould, + White-bellied Robin . . . . . . . 13 + +1864. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 263: + +"Very soon comes a robin. . . . In the bush no matter +where you pitch, the robin always comes about, and when any +other of his tribe comes about, he bristles up his feathers, +and fights for his crumbs. . . . He is not at all pretty, +like the Australian or European robin, but a little sober black +and grey bird, with long legs, and a heavy paunch and big head; +like a Quaker, grave, but cheerful and spry withal." [This is +the Robin of New Zealand.] + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 93: + +"The New Zealand robin was announced, and I could see only a +fat little ball of a bird, with a yellowish-white breast." + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' [Supplement]: + +<i>Drymodes superciliaris</i>, Gould, Eastern Scrub Robin. + +<i>Petroica cerviniventris</i>, Gould, Buff-sided Robin. + +<i>Eopsaltria capito</i>, Gould, Large-headed Robin. + +<i>E. leucura</i>, Gould, White-tailed Robin. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 239: + +"The large red-breasted robin, kinsman true + Of England's delicate high-bred bird of home." + +1880. Mrs.Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 123: + +"The Robin is certainly more brilliantly beautiful than his +English namesake. . . . Black, red and white are the +colours of his dress, worn with perfect taste. The black is +shining jet, the red, fire, and the white, snow. There is a +little white spot on his tiny black-velvet cap, a white bar +across his pretty white wings, and his breast is, a living +flame of rosy, vivid scarlet." + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 235: + +"Here, too, the `careful robin eyes the delver's toil,' and as +he snatches the worm from the gardener's furrow, he turns to us +a crimson-scarlet breast that gleams in the sun beside the +golden buttercups like a living coal. The hues of his English +cousin would pale beside him ineffectual." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 54: + +"The flame-breasted robin no longer lingers showing us his +brilliant breast while he sings out the cold grey afternoons +in his tiny treble. He has gone with departing winter." + +<hw>Rock-Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Red-Cod</i> in New +Zealand, <i>Pseudophycis barbatus</i>, Gunth., family +<i>Gadidae</i>. In New Zealand the <i>Blue-Cod</i>(q.v.) is +also called <i>Rock-Cod</i>. Species of the allied genus +<i>Lotella</i> are also called <i>Rock-Cod</i> in New South +Wales. See <i>Beardy</i> and <i>Ling</i>. + +1883. `Royal Commission on the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 40: + +"A variety known to fishermen as the deep-water, or Cape-cod. +. . . It would appear that the latter is simply the mature form +of the `rock-cod,' which enters the upper waters of estuaries +in vast numbers during the month of May. . . The rock-cod +rarely exceeds 2 1/2 lbs. weight." + +<hw>Rocket, Native</hw>, a Tasmanian name for <i>Epacris +lanuginosa</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. See +<i>Epacris</i>. + +<hw>Rock Lily</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Rock-Ling</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marine fish. The Australian +R. is <i>Genypterus australis</i>, Castln., family +<i>Ophidiidae</i>. The European R. belongs to the genera +<i>Onos</i> and <i>Rhinonemus</i>, formerly <i>Motella</i>. +Of the genus <i>Genypterus</i>, Guenther says they have an +excellent flesh, like cod, well adapted for curing. At the +Cape they are known by the name of "Klipvisch," and in New +Zealand as <i>Ling</i>, or <i>Cloudy-Bay Cod</i>. + +<hw>Rock-Native</hw>, or <hw>Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name +given to the fish called a <i>Schnapper</i> when it has +ceased to "school." See <i>Schnapper</i>. + +<hw>Rock-Parrakeet</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian +<i>Grass-Parrakeet</i>(q.v.), <i>Euphema petrophila</i>, Gould. +It gets its name from its habitat, the rocks and crags. + +<hw>Rock-Pebbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Black-tailed Parrakeet</i>. See <i>Parrakeet</i>. + +<hw>Rock-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name given in Melbourne +to the fish <i>Glyphidodon victoriae</i>, Gunth., family +<i>Pomacentridae</i>, or <i>Coral-fishes</i>. It is not +a true Perch. + +<hw>Rock-shelter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a natural cave-dwelling +of the aborigines. See <i>Gibber-Gunyah</i>. + +1891. R. Etheridge, jun., in `Records of the Australian +Museum,' vol. i. No. viii. p. 171 (`Notes on Rock +Shelters or Gibba-gunyahs at Deewhy Lagoon'): + +". . . The Shelters are of the usual type seen throughout the +Port Jackson district, recesses in the escarpment, overhung by +thick, more or less tabular masses of rock, in some cases dry +and habitable, in others wet and apparently never used by the +Aborigines." + +<hw>Rock-Wallaby</hw>, <i>n</i>. the popular name for any +animal of the genus <i>Petrogale</i> (q.v.). There are six +species-- + +Brush-tailed Rock-Wallaby-- + <i>Petrogale penicillata</i>, Gray. + +Little R.-W.-- + <i>P. concinna</i>, Gould. + +Plain-coloured R.-W.-- + <i>P. inornata</i>, Gould. + +Rock-W., or West-Australian R.-W.-- + <i>P. lateralis</i>, Gould. + +Short-eared R.-W.-- + <i>P. brachyotis</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-footed R.-W.-- + <i>P. xanthopus</i>, Gray. + +See <i>Wallaby</i>. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. viii. p. 58: + +"A light, active chap, spinning over the stones like a rock +wallaby." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 119: + +"They rode and rode, but Warrigal was gone like a rock +wallaby." + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 43: + +"The Rock-Wallabies are confined to the mainland of Australia, +on which they are generally distributed, but are unknown in +Tasmania. Although closely allied to the true Wallabies, their +habits are markedly distinct, the Rock-Wallabies frequenting +rugged, rocky districts, instead of the open plains." + +<hw>Roger Gough</hw>, <i>n</i>. an absurd name given to the +tree <i>Baloghia lucida</i>, Endl., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 382: + +"Scrub, or brush bloodwood, called also `Roger Gough.'" + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +"Who were Messrs. James Donnelly, James Low, and Roger Gough +that their names should have been bestowed on trees? Were they +growers or buyers of timber? Was the first of the list any +relative of the Minnesota lawyer who holds strange views about +a great cryptogram in Shakespeare's plays? Was the last of the +three any relative of the eminent soldier who won the battles +of Sobraon and Ferozeshah? Or, as is more probable, were the +names mere corruptions of aboriginal words now lost?" + +<hw>Roll up</hw>, <i>v. intr</i>. to gather, to assemble. + +1887. J. Farrell, `How he died,' p. 26: + +"The miners all rolled up to see the fun." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xx. p. 185: + +"At the Warraluen and other gold towns, time after time the +ominous words `roll up' had sounded forth, generally followed +by the gathering of a mighty crowd." + +<hw>Roll-up</hw>, <i>n</i>. a meeting. See preceding verb. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xxxv. p. 308: + +"Making as much noise as if you'd hired the bell-man for a +roll-up?" + +<hw>Roly-poly Grass</hw>, or <i>Roley-poley</i>, <i>n</i>. +name given to <i>Panicum macractinium</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Gramineae</i>; and also to <i>Salsola Kali</i>, +Linn., <i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>. See <i>Grass</i>. + +1859. D. Bunce, `Travels with Dr. Leichhardt in Australia,' +pp. 167-8: + +"Very common to these plains, was a large-growing +<i>salsolaceous</i> plant, belonging to the +<i>Chenopodeaceae</i>, of Jussieu. These weeds grow in the +form of a large ball. . . . No sooner were a few of these +balls (or, as we were in the habit of calling them, +`rolly-poleys') taken up with the current of air, than the +mules began to kick and buck. . . ." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 468: + +"A salsolaceous plant growing in the form of a ball several +feet high. In the dry season it withers, and is easily broken +off and rolled about by the winds, whence it is called +roley-poly by the settlers." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 100: + +"Roly-Poly Grass. This species produces immense dry and +spreading panicles; it is perennial, and seeds in November and +December. It is a somewhat straggling species, growing in +detached tufts, on sand-hills and sandy soil, and much relished +by stock." + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central +Australia,' Narrative, p. 13: + +"On the loamy flats, and even gibber plains, the most +noticeable plant is <i>Salsola kali</i>, popularly known as the +Rolly-polly. It is, when mature, one of the characteristically +prickly plants of the Lower Steppes, and forms great spherical +masses perhaps a yard or more in diameter." + +<hw>Roman-Lamp Shell</hw>, name given in Tasmania to a +brachiopod mollusc, <i>Waldheimia flavescens</i>, Lamarck. + +<hw>Roo</HW>, a termination, treated earlier as the name of an +animal. It is the termination of <i>potoroo, wallaroo</i>, +<i>kangaroo</i>. See especially the last. It may be added +that it is very rare for aboriginal words to begin with the +letter `r.' + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales' [Observations at +the end, by Mr. John Hunter, the celebrated surgeon]: + +Plate p. 272--A kangaroo. Description of teeth. + +Plate p. 278--Wha Tapoua Roo, about the size of a Racoon +[probably an opossum]. + +Plate p. 286--A Poto Roo or Kangaroo-Rat. + +Plate p. 288--Hepoona Roo. + +<hw>Rope</hw>, v. tr. to catch a horse or bullock with a noosed +rope. It comes from the Western United States, where it has +superseded the original Spanish word <i>lasso</i>, still used +in California. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxi. p. 150: + +"You could `rope' . . . any Clifton colt or filly, back them +in three days, and within a week ride a journey." + +<hw>Ropeable</hw>, <i>adj</i>. (1) Of cattle; so wild and +intractable as to be capable of subjection only by being roped. +See preceding word. + +(2) By transference: intractable, angry, out of temper. + +1891. `The Argus,' Oct. 10, p. 13, col. 4: + +"The service has shown itself so `ropeable' heretofore that +one experiences now a kind of chastened satisfaction in seeing +it roped and dragged captive at Sir Frederick's saddle-bow." + +1896. Modern. In school-boy slang: "You must not chaff him, +he gets so ropeable." + +<hw>Roping-pole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a long pole used for casting +a rope over an animal's head in the stockyard. + +1880. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iv. p. 44: + +"I happened to knock down the superintendent with a +roping-pole." + +1895. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125: + +"I'm travelling down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand, + I'm handy with the ropin'-pole, I'm handy with the brand, + And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, + But there's no demand for a station-hand along the Castlereagh." + +<hw>Rosary-shell</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Europe, the name is +applied to any marine gastropod shell of the genus +<i>Monodonta</i>. In Australia, it is applied to the shell +of <i>Nerita atrata</i>, Lamarck, a marine mollusc of small +size and black colour used for necklaces, bracelets, and +in place of the "beads" of a rosary. + +<hw>Rose</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the Australian shrub, +<i>Boronia serrulata</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. It has +bright green leaves and very fragrant rose-coloured flowers. + +<hw>Rose-Apple</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Sweet +Plum</i>. See under <i>Plum</i>. + +<hw>Rose-bush</hw>, a timber-tree, <i>Eupomatia laurina</i>, +R. Br., <i>N.O. Anonaceae</i>. + +<hw>Rose-hill</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given by Gould as +applied to two Parrakeets-- + +(1) <i>Platycercus eximius</i>, Vig. and Hors., called by the +Colonists of New South Wales, and by Gould, the <i>Rose-hill +Parrakeet</i>. + +(2) <i>Platycercus icterotis</i>, Wagl., called by the +Colonists of Swan River, Western Australia, the +<i>Rose-hill</i>, and by Gould the <i>Earl of Derby's +Parrakeet</i>. + +The modern name for both these birds is <i>Rosella</i> (q.v.), +though it is more specifically confined to the first. +<i>`Rose-hill</i>' was the name of the Governor's residence +at Parramatta, near Sydney, in the early days of the settlement +of New South Wales, and the name <i>Rosella</i> is a settler's +corruption of <i>Rose-hiller</i>, though the erroneous +etymology from the Latin <i>rosella</i> (sc. `a little rose') +is that generally given. The word <i>Rosella</i>, however, +is not a scientific name, and does not appear as the name +of any genus or species; it is vernacular only, and no settler +or bushman is likely to have gone to the Latin to form it. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 27: + +"<i>Platycercus eximius</i>, Vig. & Hors. <i>Rose-hill +Parrakeet</i>; Colonists of New South Wales." + +Ibid. vol. v. pl. 29: + +"<i>Platycercus icterotis</i>, Wagl. The Earl of Derby's +Parrakeet; <i>Rose-hill</i> of the Colonists [of Swan River]." + +<hw>Rosella</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A bird, <i>Platycercus +eximius</i>, the <i>Rosehill</i> (q.v.). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 80: + +"The common white cockatoo, and the Moreton Bay Rosella parrot, +were very numerous." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 99: + + "Saw the bright rosellas fly, +With breasts that glowed like sunsets + In the fiery western sky." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 13, col. 5: + +"The solitudes where the lorikeets and rosellas chatter." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 60: + +"As [the race] sweeps past the Stand every year in a close +bright mass the colours, of the different clubs, are as +dazzling and gay in the sun as a brilliant flight of galahs +and rosellas." + +(2) In Northern Australia, it is a slang name for a European +who works bared to the waist, which some, by a gradual process +of discarding clothing, acquire the power of doing. The +scorching of the skin by the sun produces a colour which +probably suggested a comparison with the bright scarlet of the +parrakeet so named. + +<hw>Rosemary</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the shrub +<i>Westringia dampieri</i>, R. Br., <i>N.0. Labiatae</i>. + +1703. W. Dampier, `Voyage to New Holland,' vol. iii. p. 138: + +"There grow here 2 or 3 sorts of Shrubs, one just like +Rosemary; and therefore I call'd this <i>Rosemary Island</i>. +It grew in great plenty here, but had no smell." + +[This island is in or near Shark's Bay] + +<hw>Rosemary, Golden</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania +to the plant <i>Oxylobium ellipticum</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Rosemary, Wild</hw>, a slender Australian timber-tree, +<i>Cassinia laevis</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. + +<hw>Rose, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Bauera</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Rosewood</hw>, name given to the timber of three trees. +(1) <i>Acacia glaucescens</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; +called also <i>Brigalow, Mountain Brigalow</i>, and +<i>Myall</i>. + +(2) <i>Dysoxylon fraserianum</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>; called also <i>Pencil Cedar</i>. + +(3) <i>Eremophila mitchelli</i>, Benth. <i>N.O. Myoporinae</i>; +called also <i>Sandalwood</i>. + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 203: + +"One or two trees of a warmer green, of what they call +`rosewood,' I believe gave a fine effect, relieving the sober +greyish green of the pendent acacia." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' p. 4: + +"The Rosewood Acacia of Moreton Bay." + +<hw>Rough</hw>, or <hw>Roughy</hw>, or <hw>Ruffy</hw>, +or <hw>Ruffie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Victorian fish, <i>Arripis +georgianus</i>, Cuv. and Val., family <i>Percidae</i>. +<i>Arripis</i> is the genus of the Australian fish called +Salmon, or Salmon-trout, <i>A. salar</i>, Gunth. +See <i>Salmon</i>. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, 1881: + +"Common fish, such as trout, ruffies mullet . . . and others." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Fisheries, Second Schedule' +[Close Season]: + +"Rough, or Roughy." + +<hw>Rough Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Fig-tree</i>. + +<hw>Rough-leaved Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Fig-tree</i>. + +<hw>Round</hw>, <i>v. trans</i>., contraction of the verb to +<i>round-up</i>, to bring a scattered herd together; used in +all grazing districts, and common in the Western United States. + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"A friend of mine who has spent many a night rounding the mob +on lonely Queensland cattle camps where hostile blacks were as +thick as dingoes has a peculiar aversion to one plain covered +with dead gums, because the curlews always made him feel +miserable when crossing it at night." + +<hw>Round Yam</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Burdekin Vine</i>. +See under <i>Vine</i>. + +<hw>Rouseabout</hw>, <i>n</i>. a station-hand put on to any +work, a Jack of all work, an `odd man.' The form `roustabout' +is sometimes used, but the latter is rather an American word +(Western States), in the sense of a labourer on a river boat, a +deck-hand who assists in loading and unloading. + +1887. J. Farrell, `How he died,' p. 19: + +"It may be the rouseabout swiper who rode for the doctor that + night, + Is in Heaven with the hosts of the Blest, robed and sceptred, + and splendid with light." + +18W. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 6: + +"The `rouseabouts' are another class of men engaged in shearing +time, whose work is to draft the sheep, fill the pens for the +shearers, and do the branding. . . . The shearers hold themselves +as the aristocrats of the shed; and never associate with the +rouseabouts." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 58: + +"While we sat there, a rouseabout came to the door. `Mountain +Jim's back,' he said. There was no `sir' in the remark of +this lowest of stationhands to his master." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost): + +"A rougher person--perhaps a happier--is the rouseabout, who +makes himself useful in the shearing shed. He is clearly a man +of action. He is sometimes with less elegance, and one would +say less correctly, spoken of as a roustabout." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 98 [Title of +poem, `Middleton's Rouseabout']: + +"Flourishing beard and sandy, + Tall and robust and stout; + This is the picture of Andy, + Middleton's Rouseabout." + +<hw>Rowdy</hw>, <i>adj</i>. troublesome. Common slang, +but unusual as applied to a bullock or a horse. + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 69: + +"Branding or securing a troublesome or, colonially, a `rowdy' +bullock." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River, p. 125: + +"And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day." + +<hw>Rua</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word (used in North Island) +for a pit, cave or hole. A place for storing roots, +such as potatoes, etc. Formerly some of these <i>rua</i> +had carved entrances. + +<hw>Ruffy</hw> or <hw>Ruffie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. +See <i>Rough</i> or <i>Roughy</i>. + +<hw>Run</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Tract of land over which sheep or +cattle may graze. It is curious that what in England is called +a sheep-walk, in Australia is a sheep-run. In the Western +United States it is a sheep-ranch. Originally the squatter, or +sheep-farmer, did not own the land. It was unfenced, and he +simply had the right of grazing or "running" his sheep or +cattle on it. Subsequently, in many cases, he purchased the +freehold, and the word is now applied to a large station +property, fenced or unfenced. (See quotation, 1883.) + +1826. Goldie, in Bischoff's `Van Diemen's Land' (1832), +p. 157: + +"It is generally speaking a good sheep-run." + +1828. Report of Van Diemen's band Company, in Bischoff's +`Van Diemen's Land' (1832), p. 117: + +"A narrow slip of good sheep-run down the west coast." + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 8, p. 4, col. 3: + +"The thousand runs stated as the number in Port Phillip under +the new regulations will cost L12,800,000." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 367: + +"`Runs,' land claimed by the squatter as sheep-walks, open, as +nature left them, without any improvement from the squatter." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 78: + +"The runs of the Narran wide-dotted with sheep, + And loud with the lowing of cattle." + +1864. W. Westgarth, `Colony of Victoria,' p. 273: + +"Here then is a squatting domain of the old unhedged stamp. +The station or the `run,' as these squatting areas are called, +borders upon the Darling, along which river it possesses a +frontage of thirty-five lineal miles, with a back area of 800 +square miles." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 34: + +"The desire of some to turn Van Diemen's Land into a large +squatter's run, by the passing of the Impounding Act, was the +immediate cause, he told us, of his taking up the project of a +poor man's country elsewhere." + +1870. `/Delta/,' `Studies in Rhyme,' p. 26: + +"Of squatters' runs we've oft been told, + The People's Lands impairing." + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 73 +[Note]: + +"A run is the general term for the tract of country on which +Australians keep their stock, or allow them to `run.'" + +(2) The bower of the <i>Bowerbird</i> (q.v.). + +1840. `Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' p. 94: + +"They are used by the birds as a playing-house, or `run,' +as it is termed, and are used by the males to attract +the females." + +<hw>Run-about</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. +<i>Run-abouts</i> are cattle left to graze at will, +and the <i>runabout</i>-yard is the enclosure for homing them. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 218: + +"`Open that gate, Piambook,' said Ernest gravely, pointing to +the one which led into the `run-about' yard." + +<hw>Run-hunting</hw>, exploring for a new run. See <i>Run</i>. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xix. p. 238: + +"What do you say if I go run-hunting with you?" + +<hw>Running-Postman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian plant, +i.q. <i>Coral-Pea</i>. See <i>Kennedya</i>. + +<hw>Ruru</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand bird, +the <i>More-pork</i>, <i>Athene novae-zelandiae</i>, +Gmel. (q.v.). + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 45: + +"The ruru's voice re-echoes, desolate." + +<hw>Rush</hw>, v. (1) Of cattle: to charge a man. +Contraction for to <i>rush-at</i>. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 122: + +"When not instigated by terror, wild cattle will seldom attack +the traveller; even of those which run at him, or `rush,' as it +is termed, few will really toss or gore, or even knock him +down." + +(2) To attack sheep; i.e. to cause them to <i>rush about</i> +or <i>away</i>. + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 153: + +"Sometimes at night this animal [the dingo] will leap into the +fold amongst the timid animals [sheep] and so `rush' them--that +is, cause them to break out and disperse through the bush." + +(3) To break through a barrier (of men or materials). +Contraction for to <i>rush past</i> or <i>through</i>; +e.g. to rush a cordon of policemen; to rush a fence +(i.e. to break-down or climb-over it). + +(4) To take possession of, or seize upon, either by force or +before the appointed time. Compare <i>Jump</i>. + +1896. Modern: + +"Those who had no tickets broke through and rushed all the +seats." + +"The dancers becoming very hungry did not stand on ceremony, +but rushed the supper." + +(5) To flood with gold-seekers. + +1887. H. H. Hayter, `Christmas Adventure,' p. 3: + +"The Bald Hill had just been rushed, and therefore +I decided to take up a claim." + +<hw>Rush</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) The hurrying off of diggers +to a new field. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 86: + +"We had a long conversation on the `rush,' as it was termed." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. i., p. 19: + +"Arouse you, my comrades, for <i>rush</i> is the word, + Advance to the strife with a pick for a sword." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 13, p. 6, col. 2: + +"Fell Timber Creek, where a new rush had set in." + +(2) A place where gold is found, and to which consequently +a crowd of diggers "rush." + +1855. William Howitt, `Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years +in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 172: + +"It is a common practice for them to mark out one or more +claims in each new rush, so as to make sure if it turn out +well. But only one claim at a time is legal and tenable. +This practice is called shepherding." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 22, p. 34, col. 1: + +"The Palmer River rush is a perfect swindle." + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for Mail,' p. 34: + +"Off we set to the Dunstan rush, just broken out." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 92: + +"Morinish, was a worked-out rush close to Rockhampton, where +the first attempt at gold-digging had been made in Queensland." + +(3) A stampede of cattle. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 102: + +"A confused whirl of dark forms swept before him, and the camp, +so full of life a minute ago, is desolate. It was `a rush,' a +stampede." + +<hw>Rush-broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian name for the +indigenous shrub <i>Viminaria denudata</i>, Sm., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. The flowers are orange-yellow. +In England, it is cultivated in greenhouses. + +<hw>Rusty Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Fig-tree</i>. + + + +S + + +<hw>Saddle, Colonial</hw>, <i>n</i>. + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 53: + +"The colonial saddle is a shapeless, cumbersome fabric, +made of rough leather, with a high pommel and cantle, and huge +knee-pads, weighing on an average twenty pounds. The greatest +care is necessary to prevent such a diabolical machine from +giving a horse a sore back." + +[Mr. Finch-Hatton's epithet is exaggerated. The saddle is +well adapted to its peculiar local purposes. The projecting +knee-pads, especially, save the rider from fractured knee-caps +when galloping among closely timbered scrub. The ordinary +English saddle is similarly varied by exaggeration of different +parts to suit special requirements, as e.g. in the military +saddle, with its enormous pommel; the diminutive racing saddle, +to meet handicappers' "bottom-weights," etc. The mediaeval +saddle had its turret-like cantle for the armoured spearman.] + +<hw>Saddle-Back</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of the North Island of +New Zealand, <i>Creadion carunculatus</i>, Cab. See also +<i>Jack-bird</i> and <i>Creadion</i>. + +1868. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' Essay on +Ornithology, by W. Buller, vol. i. p. 5: + +"The <i>Saddle-back</i> (Creadion carunculatus) of the North +is represented in the South by C. cinereus, a closely allied +species." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 64: + +"It is the sharp, quick call of the saddle-back." + +1886. A. Reischek, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xix. art. xxiii. p. 102: + +"The bird derives its popular name from a peculiarity in the +distribution of its two strongly contrasting colours, uniform +black, back and shoulders ferruginous, the shoulders of the +wings forming a saddle. In structure it resembles the starling +(<i>Sturnidae</i>); it has also the wedge bill." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 18: + +"<i>Creadion Carunculatus</i>. This bird derives its popular +name from a peculiarity in the distribution of its too strongly +contrasted colours, black and ferruginous, the latter of which +covers the back, forms a sharply-defined margin across the +shoulders, and sweeps over the wings in a manner suggestive of +saddle-flaps." + +<hw>Sagg</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name given in Tasmania to the +plant <i>Xerotes longifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Junceae</i>, +and also to the White Iris, <i>Diplarhena morcaea</i>. + +<hw>Saliferous</hw>, <i>adj</i>. salt-bearing. See +<i>Salt-bush</i>. The word is used in geology in ordinary +English, but the botanical application is Australian. + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 277: + +"You have only to cover the desert with pale-green saliferous +bushes, no higher than a man's knee." + +<hw>Sallee</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for many varieties +of the <i>Acacia</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Sally</hw>, <hw>Sallow</hw>, <i>n</i>. corruptions of the +aboriginal word <i>Sallee</i> (q.v.). There are many +varieties, e.g. <i>Black-Sally</i>, <i>White-Sally</i>, etc. + +<hw>Salmon</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English Salmon is being +acclimatised with difficulty in Tasmania and New Zealand; +the <i>Trout</i> more successfully. But in all Australian, +New Zealand, and Tasmanian waters there is a marine fish +which is called Salmon; it is not the true Salmon of the +Old World, but <i>Arripis salar</i>, Gunth., and called +in New Zealand by the Maori name <i>Kahawai</i>. The fish +is often called also <i>Salmon-Trout</i>. The young is +called <i>Samson-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of the English Colony of New South +Wales,' p. 136: + +[Sept. 1790.] "Near four thousand of a fish, named by us, +from its shape only, the Salmon, being taken at two hauls +of the seine. Each fish weighed on an average about five +pounds." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 93: + +"The kawai has somewhat of the habits of the salmon, entering +during spring and summer into the bays, rivers, and fresh-water +creeks in large shoals." + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 393: + +"<i>Arripis salar</i>, South Australia. Three species are +known, from the coasts of Southern Australia and New Zealand. +They are named by the colonists Salmon or Trout, from their +elegant form and lively habits, and from the sport they afford +to the angler." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 35: + +"<i>Arripis salar</i>, Gunth., is in the adult state the salmon +of the Australian fishermen, and their salmon trout is the +young. . . . The most common of all Victorian fishes +. . . does not resemble the true salmon in any important +respect . . . It is the <i>A. truttaceus</i> of Cuvier +and Valenciennes." + +<hw>Salmon-Trout</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Salmon</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Saloop-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to an erect +soft-stemmed bush, <i>Rhagodia hastata</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>, one of the Australian Redberries, +two to three feet high. See <i>Redberry</i> and <i>Salt-bush</i>. + +<hw>Salsolaceous</hw>, <i>adj</i>. belongs to the natural order +<i>Salsolaceae</i>. The shrubs of the order are not peculiar +to Australia, but are commoner there than elsewhere. + +1837. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 906: + +"Passing tufts of samphire and <i>salsolaceous</i> plants." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' c. xlii. (`Century'): + +"It is getting hopeless now . . . sand and nothing but sand. +The salsolaceous plants, so long the only vegetation we have +seen, are gone." + +<hw>Salt-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. the wild alkaline +herb or shrub, growing on the interior plains of Australia, +on which horses and sheep feed, of the <i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>. +The genera are <i>Atriplex, Kochia</i>, and <i>Rhagodia</i>. +Of the large growth, <i>A. nummularium</i>, Lindl., +and of the dwarf species, <i>A. vesicarium</i>, Heward, +and <i>A. halimoides</i>, Lindl., are the commonest. +Some species bear the additional names of <i>Cabbage +Salt-bush</i>, <i>Old-Man Salt-bush</i>, <i>Small Salt-bush</i>, +<i>Blue-bush</i>, <i>Cotton-bush</i>, <i>Saloop-bush</i>, etc. +Some varieties are very rich in salt. <i>Rhagodia +parabolica</i>, R. Br., for instance, according to +Mr. Stephenson, who accompanied Sir T. Mitchell in one of his +expeditions, yields as much as two ounces of salt by boiling +two pounds of leaves. + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. ii. p. 89: + +"This inland salt-bush country suits the settler's purpose +well." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 144: + +"The ground is covered with the sage-coloured salt-bush +all the year round, but in the winter it blooms with flowers." + + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xxi. p. 262: + +"How glorious it will be to see them pitching into that lovely +salt-bush by the lake." + +1892. E. W. Hornung, `Under Two Skies,' p. 11: + +"The surrounding miles of salt-bush plains and low monotonous +scrub oppressed her when she wandered abroad. There was not +one picturesque patch on the whole dreary run." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 92: + +"Over the miles of the salt-bush plain-- + The shining plain that is said to be + The dried-up bed of an inland sea. + +. . . . . . . . . . . . + + For those that love it and understand, + The salt-bush plain is a wonderland." + +<hw>Samson-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Sydney to +<i>Seriola hippos</i>, Gunth., family <i>Carangidae</i>; +and in Melbourne to the young of <i>Arripis salar</i>, +Richards., family <i>Percidae</i>. See <i>Salmon</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 60: + +"The samson-fish (Senola hippos, Gunth.) is occasionally +caught. The great strength of these fishes is remarkable, and +which probably is the cause that gave it the name of +Samson-fish, as sailors or shipwrights give to the name of a +strong post resting on the keelson of a ship, and supporting +the upper beam, and bearing all the weight of the deck cargo +near the hold, <i>Samson-post</i>." + +<hw>Sandalwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to many +Australian trees from the strong scent of their timber. +They are -- + +Of the <i>N.O. Santalaceae</i>-- + +<i>Exocarpos latifolia</i>, R. Br.; called +<i>Scrub-Sandalwood</i>. + +<i>Fusanus spicatus</i>, R. Br.; called <i>Fragrant +Sandalwood</i>. + +<i>Santalum lanceolatum</i>, R. Br. + +<i>S. obtusifodum</i>, R. Br. + +<i>Santalum persicarium</i>, F. v. M.; called <i>Native +Sandalwood</i>. + +Of the <i>N.O. Myoporinae</i>-- + +<i>Eremophila mitchelli</i>, Benth.; called also +<i>Rosewood</i> and <i>Bastard-Sandalwood</i>. + +<i>E. sturtii</i>, R. Br.; called curiously the <i>Scentless +Sandalwood</i>. + +<i>Myoporum platycarpum</i>, R. Br.; called also <i>Dogwood</i> +(q.v.). + +Of the <i>N.O. Apocyneae</i>-- + +<i>Alyxia buxifolia</i>, R. Br.; called <i>Native +Sandalwood</i> in Tasmania. + +<hw>Sandfly-bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian name +for the indigenous tree <i>Zieria smithii</i>, Andr., +<i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. Called also <i>Turmeric</i>, +and in Tasmania, <i>Stinkwood</i>. + +<hw>Sand-Lark</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Australia to the +Red-capped Dottrel, <i>Charadrius ruficapilla</i>, Temm. + +1867. W. Richardson, `Tasmanian Poems,' pref. p. xi: + +"The nimble sand-lark learns his pretty note." + +<hw>Sandpiper</hw>, <i>n</i>. About twenty species of this +familiar sea-bird exist. It belongs especially to the Northern +Hemisphere, but it performs such extensive migrations that in +the northern winter it is dispersed all over the world. +(`Century.') The species observed in Australia are-- + +Bartram's Sandpiper-- + <i>Tringa bartrami</i>. + +Common S.-- + <i>Actitis hypoleucos</i>, Linn. + +Great S.-- + <i>Tringa crassirostris</i>, Temm. and Schleg. + +Grey-rumped S.-- + <i>T. brevisses</i>. + +<hw>Sandplover</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand. +According to Professor Parker, only two genera of this common +bird are to be found in New Zealand. There is no bird bearing +the name in Australia. See <i>Plover</i> and <i>Wry-billed +Plover</i>. + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 116: + +"But two genera of the group [Wading Birds] are found only in +New Zealand, the Sandplover and the curious Wry-billed Plover." + +<hw>Sand-stay</hw>, <i>n</i>. a characteristic name for the +<i>Coast Tea-Tree</i>, <i>Leptospermum laevigatum</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. See <i>Tea-Tree</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 642: + +"Sandstay. Coast Tea-Tree. This shrub is the most effectual +of all for arresting the progress of driftsand in a warm +climate. It is most easily raised by simply scattering in +autumn the seeds on the sand, and covering them loosely with +boughs, or, better still, by spreading lopped-off branches of +the shrub itself, bearing ripe seed, on the sand. (Mueller.)" + +<hw>Sandy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian fish, <i>Uphritis +urvillii</i>, Cuv. and Val, family <i>Trachinidae</i>; also +called the <i>Fresh-water Flathead</i>. See <i>Flathead</i>. + +<hw>Sandy-blight</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of ophthalmia common in +Australia, in which the eye feels as if full of sand. Called +also shortly, <i>Blight</i>. + +Shakspeare has <i>sand-blind</i> (<i>M. of V</i>. II. ii. 31); +Launcelot says-- + +"0 heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being +more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not." + +On this, the American commentator, Mr. Rolfe, notes-- + +"<i>Sand-blind</i>. Dim of sight; as if there were sand in the +eye, or perhaps floating before it. It means something more +than purblind." + +"As if there were sand in the eye,"--an admirable description +of the Australian <i>Sandy-blight</i>. + +1869. J. F. Blanche, `The Prince's Visit,' p. 20: + +"The Prince was suff'ring from the sandy blight." + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 46: + +"Sandy-blight occurs generally in sandy districts in the North +Kennedy; it may be avoided by ordinary care, and washing the +eyes after a hot ride through sandy country. It is a species +of mild ophthalmia." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 78: + +"He had pretty near lost his eyesight with the sandy blight, +which made him put his head forward when he spoke, as if he +took you for some one else, or was looking for what he couldn't +find." + +<hw>Sarcophile</hw>, and <hw>Sarcophilus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +scientific name of the genus of carnivorous marsupial animals +of which the <i>Tasmanian Devil</i> (q.v.) is the only known +living species.(Grk. <i>sarkos</i>, flesh, and <i>philein</i>, +to love.) + +<hw>Sardine</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Australia to a +fresh-water fish, <i>Chatoessus erebi</i>, Richards., of the +herring tribe, occurring in West and North-West Australia, and +in Queensland rivers, and which is called in the Brisbane river +the <i>Sardine</i>. It is the <i>Bony Bream</i> of the New +South Wales rivers, and the <i>Perth Herring</i> of Western +Australia. + +<hw>Sarsaparilla, Australian</hw> or <hw>Native</hw>, +<i>n</i>. (1) An ornamental climbing shrub, <i>Hardenbergia +monophylla</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. Formerly +called <i>Kennedya</i> (q.v.). + +(2) <i>Smilax glycyphylla</i>, Smith, <i>N.0. Liliaceae</i>. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 114: + +"Native Sarsaparilla. The roots of this beautiful purple- +flowered twiner (<i>Hardenbergia monophylla</i>) are used by +bushmen as a substitute for the true sarsaparilla, which is +obtained from a widely different plant." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 189: + +"Commonly, but wrongly, called `Native Sarsaparilla.' The +roots are sometimes used by bushmen as a substitute for the +true sarsaparilla (<i>Smilax</i>), but its virtues are purely +imaginary. It is a common thing in the streets of Sydney, +to see persons with large bundles of the leaves on their +shoulders, doubtless under the impression that they have the +leaves of the true Sarsaparilla, <i>Smilax glycyphylla</i>." + +1896. `The Argus,' Sept. 8, p. 7, col. 1: + +"He will see, too, the purple of the sarsaparilla on the +hill-sides, and the golden bloom of the wattle on the flats, +forming a beautiful contrast in tint. Old diggers consider the +presence of sarsaparilla and the ironbark tree as indicative of +the existence of golden wealth below. Whether these can be +accepted as indicators in the vegetable kingdom of gold below +is questionable, but it is nevertheless a fact that the +sarsaparilla and the ironbark tree are common on most of +Victoria's goldfields." + +<hw>Sassafras</hw>, <i>n</i>. corruption of <hw>Saxafas</hw>, +which is from <hw>Saxifrage</hw>. By origin, the word means +"stone-breaking," from its medicinal qualities. The true +<i>Sassafras</i> (<i>S. officinale</i>) is the only species of +the genus. It is a North-American tree, about forty feet high, +but the name has been given to various trees in many parts of +the world, from the similarity, either of their appearance or +of the real or supposed medicinal properties of their bark. + +In Australia, the name is given to-- + +<i>Atherosperma moschatum</i>, Labill., +<i>N.0. Monimiaceae</i>; called <i>Native Sassafras</i>, +from the odour of its bark, due to an essential oil +closely resembling true Sassafras in odour. (Maiden.) + +<i>Beilschmiedia obtusifolia</i>, Benth., +<i>N.0. Lauraceae</i>; called <i>Queensland Sassafras</i>, +a large and handsome tree. + +<i>Cryptocarya glaucescens</i>, R. Br., <i>N.0. Lauraceae</i>; +the <i>Sassafras</i> of the early days of New South Wales, and +now called <i>Black Sassafras</i>. + +<i>Daphnandra micrantha</i>, Benth., <i>N.0. Monimiaceae</i>, +called also <i>Satinwood</i>, and <i>Light Yellow-wood</i>. + +<i>Doryphora sassafras</i>, Endl., <i>N.0. Monimiaceae</i>. + +Grey Sassafras is the <i>Moreton-Bay Laurel</i>. +See <i>Laurel</i>. + +The New Zealand Sassafras is <i>Laurelia novae-zelandiae</i>. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134: + +"The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in +the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of <i>Cryptocarya +glaucescens</i>, the Australian sassafras." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 166: + +"The beautiful Tasmanian sassafras-tree is also a dweller in +some parts of our fern-tree valleys. . . . The flowers are +white and fragrant, the leaves large and bright green, and the +bark has a most aromatic scent, besides being, in a decoction, +an excellent tonic medicine. . . . The sawyers and other +bushmen familiar with the tree call it indiscriminately +`saucifax,' `sarserfrax,' and `satisfaction.'" + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 206: + +"A Tasmanian timber. Height, 40 ft.; dia., 14 in. Found on +low, marshy ground. Used for sashes and doorframes." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods,' No. 36: + +"<i>Atherosperma moschatum</i>, Victorian sassafras-tree, +<i>N.O. Monimiaceae</i>." + +<hw>Satin-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Satin +Bower-bird</i>. See <i>Bower-bird</i>. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' +vol. xv. p. 264: + +The natives call it Cowry, the colonists Satin-Bird." + +<hw>Satin-Robin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Satin Fly-catcher</i>, <i>Myiagra nitida</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Satin-Sparrow</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Satin-Robin</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Satinwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied to two Australian +trees from the nature of their timber--<i>Xanthoxylum +brachyacanthum</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>, called also +<i>Thorny Yellow-wood</i>; <i>Daphnandra micrantha</i>, Benth., +<i>N.O. Monimiaceae</i>, called also <i>Light Yellow-wood</i> +and <i>Sassafras</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Saw-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a species of Ray, <i>Pristis +zysron</i>, Bleek, the Australasian representative of the +<i>Pristidae</i> family, or <i>Saw-fishes</i>, Rays of a +shark-like form, with long, flat snouts, armed along each +edge with strong teeth. + +1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 223 [J. E. Bicheno, June 8, 1850, +<i>in epist</i>.]: + +"Last week an old fisherman brought me a fine specimen of a +Saw-fish, caught in the Derwent. It turned out to be the +<i>Pristis cirrhatus</i>,--a rare and curious species, confined +to the Australian seas, and first described by Dr. Latham in +the year 1793." + +<hw>Sawyer</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Name applied by bushmen in New +Zealand to the insect <i>Weta</i> (q.v.). (2) A trunk embedded +in the mud so as to move with the current--hence the name: a +snag is fixed. (An American use of the word.) See also +<i>Snag</i>. + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 22: + +"By Fitzroy's rugged crags, + Its `sawyers' and its snags, + He roamed." + +<hw>Sceloglaux</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus +containing the New Zealand bird called the <i>Laughing Owl</i> +(see under <i>Jackass</i>). The name was given by Kaup in +1848; the bird had been previously classed as <i>Athene</i> by +Gray in 1844. It is now nearly extinct. Kaup also gave the +name of Spiloglaux to the <i>New Zealand Owl</i> at the same +date. The words are from the Greek <i>glaux</i>, an owl, +<i>spilos</i>, a spot, and <i>skelos</i>, a leg. + +<hw>Scent-wood</hw>, a Tasmanian evergreen shrub, <i>Alyxia +buxifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Apocyneae</i>, of the dogbane +family. + +<hw>Schnapper</hw>, <i>n</i>. or <hw>Snapper</hw>, a fish +abundant in all Australasian waters, <i>Pagrus unicolor</i>, +Cuv. and Val. The latter spelling was the original form of +the word (one that snaps). It was gradually changed by the +fishermen, perhaps of Dutch origin, to <i>Schnapper</i>, the +form now general. The name <i>Snapper</i> is older than the +settlement of Australia, but it is not used for the same fish. +`O.E.D.,' s.v. <i>Cavally</i>, quotes: + +1657. R. Ligon, `Barbadoes,' p. 12: + +"Fish . . . of various kinds . . . Snappers, grey and red; +Cavallos, Carpians, etc." + +The young are called <i>Cock-schnapper</i> (q.v.); at a year +old they are called <i>Red-Bream</i>; at two years old, +<i>Squire</i>; at three, <i>School-Schnapper</i>; when they +cease to "school" and swim solitary they are called +<i>Natives</i> and <i>Rock-Natives</i>. Being the standard by +which the "catch" is measured, the full-grown <i>Schnappers</i> +are also called <i>Count-fish</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand, +the <i>Tamure</i> (q.v.) is also called <i>Schnapper</i>, +and the name <i>Red-Schnapper</i> is given to <i>Anthias +richardsoni</i>, Gunth., or <i>Scorpis hectori</i>, Hutton. +See quotation, 1882. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 68: + +"King-fish, mullet, mackarel, rockcod, whiting, snapper, bream, +flatheads, and various other descriptions of fishes, are all +found plentifully about." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +p. 261: + +"The kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers +I have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing +sometimes as much as thirty pounds." + +[The point referred to is that now called Schnapper Point, at +Mornington, in Victoria.] + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 39: + +"The genus <i>Pagrus</i>, or as we term it in the vernacular, +`schnapper,' a word of Dutch origin . . . The schnapper or +snapper. The schnapper (<i>Pagrus unicolor</i>, Cuv. and Val.) +is the most valuable of Australian fishes, not for its superior +excellence . . . but for the abundant and regular supply . . . +At a still greater age the schnapper seems to cease to school +and becomes what is known as the `native' and `rock-native,' +a solitary and sometimes enormously large fish." + +1896 `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +"The fish, snapper, is so called because it snapped. The +spelling with `ch' is a curious after-thought, suggestive of +alcohol. The name cannot come from schnapps." + +<hw>School-Schnapper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. +A name given to the <i>Schnapper</i> when three years old. +See <i>Schnapper</i>. + +<hw>Scorpion</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the New South +Wales fish <i>Pentaroge marmorata</i>, Cuv. and Val.; called +also the <i>Fortescue</i> (q.v.), and the <i>Cobbler</i>. + +<hw>Scotchman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand name for +a smaller kind of the grass called <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.). + +1895. W. S. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 39: + +"As we neared the hills speargrass of the smaller kind, +known as Scotchmen,' abounded, and although not so strong +and sharp-pointed as the `Spaniard,' would not have made +a comfortable seat." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +". . . national appellations are not satisfactory. It seems +uncivil to a whole nation--another injustice to Ireland--to +call a bramble a wild Irishman, or a pointed grass, with the +edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a Spaniard. One +could not but be amused to find the name Scotchman applied to a +smaller kind of Spaniard.' + +<hw>Scribbly-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called <i>White-Gum</i>, +<i>Eucalyptus haemastoma</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. See +<i>Gum</i>. + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 174: + +"Scribbly or White-Gum. As regards timber this is the most +worthless of the Queensland species. A tree, often large, with +a white, smooth, deciduous bark, always marked by an insect in +a scribbly manner." + +<hw>Scrub</hw>, <i>n</i>. country overgrown with thick bushes. +Henry Kingsley's explanation (1859), that the word means +shrubbery, is singularly misleading, the English word conveying +an idea of smallness and order compared with the size and +confusion of the Australian use. Yet he is etymologically +correct, for <i>Scrobb</i> is Old English (Anglo-Saxon) for +shrub; but the use had disappeared in England. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 21: + +"We encamped about noon in some scrub." + +1838. T. L. Mitchell,' Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 213: + +"A number of gins and children remained on the borders of the +scrub, half a mile off." + +1844. J A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings' (1860), p. 13: + +"Here Nature's gifts, with those of man combined, + Hath [sic] from a scrub a Paradise defined." + +1848. W. Westgarth, "Australia Felix,' p. 24: + +"The colonial term scrub, of frequent and convenient use in the +description of Australian scenery, is applicable to dense +assemblages of harsh wild shrubbery, tea-tree, and other of the +smaller and crowded timber of the country, and somewhat +analogous to the term jungle." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 155 +[Footnote]: + +"<i>Scrub</i>. I have used, and shall use, this word so often +that some explanation is due to the English reader. I can give +no better definition of it than by saying that it means +`shrubbery.'" + +1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Exploration in Australia,' p. 153: + +"At four miles arrived on the top, through a very thick scrub +of mulga." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. v. p. 78: + +"Woods which are open and passable--passable at any rate for men +on horseback--are called bush. When the undergrowth becomes, +thick and matted, so as to be impregnable without an axe, it is +scrub." + +[Impregnability is not a necessary point of the definition. +There is "light" scrub, and "heavy" or "thick" scrub.] + +1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67 +[Note]: + +"Scrub was a colonial term for dense undergrowth, like that of +the mallee-scrub." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 7: + +"Where . . . a belt of scrub lies green, glossy, and +impenetrable as Indian bungle." + +(p. 8): "The nearest scrub, in the thickets of which the Blacks +could always find an impenetrable stronghold." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 36: + +"A most magnificent forest of trees, called in Australia a +`scrub,' to distinguish it from open timbered country." + +1890. J. McCarthy and R. M. Praed, `Ladies' Gallery,' p. 252: + +"Why, I've been alone in the scrub--in the desert, I mean; you +will understand that better." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 374: + +"One more prominent feature in Australian vegetation are the +large expanses of the so-called `scrub' of the colonists. This +is a dense covering of low bushes varying in composition in +different districts, and named according to the predominating +element." + +1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 46: + +"Just as Tartary is characterised by its steppes, America by +its prairies, and Africa by its deserts, so Australia has one +feature peculiar to itself, and that is its `scrubs.'. . . +One of the most common terms used by explorers is `Mallee' +scrub, so called from its being composed of dwarf species of +Eucalyptus called the `Mallee' by the Natives. . . . Still +more dreaded by the explorer is the `Mulga' scrub, consisting +chiefly of dwarf acacias." + +1894. E. Favenc, `Tales of the Austral Tropics,' p. 3: + +"Even more desolate than the usual dreary-looking scrub +of the interior of Australia." + +[p. 6]: "The sea of scrub." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Manfrom Snowy River,' p. 25: + +"Born and bred on the mountain-side, + He could race through scrub like a kangaroo." + +<hw>Scrub</hw>, <i>adj</i>. and in composition. +The word scrub occurs constantly in composition. +See the following words. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 113: + +"We gathered the wild raspberries, and mingling them with +gee-bongs, and scrub-berries, set forth a dessert." + +<hw>Scrub-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to two Australian +birds, of the genus <i>Atrichia</i>. (Grk. <i>'atrichos</i> += without hair.) They are the Noisy Scrub-bird, <i>Atrichia +clamosa</i>, Gould, and the Rufous S.-b., <i>A. rufescens</i>, +Ramsay. + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' `Supplement,' pl. 26: + +"The Scrub-bird creeps mouse-like over the bark, or sits on a +dripping stem and mocks all surrounding notes." + +<hw>Scrub-cattle</hw>, <i>n</i>. escaped cattle that run wild in the +<i>scrub</i>, used as a collective plural of <i>Scrubber</i> +(q.v.). + +1860. A. L. Gordon, `The Sick Stockrider' [in `Bush-Ballads,' +1876], p. 8: + +"'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods, when we spied the station + roofs, + To wheel the wild scrub-cattle at the yard, + With a running fire of stock-whips and a fiery run of hoofs, + Oh! the hardest day was never then too hard." + +<hw>Scrub-Crab</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland fruit. The large +dark purple fruit, two inches in diameter, of <i>Sideroxylon +australe</i>, Benth. and Hook., <i>N.O. Saponaceae</i>; +a tall tree. + +<hw>Scrub-dangler</hw>, <i>n</i>. a wild bullock. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvi. p. 193: + +"He is one of those infernal scrub-danglers from the Lachlan, +come across to get a feed." + +<hw>Scrub-fowl</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to birds of the +genus <i>Megapodius</i>. See <i>Megapode</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-hen</hw>, i.q. <i>Scrub fowl</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Ironwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Ironwood</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Myrtle</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Pine</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Pine</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Poison-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Poison-tree</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-rider</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man who rides through the +<i>scrub</i> in search of <i>Scrub-cattle</i> (q.v.). + +1881. A. C. Giant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 278: + +"A favourite plan among the bold scrub-riders." + +<hw>Scrub-Robin</hw>, <i>n</i>. the modern name for any bird +of the genus <i>Drymodes</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 10: + +"<i>Drymodes Brunneopygia</i>, Gould, Scrub-Robin. I +discovered this singular bird in the great Murray Scrub in +South [sc. Southern] Australia, where it was tolerably +abundant. I have never seen it from any other part of the +country, and it is doubtless confined to such portions of +Australia as are clothed with a similar character of +vegetation." + +1895. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 447: + +"As regards portions of Gould's English nomenclatures, +such as his general term `Robin' for the genera <i>Petroica, +Paecilodryas</i>, <i>Eopsaltria</i>, it was found that by +retaining the term `Robin' for the best known member of the +group (<i>Petroica</i>), and applying a qualifying noun to +the allied genera, such titles as Tree-robin, Scrub-robin, +and Shrike-robin were easily evolved." + +<hw>Scrub-Sandalwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Sandalwood</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Tit</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tit</i>. + +<HW>Scrub-tree</HW>, <i>n</i>. any tree that grows in the scrub. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 219: + +"Almost all the Scrub-trees of the Condamine and Kent's Lagoon +were still to be seen at the Burdekin." + +<hw>Scrub-Turkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, <i>Leipoa +ocellata</i>, Gould; aboriginal name, the <i>Lowan</i> (q.v.). +See <i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Scrub-Vine</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Native Rose</i>. +See <i>Bauera</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Scrub-Wren</hw>, <i>n</i>. any little bird of the +Australian genus <i>Sericornis</i>. The species are-- + +Brown Scrub-Wren-- + <i>Sericornis humilis</i>, Gould. + +Buff breasted S.-W.-- + <i>S. laevigaster</i>, Gould. + +Collared S.-W.-- + <i>S. gutturalis</i>, Gould. + +Large-billed Scrub-Wren-- + <i>Sericornis magnirostris</i>, Gould. + +Little S.-W.-- + <i>S. minimus</i>, Gould. + +Spotted S.-W.-- + <i>S. maculatus</i>, Gould. + +Spotted-throated S.-W.-- + <i>S. osculans</i>, Gould. + +White-browed S.-W.-- + <i>S. frontalis</i>, Vig. & Hors. + +Yellow-throated S.-W.-- + <i>S. citreogularis</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Scrubber</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) a bullock that has taken +to the scrub and so become wild. See <i>Scrub-cattle</i>. +Also formerly used for a wild horse, now called a <i>Brumby</i> +(q.v.). + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' c. xxix: + +"The captain was getting in the scrubbers, cattle which had +been left to run wild through in the mountains." + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110: + +"There are few field-sports anywhere . . . equal to `hunting +scrubbers.'" + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 93: + +"Out flew the ancient scrubber, instinctively making towards +his own wild domain." + +1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, `The New Chum in the Queensland +Bush,' p. 151: + +"There are also wild cattle, which are either cattle run wild +or descendants of such. They are commonly called `scrubbers,' +because they live in the larger scrubs." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 405: + +"Here I am boxed up, like a scrubber in a pound, year after +year." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4 (`Getting in the +Scrubbers'): + +"The scrubbers, unseen of men, would stay in their fastnesses +all day chewing the cud they had laid up the night before, and +when the sun went down and the strident laugh of the giant +kingfisher had given place to the insidious air-piercing note +of the large-mouthed podargus, the scrub would give up its +inhabitants." + +(2) A starved-looking or ill-bred animal. + +(3) The word is sometimes applied to mankind in the slang sense +of an "outsider." It is used in University circles as +equivalent to the Oxford "smug," a man who will not join in the +life of the place. See also <i>Bush-scrubber</i>. + +1868. `Colonial Monthly,' vol. ii. p. 141 [art. `Peggy's +Christening]: + +"`I can answer for it, that they are scrubbers--to use a bush +phrase--have never been brought within the pale of any church.' + +"`Never been christened?' asked the priest. + +"`Have no notion of it--scrubbers, sir--never been branded.'" + +<hw>Scrubby</hw>, <i>adj</i>. belonging to, or resembling +scrub. + +1802. Jas. Flemming, `Journal of the Exploration of C. +Grimes' [at Port Phillip, Australia], ed. by J. J. +Shillinglaw, 1879, Melbourne, p. 17: + +"The land appeared barren, a scrubby brush." + +[p. 221: "The trees low and scrubby." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 19: + +"To-day I . . . passed a scrubby ironbark forest.". + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 216: + +"A scrubby country is a stockman's abhorrence, as there he +cannot ride, at least at any pace." + +1868. J. A. B., `Meta,' c. i. p. 9: + +"'Twere madness to attempt to chase, + In such a wild and scrubby place, + Australia's savage steer." + +<hw>Scrubdom</hw>, <i>n</i>. the land of scrub. + +1889. C. A. Sherard, `Daughter of South,' p. 29: + +"My forefathers reigned in this scrubdom of old." + +<hw>Scythrops</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus +of birds belonging to the <i>Cuculidae</i>, or Cuckoos (from +Grk. <i>skuthrowpos</i> = angry-looking). The only species +known is peculiar to Australia, where it is called the +<i>Channel-Bill</i>, a name given by Latham (`General History +of Birds,' vol. ii.). White (1790) calls it the <i>Anomalous +Hornbill</i> (`Journal 1790,' pl. at p. 142). + +<hw>Sea-Berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Red-berry</i>. + +<hw>Sea-Dragon</hw>, <i>n</i>. any Australian fish of any one +of the three species of the genus <i>Phyllopteryx</i>, family +<i>Syngnathidae</i>. The name of the genus comes from the +Greek <i>phullon</i> = a leaf, and <i>pterux</i> = a wing. +This genus is said by Guenther to be exclusively +Australian. "Protective resemblance attains its highest degree +of development," he says, in this genus. "Not only their +colour closely assimilates that of the particular kind of +sea-weed which they frequent, but the appendages of their +spines seem to be merely part of the fucus to which they are +attached. They attain a length of twelve inches." (`Study of +Fishes,' p. 683.) The name, in England, is given to other and +different fishes. The species <i>P. foliatus</i> is called the +<i>Superb Dragon</i> (q.v.), from the beauty of its colours. + +<hw>Sea-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied to different +fishes--in Sydney, to the <i>Morwong</i> (q.v.) and +<i>Bull's</i>-eye (q.v.); in New Zealand, to <i>Sebastes +percoides</i>, called <i>Pohuiakawa</i> (q.v.); in Melbourne, +to <i>Red-Gurnard</i> (q.v.). See <i>Red Gurnet-Perch</i>. + +<hw>Sea-Pig</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small whale, the <i>Dugong</i>. +See under <i>Dugong-oil</i>. + +1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 267: + +"The aborigines eagerly pursue the dugong, a species of small +whale, generally known to the colonists as the sea-pig." + +<hw>Sea-Pike</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales, +<i>Lanioperca mordax</i>, Gunth., of the family +<i>Sphyraenidae</i>. The name belongs to the Sydney +fish-market. + +<hw>Select</hw>, v. i.q. <i>Free-select</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Selection</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Free-selection</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Selector</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Free-selector</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Sergeant Baker</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a fish of New +South Wales, <i>Aulopus purpurissatus</i>, Richards., family +<i>Scopelidae</i>. + +1882. Rev. J E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 82: + +"The Sergeant Baker in all probability got its local +appellation in the early history of the colony (New South +Wales), as it was called after a sergeant of that name in one +of the first detachments of a regiment; so were also two fruits +of the Geebong tribe (<i>Persoonia</i>); one was called Major +Buller, and the other Major Groce, and this latter again +further corrupted into Major Grocer." + +<hw>Settler's</hw> Clock (also <hw>Hawkesbury Clock</hw>), +<i>n</i>. another name for the bird called the +<i>Laughing-Jackass</i>. See <i>Jackass</i>. + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 114: + +"From its habit of starting its discordant paean somewhere near +sunrise and, after keeping comparatively quiet all through the +hotter hours, cackling a `requiem to the day's decline,' the +bird has been called the <i>Settler's</i> clock. It may be +remarked, however, that this by no means takes place with the +methodical precision that romancers write of in their letters +home." + +<hw>Settlers' Matches</hw>, <i>n</i>. name occasionally applied +to the long pendulous strips of bark which hang from the +Eucalypts and other trees, during decortication, and which, +bec oming exceedingly dry, are readily ignited and used as +kindling wood. + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 84: + +"In the silence of the darkness and the playing of the breeze, + That we heard the settlers' matches rustle softly in the + trees." + +1896. `The Australasian,' June 13, p. 1133, col. 1: + +"<i>Re</i> settlers' matches, torches, the blacks in the +South-east of South Australia always used the bark of the +she-oak to carry from one camp to another; it would last and +keep alight for a long time and show a good light to travel by +when they had no fire. A fire could always be lighted with two +grass trees, a small fork, and a bit of dry grass. I have +often started a fire with them myself." + +<hw>Settler's Twine</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fibre plant, +<i>Gymnostachys anceps</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Aroideae</i>, +called also <i>Travellers' Grass</i>. Much used by farmers +as cord or string where strength is required. + +<hw>Shag</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English birdname for a +<i>Cormorant</i> (q.v.). Gould, fifty years ago, enumerates +the following as Australian species, in his `Birds of +Australia' (vol. vii.)-- + + Plate +<i>Phalacrocorax Carboides</i>, Gould, Australian +Cormorant, Black Shag, Colonists of W.A. . . . . . 66 + +<i>P. Hypoleucus</i>, Pied C., Black and White Shag, +Colonists of W. A. . . . . . . . . . 68 + +<i>P. Melanoleucus</i>, Vieill., Pied C., Little Shag, +Colonists of W.A. . . . . . . . . . 70 + +<i>P. Punctatus</i>, Spotted C., Crested Shag (Cook), +Spotted Shag (Lapham) . . . . . . . . . 71 + +<i>P. Leucogaster</i>, Gould, White-breasted C. . . 69 + +<i>P. Stictocephalus</i>, Bp., Little Black C. . . 67 + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 185: + +"Shags started from dead trees lying half immersed." + +<hw>Shagroon</hw>, <i>n</i>. When the province of Canterbury, +in New Zealand, was first settled, the men who came from +England were called <i>Pilgrims</i>, all others +<i>Shagroons</i>, probably a modification of the Irish +word <i>Shaughraun</i>. + +1877. W. Pratt, `Colonial Experiences of Incidents of +Thirty-four Years in New Zealand,' p. 234: + +"In the `Dream of a Shagroon,' which bore the date Ko Matinau, +April 1851, and which first appeared in the `Wellington +Spectator' of May 7, the term `Pilgrim' was first applied to +the settlers; it was also predicted in it that the `Pilgrims' +would be `smashed' and the Shagroons left in undisputed +possession of the country for their flocks and herds." + +<hw>Shake</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. to steal. Very common Australian +slang, especially amongst school-boys and bushmen. It was +originally Thieves' English. + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 9: + +"The tent of a surgeon was `shook,' as they style it--that is, +robbed, during his absence in the daytime." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 418: + +"Crimean shirts, blankets, and all they `shake,' + Which I'm told's another name for `take.'" + +<hw>Shamrock, Australian</hw>, <i>n</i>. a perennial, fragrant, +clover-like plant, <i>Trigonella suavissima</i>, Lindl., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; excellent as forage. Called also +<i>Menindie Clover</i> (aboriginal name, <i>Calomba</i>). +See <i>Clover</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 143: + +"It is the `Australian shamrock' of Mitchell." + +<hw>Shamrock, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a forage plant, <i>Lotus +australis</i>, Andr., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. Called +<i>Native Shamrock</i> in Tasmania. + +<hw>Shanghai</hw>, <i>n</i>. a catapult. Some say +because used against Chinamen. The reason seems +inadequate. + +1863. `The Leader,' Oct. 24, p. 17, col. 1: + +"Turn, turn thy shanghay dread aside, + Nor touch that little bird." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 15, p. 22, col. 1: + +"The lads had with them a couple of pistols, powder, shot, +bullets, and a shanghai." + +1875. Ibid. July 17, p. 123, col. 3: + +"The shanghai, which, as a secret instrument of mischief, is +only less dangerous than the air-gun." + +1884. `Police Offences Act, New Zealand,' sec. 4, subsec. 23: + +"Rolls any cask, beats any carpet, flies any kite, uses any +bows and arrows, or catapult, or shanghai, or plays at any game +to the annoyance of any person in any public place." + +1893. `The Age,' Sept. 15, p. 6, col. 7: + +"The magistrate who presided on the Carlton bench yesterday, +has a decided objection to the use of shanghais, and in dealing +with three little boys, the eldest of whom was but eleven or +twelve years of age, charged with the use of these weapons in +the Prince's Park, denounced their conduct in very strong +terms. He said that he looked upon this crime as one of the +worst that a lad could be guilty of, and if he had his own way +in the matter he would order each of them to be lashed." + +1895. C. French, Letter to `Argus,' Nov. 29: + +"Wood swallows are somewhat sluggish and slow in their flight, +and thus fall an easy prey to either the gun or the murderous +and detestable `shanghai.'" + +<hw> Shanghai-shot</hw>, <i>n</i>. a short distance, +a stone's-throw. + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels' [Introduction to +Tottlepot Poems]: + +"His parents . . . residing little more than a Shanghai-shot +from Romeo Lane, Melbourne." + +<hw>Shanty</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) a hastily erected wooden house; +(2) a public-house, especially unlicensed: a sly-grog shop. +The word is by origin Keltic (Irish). In the first sense, its +use is Canadian or American; in the last, Australian. In +Barrere and Leland it is said that circus and showmen always +call a public-house a shanty. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 26, p. 91, col. 1: + +"These buildings, little better than shanties, are found in +. . . numbers." + +1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 9: + +"We read of the veriest shanties letting for L2 per week." + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 15: + +"He becomes a land-owner, and puts up a slab-shanty." + +1880. G. <i>n</i>. Oakley, in `Victoria in 1880,' p. 114: + +"The left-hand track, past shanties soaked in grog, + Leads to the gaol." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 103: + +"The faint glimmering light which indicates the proximity +of the grog shanty is hailed with delight." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 221: + +"I have seen a sober man driven perfectly mad for the time +being, by two glasses of so-called rum, supplied to him at one +of these shanties." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 64: + +"Any attempt to limit the licensing produced . . . a crop of +shanties, or sly-grog shops." + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 9, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The old woman thought that we were on gold, and would lamb +down at the finish in her shanty." + +<hw>Shanty-Keeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. keeper of a sly-grog shop. + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for Mail,' p. 45: + +"Mrs. Smith was a shanty-keeper's wife." + +1887. J. Farrell, `How he died,' p. 72: + +"The shanty-keeper saw the entering strangers." + +<hw>Shantywards</hw>, adv. + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 2, p. 13, col. 4: + +"Looking . . . over the fence shantywards." + +<hw>Shark</hw>, <i>n</i>. Some of the Australasian species +are identical with those of Europe. Varieties and names +which differ are-- + +Blue Shark (New South Wales)-- + <i>Carcharias macloti</i>, Mull. and Heule. + +Hammer S. (N.S.W.)-- + <i>Zygaena malleus</i>, Shaw. + +One-finned S. (N.S.W.)-- + <i>Notidanus indicus</i>, Cuv. + +Port Jackson S. (q.v.)-- + <i>Heterodontus phillipii</i>, Lacep.; +called also the <i>Shell-grinder</i>. + +Saw-fish S.-- + <i>Pristiophorus cirratus</i>, Lath. + +School S. (N.S.W.)-- + <i>Galeus australis</i>, Macl.; called also <i>Tope</i> +(q.v.). + +Shovel-nosed S. (N.S.W.)-- + <i>Rhinobatus granulatus</i>, Cuv.; also called the +<i>Blind-Shark</i>, or <i>Sand-Shark</i>. + +Tiger S. (N.S.W.)-- + <i>Galeocerdo rayneri</i>, Macdon. and Barr. + +White S.-- + <i>Carcharodon rondeletii</i>, Mull. and Heule; called also +the <i>White-Pointer</i>. + +The Sharks of New Zealand are-- + +Black Shark-- + <i>Carcharodon melanopterus</i> (Maori name <i>Keremai</i>). + +Brown S.-- + <i>Scymnus lichia</i>. + +Great S.-- + <i>Carcharias maso</i>. + +Hammer-head S.-- + <i>Zygaena malleus</i> (Maori name, <i>Mangopare</i>). + +Port-eagle S.-- + <i>Lamna cornutica</i> + +Spinous S.-- + <i>Echinorhinus spinosus</i>. + +Tiger S.-- + <i>Scymnus sp</i>. (Maori name, <i>Mako</i>). + +See also <i>Blue-Pointer</i>, <i>Whaler</i>, +and <i>Wobbegong</i>. + +<hw>Shearer's Joy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to colonial +beer. + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 22: + +"It was the habit afterwards among the seven to say that the +officers of the <i>Eliza Jane</i> had been indulging in +shearer's joy." + +<hw>She-Beech</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Beech</i>. + +<hw>Shed</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word generally signifies the +<i>Woolshed</i> (q.v.). A large, substantial, and often +expensive building. + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 143: + +"There's 20 hungry beggars wild for any job this year, + An' 50 might be at the shed while I am lyin' here." + +1896. `Melbourne Argus,' April 30, p. 2, col. 5: + +"There is a substantial and comfortable homestead, and ample +shed accommodation." + +<hw>Sheep-pest</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common Australian weed, +<i>Acama ovina</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Rosaceae</i>, found in all +the colonies; so called because its fruit adheres by hooked +spines to the wool of sheep. + +<hw>Sheep-run</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Run</i>. + +<hw>Sheep-sick</hw>, <i>n</i>. Used of pastures exhausted for +carrying sheep. Compare English screw-sick, paint-sick, +nail-sick, wheat-sick, etc. + +1895. `Leader,' August 3, p. 6, col. 1: + +"It is the opinion of many practical men that certain country +to which severe losses have occurred in recent years has been +too long carrying sheep, and that the land has become what is +termed `sheep sick,' and from this point of view it certainly +appears that a course of better management is most desirable." + +<hw>Sheep-wash</hw> (used as verb), to wash sheep. The word is +also used as a noun, in its ordinary English senses of (1) a +lotion for washing sheep; (2) the washing of sheep preparatory +to shearing: (3) the place where the sheep are washed, also +called the `sheep-dip.' + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 184: + +"He can't dig or sheep-wash or plough <i>there</i>." + +<hw>Sheldrake</hw>, or <hw>Shieldrake</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +common English name of ducks of the genera <i>Tadorna</i> +and <i>Casarca</i>. The Australian species are--<i>Casarca +tadornoides</i> Jard., commonly called the <i>Mountain</i> +Duck; and the White-headed S., <i>Tadorna radjah</i>, Garnot. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 217: + +"Charley shot the sheldrake of Port Essington (Tadorna Rajah)." + +<hw>Shell-grinder</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Port-Jackson Shark</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>She-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A tree of the genus +<i>Casuarina</i> (q.v.). The timber, which is very hard and +makes good fuel, was thought to resemble oak. See <i>Oak</i>, +and quotation from Captain Cook. The prefix <i>she</i> is used +in Australia to indicate an inferiority of timber in respect +of texture, colour, or other character; e.g. <i>She-beech</i>, +<i>She-pine</i>. The reason for <i>He-oak</i> is given in +quotation 1835. <i>Bull-oak</i>, <i>Marsh-oak</i>, +<i>Swamp-oak</i>, were invented to represent variations +of the Casuarina. Except in its timber, the She-oak is +not in the least like an oak-tree (<i>Quercus</i>). The +spelling in quotation 1792 makes for this simple explanation, +which, like that of <i>Beef-eater</i> in English, and <i>Mopoke</i> +in Austral-English, was too simple; and other spellings, +e.g. <i>Shea-oak</i>, were introduced, to suggest a different +etymology. <i>Shiak</i> (quotation, 1853) seems to claim an +aboriginal origin (more directly claimed, quotation, 1895), +but no such aboriginal word is found in the vocabularies. +In quotations 1835, 1859, a different origin is assigned, +and a private correspondent, whose father was one of the first +to be born of English parents in New South Wales, says that +English officers who had served in Canada had named the tree +after one that they had known there. A higher authority, +Sir Joseph D. Hooker (see quotation, 1860), says, "I believe +adapted from the North-American <i>Sheack</i>." This origin, +if true,is very interesting; but Sir Joseph Hooker, in a letter +dated Jan. 26, 1897, writes that his authority was Mr. Gunn +(see quotation, 1835). That writer, however, it will be seen, +only puts "is said to be." To prove the American origin, we must +find the American tree. It is not in the `Century,' nor in the +large `Webster,' nor in `Funk and Wagnall's Standard,' nor in +either of two dictionaries of Americanisms. Dr. Dawson, +director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who is thoroughly +acquainted with Indian folk-lore and languages, and Mr. Fowler, +Professor of Botany in Queen's University, Kingston, say that +there is no such Indian word. + +2792. G. Thompson, in `Historical Records of New South +Wales,' vol. ii. (1893) p. 799: + +"There are two kinds of oak, called the he and the she oak, +but not to be compared with English oak, and a kind of pine +and mahogany, so heavy that scarce either of them will swim." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' +vol. ii. p. 166 (Bass' diary at Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, +Nov. 1798): + +"The She oaks were more inclined to spread than grow tall." + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134 + +"<i>Casuarina torulosa</i>, the she-oak. The young fruit and +young shoots afford an agreeable acid by chewing, which allays +thirst." + +1835. Ross, `Hobart-town Almanack,' p. 75 [Article said by +Sir Joseph Hooker (Jan. 26, 1897) to be by Mr. Ronald Gunn]: + +"Casuarina torulosa? She-oak. C. stricta? He-oak. C. +tenuissima? Marsh-oak. The name of the first of these is said +to be a corruption of Sheac, the name of an American tree, +producing the beef wood, like our Sheoak. The second species +has obtained the name of He-oak in contradistinction of +She-oak, as if they constituted one dioecious plant, the one +male and the other female, whereas they are perfectly distinct +species." + +1842. `Western Australia,' p. 80: + +"The Shea-oak (a corruption of sheak, the native name for this, +or a similar tree, in Van Diemen's Land) is used chiefly for +shingles." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 91: + +"Then to cut down the timber, gum, box, she-oak, and +wattle-trees, was an Herculean task." + +1847. J. D. Lang, "Phillipsland,' p. 95: + +"They are generally a variety of <i>Casuarinae</i>, commonly +called she-oak by the colonists, and the sighing of the wind +among the sail-needle-like leaves, that constitute their +vegetation, produces a melancholy sound." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219: + +"Most of the trees of this colony owe their names to the +sawyers who first tested their qualities; and who were guided +by the colour and character of the wood, knowing and caring +nothing about botanical relations. Thus the swamp-oak and +she-oak have rather the exterior of the larch than any quercine +aspect." + +1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 277: + +"A dull scene, sprinkled with funereal shiak or `she-oak +trees.'" + +Ibid. p. 367: + +"Groves of shea-oaks, eucalyptus and mimosa." + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 24: + +"Trees of a peculiar character--the Casuarinas or Shiacks-- +part of which, with their more rigid and outstretched branches, +resemble pine-trees, and others, with theirs drooping gracefully, +resembling large trees of bloom." + +1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 33: + +"The trees forming the most interesting groups were the +<i>Casuarina torulosa</i>, she-oak, and <i>C. stricta</i>, +he-oak. . . . The name of the first is said to have been +derived from `sheeac,' the name of an American tree producing +the beef-wood like our she-oak. <i>C. stricta</i>, or he-oak, +has been named in contradistinction to the sexes, as if they +constituted one dioecious plant, whereas they are two perfectly +distinct species." + +1860. J. D. Hooker, `Botany of the Antarctic Voyage,' +part iii. [Flora Tasmaniae], p. 348: + +"<i>Casuarina suberosa</i>. This is an erect species, growing +15 feet high. . . It is well known as the `He-oak,' in +contradistinction to the <i>C. quadrivalvis</i>, or `She-oak,' +a name, I believe, adapted from the North American `Sheack' +though more nearly allied botanically to the Northern Oaks than +any Tasmanian genus except <i>Fagus</i>, they have nothing to +do with that genus in habit or appearance, nor with the +Canadian `Sheack.'" + +1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Explorations in Australia,' p. 150: + +"Within the last mile or two we have passed a few patches of +Shea-oak, growing large, having a very rough and thick bark, +nearly black. They have a dismal appearance." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p.103: + +"Even Batman's hill, the memorial of his ancient encampment, +has been levelled; and the she-oaks upon that grassy mound no +longer sigh in the breeze a dirge for the hero of exploration." + +1869. `The Argus,' May 25, p. 5, col. 2: + +"The she-oak trees, of which there are large quantities in the +sandy soil of the salt-bush country, proved very serviceable +during the late drought. Some of the settlers caused thousands +of she-oaks to be stripped of their boughs, and it was a sight +to see some of the famishing cattle rushing after the men who +were employed in thus supplying the poor animals with the means +of sustaining life. The cattle ate the boughs and the bark +with the greatest avidity, and the bushman's axe as it felled +the she-oak was music to their ears." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 258: + +"She-oaks are scraggy-looking poles of trees, rather like +fir-trees." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 203: + +"The rough bark of the she-oak and its soft sappy wood . . ." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 14, p. 4, col. 2: + +"I came to a little clump of sheoaks, moaning like living +things." + +1895. `Notes and Queries,' Aug. 3, p. 87: + +"The process followed by the Australian colonists when they +converted a native word for the Casuarina trees into +`she-oak.'" + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 204: + +"The creek went down with a broken song, + 'Neath the she-oaks high; + The waters carried the song along, + And the oaks a sigh." + +(2) Slang name for colonial beer. + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. p. 83: + +"Their drivers had completed their regulation half-score of +`long-sleevers' of `she-oak.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood,' Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 59: + +"Then have a glass of beer--it's only she-oak, but there's +nothing wrong about it." + +<hw>She-Oak nets</hw>, nets placed on each side of a gangway +from a ship to the pier, to prevent sailors who have been +indulging in <i>she-oak</i> (beer) falling into the water. + +<hw>Shepherd</hw>, <i>v</i>. (1) to guard a mining claim +and do a little work on it, so as to preserve legal rights. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 135: + +"Few of their claims however are actually `bottomed,' for the +owners merely watch their more active contemporaries." + +(Footnote): "This is termed `shepherding' a claim." + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 11: + + "All the ground . . . is held in blocks which are being +merely shepherded." + +(2) By transference from (1). To follow or hang about a person +in the hopes of getting something out of him. Compare similar +use of <i>shadow</i>. + +1896. Modern: + +"The robbers knowing he had so much coin about him, determined +to shepherd him till an opportunity occurred of robbery with +impunity." + +<hw>Shepherd</hw>, <i>n</i>. a miner who holds a claim but does +not work it. + +188-. `Argus' (date lost): + +"The term `jumper,' being one of reproach, brought quite a yell +from the supporters of the motion. Dr. Quick retorted with a +declaration that the Grand Junction Company were all +`shepherds,' and that `shepherds' are the worse of the two +classes. The `jumpers' sat in one gallery and certain +representatives or deputy `shepherds' in the other. Names are +deceitful. . . . The Maldon jumpers were headed by quite a +venerable gentleman, whom no one could suspect of violent +exercise nor of regrettable designs upon the properties of his +neighbours. And the shepherds in the other gallery, instead of +being light-hearted beings with pipes and crooks--<i>a la</i> +Watteau and Pope--looked unutterable things at the individuals +who had cast sheep's eyes on their holding." + +<hw>Shicer</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) An unproductive <i>claim</i> +or mine: a <i>duffer</i>. From the German <i>scheissen</i>. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 135: + +"A claim without gold is termed a `shicer.'" + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. ix. p. 256: + +"It's a long sight better nor bottoming a shicer." + +1863. `Victorian Hansard,' May 10, vol. ix. p. 571: + +"Mr. Howard asked whether the member for Collingwood knew +the meaning of the word `shicer.' Mr. Don replied in the +affirmative. He was not an exquisite, like the hon. member +(laughter), and he had worked on the goldfields, and he had +always understood a shicer to be a hole with no gold." + +1870. S. Lemaitre, `Songs of Goldfields,' p. 15: + +"Remember when you first came up + Like shicers, innocent of gold." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 10, p. 4, col. 7: + +"There are plenty of creeks in this country that have only so +far been scratched--a hole sunk here and there and abandoned. +No luck, no perseverance; and so the place has been set down as +a duffer, or, as the old diggers' more expressive term had it, +a `shicer.'" + +(2) Slang. By transference from (1). A man who does not pay +his debts of honour. + +1896. Modern: + +"Don't take his bet, he's a regular shicer." + +<hw>Shingle-splitting</hw>, <i>vb. n</i>. obsolete Tasmanian +slang. + +1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 89: + +"When a man gets behindhand with his creditors in Hobart Town, +and rusticates in the country in order to avoid the +unseasonable calls of the Sheriff's little gentleman, that +delights to stand at a corner where four streets meet, so as +the better to watch the motions of his prey, he is said to be +shingle-splitting." + +<hw>Shirallee</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang term for a swag or bundle +of blankets. + +<hw>Shout</hw>, v. to stand treat. (1) Of drink. (2) By +transference, of other things. The successful digger used to +<i>call</i> passers-by to drink at his expense. The origin may +also be from noisy bar-rooms, or crowded bar-parlours, where +the man who was to pay for the liquor or refreshment called or +<i>shouted</i> for the waiter or barman. When many men drink +together the waiter of course looks for payment from the man +who first calls or <i>shouts out</i> for him to give him the +order. Or is "pay the shout" a variant of "pay the shot," or +tavern reckoning? In its first sense the word has reached the +United States, and is freely employed there. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 335: + +"And so I shouted for him and he shouted for me." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 80: + +"Gentlemen required a great deal of attendance, did not `shout' +(the slang term for ordering grog) every quarter of an hour, +and therefore spent comparatively nothing." + +1867. A. L. Gordon, `Sea-Spray' (Credat Judaeus), p. 139: + +"You may shout some cheroots, if you like; no champagne + For this child.' + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 268: + +"This `shouting,' as `treating' is termed in the colonies, +is the curse of the Northern goldfields. If you buy a horse you +must shout, the vendor must shout, and the bystanders who have +been shouted to [more usual, for] must shout in their turn." + +1885. D. Sladen, `In Cornwall, etc.,' p. 156 [Title, `The +Sigh of the Shouter']: + +"Give me the wealth I have squandered in `shouting.'" + +1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 149:. + +"Drinking is quite a common practice, and what is familiarly +known as `shouting' was at one time almost universal, though of +late years this peculiarly dangerous evil has been considerably +diminished in extent. To `shout' in a public-house means to +insist on everybody present, friends and strangers alike, +drinking at the shouter's expense, and as no member of the +party will allow himself to be outdone in this reckless sort of +hospitality, each one `shouts' in succession, with the result +that before long they are all overcome by intoxication." + +1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 30: + +"Some heavy drinking is indulged in through the `shouting' +system, which is the rule." + +1893. E. W. Hornung, `Tiny Luttrell,' vol. ii. c. xv. +p. 98: + +"To insist on `shouting' Ruth a penny chair overlooking the +ornamental water in St. James's Park." + +(p.99): "You shall not be late, because I'll shout a hansom +too." + +<hw>Shout</hw>, <i>n</i>. a free drink. + +1864. H. Simcox, `Outward Bound,' p. 81: + +"The arms are left and off they go, + And many a shout they're treated to." + +1874. Garnet Walch, Head over Heels,' p. 83: + +"I . . . gave the boys round a spread an' a shout." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 78: + +"Two lucky diggers laid a wager which of them should treat the +assembled company with the largest shout.'" + +<hw>Shoveller</hw>, <i>n</i>. the English name for the duck +<i>Spatula clypeata</i>, Linn., a species also present in +Australia. The other Australian species is <i>Spatula +rhynchotis</i>, Lath., also called <i>Blue-wing</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vii. pl. 12: + +"<i>Spatula Rhynchotis</i>, Australian Shoveller." + +<hw>Shovel-nose</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales species of +Ray-fish, <i>Rhinobatus bougainvillei</i>, Cuv.; called also +the <i>Blind Shark</i>, and <i>Sand Shark</i>. In the Northern +Hemisphere, the name is given to three different sharks and a +sturgeon. + +<hw>Shrike</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name, generally used in +Australia in composition. See <i>Crow-Shrike</i>, +<i>Cuckoo-Shrike</i>, <i>Shrike-Robin</i>, +<i>Shrike-Thrush</i>, and <i>Shrike-Tit</i>. + +<hw>Shrike-Robin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus of Australasian +Shrikes, <i>Eopsaltria</i> (q.v.). The species are-- + +Grey-breasted Shrike-Robin-- + <i>Eopsaltria gularis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Large-headed S.-R.-- + <i>E. capito</i>, Gould. + +Little S.-R.-- + <i>E. nana</i>, Mull. + +White-breasted S.-R.-- + <i>E. georgiana</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Yellow-breasted S.-R.-- + <i>E. australis</i>, Lath. + +1895. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the +Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 447: + +"As regards portions of Gould's English nomenclatures, such as +his general term `Robin' for the genera <i>Petroica, +Paecilodryas</i>, <i>Eopsaltria</i>, it was found that by +retaining the term `Robin' for the best known member of the +group (<i>Petroica</i>), and applying a qualifying noun to the +allied genera, such titles as Tree-robin, Scrub-robin, and +Shrike-robin were easily evolved." + +<hw>Shrike-Thrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus of Australasian +Shrikes, <i>Collyriocincla</i> (q.v.). The species are-- + +Bower's Shrike-Thrush-- + <i>Collyriocincla boweri</i>, Ramsay. + +Brown S.-T.-- + <i>C. brunnea</i>, Gould. + +Buff-bellied S.-T.-- + <i>C. rufiventris</i>, Gould. + +Grey S.-T.-- + <i>C. harmonica</i>, Lath.; called also <i>Port Jackson +Thrush</i> (q.v.). + +Little Shrike-Thrush-- + <i>Collyriocincla parvula</i>, Gould. + +Pale-bellied S.-T.-- + <i>C. pallidirostris</i>, Sharpe. + +Rufous-breasted S.-T.-- + <i>C. rufigaster</i>, Gould. + +Whistling S.-T.-- + <i>C. rectirostris</i>, Jard. and Selb.; +see <i>Duke Willy</i>. + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 54: + +"With gathering shadows the spotted thrush of England gives +forth from the top-most pine branch his full and varied notes; +notes which no Australian bird can challenge, not even the +shrike-thrush on the hill side, piping hard to rival his song +every bright spring morning." + +<hw>Shrike-Tit</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus of Australian Shrikes, +<i>Falcunculus</i> (q.v.). The species are--<i>Falcunculus +frontatus</i>, Lath.; White-bellied S.-T., +<i>F. leucogaster</i>, Gould. + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +"Shrike-tit. [Close season.] From the 1st day of August +to the 10th day of December next following in each year." + +<hw>Shrimp</hw>, <i>n</i>. The only true shrimp +(<i>Crangon</i>) which Australian waters are known to possess +is found in the Gulf of St. Vincent, South Australia. +(Tenison-Woods.) In Tasmania, the Prawn (<i>Penoeus spp</i>.) +is called a <i>Shrimp</i>. + +1883. `Royal Commission, Report on Fisheries of Tasmania,' +p. 9: + +"The prawn (<i>Penoeus</i> sp.), locally known among fishermen +as the shrimp, abounds all around our coasts." + +<hw>Sida-weed</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. Queensland Hemp. +See <i>Hemp</i>. + +<hw>Signed Servant</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete contraction for +<i>Assigned Servant</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Silky-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, often tall, <i>Grevillea +robusta</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>, producing a useful +timber in demand for various purposes. See <i>Grevillea</i>, +<i>Maple</i>, and <i>Oak</i>. + +<hw>Silver</hw>, or <hw>Silver-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian +name for <i>Caranx georgianus</i>, Cuv. and Val., family +<i>Carangidae</i>, the <i>White</i> or <i>Silver Trevally</i>. +See <i>Trevally</i>. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, 1881: + +"Common fish such as . . . garfish, strangers, silvers, +and others." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 252 +[Footnote]: + +"To convey anything like a correct idea of this extremely +beautiful fish, it should be `laid in' with a ground of +burnished silver, and the delicate tints added. The skin is +scaleless, and like satin, embossed all over in little raised +freckles, and with symmetrical dark lines, resembling the +veining of a leaf. In quality they are a good deal like +mullet." + +<hw>Silver-Belly</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given (1) in New South +Wales, to the fish <i>Silver-Bream</i> (q.v.); (2) in Tasmania, +to various species of <i>Atherinidae</i>. + +<hw>Silver-Bream</hw>, or <hw>White-Bream</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a New South Wales fish, <i>Gerres ovatus</i>, Gunth., +family <i>Percidae</i>; also called <i>Silver-Belly</i> (q.v.). +For another use, see <i>Trevally</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 43: + +"Mr. Hill, in the series of essays already referred to, speaks +of a silver-bream or white-bream. It is probable he refers to +<i>Gerres ovatus</i>, a common fish of very compressed form, +and very protractile mouth. They probably never enter +fresh-water. . . . It is necessary to cook the silver-belly, +as it is often called, perfectly fresh." + +<hw>Silver-Eye</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. Same as +<i>Wax-eye</i>, <i>White-eye</i>, or <i>Blight-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 77: + +"<i>Zosterops caerulescens</i>, Lath. I have myself arrived at +the conclusion that the Silver-eye, although identical with the +Australian bird, is in reality an indigenous species." + +1888. James Thomas, `To a Silver Eye:' `Australian Poets +1788-1888' (edition Sladen), p. 550: + +"Thou merry little silver-eye, + In yonder trailing vine, + I, passing by this morning, spied + That ivy-built nest of thine." + +<hw>Silver Jew-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales name for +the young of the fish called <i>Teraglin</i>, or of the true +<i>Jew-fish</i> (q.v.); it is uncertain which. + +<hw>Silver-leaf Boree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Boree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Silver-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fresh-water fish, +i.q. <i>Bidyan Ruffe</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Silver-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bush term for a "swell": +a man who goes to the manager's house, not to the men's hut. +See <i>Hut</i>. + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 116: + +"A select circle of long-limbed members of those upper circles +who belong to the genus termed in Australian parlance +`silver-tailed,' in distinction to the `copper-tailed' +democratic classes." + +<hw>Silver-Trevally</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Trevally</i>. + +<hw>Sittella</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian genus of small +creeping-birds, called also <i>Tree-Runners</i> (q.v.). +<i>Sittella</i> is the Latin diminutive of <i>sitta</i>, +which is from the Greek <i>sittae</i>, a woodpecker, +whose habits the <i>Tree-runners</i> or <i>Sittellae</i> have. +Gould's enumeration of the species is given in quotation. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv.: + +"<i>Sittella chrysoptera</i>, Orange-winged Sittella; +<i>S. leucocephala</i>, Gould, White-headed S.; +<i>S. leucoptera</i>,Gould, White-winged S.; <i>S. pileata</i>, +Gould, Black-capped S.; <i>S. tenuirostris</i>, Gould, +Slender-billed S. + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement): + +"<i>Sittella Striata</i>, Gould, Striated Sittella." + +1875. Gould and Sharpe, `Birds of New Guinea,' vol. iii. +pl. 28: + +"<i>Sittella albata</i>, Pied Sittella." + +1890 `Victorian Statutes-Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +"Sittellas. [Close season.] From the first day of August +to the 10th day of December next following in each year." + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 136: + +"Four species of <i>Sitilla</i> [sic] which, except that they +do not lay their eggs in hollow trees, bear some resemblance to +our nuthatch." + +<hw>Skate</hw>, <i>n</i>. The New Zealand fish called +a <i>Skate</i> is <i>Raja nasuta</i>, a different species +of the same genus as the European Skate. + +<hw>Skipjack</hw>, or <hw>Skipjack-Pike</hw>, <i>n</i>. +This fish, <i>Temnodon saltator</i>, Cuv. and Val., is the +same as the British and American fish of that name. It is +called <i>Tailor</i> (q.v.) in Sydney. The name <i>Skipjack</i> +used also to be given by the whalers to the Australian fish +<i>Trevally</i> (q.v.). + +1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 111: + +"It is quoted by Richardson that this fish [trevally], which he +says is the Skipjack of the sealers, used to be a staple +article of food with the natives." + +<hw>Skipper</hw>, i.q. <i>Hopping fish</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Skirr</hw>, <i>n</i>. imitative. + +1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 127: + +"How many nights have I listened to the skirr of the wild +cats." + +<hw>Skirting</hw>, <i>n</i>. generally used in the plural. +In sheep-shearing, the inferior parts of the wool taken +from the extremities. + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 7: + +"At the `skirting-table' we will stand for a little while, and +watch while the fleece just brought in is opened out by the +`roller,' and the inferior portions removed." + +<hw>Skullbanker</hw>, or <hw>Scowbanker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a slang +name in Australia for a loafer, a tramp. + +1866. A. Michie, `Retrospects and Prospects of the Colony,' +p. 9: + +"A skull-banker is a species of the genus loafer--half +highwayman, half beggar. He is a haunter of stations, +and lives on the squatters, amongst whom he makes a circuit, +affecting to seek work and determining not to find it." + +<hw>Slab</hw>, <i>n</i>. In English, the word slab, as applied +to timber, means "an outside piece taken from a log in sawing +it into boards, planks, etc." (`Webster.') In Australia, the +word is very common, and denotes a piece of timber, two or +three inches thick a coarse plank, axe-hewn, not sawn. Used +for the walls of rough houses. + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 25, p. 3 col. 5: + +A substantial slab building with verandah." + +1845. `Voyage to Port Phillip,' p. 52: + +"His slab-built hut, with roof of bark." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +c. ix. p. 266: + +"The house in which this modern Robinson Crusoe dwelt was what +is called a Slab Hut, formed of rough boards and thatched with +grass." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 130: + +"A bare, rough, barn-like edifice built of slabs." + +1869. J. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155: + +"We passed through Studley Park, with here and there a slab +house or tent." + +1874. G. Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 81: + +"The moonlight . . . poured on the hut, slabs an' roof." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 8: + +"The hut was built of logs and slabs." + +[p. 73]: "The usual bush-hut of slabs and bark." + +[p.144]:"The neighbours congregated in the rough hut of +unplaned slabs." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 61: + +"Slab huts of split heavy boards, Australian fashion, placed +vertically." + +<hw>Slab</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. mining term: to keep up the sides +of a shaft with timber slabs. + +1871. J. J. Simpson, `Recitations,' p. 24: + +"So dig away, drive away, slab and bail." + +<hw>Sleepy Lizard</hw>, i.q. <i>Blue-tongued Lizard</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Slip-panel</hw>. Same as <i>Slip-rail</i> (q.v.). +See also <i>Panel</i>. + +1893. `The Australasian,' Aug.12, p. 302, col. 1: + +"Take him round by the water-hole and wait for me at the +slip-panels." + +<hw>Slip-rail</hw>, <i>n</i>. part of a fence so fitted that it +can be removed so as to serve as a gate. Used also for the +gateway thus formed. Generally in the plural. Same as <i>Slip- +panel</i>. + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads From the Wreck,' p. 24: + +"Down with the slip-rails; stand back." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 43: + +"He [a horse] would let down the slip-rails when shut into the +stockyard, even if they were pegged, drawing the pegs out with +his teeth." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 79: + +"Many men rode through the sliprails and turned out their +horses." + +1891. Canon Goodman, `Church in Victoria during Episcopate of +Bishop Perry,' p. 98: + +"Some careless person had neglected to replace the slip-rails +of the paddock into which his horses had been turned the +previous evening." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 104: + +"Then loudly she screamed: it was only to drown + The treacherous clatter of slip-rails let down." + +<hw>Sloth, Native</hw>, i.q. <i>Native Bear</i>. +See <i>Bear</i>, and <i>Koala</i>. + +<hw>Slusher</hw>, or <hw>Slushy</hw>, <i>n</i>. cook's +assistant at shearing-time on a station. + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept.20, p.13, col. 6: + +"`Sundays are the most trying days of all,' say the +<i>cuisiniers</i>, `for then they have nothing to do +but to growl.' This man's assistant is called `the slusher.' + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162: + +"The tarboy, the cook, and the slushy, + the sweeper that swept the board, + The picker-up, and the penner, with the rest of the + shearing horde." + +1896. `The Field,' Jan. 18, p. 83, col. 1: + +"He employs as many `slushies' as he thinks necessary, paying +them generally L1 per week." + +<hw>Slush-lamp</hw>, <i>n</i>. a lamp made by filling an old +tin with fat and putting a rag in for wick. The word, though +not exclusively Australian, is more common in the Australian +bush than elsewhere. Compare English <i>slush-horn</i>, horn +for holding grease; <i>slush-pot</i>, pot for holding grease, +etc. + +1883. J. Keighley, `Who are You?' p. 45: + +"The slush-lamp shone with a smoky light." + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept.20, p.13, col. 6: + +"Occasionally the men will give Christy Minstrel concerts, when +they illuminate the wool-shed with slush-lamps, and invite all +on the station." + +<hw>Smelt</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given, in Melbourne, to the fish +<i>Clupea vittata</i>, Castln., family <i>Clupeidae</i>, or +<i>Herrings</i> (q.v.); in New Zealand and Tasmania, to +<i>Retropinna richardsonii</i>, Gill, family <i>Salmonidae</i>. +Its young are called <i>Whitebait</i> (q.v.). The <i>Derwent +Smelt</i> is a Tasmanian fish, H<i>aplochiton sealii</i>, +family <i>Haplochitonidae</i>, fishes with an adipose fin which +represent the salmonoids in the Southern Hemisphere; +<i>Prototroctes</i> is the only other genus of the family known +(see Grayling). <i>Haplochiton</i> is also found in the cold +latitudes of South America. + +<hw>Sminthopsis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name for the +genus of <i>Narrow-footed Pouched Mice</i>, which, like the +English field-mice, are entirely terrestrial in their habits. +See <i>Pouched Mouse</i>. In Homer's' Iliad,' Bk. I. ver. 39, +<i>Smintheus</i> is an epithet of Apollo. It is explained as +"mouse-killer," from <i>sminthos</i>, a field-mouse, said to be +a Cretan word. + +<hw>Smoke</hw>, v. (slang). See quotation. + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' June 26, p. 8, col. 8: + +"He said to the larrikins, `You have done for him now; you +have killed him.' `What!' said one of them, `do not say we were +here. Let us smoke.' `Smoke,' it may be explained, is the +slang for the `push' to get away as fast as possible." + +<hw>Smooth Holly</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Holly</i>. + +<hw>Snailey</hw>, <i>n</i>. bullock with horn slightly curled. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 68: + +"Snaileys and poleys, old and young, coarse and fine, they +were a mixed herd in every sense." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 133: + +"There's a snaily Wallanbah bullock I haven't seen this two +years." + +<hw>Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian land snakes belong +principally to the four families, <i>Typhlopidae, Boidae</i>, +<i>Colubridae</i>, and <i>Elapidae</i>. The proportion of +venomous to non-venomous species increases from north to south, +the five species known in Tasmania being all venomous. The +smallest forms, such as the "blind" or "worm" snakes, are only +a few inches in length, while the largest Python may reach a +length of perhaps eighteen feet. + +Various popular names have been given to different species +in different colonies, the same name being unfortunately not +infrequently applied to quite distinct species. The more +common forms are as follows:-- + +<i>Black Snake</i>. + +Name applied in Australia to <i>Pseudechis porphyriacus</i>, +Shaw, which is more common in the warmer parts, and +comparatively rare in the south of Victoria, and not found +in Tasmania. In the latter the name is sometimes given to +dark-coloured varieties of <i>Hoplocephalus curtus</i>, +and in Victoria to those of <i>H. superbus</i>. The +characteristic colour is black or black-brown above and reddish +beneath, but it can be at once distinguished from specimens of +H. superbus, which not infrequently have this colour, by the +presence of a double series of plates at the hinder end, and +a single series at the anterior end of the tail, whereas in +the other species named there is only a single row along the +whole length of the tail underneath. + +1799. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales' (edition +1802), vol. ii. p. 189 [Bass Diary at the Derwent, Tasmania]: + +"The most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake +with venomous fangs." + +[This refers to some species of Hoplocephalus, and not to the +Australian Black Snake, which does not occur in Tasmania.] + +<i>Black and white ringed Snake</i>. + +Name applied to <i>Vermicella annulata</i>, Gray, the +characteristic colouration of which consists of a series of +alternating dark and light rings. It is found especially in +the dry, warmer parts of the interior. + +<i>Brown Snake</i>. + +Name given to three species of the genus <i>Diemenia</i>-- (1) +the Common Brown Snake, <i>D. superciliosa</i>, Fischer; (2) +the small-scaled Brown Snake, <i>D. microlepidota</i>, McCoy; +and (3) the shield-fronted Brown Snake, <i>D. aspidorhyncha</i>, +McCoy. All are venomous, and the commonest is the first, which +is usually known as the Brown Snake. + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 71: + +"The most abundant of these are the tiger snake, +<i>Hoplocephalus curtus</i>, the most widespread, active, +and dangerous of them all: the brown snake, <i>Diemenia +superciliosa</i>, pretty generally distributed." + +<i>Carpet Snake</i>. + +Name applied in Australia to <i>Python variegata</i>, Gray, +a non-venomous snake reaching a length of ten feet. The name +has reference to the carpet-like pattern on the scales. +The animal crushes its prey to death, and can hang from +branches by means of its prehensile tail. In Tasmania, +the name is unfortunately applied to a venomous snake, +<i>Hoplocephalus curtus</i>, Schlegel. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' c. i. p. 16: + +"Brown brought a carpet snake and a brown snake with yellow +belly." + +1878. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of +Victoria,' Decade ii. pl. 13: + +"The pattern has some resemblance to some of the commoner sorts +of Kidderminster carpets, as suggested by the popular name of +Carpet Snake . . . the name . . . is, unfortunately, applied +to the poisonous Tiger Snake in Tasmania, producing some +confusion." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 294: + +"One of the snakes most common is the Australian python +(<i>Morelia variegata</i>), the largest snake found in +Australia, which here in Northern Queensland may even +attain a length of more than twenty feet." + +<i>Copper-head Snake</i>. + +Name applied in Australia to <i>Hoplocephalus superbus</i>, +Gunth., a venomous snake which is very common in Tasmania, +where it is often called the <i>Diamond Snake</i> (q.v.). +In Victoria, it is often confused with the Black Snake; +unlike the latter, it is more common in the south than +in the north. It derives its popular name from the colour +of the head. + +1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Natural History of +Victoria,' Decade i. pl. 2: + +"In Tasmania the name Diamond snake is unfortunately given to +this species, for that name properly belongs to a perfectly +harmless snake of New South Wales, so that the numerous +experiments made in Tasmania to test the value of some +pretended antidotes, were supposed in London to have been made +with the true Diamond snake, instead of, as was the case, with +this very poisonous kind. . . . I have adopted the popular +name `copperhead' for this snake from a well-known vendor of a +supposed antidote for snake-bites." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 54: + +"Those heather lands round Caulfield and Oakleigh where the +copperhead snake basks, coiled on the warm silver sand." + +<i>Death-adder</i>; also called <i>Deaf-adder</i>. + +An Australian snake, <i>Acanthophis antarctica</i>. It is +usually found in hot sandy districts, and is supposed to be the +most venomous of the Australian snakes. Large specimens reach +a length of upwards of three feet, the body having a diameter +of about two inches: at the end of the tail is a short spine +popularly known as the animal's "sting." + +1878. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Decade ii. pl. 12: + +"The popular name seems to be indifferently Death Adder or Deaf +Adder. The harmless horny spine at the end of the tail is its +most dangerous weapon, in the popular belief." + +<i>Diamond-Snake</i>. + +Name applied in New South Wales and Queensland to <i>Python +spilotes</i>, Lacep., a non-venomous snake reaching a large +size. In Tasmania the same name is given to <i>Hoplocephalus +superbus</i>, Gray, a venomous snake more properly called the +<i>Copperhead Snake</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 78: + +"Charley killed a diamond snake, larger than any he had ever +seen before." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' c. iii. p. 43: + +"The diamond snake is that most dreaded by the natives." + +1869. G. Krefft, `The Snakes of Australia,' p. 29: + +"Diamond snakes are found in almost every kind of country that +offers them sufficient shelter." + +1895. G. Metcalfe, `Australian Zoology,' p. 27: + +"As a rule, diamond snakes have almost every scale of the body +marked with a yellow spot in the centre. . . . The abdominal +plates are yellow, and more or less blotched with black, and +many species . . . have a number of diamond-shaped yellow +spots upon the body, formed by a few of the lighter scales, +and hence their name has probably arisen." + +<i>Green Tree-Snake</i>. + +Name given, owing to its colour, to the commonest Australian +tree-snake, <i>Dendrophis punctulata</i>, Gray. It is a +non-venomous form, feeding on frogs, young birds, and eggs, +and rarely exceeds the length of six feet. + +1869. G. Krefft, `The Snakes of Australia,' p. 24: + +"Young and half grown Tree Snakes are olive-green above and +light brown below . . . when angry, the body of this serpent +expands in a vertical direction, whilst all venomous snakes +flatten their necks horizontally. The green Tree snake, in a +state of excitement is strongly suggestive of one of the +popular toys of childhood." + +<i>Little Whip-Snake</i>. + +Name applied to a small venomous species of snake, +<i>Hoplocephalus flagellum</i>, McCoy. Common in +parts of Victoria, but not exceeding a foot in length. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. c. xxvii. +p. 190: + +"He wished it had been a whip-snake instead of a magpie." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xx. p. 199: + +"A whip-snake . . . reared itself upon its lithe body, and +made a dart at Barrington's arm." + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. iii. p. 24: + +"I saw a large `whip-snake' lying on the path." + +<i>Tiger-Snake</i>. + +Name applied in Australia and Tasmania to <i>Hoplocephalus +curtus</i>, Schlegel, but this species is often also known in +the latter as the <i>Carpet Snake</i> (q.v.). The popular name +is derived from the cross-banded colouring along the body, and +also from its activity. It varies much in colour from a dark +olive green to a light yellowish brown, the darker cross bands +being sometimes almost indistinguishable. It may reach a +length of four feet, and is viviparous, producing about thirty +young ones in January or February. + +1875. `The Spectator' (Melbourne), Aug. 21, p. 190, col. 1: + +"On Tuesday a tiger-snake was seen opposite the door of the +Sandridge police court." + +1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Decade +i. pl. 3: + +"This species, which goes under the colonial name in Victoria +of Tiger snake, from its tawny cross banded colouring and +ferocity, is well known to frequently inflict bites rapidly +fatal to men and dogs. . . . In Tasmania this is popularly +called `Carpet snake,' a name which properly belongs to the +harmless snake so called on the mainland." + +<i>Two-hooded Furina-Snake</i>. + +Name applied to a small, venomous snake, <i>Furina +bicuculata</i>, McCoy. + +1879. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Decade +iii. pl. 32: + +"Furina bicuculata (McCoy). The Two-hooded Furina-snake. . . . +This rare and beautiful little snake is a clear example of the +genus Furina." + +<i>White-lipped-Snake</i>. + +Name given to a small venomous species of <i>whip-snake</i>, +<i>Hoplocephalus coronoides</i>, Gunth., found in Tasmania and +Victoria, and reaching a length of about eighteen inches. + +1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian +Association for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 71: + +"Whip snakes, <i>H. flagellum</i> and <i>H. coronoides</i>." + +<i>Worm-Snake</i>. + +Name given to various species of the genus <i>Typhlops</i>, +comprising small, non-venomous, smooth, round-bodied snakes, +which burrow in warm sandy soil, and feed upon insects such as +ants. The eyes are covered over by translucent plates, and the +tail scarcely tapering at all, and sometimes having two black +spots, gives the animal the appearance of having a head at each +end. The commoner forms are the <i>Blackish Worm-Snake</i> +(<i>Typhlops nigrescens</i>, Gray), and <i>Schlegel's +Worm-Snake</i> (<i>T. polygrammicus</i>, Schlegel). + +1881. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' +Decade vi. pl. 103: + +"The `Blackish Worm snake' is not uncommon in the northern +warmer parts of the colony. . . . These worm snakes are +perfectly harmless, although, like the Slow-Worms and their +allies in other countries, they are popularly supposed to be +very poisonous." + +<hw>Sneeze-weed</hw>, <i>Myriogyne minuta</i>, Less., +<i>Cotula</i> or <i>Centipeda cunninghamii</i>, De C., +and many other botanical synonyms. A valuable specific +for <i>Sandy-Blight</i> (q.v.). + +1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 58: + +"The Sneeze-weed (<i>Cotula</i> or <i>Centipeda +Cunninghamii</i>). A dwarf, erect, odorous herb . . . +can be converted into snuff." + +1886. Dr. Woolls, in `Sydney Morning Herald,' Dec. 25 +(quoted by Maiden): + +"Dr. Jockel is, I believe, the first medical man in Australia +who has proved the value of <i>Myriogyne</i> in a case of +ophthalmia. This weed, growing as it does on the banks of +rivers and creeks, and in moist places,, is common in all the +Australian colonies and Tasmania, and it may be regarded as +almost co-extensive with the disease it is designed to +relieve." + +<hw>Snipe</hw>, <i>n</i>. The species of Snipe known in +Australia are--<i>Scolopax australis</i>, Lath.; Painted S., +<i>Rhynchaea australis</i>, Gould. This bird breeds in Japan +and winters in Australia. The name is also used as in the +quotation. + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 210: + +"Along the shore are flocks of a species of bird which some +sportsmen and the game-sellers in the city are pleased to call +snipe. They are probably tringa, a branch of the sea-plover +family." + +<hw>Snook</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied in the Old World +to various fishes, including the <i>Garfish</i> (q.v.). At the +Cape of Good Hope, it is applied to <i>Thyrsites atun</i>, +Cuv. and Val., and this name for the same fish has extended to +New Zealand, where (as in all the other colonies) it is more +generally called the <i>Barracouta</i> (q.v.). Under the word +Cavally, `O.E.D.' quotes-- + +1697. Dampier, `Voyage,' vol. i: + +"The chiefest fish are bonetas, snooks, cavallys." + +Snook is an old name, but it is doubtful whether it is used in +the Old World for the same fish. Castelnau says it is the +snook of the Cape of Good Hope. + +1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 14, +under `Thyrsites Atun, Barracoota': + +"This is, I believe, the fish called snoek in Cape Colony." + +1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 436: + +"<i>Th. atun</i> from the Cape of Good Hope, South Australia, +New Zealand, and Chili, is preserved, pickled or smoked. In +New Zealand it is called `barracuda' or `snoek,' and exported +from the colony into Mauritius and Batavia as a regular article +of commerce." + +<hw>Snowberry</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Wax-cluster</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Snow-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Poa caespitosa</i>, +G. Forst., another name for <i>Wiry grass</i> (q.v.). +See also <i>Grass</i>. + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 31: + +"Tethering my good old horse to a tussock of snow-grass." + +<hw>Snow-line</hw>, <i>n</i>. In pastoralists' language of New +Zealand, "above the snow-line" is land covered by snow in +winter, but free in summer. + +<hw>Soak</hw>, or <hw>Soakage</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Western +and Central Australian term. See quotation. + +1895. `The Australasian,' Sept. 7, p. 461, col. 1: + +"`Inquirer.'--The term soak in Western Australia, as used on +maps and plans, signifies a depression holding moisture after +rain. It is also given to damp or swampy spots round the base +of granite rocks. Wells sunk on soaks yield water for some +time after rain. All soaks are of a temporary character." + +<hw>Soak-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. an enclosed place in a stream +in which sheep are washed. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 82: + +"Parallel poles, resting on forks driven into the bed of the +water-hole, were run out on the surface of the stream, forming +square soak-holes, a long, narrow lane leading to the dry +land." + +<hw>Soldier</hw>, or <hw>Soldier-Ant</hw>, <i>n</i>. "one of +that section of a colony of some kinds of ants which does the +fighting, takes slaves, etc." (`Century Dict.') In Australia, +the large red ants are called <i>Soldier-Ants</i>. Compare +<i>Bulldog-Ant</i>. + +1854. G. H. Haydon, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 59: + +"It was a red ant, upwards of an inch in length--`that's a +soldier, and he prods hard too.'" + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 308: + +"The pain caused by a wound from this grass-seed is exactly +like that from the bite of a soldier-ant." + +<hw>Soldier-bird</hw>, or <hw>Poor Soldier</hw>, +or <hw>Old-Soldier bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. another +name for the <i>Friar-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 62: + +"The notes peculiar to the <i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>, +or <i>platypus</i>, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old +soldier bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . +The wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's +o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop where-you-are.'" + +[Mr. Bunce's observations are curiously confused. The +`Soldier-bird' is also called `Four o'clock,' but it is +difficult to say what `wattle bird' is called `what's o'clock'; +the `notes' of the platypus must be indeed `peculiar.'] + +1896. Mrs. Langloh Parker, `Australian Legendary Tales,' +p. 108 [Title of Tale]: + + "Deegeenboyah the Soldier-bird." + +<hw>Sole</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to various +Australian fishes. In Sydney, to <i>Synaptura nigra</i>, +Macl.; in Melbourne, to <i>Rhombosolea bassensis</i>, Castln.; +in New Zealand, to <i>Rhombosolea monopus</i>, Gunth., +and <i>Peltorhamphus novae-zelandiae</i>, Gunth.; in Tasmania, +to <i>Ammotretis rostratus</i>, Gunth., family +<i>Pleuronectidae</i>. <i>Rhombosolea monopus</i> is called +the <i>Flounder</i>, in Tasmania. See also <i>Lemon-Sole</i>. + +<hw>Solomon's</hw> Seal, <i>n</i>. Not the Old World plant, +which is of the genus <i>Polygonatum</i>, but the Tasmanian +name for <i>Drymophila cyanocarpa</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Liliacea</i>; also called Turquoise Berry. + +<hw>Sonny</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common nominative of address to any +little boy. In Australia, the word is not infrequently +pronounced as in the quotation. The form of the word came from +America. + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 10: + +"But maybe you're only a Johnnie, + And don't know a horse from a hoe? + Weel, weel, don't get angry, my Sonny, + But, really, a young `un should know." + +<hw>Sool</hw>, <i>v</i>. Used colloquially--(1) to excite a +dog or set him on; (2) to worry, as of a dog. Common in the +phrase "Sool him, boy!" Shakspeare uses "tarre him on" in the +first sense. + +Shakspeare, `King John,' IV. i. 117: + +"And like a dog that is compelled to fight, + Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on." + +1896. Mrs. Langloh Parker, `Australian Legendary Tales,' +p. 90: + +"She went quickly towards her camp, calling softly, `Birree +gougou,' which meant `Sool 'em, sool 'em,' and was the signal +for the dogs to come out." + +<hw>Sorrel, Queensland</hw>. See <i>Queensland Sorrel</i>. + +<hw>Sour-Gourd</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Baobab</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Sour-Plum</hw>, <i>n</i>. the <i>Emu-apple</i>. +See <i>Apple</i>. + +<hw>South Australia</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name of a colony, +established in 1836, with Adelaide as its capital. It is not a +good name, for it is not the most southerly colony, and the +"Northern Territory" forms a part of South Australia. Central +Australia would be a better name, but not wholly satisfactory, +for by Central Australia is now meant the central part of the +colony of South Australia. The name <i>Centralia</i> has been +proposed as a change. + +<hw>Southern Cross</hw>, <i>n</i>. The constellation of the +Southern Cross is of course visible in places farther north +than Australia, but it has come to be regarded as the +astronomical emblem of Australasia; e.g. the phrase "beneath +the Southern Cross " is common for "in Australia or New +Zealand." + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 13: + +"The southern cross is a very great delusion. It isn't a +cross. It is a kite, a kite upside down, an irregular kite +upside down, with only three respectable stars and one very +poor and very much out of place. Near it, however, is a truly +mysterious and interesting object called the coal sack: it is +a black patch in the sky distinctly darker than all the rest of +the heavens. No star shines through it. The proper name for it +is the black Magellan cloud." + +1868. Mrs. Riddell, `Lay of Far South,' p. 4: + +"Yet do I not regret the loss, + Thou hast thy gleaming Southern Cross." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. 35: + +"The Southern Cross rose gem-like above the horizon." + +<hw>Spade-press</hw>, <i>n</i>. a make-shift wool-press in +which the fleeces are rammed down with a spade. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 202: + +"The spade-press--that friendly adjunct of the pioneer +squatter's humble wool-shed." + +<hw>Spaniard</hw>, <i>n</i>. a prickly bushy grass of New +Zealand, <i>Aciphylla colensoi</i>. + +1857. `Paul's Letters from Canterbury,' p. 108: + +"The country through which I have passed has been most +<i>savage</i>, one mass of <i>Spaniards</i>." + +1862. J. Von Haast, `Geology of Westland,' p. 25: + +"Groves of large specimens of <i>Discaria toumatoo</i>, +the Wild Irishman of the settlers, formed with the gigantic +<i>Aciphylla Colensoi</i>, the Spaniard or Bayonet-grass, +an often impenetrable thicket." + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year of Canterbury Settlement,' p. 67: + +"The Spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intil +the bane,' and I assure you we were hard set to make any +headway at all." + +1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35: + +"The least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall +<i>into</i> a <i>Spaniard</i> is a thing to be remembered all +one's life." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 287: + +"Carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves of +Spaniards (<i>Aciphylla</i>), which here attain the larger +dimensions, carrying flower-spikes up to six feet long." + +1890. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xxiii. p. 197: + +"Here were rats which lived under the dead leaves of the +prickly `<i>Spaniard</i>,' and possibly fed on the roots. +The <i>Spaniard</i> leaves forked into stiff upright fingers +about 1 in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point." + +1896. `Otago Witness,' May 7, p. 48 "Prickly as the points +of the Spaniard." + +<hw>Spear-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to several grasses +whose spear-like seeds spoil the wool of sheep, but which are +yet excellent forage plants. They are--(1) all the species of +<i>Stipa</i>; (2) <i>Heteropogon contortus</i>, Roem. and +Schult., and others (see quotations); (3) and in New Zealand, +one or two plants of the umbelliferous genus <i>Aciphylla</i>; +also called <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 44: + +"Very disagreeable, however, was the abundance of burr and of a +spear-grass (<i>Aristida</i>)." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 463 [Note]: + +"On the south coast there is a grass seed which has similar +properties. The seeds are sharp and covered with fine barbs, +and once they penetrate the skin they will work their way +onwards. They catch in the wool of sheep, and in a short time +reach the intestines. Very often I have been shown the omentum +of a dead sheep where the grass seeds were projecting like a +pavement of pegs. The settlers call it spear-grass, and it is, +I believe, a species of <i>Anthistiria</i>." + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. v. p. 86: + +"Sheep in paddocks cannot be so well kept clear of +spear-grass." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 90: + +"<i>Heteropogon contortus</i>, Spear Grass. A splendid grass +for a cattle-run, as it produces a great amount of feed, but is +dreaded by the sheep-owner on account of its spear-like seeds." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 23: + +"A nocuous kind of grass, namely the dreaded spear-grass +(<i>Andropogon contortus</i>), which grows on the coast, +and which rendered sheep-raising impossible." + +<hw>Spear-Lily</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Spearwood</hw>, the wood of three trees so called, because +the aborigines made their spears from it--<i>Acacia +doratoxylon</i>, A. Cunn., <i>A. homalophylla</i>, A. Cunn., +both <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; and <i>Eucalyptus +doratoxylon</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<hw>Speedwell, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English +<i>Speedwell</i> is a <i>Veronica</i>. There is a Tasmanian +species, <i>Veronica formosa</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Scrophulariaceae</i>. + +<hw>Spell</hw>, <i>n</i>. In England, a turn at work or duty; +in Australasia, always a period of rest from duty. It is quite +possible that etymologically <i>Spell</i> is connected with +Ger. <i>spielen</i>, in which case the Australasian use is the +more correct. See `Skeat's Etymological Dictionary.' + +1865. J. O. Tucker, `Australian Story,' c. i. p. 84: + +"The only recompense was . . . to light his pipe and have +a `spell.'" + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 84: + +"Having a spell--what we should call a short holiday." + +<hw>Spell</hw>, <i>v</i>. to rest. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +p. 42: + +"In order to spell the oars, we landed at a point on the east +side." + +1880. G. <i>n</i>. Oakley, in `Victoria in 1880,' p. 114: + +"He `spelled' upon the ground; a hollow gum + Bore up his ample back and bade him rest; + And creaked no warning when he sat upon + A war-ant's nest." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxiv. p. 328: + +"There's a hundred and fifty stock-horses there, spelling for +next winter's work." + +1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +Narrative, p. 48: + +"We camped beside a water-pool containing plenty of fish, and +here we spelled for a day to allow some of us to go on and +photograph Chamber's Pillar." + +<hw>Sphenura</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus +of Australian birds called the <i>Bristle-Birds</i> (q.v.). +From Grk. <i>sphaen</i>, "a wedge," and <i>'oura</i>, "a tail." +The name was given by Sir Frederick McCoy. + +<hw>Spider</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Katipo</i>. + +<hw>Spider-Orchis</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania +to the Orchid <i>Caladenia pulcherrima</i>, F. v. M. + +<hw>Spiloglaux</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Sceloglaux</i>. + +<hw>Spinach, Australian</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to species +of <i>Chenopodium</i>, <i>N.O. Salsolaceae</i>; called also +<i>Fat-hen</i>. The name is also applied to various wild pot +herbs. + +<hw>Spinach, New Zealand</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Tetragonia +expansa</i>, Murr., <i>N.O. Ficoideae</i>; called also +<i>Iceplant</i>, in Tasmania. It is a trailing +<i>Fig-marigold</i>, and was discovered in New Zealand by +Captain Cook, though it is also found in Japan and South +America. Its top leaves are eaten as spinach, and Cook +introduced it to England, where it is also known as <i>Summer +Spinach</i>. + +<hw>Spine-bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian "Honey-eater," +but not now so classed. There are two species-- + +The Slender Spine-bill-- + <i>Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris</i>, Gould; inhabiting +Australia and Tasmania, and called <i>Cobbler's Awl</i> +in the latter colony. + +White-eyebrowed S.-- + <i>A. superciliosus</i>, Gould; of Western Australia. + +Though related to the genus <i>Myzomela</i>, the pattern +of their colouration differs widely. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 61: + +"<i>Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris</i>. Slender-billed +Spine-bill. <i>Cobbler's</i> Awl, Colonists of Van Diemen's +Land." + +Ibid. pl. 62: + +"<i>Acanthorhynchus superciliosus</i>, Gould. White-eyebrowed +Spine-bill." + +<hw>Spinetail</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, <i>Orthonyx +spinicauda</i>; called also <i>Pheasant's Mother</i> (q.v.), +<i>Log-runner</i> (q.v.). The name is used elsewhere for +different birds. See <i>Orthonyx</i>. + +<hw>Spinifex</hw>, <i>n</i>. a grass known in India, China, and +the Pacific, but especially common on Australasian shores. The +word means, literally, <i>thorn-making</i>, but it is not +classical Latin. "The aggregated flowers form large clusters, +and their radiating heads, becoming detached at maturity, are +carried by the wind along the sand, propelled by their elastic +spines and dropping their seeds as they roll." (Mueller.) +This peculiarity gains for the <i>Hairy Spinifex</i> +(<i>Spinifex hirsutus</i>, Labill.) the additional name of +<i>Spiny Rolling Grass</i>. See also quotation, 1877. This +chief species (<i>S. hirsutus</i>) is present on the shores of +nearly all Australasia, and has various +synonyms--<i>S. sericeus</i>, Raoul.; <i>S. inermis</i>, Banks +and Sol.; <i>Ixalum inerme</i>, Forst.; <i>S. fragilis</i>, +R.B., etc. It is a "coarse, rambling, much-branched, rigid, +spinous, silky or woolly, perennial grass, with habitats near +the sea on sandhills, or saline soils more inland." (Buchanan.) + +The <i>Desert Spinifex</i> of the early explorers, and of many +subsequent writers, is not a true <i>Spinifex</i>, but a +<i>Fescue</i>; it is properly called <i>Porcupine Grass</i> +(q.v.), and is a species of <i>Triodia</i>. The quotations, +1846, 1887, 1890, and 1893, involve this error. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. vi. p. 209: + +"In the valley was a little sandy soil, nourishing the +Spinifex." + +1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 125: + +"The Desert Spinifex of our colonists is a Fescue, but a true +<i>Spinifex</i> occupies our sand-shores; . . . the heads are +so buoyant as to float lightly on the water, and while their +uppermost spiny rays act as sails, they are carried across +narrow inlets, to continue the process of embarking." + +1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 239: + +"Though grasses are sadly conspicuous by their absence, saline +plants, so nutritious for stock, occur amidst the real deserts +of Spinifex." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 43: + +"On the broad sandy heights . . . the so-called spinifex is +found in great abundance. This grass (<i>Triodia irritans</i>) +is the traveller's torment, and makes the plains, which it +sometimes covers for hundreds of miles, almost impassable. Its +blades, which have points as sharp as needles, often prick the +horses' legs till they bleed." + +1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated Magazine,' Feb., +p. 325: + +"They evidently preferred that kind of watercress to the leaves +of the horrid, prickly Spinifex, so omnipresent in the +north-western district." + +1896. R. Tate, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' +Botany, p. 119: + +"A species of Triodia (`porcupine grass,' or incorrectly +`spinifex' of explorers and residents) dominates sandy ground +and the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands." + +<hw>Spiny-Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Mountain Devil</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Split-stuff</hw>, <i>n</i>. timber sawn into lengths and +then split. + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 159: + +"`Sawed stuff' and `split stuff,' by which is meant timber +which is <i>sawn</i> into regular forms and thicknesses, as +flooring boards, joints, battens, &c., and that which is +<i>split</i> into `posts and rails,' slabs, or paling. Some of +the species of <i>eucalyptus</i>, or gum-trees, are peculiarly +adapted for splitting. The peppermint-tree (<i>Eucalyptus +piperita</i>) and the `Stringy Bark' are remarkable for the +perfectly straight grain which they often exhibit, and are +split with surprising evenness and regularity into paling and +boards for `weather-boarding' houses and other purposes, in +lengths of six or eight feet by one foot wide, and half or +one-third of an inch thick. . . . Any curve in a tree renders +it unfit for splitting, but the crooked- grained wood is best +for sawing. . . . All houses in the colony, with few +exceptions, are roofed with split shingles." + +<hw>Splitter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a wood-cutter, cutting timber +in the bush, and splitting it into posts and rails, palings +or shingles. See quotation under <i>Split-stuff</i>. + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 105: + + "There were two splitters located near us . . . they had a +licence to split timber on the crown lands." + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads--Wolf and Hound,' p. 32: + +"At the splitter's tent I had seen the track + Of horse hoofs, fresh on the sward." + +<hw>Spoonbill</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name widely used. +The Australian species are-- + +Royal Spoonbill-- + <i>Platalea regia</i>. + +Yellow-billed S.-- + <i>P. flavipes</i>. + +<i>P. regia</i> has a fine crest in the breeding season; +hence the name. + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among Gum-trees,' p. 79: + +"The sun is sinking in the western sky, + And ibises and spoonbills thither fly. + +<hw>Spotted-tree</hw>. Same as <i>Leopard-tree</i> (q.v.). + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 216: + +"Spotted or Leopard Tree. The gum from this tree forms good +adhesive mucilage. It reminds one strongly of East-India +gum-arabic of good quality. During the summer months large +masses, of a clear amber-colour, exude from the stem and +branches. It has a very pleasant taste, is eaten by the +aboriginals, and forms a very common bushman's remedy in +diarrhoea." + +<hw>Spotted-Orchis</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for the +Orchid <i>Dipodium punctatum</i>, R. Br. + +<hw>Spotting</hw>, <i>n</i>. New Zealand equivalent for the +Australian "picking the eyes out," and "peacocking." Under +<i>Free-selection</i> (q.v.), the squatter spotted his run, +purchasing choice spots. + +<hw>Spotty</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand fish, a Wrass, +<i>Labrichthys bothryocosmus</i>, Richards.; also called +<i>Poddly</i> (q.v.), and <i>Kelp-fish</i> (q.v.). + +1878. P. Thomson, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xi. art. lii. p. 384: + +"Wrasse, parrot-fish, and spotties are often in the market. +There are two kinds of spotties, a big and a little. The +wrasse and the parrot-fish are mostly caught outside amongst +the kelp, and these, with the spotty, are indiscriminately +called kelp-fish by the fishermen." + +<hw>Sprag</hw>, <i>n</i>. In gold-mining. See quotation. +The word is used in England, applied to coal-mining. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 23: + +"A `sprag,' being a stout piece of hard wood, was inserted +between the rope and the iron roller on which the rope ran." + +<hw>Squat</hw>, v. to be a squatter (q.v.) in any of the senses +of that word. + +1846. Feb. 11, `Speech by Rev. J. D. Lang,' quoted in +`Phillipsland,' p. 410: + +In whatever direction one moves out of Melbourne, whether +north, east, or west, all he sees or hears is merely a +repetition of this colonial note--`I squat, thou squattest, he +squats; we squat, ye or you squat, they squat.'. . . +<i>Exeunt omnes</i>. `They are all gone out a-squatting.'" + +1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 236: + +"The regulations . . . put an end to squatting within the +boundaries of location, and reduced it to a system without +the boundaries." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 136: + +"The Speaker squats equally and alternately on the woolsack of +the House and at his wool-stations on the Murrumbidgee. One +may squat on a large or small scale, squat directly or +indirectly, squat in person or by proxy." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' p. 68: + + "Some spot, + Found here and there, where cotters squat + With self-permission." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 119: + +"Squatting, in its first phase, was confined to the region +round about Sydney; it was not until the pass through the Blue +Mountains was discovered that the flocks and herds of the +colonists began to expand." + +<hw>Squattage</hw>, <i>n</i>. a squatter's station. +The word can hardly be said to have prevailed. + +1864. W. Westgarth, `Colony of Victoria,' p. 272: + +"The great Riverine district, which is one vast series of +squattages . . . the toil and solitude of a day's journey +between the homesteads of adjacent squattages." + +<hw>Squatter</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) One who squats; that is, +settles on land without a title or licence. This is an +English use. + +1835. T. A. Murray (Evidence before Legislative Council of +New South Wales on Police and Gaols): + +"There are several parties of squatters in my neighbourhood. +I detected, not long since, three men at one of their stations +in the act of slaughtering one of my own cattle. I have strong +reason to suspect that these people are, in general, illicit +sellers of spirits." + +1835. W. H. Dutton (Evidence before same Committee): + +"These persons (squatters) are almost invariably the +instigators and promoters of crime, receivers of stolen +property, illegal vendors of spirits, and harbourers of +runaways, bushrangers, and vagrants." + +1843. Rev. W. Pridden, `Australia Its History and Present +Condition,' pp. 332-3: + +"The <i>squatters</i>, as they are called, are men who occupy +with their cattle, or their habitations, those spots on the +confines of a colony or estate which have not yet become any +person's private property. By the natural increase of their +flocks and herds, many of these squatters have enriched +themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of +as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any +rent for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when +the spot was sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to +purchase that or some other property. Thus . . . the squatter +has been converted into a respectable settler. But this is too +bright a picture to form an average specimen. . . . +Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been persons +originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made +their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means +of carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they +choose spots of waste land near a high road . . . there the +squatters knock up what is called a `hut.' In such places +stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are +procured in return." + +Ibid. p. 334: + +"The rich proprietors have a great aversion to the class of +squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of +them, squatters themselves, only on a much larger scale. . ." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' +vol. i. c. ix. p. 260: + +"This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been +known to some squatters from Tasmania." + +1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' +vol. i. p. 235: + +"A set of men who were to be found upon the borders of every +large estate, and who were known by the name of squatters. +These were ticket-of-leave holders, or freedmen who erected a +but on waste land near a great public road, or on the outskirts +of an estate." + +1897. Australian Steam Navigation Company, `Guide Book,' +p. 29: + +"Nowaday squatters may be interested and possibly shocked on +learning that in March, 1836, a petition was being largely +signed for the prevention of `squatting, through which so much +crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as `squatting' was but +another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, +and harbouring bushrangers and assigned servants. The term +`squatter,' as applied to the class it now designates--without +which where would Australia now be?--was not in vogue till +1842." + +(2) A pastoral tenant of the Crown, often renting from the +Crown vast tracts of land for pasturage at an almost nominal +sum. The term is still frequently, but incorrectly, used for +a man rearing and running stock on freehold land. +<i>Pastoralist</i> is now the more favoured term. + +1840. F. P. Labillicre, `Early History of the Colony of +Victoria' (edition 1878), vol. ii. p. 189: + +"In a memorandum of December 19th, 1840, `on the disposal of +Lands in the Australian Provinces,' Sir George Gipps informs +the Secretary of State on the subject, and states that,--'A +very large proportion of the land which is to form the new +district of Port Phillip is already in the licensed occupation +of the Squatters of New South Wales, a class of persons whom it +would be wrong to confound with those who bear the same name in +America, and who are generally persons of mean repute and of +small means, who have taken unauthorized possession of patches +of land. Among the Squatters of New South Wales are the +wealthiest of the land, occupying, with the permission of the +Government, thousands and tens of thousands of acres. Young +men of good families and connexions in England, officers of the +army and navy, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, are also in +no small number amongst them.'" + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 8, p. 3, col. 3: + +"The petitioner has already consigned the whole country +to the class squatter in perpetuity." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 165: + +"The squatters of Australia Felix will meet on horseback, upon +Batman's Hill, on the 1st of June, for the purpose of forming a +Mutual Protection Society. From the Murray to the sea-beach, +from the Snowy Mountains to the Glenelg, let no squatter be +absent." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366: + +"`Squatters.' A word not to be found in `Johnson's Dictionary'; +of Canadian extraction, literally to sit on the haunches: in +Australia a term applied to the sheep farmers generally; from +their being obliged frequently to adopt that position." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' (Introd.), p. 15: + +"We were received with the greatest kindness by my friends the +`squatters,' a class principally composed of young men of good +education, gentlemanly habits, and high principles." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 168: + +"The Port Phillip squatters, as occupants of the territory of +New South Wales, were afterwards required to take out an annual +depasturing licence in terms of a Colonial Act passed at +Sydney." + +(p. 246): "The modern squatters, the aristocratic portion +of the colonial community." + +1851. `Australasian,' p. 298: + +"In 1840 the migratory flockmaster had become a settled +squatter. A wretched slab but is now his home; for furniture +he has a rough bush-made table, and two or three uncouth +stools." + +1861. T. McCombie, Australian Sketches,' p. 128: + +"The term squatter was applied in the first instance to +signify, as in America, such as erected huts on unsold land. +It thus came to be applied to all who did not live on their own +land, to whom the original and more expressive name of settler +continued to be applied. When the owners of stock became +influential from their education and wealth, it was thought due +to them to change this term for one more suitable to their +circumstances, as they now included in their order nearly every +man of mark or wealth in Australia. The Government suggested +the term `tenants of the Crown,' the press hinted at `licensed +graziers,' and both terms were in partial use, but such is the +prejudice in favour of what is already established, that both +were soon disused, and the original term finally adopted." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 478: + +"The term `squatter' . . . is thus derived:--A flock-master +settling in Australia could drive his stock to, and occupy, +any tract of country, which, from its extent and pastoral +capabilities, might meet his comprehensive views; always +provided, that such lands had not been already appropriated. +. . . Early flock-masters were always confirmed in their +selection of lands, according to the quantity of stock they +possessed. . . . The Victorian Squatter who can number but +five or six thousand sheep is held to be a man of no account. +. . . Those only, who can command the shearing of from ten +to forty thousand fleeces annually, are estimated as worthy +of any note." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 47: + +"The squatters (as owners of sheepstations are called)." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 94: + +"In the language of the times, Messrs. Evans, Lancey, and +subsequently J. P. Fawkner, were squatters. That term is +somewhat singular as applied to the latter, who asserts that he +founded the colony to prevent its getting into the hands of the +squatters. The term was then applied to all who placed +themselves upon public lands without licence." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' +vol. i. p. 265: + +"It is not too much to say that all the early success of +Australia was due to the squatters of New South Wales, +who followed the steps of Captain McArthur." + +1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 532: + +"I have been a super, a small freeholder, and a middling-sized +squatter, at different times." + +1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 165: + +"The Squatters are the large leaseholders and landed +proprietors of the colony, whose cry has always been that the +country was unfit for agricultural settlement, and only adapted +for the pastoral pursuits in which they were engaged. . . . +It is true the old squatter has been well-nigh exterminated." + +1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 36: + +"The pastoral enterprise of the adventurous squatters. +Originally unrecognized trespassers on Crown lands. . . ." + +(3) Applied as a nickname to a kind of <i>Bronze-wing +Pigeon</i> (q.v.). + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122: + +"On the plains you find different kinds of pigeons, the +squatters being most common--plump, dust-coloured little +fellows, crouching down to the ground quite motionless as you +pass. I have frequently killed them with my stock-whip." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 114: + +"Gentle little squatter-pigeons cooed lovingly in answer to +their mates on all sides." + +<hw>Squatterarchy</hw>, <i>n</i>. squatters collectively. + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iii. p. 25: + +"The Squatterarchy of the Koorong rose up in a body and named +its hero, martyr." + +<hw>Squatterdom</hw>, <i>n</i>. the state of being a squatter, +or collective word for squatters; the squatter-party. + +1866 (circiter). `Political parody': + +"The speaker then apologised, the Members cried, Hear, Hear; + And e'en the ranks of squatterdom could scarce forbear to + cheer." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 94: + +"Writes to another at a distance upon the subject of +squatterdom." + +<hw>Squatting</hw>, adj. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' (Introd.), p. 13: + +"During my recent excursions through the squatting districts, +I had accustomed myself to a comparatively wild life." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 268: + +"The large extent of land occupied by each Squatting Station." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2: + +"A gathering of the squatting and bush life of Australia." + +<hw>Squattocracy</hw>, <i>n</i>. squatters collectively. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 118: + +"Throughout the Colony generally, English are the most +numerous, then the Scotch, then the Irish, amongst the +Squattocracy." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 59: + +"The howl for the abolition of the squattocracy had not yet +been fostered under the malign influence of shortsighted +politicians." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 35 (`Century'): + +"The bloated squattocracy represents Australian conservatism." + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 243: + +"The hearty, hospitable manner of the colonial `squatocracy.'" + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iv. p. 42: + +"He trusted to pass into the ranks of the Squatocracy." + +<hw>Squattocratic</hw>, <i>adj</i>. connected with previous +word. + +1854. `Melbourne Morning Herald,' Feb. 18, p. 4, col. 5: + +"Squattocratic Impudence." [A heading.] + +<hw>Squeaker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a vernacular name applied +to various birds from their cries. See quotations. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 45: + +"<i>Strepera Anaphonensis</i>, Grey Crow-shrike; Squeaker +of the Colonists." + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society, +Victoria,' vol. i. p. 63: + +"The Squeaker (<i>Strepera anaphonensis</i>) is a shy and +solitary bird, living entirely on the flats, and is remarkable +on account of its frequenting only the same locality. He is +hence easily distinguished from the <i>Gymnorhina tibicen</i>, +whose shrill and piping voice is so well known on all the high +lands." + +1896. A. J. North, `List of Insectivorous Birds of New South +Wales,' part i. p. 1: + +"A local name is often more apt to mislead and confuse than to +assist one in recognizing the particular species on which it is +bestowed. This is chiefly due to the same local name being +applied to two or more species.For instance, <i>Corcorax +melanorhamphus</i>, <i>Xerophila leucopsis</i>, and <i>Myzantha +garrula</i> are all locally known in different parts of the +Colony by the name of `Squeaker.'" + +<hw>Squid</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marine animal. The Australian +species is <i>Sepioteuthis australis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +1883. `Report of the Royal Commission on the Fisheries of +Tasmania,' p. xi: + +"None of the Squid family seems to be sought after, although +certain kinds are somewhat abundant in our waters. It is +stated by the New South Wales Fisheries Enquiry Commission, +1880, that `the cephalopods might be made a source of a +considerable profit for exportation to Japan and China. +In both these countries all animal substances of a gelatinous +character are in great request, and none more than those of the +cuttle-fish tribe; the squid (<i>Sepioteuthis australis</i>) is +highly appreciated, and in consequence is highly prized. +The cuttle-fish (<i>sepia</i>) is of rather inferior quality, +and the star-fish of the fishermen (<i>octopus</i>) not used +at all.'" + +1892. R L. Stevenson, `The Wrecker,' p. 345: + +"You can't fill up all these retainers on tinned salmon for +nothing; but whenever I could get it, I would give 'em squid. +Squid's good for natives, but I don't care for it, do you?-- +or shark either." + +<hw>Squire</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the fish called +<i>Schnapper</i> at two years old. See <i>Schnapper</i>. + +<hw>Squirrel</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Flying-Squirrel</i>. + +<hw>Stamper</hw>, or <hw>Stamphead</hw>, <i>n</i>. "A cast-iron +weight, or head, fixed on to a shank or lifter, and used for +stamping or reducing quartz to a fine sand." (Brough Smyth, +`Glossary.') The word is used elsewhere as a term in +machinery. In Australia, it signifies the appliance above +described. The form <i>stamphead</i> is the earlier one. +The shorter word <i>stamper</i> is now the more usual. + +1869. J. F. Blanche, `Prince's Visit,' p. 25: + +"For steam and stampers now are all the rage." + +1880. A. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 76: + +"The battery was to have eight stampers." + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 11: + +"This, with the old battery, brings the number of stampers up +to sixty." + +Ibid. p. 15: + +"A battery of twenty-six stamp heads." + +<hw>Star of Bethlehem</hw>. The Old World plant is +<i>Ornithogalum umbellatum</i>; the name is given in Australia +to <i>Chamaescilla corymbosa</i>, and in Tasmania to +<i>Burchardia umbellata</i>, R. Br., both of the +<i>Liliaceae</i>. + +<hw>Star-fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Victoria to +<i>Gleichenia flabellata</i>, R. Br.; called also +<i>Fan-fern</i>. See <i>Fern</i>. + +<hw>Starling</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. +The Australian species is the <i>Shining Starling</i>, +<i>Calornis metallica</i>. The common English starling +is also acclimatised. + +<hw>Start</hw>, <i>n</i>. The young Australian has a fine +contempt for the English word <i>to begin</i>, which he never +uses where he can find any substitute. He says <i>commence</i> +or <i>start</i>, and he always uses <i>commence</i> followed +by the infinitive instead of by the verbal noun, as "The dog +commenced to bark." + +1896. Modern talk in the train: + +"The horse started to stop, and the backers commenced to +hoot." + +<hw>Station</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally the house with the +necessary buildings and home-premises of a sheep-run, and still +used in that sense: but now more generally signifying the run +and all that goes with it. <i>Stations</i> are distinguished +as <i>Sheep-stations</i> and <i>Cattle-stations</i>. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. (Introd.): + +"They . . . will only be occupied as distant stock-stations." + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 120: + +"Their [squatters'] huts or houses, gardens, paddocks, etc., +form what is termed a station, while the range of country over +which their flocks and herds roam is termed a run." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 35: + +"The lecturer assured his audience that he came here to prevent +this country being a squatting station." + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 17: + +"The sturdy station-children pull the bush flowers on my + grave." + +1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 4: + +"Station--the term applied in the colonies to the homesteads of +the sheep-farmers or squatters." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood,'Miner's Right,' c. xviii. p. 171: + +"Men who in their youth had been peaceful stockmen and +station-labourers." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125: + +"I'm travelen' down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand, + I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand, + And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, + But there's no demand for a stationhand along the Castlereagh." + +<hw>Station-jack</hw>, <i>n</i>. a form of bush cookery. + +1853. `The Emigrant's Guide to Australia.' (Article on +Bush-Cookery, from an unpublished MS. by Mrs. Chisholm], +pp. 111-12: + +"The great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out +of salt beef and flour . . . let the Sunday share be soaked on +the Saturday, and beat it well . . . take the . . . flour and +work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it, +and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as +`<i>Station jack</i>.'" + +<hw>Stavewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Flindosy +Beech</i>. See <i>Beech</i>. + +<hw>Stay-a-while</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tangled bush; sometimes +called <i>Wait-a-while</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Steamer</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete name for a colonial dish. +See quotation. + + +1820. Lieut. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and +Descriptive Delineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land,' +p. 69: + +"Their meal consisted of the hindquarters of a kangaroo cut +into mincemeat, stewed in its own gravy, with a few rashers +of salt pork; this dish is commonly called a steamer." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 309: + +"Our largest animals are the <i>Kangaroos</i> . . . making most +delicious stews and steaks, the favourite dish being what is +called a <i>steamer</i>, composed of steaks and chopped tail, +(with a few slices of salt pork) stewed with a very small +quantity of water for a couple of hours in a close vessel." + +<hw>Stewart Islander</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to the oyster, +<i>Ostrea chiloensis</i>, Sowerby; so called because it is +specially abundant on Stewart Island off the south coast of New +Zealand. The Stewart Island forms are mud oysters, those of +Sydney Cove growing on rock. See <i>Oyster</i>. + +<hw>Stick-Caterpillar</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Phasmid</i>. + +<hw>Stick-up</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. (1) The regular word for the +action of bushrangers stopping passers-by on the highway and +robbing them. + +(2) In the case of a bank or a station, simply to rob. + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. xiii. p. 502: + +"It was only the previous night that he had been `stuck up' +with a pistol at his head." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 187: + +"Unless the mail came well armed, a very few men could `stick +it up,' without any trouble or danger." + +1857. `Melbourne Punch,' Feb. 19, p. 26, col. 1: + +"I have been stuck up, trampled in the mud." + +1869. J. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 140: + +"Five or six bushrangers took up a position about a mile from +town, and (to use a colonial phrase) `stuck up' every person +that passed." + +1869. Mrs. W. M. Howell, `The Diggings and the Bush,' +p. 93: + +"The escort has been `stuck up,' and the robbers have taken +notes to the value of L700, and two thousand ounces of gold." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 253: + +"We had a revolver apiece in case of being `stuck up' on the +road." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 168: + +"We could make more money in one night by `sticking up' a +coach or a bank than in any other way in a year . . . Any +one who has been stuck up himself knows that there's not much +chance of doing much in the resisting line." [The operation is +then explained fully.] + +1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c.viii. p. 68: + +"Accounts of bushrangers `sticking up' stations, travellers, +and banks were very frequent." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 26, p. 4. col. 6: + +"The game of sticking up hotels used to be in the old days a +popular one, and from the necessary openness of the premises +the practice was easy to carry out." + +(3) Humorously applied to a collector or a beggar. In `Twenty- +five Years of St. Andrews' (vol. ii. p. 87), A. K. H. B. +tells a story of a church dignitary, who was always collecting +money for church building. When a ghost appeared at Glamis +Castle, addressing the ghost, the clergyman began--that "he was +most anxious to raise money for a church he was erecting; that +he had a bad cold and could not well get out of bed; but that +his collecting-book was on the dressing-table, and he would be +`extremely obliged' for a subscription." An Australian would +have said he "stuck up" the ghost for a subscription. + +1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 297: + +"You never get stuck up for coppers in the streets of the +towns." + +(4) Bring a kangaroo to bay. + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 24: + +"We knew that she had `stuck up' or brought to bay a large +forester." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 15: + +"The fiercest fighter I ever saw `stuck up' against a red +gum-tree." + +(5) Simply to stop. + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 68: + +"This [waterfall] `stuck us up,' as they say here concerning +any difficulty." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2: + +"We are stuck up for an hour or more, and can get a good feed +over there." + +(6) To pose, to puzzle. + +1896. Modern: + +"I was stuck up for an answer." + +"That last riddle stuck him up." + +1897. `The Australasian,' Jan. 2, p. 33, col. 1: + +"The professor seems to have stuck up any number of candidates +with the demand that they should `construct one simple sentence +out of all the following.'" + +<hw>Sticker-up</hw>, <i>n</i>. sc. a bushranger. + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 197: + +"They had only just been liberated from gaol, and were +the stickers-up, or highwaymen mentioned." + +<hw>Sticker-up/2</hw>, <i>n</i>. a term of early bush cookery, +the method, explained in first quotation, being borrowed from +the aborigines. + +1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 112: + +"Which he cooked in the mode called in colonial phrase a +sticker up. A straight twig being cut as a spit, the slices +were strung upon it, and laid across two forked sticks leaning +towards the fire." + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 55: + +"Here I was first initiated into the bush art of `sticker-up' +cookery . . . the orthodox material here is of course kangaroo, +a piece of which is divided nicely into cutlets two or three +inches broad and a third of an inch thick. The next requisite +is a straight clean stick, about four feet long, sharpened at +both ends. On the narrow part of this, for the space of a foot +or more, the cutlets are spitted at intervals, and on the end +is placed a piece of delicately rosy fat bacon. The strong end +of the stick-spit is now stuck fast and erect in the ground, +close by the fire, to leeward; care being taken that it does +not burn." ". . . to men that are hungry, stuck-up kangaroo +and bacon are very good eating." . . . "our `sticker-up' +consisted only of ham." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 103: + +"Pounds of rosy steaks . . . skilfully rigged after the usual +approved fashion (termed in Bush parlance a sticker-up'), +before the brilliant wood fire, soon sent forth odours most +grateful to the hungered way-worn Bushmen." + +<hw>Stilt</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. In New Zealand, +the species are-- + +The Black Stilt-- + <i>Himantopus novae-zelandiae</i>, Gould; Maori name, +<i>Kaki</i>. + +Pied S., or Whiteheaded S.-- + <i>H. leucocephalus</i>, Gould; Maori name, <i>Tutumata</i>. + +White-necked S.-- + <i>H. albicollis</i>, Buller. + + <i>H. leucocephalus</i> (the <i>White-headed Stilt</i>) +is also present in Australia, and the world-wide species, +<i>H. pectoralis</i>, Du Bus. (the Banded Stilt), is found +through all Australasia. + +<hw>Stingareeing</hw>, <i>n</i>. the sport of catching +<i>Stingrays</i>, or <i>Stingarees</i>. + +1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 121: + +"It has been recently discovered by the writer of the animated +article in the `Field' on Fishing in New Zealand [London, Nov. +25, 1871], that `stingareeing' can be made to afford sport of +a most exciting kind." + +<hw>Stinging-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland name +for the <i>Giant Nettle</i>, or <i>Nettle-tree</i> (q.v.) + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 209: + +"The stinging-tree, . . . the most terrible of all vegetable +growths. This horrible guardian of the Queensland jungle +stands from five to fifteen feet in height, and has a general +appearance somewhat similar to that of a small mulberry-tree. +Their peculiarly soft and inviting aspect is caused by an +almost invisible coating of microscopic cillia, and it is to +these that the dangerous characteristics of the plant are due. +The unhappy wanderer in these wilds, who allows any part of his +body to come in contact with those beautiful, inviting tongues +of green, soon finds them veritable tongues of fire, and it +will be weeks, perhaps months, ere the scorching agony +occasioned by their sting is entirely eradicated." + +<hw>Sting-moth</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian moth, +<i>Doratifera vulnerans</i>. The larva has at each end +of the body four tubercles bearing stinging hairs. (`Standard.') + +<hw>Stinkwood</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to various +woods in different parts of the world, from their unpleasant +smell. In Tasmania, it is applied to the timber of <i>Zieria +smithii</i>, Andr., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 175: + +"The timber in this district I found to be principally myrtle, +sassafras, and stinkwood." + +<hw>Stint</hw>, <i>n</i>. English bird-name. The Australian +species are-- + +Curlew Stint-- + <i>Tringa subarquata</i>, Gmel. + +Little S.-- + <i>T. ruficollis</i>. + +Sharp-tailed S.-- + <i>T. acuminata</i>, Horsf. + +<hw>Stitch-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand. +See quotation. + +1885. Hugh Martin, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xviii. art. xxii. p. 112: + +"<i>Pogonornis cincta</i> (Hihi, Matahiore, stitch-bird), +North Island." + +[From a list of New Zealand birds that ought to be protected.] + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 101: + +"<i>Pogonornis cincta</i>, Gray. [A full description.]" + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 119: + +"Stitch-bird (<i>Pogonornis cincta</i>), formerly abundant in +the North Island, but now extinct on the main-land, and found +only in some of the outlying islets. The rarest and one of the +most beautiful of native Passerines." + +<hw>Stock</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word has many meanings. In the +one from which the Australian compounds are made, it denotes +horses, cattle, or sheep, the farmer's stock in trade. Of +course, this use is not peculiar to Australia, but it is +unusually common there. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. ix. +p. 320: + +"The cattle suffered much, and some of both the public and +private stock perished." + +<hw>Stock-agent</hw>, <i>n</i>. more usually in the form Stock +and Station-agent. The circumstances of Australian life make +this a common profession. + +<hw>Stock-holder</hw>, <i>n</i>. a grazier; owner of large +herds of cattle, or flocks of sheep. + +1820. Lieut. Chas. Jeffreys, `Delineations of Van Dieman's +Land' [sic], p. 25: + +"Near this is the residence of D. Rose, Esq., formerly an +officer of the 73rd regiment, and now a large land and +stockholder." + +1824. E. Curr, `Account of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 83: + +"The most negligent stock-holders now carefully house their +wool, and many take the trouble to wash their sheep." + +<hw>Stock-horse</hw>, <i>n</i>. horse accustomed to go after +cattle used in mustering and cutting-out (q.v.). + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 122: + +"The Australian stock-horse is a wonderful animal. . . . He +has a wonderful constitution, splendid feet, great endurance, +and very good temper." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 14, p.4, col. 1: + +"A twenty-year-old stock-horse." + +<hw>Stock-hut</hw>, <i>n</i>. the hut of a stock-man. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. ii. c. ii. p. 21: + +"We crossed the Underaliga creek a little below the stock-hut." + +<hw>Stock-keep</hw>, <i>v</i>. a quaint compound verb. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. x. p. 96 +(1890): + +"`What can you do, young man?' `Well, most things . . . +fence, split, milk, drive bullocks, stock-keep, plough." + +<hw>Stock-keeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. equivalent to a shepherd, +or herdsman. + +1821. Governor Macquarie, `Government Notice,' June 30, 1821, +in E. Curr's `Van Diemen's Land' (1824), p. 154: + +"To yard the flocks at night . . . for the purpose of keeping +the stock-keepers in check, and sufficient shepherds should be +kept to ensure constant attention to the flock." + +1828. Governor Arthur in J. Bischoff's `Van Diemen's Land,' +1832, p. 185: + +"Every kind of injury committed against the defenceless natives +by the stock-keepers." + +<hw>Stock-man</hw>, <i>n</i>. used in Australia for a man +employed to look after stock. + +1821. Governor Macquarie, `Government Notice,' June 30, 1821, +in E. Curr's `Van Diemen's Land' (edition 1824), p. 155: + +"It is the common practice with owners of flocks to allow +their shepherds to acquire and keep sheep . . . it affords +to the stock-men a cover frequently for disposing dishonestly +of sheep belonging to their master." + +1822. G. W. Evans, `Description of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 68: + +"At its junction there is a fine space, named by the stockmen +Native Hut Valley." + +1833. C. Sturt,' Southern Australia,'vol. i. c. i. p. 6: + +"He was good enough to send for the stockman (or chief +herdsman)." + +1846. J L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. xii. p. 402: + +"An exchange of looks I caught the overseer and stockman +indulging in." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' p. 96: + +"Here and there a stockman's cottage stands." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 5: + +"Would you still exchange your comfortable home and warm +fireside . . . for a wet blanket, a fireless camp, +and all the other etceteras of the stockman's life?" + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 17: + +"One stooped--a stockman from the nearer hills + To loose his wallet strings." + +<hw>Stock-rider</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man employed to look after +cattle, properly on an unfenced station. + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads' [Title]: + +"The Sick Stock-rider." + +1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 33: + +"`Thus far into the bowels of the land + Have we marched on without impediment,' + +said a lithe-limbed stock-rider, bearded like a pard, as he lit +his pipe--the bushman's only friend. And this was once a fellow +of St. John's, Cambridge." + +<hw>Stock-riding</hw>, <i>n</i>. the occupation +of a <i>Stock-rider</i> (q.v.). + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 260 +[Footnote]: + +"Like other Australian aborigines, the Kurnai have a natural +aptitude for stock-riding." + +<hw>Stock-route</hw>, <i>n</i>. When land is first let in +surveyed blocks to a <i>Squatter</i> (q.v.), and is, of course, +unfenced, the lessee is required by law to leave passages +through it from two to four chains wide, at certain intervals, +as a right-of-way for travelling sheep and cattle. These are +called Stock-routes. He may fence these routes if he +chooses--which he very rarely does--but if he fences across +the route he must provide gates or s<i>lip-rails</i> (q.v.), +or other free passage. + +1896. `The Argus,' May 21, p. 5, Col. 1: + +"To-day the Land Board dealt with the application for the +re-appraisement of the Yantara pastoral holding. The manager +said that owing to deterioration of the feed through the +rabbits, from 9 to 10 acres were required to carry a sheep. . . +. Thirteen trial wells had been put down on the holding, all +of which had bottomed on a drift of salt water. Four stock +routes passed through the area, one being the main stock route +from South-western Queensland. . . . Wild dogs had been +troublesome since the February rains. . . . There were +Government bores on the run." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 51: + +"Now Saltbush Bill was a drover tough, as ever the country + knew, + He had fought his way on the Great Stock Routes from the + sea to the Big Barcoo." + +<hw>Stock-up</hw>, <i>v</i>. complete the number of animals +on a station, so that it may carry its full complement. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. vii. p. 68: + +"I shall decide to stock up as soon as the fences are +finished." + +<hw>Stock-whip</hw>, <i>n</i>. whip for driving cattle. +See quotations. + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 100: + +"The stock-whip, with a handle about half a yard long and a +thong of three yards long, of plaited bullock-hide, is a +terrible instrument in the hands of a practised stockman. Its +sound is the note of terror to the cattle; it is like the +report of a blunderbuss, and the stockman at full gallop will +hit any given spot on the beast that he is within reach of, and +cut the piece away through the thickest hide that bull or bison +ever wore." + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 14: + +"With a running fire of stock-whips and a fiery run of hoofs." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 76: + +"The stock-whip, which bears such a prominent part in all +dealings with cattle, is from twelve to fourteen feet in +length, with a short light handle of about fourteen inches +long, to which it is attached by a leather keeper as on a +hunting crop. . . . The whip is made of a carefully +selected strip of green hide, great attention having been paid +to curing it." + +<hw>Stocks-man</hw>, <i>n</i>. an unusual form for +<i>Stock-man</i> (q.v.). + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vi. p. 145: + +"We saw the stocksman seated upon his bony long-limbed steed." + +<hw>Stone-lifter</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Melbourne name for the fish +<i>Kathetostoma laeve</i>, Bl., family T<i>rachinidae</i>, +one of the genera of the "Stargazers" (<i>Uranoscopina</i>), +which have eyes on the surface of the head. + +<hw>Stonewall</hw>, <i>v. intr</i>. (1) A Parliamentary term: +to make use of the forms of the House so as to delay public +business. + +(2) To obstruct business at any meeting, chiefly by long-winded +speeches. + +(3) To play a slow game at cricket, blocking balls rather than +making runs. + +1876. `Victorian Hansard,' Jan., vol. xxii. p. 1387: + +"Mr. G. Paton Smith wished to ask the honourable member for +Geelong West whether the six members sitting beside him (Mr. +Berry) constituted the `stone wall' that had been spoken of? +Did they constitute the stone wall which was to oppose all +progress--to prevent the finances being dealt with and the +business of the country carried on? It was like bully +Bottom's stone wall. It certainly could not be a very high +wall, nor a very long wall, if it only consisted of six." + +1884. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. iii. p. 405: + +"Abusing the heroic words of Stonewall Jackson, the Opposition +applied to themselves the epithet made famous by the gallant +Confederate General." + +1894. `The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 3, col. 5: + +"The Tasmanians [sc. cricketers] do not as a rule stonewall." + +<hw>Stonewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. <i>Callistemon salignus</i>, +De C., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; called also the <i>River +Tea-tree</i>. + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods,' No. 48: + +"Stonewood." + +<hw>Store</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bullock, cow, or sheep bought to be +fattened for the market. + +1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. xiii. +p. 233: + +"They then, if `stores,' pass to the rich salt-bush country of +Riverina." + +<hw>Store-cattle</hw>, <i>n</i>. lean cattle bought to be +fattened for the market; often contracted to <i>stores</i> +(q.v.). + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head-Station,' p. 74: + +"Oh, we're not fit for anything but store-cattle: we are all +blady grass." + +<hw>Stranger</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Victoria and +Tasmania to the <i>Rock-Whiting</i>, <i>Odax richardsoni</i>, +Gunth., family <i>Labridae</i>. The <i>Stranger</i>, which is +a marine fish, is caught occasionally in the fresher water of +the upper estuary of the Derwent; hence its name. +See <i>Whiting</i>. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, 1881, p. 1: + +"Common fish such as . . . garfish, strangers, silvers, and +others.' + +<hw>Stringy-bark</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) any one of various +<i>Gums</i>, with a tough fibrous bark used for tying, +for cordage, for roofs of huts, etc. + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 37: + +"The string bark [sic] tree is also useful, and its bark, which +is of a fibrous texture, often more than an inch in thickness, +parts easily from the wood, and may be obtained ten or twelve +feet in length, and seven or eight in breadth." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 73: + +"The natives appear also to like the fruit of the pandanus, +of which large quantities are found in their camps, soaking +in water contained in vessels formed of stringy-bark." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 27: + +"In truth, the forests of Australia (consisting principally of +woods of iron-bark, stringy-bark, and other species of the +Eucalyptus) seen at a distance, just before sunset, are noble +objects--perfect pictures." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 29: + +"The stringy bark tree is so named from the ropy nature of its +bark, which is frequently used for tying on the rods and thatch +of sheds, huts, and barns in the country." + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 39: + +"Gum-topped String-bark, sometimes called white gum +(<i>Eucalyptus gigantea</i>, var.). A tree resembling the Blue +Gum in foliage, with rough bark similar to Stringy Bark towards +the stem." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 237: + +"Stringy-bark trees were also seen--so called, because the +rough bark has a brown tenacious fibre, like that of the +cocoanut, which can be split off in sheets to make the roofs of +houses, or unravelled into a fibre that will tie like string." + +1868. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 2: + +"The mia-mia that the native dark + Had formed from sheets of stringy bark." + +1873. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 204: + +"The Stringy-bark tree is of straight growth, and takes its +name from the strip-like character of its bark. . . . The +wood is of a brown colour, hard, heavy, strong and close in the +grain. It works up well . . . in ship-building, for +planking, beams, keels and keelsons, and in civil architecture +for joists, flooring, etc. Upon the farms it is used for +fences and agricultural implements: it is also employed for +furniture and for all ordinary purposes." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 196: + +"Down to the waist they are all wound round with frayed +stringy-bark in thick folds." + +1894. `The Age,' Oct. 19, p. 5, col. 8: + +"Granite and stringy-bark are always associated with `hungry' +country." + +(2) Bush slang for bad whisky. + +1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 217: + +"<i>Stringy-bark</i>, a curious combination of fusil oil +and turpentine, labelled `whisky.'" + +<hw>Stringy-bark</hw>, <i>adj</i>. equivalent to "bush." + +1833. Oct. `New South Wales Magazine,' vol. 1. p. 173: + +". . . the workmanship of which I beg you will not scrutinize, +as I am but, to use a colonial expression, `a stringy-bark +carpenter.'" + +1853. C. Rudston Read, `What I Heard, Saw, and Did at the +Australian Gold Fields,' p. 53: + +". . . after swimming a small river about 100 yards wide +he'd arrive at old Geordy's, a stringy bark settler . . ." + +<hw>Sturt's Desert Pea</hw>, <i>n</i>. a beautiful creeper, +<i>Clianthus dampieri</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, +which will only grow in very dry, sandy soil. It is sometimes +called <i>Lobster's Claw</i>, from its clusters of brilliant +scarlet flowers with black-purple centres, like a lobster's +claw. Called also <i>Glory Pea</i> (q.v.). +See <i>Clianthus</i>. + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 29: + +"Amongst which appears the beautiful Clianthus, known to the +colonists as Sturt's desert pea." + +[Footnote]: "Woodward in `Dampier's Voyages,' vol. iii. cap. 4, +pl. 2. The plant is there called <i>Colutea +Novae-Hollandiae</i>. Its name now is <i>Clianthus +Dampieri</i>. R. Brown proposed the name of +<i>Eremocharis</i>, from the Greek <i>'eraemos</i>, desert." + +[Dampier's voyage was made in 1699, and the book published +in 1703. Mr. Woodward contributed notes on the plants brought +home by Dampier.] + +<hw>Stump-jump Plough</hw>, <i>n</i>. a farm implement, +invented in Australia, for ploughing the wheat-lands, which are +often left with the stumps of the cleared trees not eradicated. + +1896. `Waybrook Implement Company' (Advt.): + +"It is only a very few years since it came into use, and no one +ever thought it was going to turn a trackless scrub into a huge +garden. But now from the South Australian border right through +to the Murray, farms and comfortable homesteads have taken the +place of dense scrub. This last harvest, over three hundred +thousand bags of wheat were delivered at Warracknabeal, and +this wonderful result must, in the main, be put down to the +Stump-jump Plough. It has been one of the best inventions this +colony has ever been blessed with." + +<hw>Stump-tailed Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian lizard, +<i>Trachydosaurus rugosus</i>, Gray. + +<hw>Styphelia</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus of +shrubby plants of New Zealand and Australia, of the +<i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. It contains the <i>Five-Corners</i> +(q.v.). + +1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of the Botany of New Holland,' +p. 46: + +"We adopt Dr. Solander's original name <i>Styphelia</i>, +derived from <i>stuphelos</i>, harsh, hard, or firm, expressive +of the habit of the whole genus and indeed of the whole natural +order." + +<hw>Sucker</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in New Zealand to the +fish <i>Diplocrepis puniceus</i>, Rich., family +<i>Gobiesocidae</i>. This is a family of small, marine, +littoral fishes provided with a ventral disc, or adhesive +apparatus. Other genera of the family occur in Australasia. + +<hw>Sugar</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang for money. It may be doubted +if it is specially Australian. + +1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 273 (quoting +`Victoria, the El Dorado'): + +"I hear him sing out `sold again, and got the sugar' (a +colonial slang word for ready money); `half a sheep for a +shilling.'" + +<hw>Sugar-Ant</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small ant, known in many parts +of Australia by this name because of its fondness for sweet +things. + +1896. `The Melbournian,' Aug. 28, p. 53: + +"The sun reaches a sugar-ant and rouses him from his winter +sleep. Out he scurries, glad to greet the warmth, and tracks +hurriedly around. He feels the sun, but the cold damp ground +tells him the time is not yet come when at evening he will +sally forth in long columns over the soft warm dust in search +of the morrow's meal; so, dazzled by the unaccustomed glare, he +seeks his hiding-place once more." + +<hw>Sugar-bag</hw>, <i>n</i>. nest of honey, and the honey. + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 67: + +"The regular sharp chop-chop of the tomahawks could be heard +here and there, where some of them had discovered a sugar-bag +(nest of honey) or a 'possum on a tree." + +Ibid. vol. ii. p. 129: + +"The tiny bee which manufactures his adored chewgah-bag." + +[Footnote: "Sugar-bag--the native pigeon-English word for +honey."] + +<hw>Sugar-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian grass, +<i>Erianthus fulvus</i>, Kunth., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 106: + +"The `Sugar Grass' of colonists, so called on account of its +sweetness; it is highly productive, and praised by +stockowners. Cattle eat it close down, and therefore it is in +danger of extermination, but it is readily raised from seed." + +<hw>Sugar-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian Gum, <i>Eucalyptus +corynocalyx</i> of South Australia and North-Western Victoria. +The foliage is sweet, and attractive to cattle. +See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Sultana-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name for the +<i>Swamp-Hen</i> (q.v.), <i>Porphyrio melanonotus</i>, Temm. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 223: + +"Black sultana-birds, blue-breasted as deep ocean." + +<hw>Summer-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Old Colonists' name for the +<i>Wood-swallows</i>. See <i>Swallow</i>. In Tasmania it is +applied to a species of Shrike, <i>Graucalus melanops</i>, +Lath. The name refers to the migratory habits of both birds. + +1895. C. French, Government entomologist, letter to `Argus,' +Nov. 29: + +"The wood-swallows, known to us old colonists as summer birds, +are migratory, making their appearance about September and +disappearing about the end of January." + +<hw>Summer Country</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand (South +Island), country which can be used in summer only; mountain +land in Otago and Canterbury, above a certain level. + +<hw>Sun-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common name of various birds. +Applied in Australia to <i>Cinnyris frenata</i>, Mull. + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement), pl. 45: + +"`This pretty Sun-bird,' says Mr. MacGillivray, `appears to be +distributed along the whole of the northeast coast of +Australia, the adjacent islands, and the whole of the islands +in Torres Straits.'" + +<hw>Sundew</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are many species of this +flower in Australia and Tasmania, most of them peculiar to +Australasia; <i>Drosera</i> spp., <i>N.O. Droseraceae</i>. + +1888. `Cassell's Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 236: + +"Smooth, marshy meadows, gleaming with the ruby stars of +millions of tiny little sundews." + +<hw>Sundowner</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tramp who takes care to arrive +at a station at sundown, so that he shall be provided with +`<i>tucker</i>' (q.v.) at the squatter's cost: one of those who +go about the country seeking work and devoutly hoping they may +not find it. + +1880. G. <i>n</i>. Oakley, in `Victoria in 1880,' p. 114 [Title of +poem of seventeen stanzas]: + +"<i>The Sundowner</i>." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 32: + +"When the real `sundowner' haunts these banks for a season, he +is content with a black pannikin, a clasp knife, and a platter +whittled out of primaeval bark." + +1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 5: + +"Sundowners are still the plague of squatocracy, their petition +for `rashons' and a bed amounting to a demand." + +1891. F. Adams, `John Webb's End,' p. 34: + +"`Swagsmen' too, genuine, or only `sundowners,'--men who loaf +about till sunset, and then come in with the demand for the +unrefusable `rations.'" + +1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 143: + +"They swell the noble army of swagmen or sundowners, who are +chiefly the fearful human wrecks which the ebbing tide of +mining industry has left stranded in Australia." + +[This writer does not differentiate between <i>Swagman</i> +(q.v.) and <i>Sundowner</i>.] + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 12, p. 8, col. 7: + +"Numbers of men who came to be known by the class name of +`sundowners,' from their habit of straggling up at fall of +evening with the stereotyped appeal for work; and work being at +that hour impossible, they were sent to the travellers' hut for +shelter and to the storekeeper or cook for the pannikin of +flour, the bit of mutton, the sufficiency of tea for a brew, +which made up a ration." + +1896. `Windsor Magazine,' Dec., p. 132: + +"`Here,' he remarked, `is a capital picture of a Queensland +sundowner.' The picture represented a solitary figure standing +in pathetic isolation on a boundless plain. `A sundowner?' I +queried. `Yes; the lowest class of nomad. For days they will +tramp across the plains carrying, you see, their supply of +water. They approach a station only at sunset, hence the name. +At that hour they know they will not be turned away.' `Do they +take a day's work?' `Not they! There is an old bush saying, +that the sundowner's one request is for work, and his one +prayer is that be may not find it.'" + +<hw>Super</hw>, <i>n</i>. short for superintendent, +sc. of a station. + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 23: + +"What's up with our super to-night? The man's mad." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. ix. p. 83: + +"That super's a growlin' ignorant beggar as runs a feller from +daylight to dark for nothing at all." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 10, p. 4, col. 1: + +"He . . . bragged of how he had bested the super who tried +to `wing him' in the scrub." + +<hw>Superb-Dragon</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian marine fish, +<i>Phyllopteryx foliatus</i>, Shaw. See <i>Sea-Dragon</i>. + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' pl. 7: + +"`Superb-Dragon--Phyllopteryx Foliatus.' This is one of the +`Pipe fishes,' order <i>Lophobranchii</i>. It has been +compared to the ghost of a seahorse (<i>Hippocampus</i>) with +its winding sheet all in ribbons around it; and the tattered +cerements are like in shape and colour to the seaweed it +frequents, so that it hides and feeds in safety. The long ends +of ribs which seem to poke through the skin to excite our +compassion are really `protective resemblances,' and serve to +allure the prey more effectually within reach of these awful +ghouls. Just as the leaf-insect is imitative of a leaf, and +the staff insect of a twig, so here is a fish like a bunch of +seaweed. (Tenison-Woods.)" [Compare <i>Phasmid</i>.] + +<hw>Superb-Warbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. any Australian bird of +the genus <i>Malurus</i> (q.v.), especially <i>M. cyaneus</i>, +the <i>Blue Wren</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 80: + +"We also observed the Superb Warbler, <i>Malurus cyaneus</i>, +of Sydney." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii. pl. 18: + +"<i>Malurus Cyaneus</i>, Vieill., Blue Wren; Superb Warbler +of the Colonists." + +1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 136: + +"The best known are . . . and the <i>Blue Wren</i> or <i>Superb +Warbler</i> (<i>Malurus cyaneus</i>), both of which I have +repeatedly watched in the Sydney Botanic Gardens. . . . +They dart about the pathways like mice, but rarely seem to fly. +There are a dozen other Superb Warblers." + +<hw>Supple-jack</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word is English in the +sense of a strong cane, and is the name of various climbing +shrubs from which the canes are cut; especially in America. +In Australia, the name is given to similar creeping plants, +viz.--<i>Ventilago viminalis</i>, Hook., +<i>N.O. Rhamnaceae</i>; <i>Clematis aristata</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Ranunculaceae</i>. In New Zealand, to +<i>Ripogonum</i> (spp.). + +1818. `History of New South Wales,' p. 47: + +"The underwood is in general so thick and so bound together by +that kind of creeping shrub called supple-jack, interwoven in +all directions, as to be absolutely impenetrable." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 218: + +"After a tedious march . . . along a track constantly +obstructed by webs of the kareau, or supple-jack, we came to +the brow of a descent." + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 135: + +"Supple-jack snares, root-traps, and other parasitical +impediments." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 135: + +"Two kinds of creepers extremely molesting and troublesome, +the so-called `supple-jack' of the colonists (<i>Ripogonum +parviflorum</i>), in the ropelike creeping vines of which +the traveller finds himself every moment entangled." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 11: + + "The tangles black + Of looped and shining supple jack." + +1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 199: + +The supple-jack, that stopper to all speedy progression in the +New Zealand forest." + +1881. J.L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 154: + +"Forty or fifty feet of supple-jack. This creeper is of the +thickness of your finger, and runs along the ground, and goes +up the trees and springs across from one tree to the other, +spanning great gaps in some mysterious manner of its own--a +tough, rascally creeper that won't break, that you can't twist +in two, that you must cut, that trips you by the foot or the +leg, and sometimes catches you by the neck . . . so useful +withal in its proper places." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 71: + +"Threading with somewhat painful care intricacies formed by +loops and snares of bewildering supple-jacks, that living study +of Gordian entanglement, nature-woven, for patient exercise of +hand and foot." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 309: + +"Laced together by creepers called supple-jacks, which twine +and twist for hundreds of yards, with stems as thick as a man's +wrist, so as to make the forests impassable except with axes +and immense labour." + +<hw>Surfacing</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Wash-dirt lying on the +surface of the ground. + +(2) <i>verbal n</i>. Gold-digging on the surface of the +ground. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 133: + +"What is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil +on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally +auriferous." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 133: + +"I've been surfacing this good while; but quartz-reefin's the +payinest game, now." + +1866. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches' [Second Series], +p. 133: + +"What is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil +on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally +auriferous." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xv. p. 153: + +"They have been mopping up some rich surfacing." + +1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5. col. 5: + +"`Surfacing' or `loaming.' Small canvas bags are carried by +the prospector, and top soil from various likely-looking spots +gathered and put into them, the spots being marked to +correspond with the bags. The contents are then panned off +separately, and if gold is found in any one of the bags the +spot is again visited, and the place thoroughly overhauled, +even to trenching for the reef." + +<hw>Swag</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Used in the early days, and still +by the criminal class, in the ordinary sense of Thieves' +English, as booty, plunder. + +1837. J. Mudie, `Felonry of New South Wales,' p. 181: + +"In short, having brought with her a supply of the `swag,' as +the convicts call their ill-gotten cash, a wife seldom fails of +having her husband assigned to her, in which case the +transported felon finds himself his own master." + +1879. R. H. Barham, `Ingoldsby Legends' (Misadventures +at Margate): + +"A landsman said, `I <i>twig</i> the drop,--he's been upon + the mill, + And `cause he <i>gammons</i> so the <i>flats</i>, ve calls him + Veepin' Bill.' + He said `he'd done me very brown, and neatly <i>stowed</i> + the <i>swag</i>,' + -That's French, I fancy, for a hat,--or else a carpet-bag." + +(2) A special Australian use: a tramp's bundle, wrapt up in a +blanket, called a <i>Bluey</i> (q.v.). Used also for a +passenger's luggage. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 59: + +"A number of the slang phrases current in St. Giles's +<i>Greek</i> bid fair to become legitimatized in the +dictionary of this colony: <i>plant, swag</i>, +<i>pulling up</i>, and other epithets of the +Tom and Jerry school, are established--the dross +passing here as genuine, even among all ranks." + +1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 361: + +"His leathern overalls, his fancy stick, and his `swag' done up +in mackintosh." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 384: + +"There were others with huge swags suspended from a pole, with +which they went on, like the Children of Israel carrying the +gigantic bunches of the grapes of Canaan." + +1865. J. O. Tucker, `Australian Story,' c. i. p. 86: + +"The cumbrous weight of blankets that comprised my swag." + +1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 127: + +"A pair of large double blankets to make the tent of,--that was +one swag, and a very unwieldy one it was, strapped knapsack +fashion, with straps of flax leaves." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 51: + +"Three white men, the Sydney natives, and Batman, who carried +his swag the same as the rest, all armed." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 9: + +"With my rug and blankets on my back (such a bundle being +called a `swag')." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 285: + +"Swag, which consists of his personal properties rolled up in +a blanket." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 33: + +"His cumbrous attire and the huge swag which lay across the +seat." + +1888. A. Reischek, in Buller's `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. +ii. p. 93: + +"With the hope that there would now be a few fine days, I at +once packed up my swag with provisions, ammunition, blanket, +&c." + +1892. `The Australasian,' May 7, p. 903, col. 1: + +"Kenneth, in front, reminded me comically of Alice's White +Knight, what with the billies dancing and jingling on his back, +and the tomahawk in his belt, and his large swag in front." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 95: + +"I suppose he's tramping somewhere, + Where the bushmen carry swags, + Cadging round the wretched stations + With his empty tucker-bags." + +<hw>Swag</hw>, <i>v</i>. to tramp the bush, carrying a swag. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 5: + +"There was the solitary pedestrian, with the whole of his +supplies, consisting of a blanket and other necessary articles, +strapped across his shoulders--this load is called the `swag,' +and the mode of travelling `swagging it.'" + +<hw>Swag-like</hw>, <i>adv</i>. in the fashion of a swag. + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 2, p. 4, col. 2: + +"He strapped the whole lot together, swag-like." + +<hw>Swagger</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Swagman</i> (q.v.). +Specially used in New Zealand. The word has also the modern +English slang sense. + +1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 154: + +"Describing the real swagger, clad in flannel shirt, moleskin +trowsers, and what were once thick boots." + +1890. `The Century,' vol. xli. p. 624 (`Century'): + +"Under the name of swagger or sundowner the tramp, as he moves +from station to station in remote districts, in supposed search +for work, is a recognized element of society." + +1893. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 21, p. 6, col. 3: + +"Once a footsore swagger came along, and having gone to the +house to ask for `tucker,' soon returned. He took his swag +from his shoulders and leant it against the Tree; then he +busied himself gathering the small sticks and dried leaves +lying about on every side." + +1896. `The Argus,' March 23, p.5, col. 1: + +"The minister's house is the sure mark for every stone-broke +swagger in search of clothes or victuals." + +1896. `Southern Standard' (New Zealand), [page not given]: + +"An ardent young lady cyclist of Gore, who goes very long +journeys on her machine, was asked by a lady friend if she was +not afraid of swaggers on the road. `Afraid of them?' she +said, `why, I take tea with them!'" + +1896. `The Champion,' Jan. 4, p. 3, col. 3: + +"He [Professor Morris] says that `swagger' is a variant of +`swagman.' This is equally amusing and wrong." + +[Nevertheless, he now says it once again.] + +<hw>Swaggie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a humorous variation on swagman. + +1892. E. W. Horning, `Under Two Skies,' p. 109: + +"Here's a swaggie stopped to camp, with flour for a damper, +and a handful of tea for the quart-pot, as safe as the bank." + +<hw>Swagman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a man travelling through the bush +carrying a <i>Swag</i> (q.v.), and seeking employment. There +are variants, <i>Swagger</i> (more general in New Zealand), +<i>Swaggie</i>, and <i>Swagsman</i>. The <i>Sundowner</i>, +<i>Traveller</i>, or New Zealand <i>Tussocker</i>, is not +generally a seeker for work. + +1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2: + +"The regular swagman carrying his ration bags, which will +sometimes contain nearly twenty days' provender in flour and +sugar and tea." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 156: + +"We pulled up a swagman. He was walking very slow; he was a +bit lame too. His swag wasn't heavy, for he had only a rag of +a blue blanket, a billy of water in his hand, and very little +else." + +1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Jan. 25: + +"Under the electric light in the quadrangle of the Exhibition +they will give tableaux, representing the murder of a swagman +by a native and the shooting of the criminal by a black +tracker." + +1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 11, p. 7, col. 2: + +"The Yarra has claimed many swagman in the end, but not all +have died in full travelling costume . . . a typical +back-blocks traveller. He was grey and grizzled, but well fed, +and he wore a Cardigan jacket, brown moleskin trousers, blucher +boots, and socks, all of which were mended with rough patches. +His knife and tobacco, his odds and ends, and his purse, +containing 14 1/2d., were still intact, while across his +shoulder was a swag, and the fingers of his right hand had +tightly closed round the handle of his old black billy-can, in +which were some scraps of meat wrapped in a newspaper of the +5th inst. He had taken with him his old companions of the +roads--his billy and his swag." + +<hw>Swagsman</hw>, <i>n</i>. a variant of <i>Swagman</i> +(q.v.). + +1879 J. Brunton Stephens, `Drought and Doctrine' (Works, +p. 309): + +"Rememberin' the needful, I gets up an' quietly slips + To the porch to see--a swagsman--with our bottle at his lips." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 89: + +"One of these prospecting swagsmen was journeying towards +Maryborough." + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 111: + +"Idleness being the mainspring of the journeys of the Swagsman +(Anglice, `tramp')." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xix. p. 235: + +"The able-bodied swagsmen hasten towards Rainbar." + +<hw>Swallow</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird-name. +The species observed in Australia are-- + +The Swallow-- + <i>Hirundo neoxena</i>, Gould. + +Black-and-white S.-- + <i>Cheramaeca leucosternum</i>, Gould. + +Black-faced Wood S.-- + <i>Artamus melanops</i>, Gould. + +Eastern S.-- + <i>Hirundo javanica</i>, Sparrm. + +Grey-breasted Wood S.-- + <i>Artamus cinereus</i>, Vieill. + +Little Wood S.-- + <i>A. minor</i>, Vieill. + +Masked Wood S.-- + <i>Artamus personatus</i>, Gould. + +White-bellied Wood S.-- + <i>A. hypoleucus</i>. + +White-browed Wood S.-- + <i>A. superciliosus</i>, Gould. + +White-rumped Wood S.-- + <i>A. leucogaster</i>, Valenc. + +Wood S.-- + <i>A. sordidus</i>, Lath. + +<i>Artamus</i> is often wrongly spelt <i>Artemus</i>. +The <i>Wood-Swallows</i> are often called <i>Summer-birds</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Swamp-Broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. a rush-broom, <i>Viminaria +denudata</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. +See <i>Swamp-Oak</i>. + +<hw>Swamp-Daisy-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Daisy-tree</i>. + +<hw>Swamp-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Swamp-Hawk</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the New Zealand +<i>Harrier</i>. See <i>Harrier</i>. + +<hw>Swamp-Hen</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australasian bird, +<i>Porphyrio melanonotus</i>, Temm. (often incorrectly +shortened to <i>Melanotus</i>). Called sometimes the +<i>Porphyrio</i> (q.v.); Maori name, <i>Pukeko</i>. Called +also the <i>Swamp-Turkey</i>, the <i>Purple Coot</i>, and by +New Zealand colonists, <i>Sultana-bird</i>, <i>Pukaki</i>, +or <i>Bokaka</i>, the last two being corruptions of the Maori +name. For a West-Australian variety of the <i>Porphyrio</i>, +see quotation (1848). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. +p. 228: + +"The pukeko is of a dark-blue colour, and about as large as a +pheasant. The legs, the bill, and a horny continuation of it +over the front of the head, are of a bright crimson colour. +Its long legs adapt it for its swampy life; its flight is slow +and heavy, resembling that of a bittern." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 70: + +"<i>Porphyrio Bellus</i>, Gould, Azure breasted +<i>Porphyrio</i>; Swamp-Hen, Colonists of Western Australia." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 79: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>Swamp-Mahogany</hw>, <i>n</i>. a timber tree, <i>Eucalyptus +botryoides</i>, Sm. See <i>Gum</i> and <i>Mahogany</i>. + +1886. T. Heney, `Fortunate Days,' p. 50: + +"Swamp mahogany's floor-flowered arms." + +<hw>Swamp-Oak</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A broomlike leguminous shrub +or small tree, <i>Viminaria denudata</i>, Sm. (also called +<i>Swamp-broom</i>). (2) A tree of the genus <i>Casuarina</i>, +especially <i>C. paludosa</i>. See <i>Oak</i>. + +1833. C. Sturt, I Southern Australia,'vol. i. c. i. p. 53: + +"Light brushes of swamp-oak, cypress, box and acacia pendula." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Phillipsland,' p. 257: + +"Its banks (Murrumbidgee) are fringed with the beautiful +swamp-oak, a tree of the <i>Casuarina</i> family, with a form +and character somewhat intermediate between that of the spruce +and that of the Scotch fir, being less formal and Dutch-like +than the former, and more graceful than the latter." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and +Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 324: + +"A stream, whose winding channel could be traced by the +particularly dark verdure of the swamp-oak (<i>Casuarina +paludosa</i>) on its banks." + +1866. Miss Parkes, `Poems,' p. 40: + +"Your voice came to me, soft and distant seeming, + As comes the murmur of the swamp-oak's tone." + +1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 100: + +"Softly the swamp-oak + Muttered its sorrows to her and to me." + +1883. C. Harpur, `Poems,' p. 47: + +"Befringed with upward tapering feathery swamp-oaks." + +<hw>Swamp-Pheasant</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also +<i>Pheasant-cuckoo</i>. Another name for the <i>Coucal</i> +(q.v.). + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 60: + +"A <i>Centropus phasianellus</i> (the swamp-pheasant +of Moreton Bay) was shot." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 116: + +"Far down the creek, on one of the river-oaks which grow in its +bed, a swamp-pheasant utters its rapid coocoo-coo-coo-coo- +coo-cook." + +1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xvi. p. 102: + +"The gurgling note of the swamp-pheasant." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 94: + +"The bird <i>Centropus</i>, which is common in all Queensland, +is found here in great numbers. Although it really is a +cuckoo, the colonists call it the `swamp-pheasant,' because it +has a tail like a pheasant. It is a very remarkable bird with +stiff feathers, and flies with difficulty on account of its +small wings. The swamp-pheasant has not the family weakness of +the cuckoo, for it does not lay its eggs in the nests of other +birds. It has a peculiar clucking voice which reminds one of +the sound produced when water is poured from a bottle." + +<hw>Swamp-Sparrow</hw>, <i>n</i>. a nickname in New Zealand +for the <i>Fern-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 60: + +"These beds of rushes which form blind water-courses during the +winter season, are dry in summer and are then a favourite +resort for the Swamp-Sparrow as this bird is sometimes called." + +Ibid. vol. ii. p. 255: + +"The melancholy cry of the Fern-bird is so general and +persistent that its nick-name of Swamp Sparrow is not +undeserved." + +<hw>Swan, Black</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird--<i>Cycnus +niger</i>, Juvenal; <i>Cygnus atratus</i>, Gould; <i>Chenopsis +atrata</i>, Wagl., sometimes miscalled <i>Chenopis</i>. + +The river upon which Perth, Western Australia, is situated, is +called the Swan River, and the colony was long known as the +Swan River Settlement. It has expanded into Western Australia, +the emblem of which colony is still the <i>Black Swan</i>. +Since 1855 the <i>Black Swan</i> has been the device on the +postage stamps of Western Australia. + +82 A.D. (circiter). `Juvenal, Sat.' vi. 164: "Rara avis +in terris nigroque simillima cycno." + +1700 (circiter). J. Locke, in `Johnson's Dictionary' (9th +edition, 1805), s.v. Swan: + +"The idea which an Englishman signifies by the name Swan, +is a white colour, long neck, black beak, black legs, and whole +feet, and all these of a certain size, with a power of swimming +in the water, and making a certain kind of noise." + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' p. 98: + +"A black swan, which species, though proverbially rare in other +parts of the world, is here by no means uncommon . . . a very +noble bird, larger than the common swan, and equally beautiful +in form . . . its wings were edged with white: the bill was +tinged with red." + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 137: + +"We found nine birds, that, whilst swimming, most perfectly +resembled the <i>rara avis</i> of the ancients, a black swan." + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 146: + +"Large ponds covered with ducks and black swans." + +1847. J. D. Lang, `Phillipsland,' p. 115: + +"These extensive sheets of glassy water . . . were +absolutely alive with black swans and other water fowl . . . +There must have been at least five hundred swans in view at one +time on one of the lakes. They were no `rara avis' there." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vii. pl. 6: + +"<i>Cygnus Atratus</i>, Black Swan. The first notice on record +respecting the existence of the Black Swan occurs in a letter +written by Mr. Witsen to Dr. M. Lister about the year 1698, in +which he says, `Here is returned a ship, which by our East +India Company was sent to the south land called <i>Hollandea +Nova</i>'; and adds that Black Swans, Parrots and many Sea-Cows +were found there." + +1856. J. S. Mill, `Logic' [4th edition], vol. i. bk. iii. +c. iii. p. 344: + +"Mankind were wrong, it seems, in concluding that all swans +were white. . . . As there were black swans, though civilized +people had existed for three thousand years on the earth +without meeting with them." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 29, p. 45, col. 3: + +"The presence of immense flocks of black swans is also regarded +as an indication of approaching cold weather." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 22: + +"The musical whoop of the black swan is sometimes heard as the +wedge-shaped flock passes over." + +1895. G. Metcalfe, `Australian Zoology,' p. 64: + +"Strzelecki states that the black swan was discovered in 1697 +by Vlaming. . . . In 1726 two were brought alive to Batavia, +having been procured on the West Coast of Australia, near Dirk +Hartog's Bay. Captain Cook observed it on several parts of the +coast." + +<hw>Swan-River Daisy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a pretty annual plant, +<i>Brachycome iberidifolia</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>, +of Western Australia. The heads are about an inch broad, and +have bright blue rays, with paler centre. It is cultivated in +flower gardens, and is well suited for massing. (`Century.') + +<hw>Sweep</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marine fish of the Australian +coasts, called by this name in Sydney. It is <i>Scorpis +aequipinnis</i>, Richards., family <i>Squamipinnes</i>. +This family has the soft, and frequently also the spinous, +part of their dorsal and anal fins so thickly covered with scales, +that the boundary between fins and body is entirely obliterated. +<i>S. aequippinnis</i> is possibly the <i>Light-horseman</i> +(q.v.) of early Australian writers. + +<hw>Sweet Tea</hw>. See <i>Tea</i>. + +<hw>Swift</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, the species of this +common bird are--Spine-tailed Swift, <i>Chaetura caudacuta</i>, +Lath.; White-rumped S., <i>Micropus pacificus</i>, Lath. + +<hw>Swing-gate</hw>, <i>n</i>. Used in its ordinary English +sense, but specially applied to a patent gate for drafting +sheep, invented by Mr. Lockhart Morton. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. ix. p. 91: + +"Mr. Stangrove . . . has no more idea of a swing-gate than +a shearing-machine." + +<hw>Sword-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, <i>Arundo +conspicua</i>; in Australia, <i>Cladium psittacorum</i>, +Labill. It is not the same as the English plant of that name, +and is often called <i>Cutting Grass</i> (q.v.). + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 172: + +"The great plumes far and wide of the sword-grass aspire." + +<hw>Sword-Sedge</hw>, a sedge on Australian coasts, +<i>Lepidosperma gladiatum</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>, +useful for binding sea-sand, and yielding a good material +for paper. + +1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 124: + +"Lepidosperma is nearly endemically Australian. Lepidosperma +gladiatum, the great Swords-edge [sic] of our coasts, furnishes +an admirable material for writing paper." + +[It is curious that <i>Swords-edge</i> makes most ingenious +sense, but it is evidently a misprint for Sword-sedge.] + +<hw>Sycamore Tree</hw>. See <i>Laurel</i>. In New South +Wales, the name is given to <i>Brachyciton luridus</i>, +C. Moore, <i>N.O. Sterculiaceae</i>. + +<hw>Sycoceric</hw>, <i>adj</i>. belonging to a waxy resin +obtained from the <i>Port-Jackson Fig</i>; see under +<i>Fig</i>. (From Grk. <i>sukon</i>, "fig," and <i>kaeros</i>, +"wax.") + +<hw>Sycoceryl</hw>, <i>n</i>. a supposed element of the +sycoceric compounds. See <i>Sycoceric</i>. + + + +T + + +<hw>Taboo</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tapu</i>. + +<hw>Tagrag-and-Bobtail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a species of sea-weed. +See quotation. + +1866. S. Hannaford, `Wild Flowers of Tasmania,' p. 80: + +"It is a wiry-stemmed plant, with small mop-like tufts, which +hold water like a sponge. This is <i>Bellotia Eriophorum</i>, +the specific name derived from its resemblance to the +cotton-grass. Harvey mentions its colonial name as `<i>Tagrag +and Bobtail</i>,' and if it will enable collectors the more +easily to recognise it, let it be retained." + +<hw>Taiaha</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori word for a chief's +walking-staff, a sign of office, sometimes used in fighting, +like a quarterstaff. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 139: + +"The men are placed at equal intervals along either side to +paddle, and they keep excellent stroke to the song of two +leaders, who stand up and recite short alternate sentences, +giving the time with the taiaha, or long wooden spear. The +taiaha is rather a long-handled club than a spear. It is +generally made of manuka, a very hard, dark, close-grained +and heavy wood. The taiaha is about six feet long, etc." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 46: + +"The taiaha is rather a long-handled club than a spear." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 299: + +"A taiaha, or chiefs staff." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 80: + +"In his right hand he brandished a taiaha, a six-foot Maori +broadsword of hard wood, with its pendulous plume of feathers +hanging from the hilt." + +1889. Major Wilson and Edward Tregear, `On the Korotangi,' +`Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxii. art. lxii. +p. 505: + +"Many famous tribal heirlooms are hidden and lost to posterity. +The Rev. Mr. Buller mentions a famous taiaha, of great mana, as +having been buried and lost in this way, lest it should fall +into the power of opposing tribes, and cause disaster to the +original owner." + +<hw>Taihoa</hw>, Maori phrase, meaning "Wait a bit." +Much used in some circles in New Zealand. The `Standard' +gives it wrongly as "Anglo-Tasmanian," probably because +Mr. Wade's book was published in Hobart. + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in New Zealand' (Hobart Town), +p.66: + + "`Taihoa.' This word has been translated, By and by; +but in truth, it has all the latitude of directly,--presently, +--by and by,--a long time hence,--and nobody knows when . . . +the deliberate reply is, `Taihoa'. . . this patience-trying +word. . . ." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 87: + +"That irritatingly provoking word, `taihoa.'" + +[p. 88]: "The drawled-out t-a-i-h-o-a fell upon the ear." + +[p. 266] [Title of chapter]: "I learn what Taihoa means." + +[p.271]: "Great is the power of taihoa." + +[p. 276]: "The imperturbable taihoa, given to us with the +ordinary placid good-humour." + +<hw>Tail</hw>, <i>v. tr</i>. to herd and tend sheep or cattle: +lit. to follow close behind the tail. + +1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' Aug. 5, p. 3, col. 6: + +"I know many boys, from the age of nine to sixteen years, +tailing cattle." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 153: + +"The stockman, as he who tends cattle and horses is called, +despises the shepherd as a grovelling, inferior creature, and +considers `tailing sheep' as an employment too tardigrade for +a man of action and spirit." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xix. p. 239: + +"`The cattle,' no longer `tailed,' or followed daily, +as a shepherd does sheep." + +<hw>Tailing</hw>, <i>adj</i>. consisting of <i>tailings</i> +(q.v.). + +1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 21: + +"From recent assays of the tailing-sand, scarcely one quarter +of the pyrites has been extracted." + +<hw>Tailings</hw>, <i>n</i>. "The detritus carried off by water +from a crushing machine, or any gold-washing apparatus." +(Brough Smyth, `Glossary of Mining Terms.') Not limited to +Australia. + +1891. `The Argus,' June 16, p. 6, col. 2: + +"A hundred and fifty tons of tailings are treated at the +Sandhurst pyrites works every month." + +<hw>Tailor</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in New South Wales to the +fish <i>Temnodon saltator</i>, Cuv. and Val. It is called +<i>Skipjack</i> (q.v.) in Melbourne, a name by which it is also +known in America and Britain. Those of large size are called +"Sea-tailors." It belongs to the family <i>Carangidae</i>, or +<i>Horse-Mackerels</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Taipo</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand word for devil, often +applied by settlers to a vicious horse or as a name for a dog. +There is a dangerous river, the Taipo, on the west coast. +There is considerable dispute as to whether the word is true +Maori or not. The Rev. T. G. Hammond of Patea says-- + +"No such Maori word as taipo, meaning devil, exists. It would +mean evening-tide--tai-po. Probably the early sailors +introduced attached meaning of devil from the Maori saying, +`Are you not afraid to travel at night?' referring to the +danger of tidal rivers." + +On the other hand, Mr. Tregear says, in his `Maori Comparative +Dictionary,' s.v.-- + +"Taepo, a goblin, a spectre. Cf. <i>tae</i>, to arrive; +<i>po</i>, night." + +The Rev. W. Colenso says, in his pamphlet on `Nomenclature' +(1883), p. 5: + +"Taepo means to visit or come by night,--a night visitant,--a +spectral thing seen in dreams,--a fancied and feared thing, or +hobgoblin, of the night or darkness; and this the settlers have +construed to mean the Devil!--and of course their own orthodox +one." + +<i>Taipo</i> or <i>taepo</i> is also a slang term for a +surveyor's theodolite among the Maoris, because it is the +"land-stealing devil." + +1848. Rev. R. Taylor, `Leaf from the Natural History of New +Zealand,' p. 43: + +"Taipo, female dreamer; a prophetess; an evil spirit." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 49: + +"There is the <i>Taringa-here</i>, a being with a face like +a cat; and likewise another, called a <i>Taipo</i>, who comes +in the night, sits on the tops of houses, and converses with +the inmates, but if a woman presumes to open her mouth, +it immediately disappears." + +1878. B. Wells, `History of Taranaki,' p. 3: + +"The similarity in sound and meaning of the Egyptian word +<i>typhon</i> with that of the Maori <i>taipo</i>, both being +the name of the Spirit of Evil, is also not a little +remarkable." + +[Ingenious, but worthless.] + +1886. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' `New Zealand Country +journal,' vol. x. p. 262: + +"His wife became seriously affected, declaring that +<i>Taipo</i> had entered into her. Reasoning was wholly +useless. She declared that Taipo was in the smoke of the wood, +which smoke she had inhaled; soon she became prostrated by +illness and was expected to die." + +1887. J. C. Crawford, `Travels in New Zealand and +Australia,' p. 107: + +"After dinner Watkins requested the loan of a tomahawk +to defend himself on going up to the Pa on the hill above. +He said he knew that there was a <i>taipo</i> (devil) about; +he felt it in his head." + +1888. P. W. Barlow, `Kaipara,' p. 48: + +"They were making the noises I heard to drive away the `Taipo,' +a sort of devil who devotes his attention exclusively to +Maoris, over whom, however, he only possesses power at night." + +1891. W. H. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 72: + +"They believed it was the principal rendez-vous of the fallen +angel (Taipo) himself." + +1896. Modern. Private Letter (May): + +"<i>Taipo</i>, for instance, of course one knows its meaning, +though it has been adopted chiefly as a name as common as +`Dash' or `Nero' for New Zealand dogs; all the same the writers +upon Maori superstitions seem to have no knowledge of it. +Polach, Dieffenbach, Nicholas, Yates, call their evil spirits +<i>whiros</i> or <i>atuas</i>. Tepo, the place of darkness, is +the nearest they have come to it. I think myself it is South +Island Maori, often differing a little in spelling and use; and +so very much the larger proportion of New Zealand literature is +the literature of the North." + +<hw>Tait</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Western Australian animal, properly +called the <i>Long-snouted Phalanger</i>, <i>Tarsipes +rostratus</i>, the only species of its genus. See +<i>Phalanger</i> and <i>Opossum</i>. It is about the size of +a mouse, and lives almost entirely on honey, which it extracts +from flowers. + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 120: + +"The Long-snouted Phalanger, which derives its scientific name +from a certain resemblance of its hind feet to those of a +Malayan Lemur-like animal known as the Tarsier, is one of the +most interesting of the phalangers. . . . Known to the natives +by the names of <i>Tait</i> and <i>Nulbenger</i>, it is, +writes Gould, `generally found in all situations suited to +its existence, from Swan River to King George's Sound.'" + +<hw>Takahe</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for an extinct New +Zealand Rail, <i>Notornis mantelli</i>, Owen. +See <i>Notornis</i>. + +1889. Prof. Parker, 'Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 116: + +"The Takahe is the rarest of existing native birds, if indeed +it is not already extinct." + +<hw>Takapu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the bird <i>Dysporus +serrator</i>, Banks, a <i>Gannet</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Take (a man) down</hw>, Australian sporting slang. (1) To +induce a man to bet, knowing that he must lose. (2) To advise +a man to bet, and then to "arrange" with an accomplice (a +jockey, e.g.) for the bet to be lost. (3) To prove superior +to a man in a game of skill. + +1895. `The Argus,' Dec. 5, p. 5, col. 2: + +"It appeared that [the plaintiff] had a particular fancy for a +[certain] horse, and in an evil hour induced [the defendant] to +lay him a wager about this animal at the long odds of two +shillings to threepence. When the horse had romped +triumphantly home and [the plaintiff] went to collect his two +shillings [the defendant] accused him of having `taken him +down,' stigmatised him as a thief and a robber, and further +remarked that [the plaintiff] had the telegram announcing the +result of the race in his pocket when the wager was made, and +in short refused to give [the plaintiff] anything but a black +eye." + +<hw>Talegalla</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the +<i>Brush-Turkey</i>, and the scientific name for that bird, +viz., <i>Talegalla lathami</i>, Gray. See <i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Tallow-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for one of the +<i>Stringy-barks</i> (q.v.), <i>Eucalyptus microcorys</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. The timber, which is hard, +gives forth an oily substance: hence the name. The tree +reaches a great height. Also called <i>Turpentine-tree</i> +(q.v.). See also <i>Peppermint</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 493: + +"In Queensland it is known as `Peppermint,' the foliage being +remarkably rich in volatile oil. But its almost universal name +is Tallow-wood. North of Port Jackson it bears the name of +`Turpentine Tree' and `Forest Mahogany.' The aboriginals of the +Brisbane River, Queensland, call it `tee.'" + +Ibid. p. 494: + +"Tallow-wood.--Used . . . for flooring, e.g. in ball-rooms; +for this purpose it is selected on account of its greasy +nature. This greasiness is most marked when it is fresh cut. +(General Report, Sydney International Exhibition, 1879.)" + +1897. `The Argus,' Feb. 22, p. 5, col. 4 (Cable message +from London): + +"Mr. Richards stated that the New South Wales black butt and +tallow wood were the most durable and noiseless woods for +street-paving." + +<hw>Tallygalone</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales, +<i>Myxus elongatus</i>, Gunth., a genus of the family +<i>Mugilidae</i>, or <i>Grey-Mullet</i>. The word is +also spelled <i>talleygalann</i>, and <i>tallagallan</i>. +Also called <i>Sand-Mullet</i>. + +<hw>Tamarind-Tree</hw>, name given to <i>Diploglottis +cunninghamii</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>; called also +<i>Native Tamarind</i>. "A tall tree. The flesh of the fruit +is amber and of delightful acid flavour." (Bailey.) + +<hw>Tambaroora</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland game. More +generally known as "A shilling in and the winner shouts." +From a town in Queensland. + +1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 63: + +"The exciting game of tambaroora . . . Each man of a party +throws a shilling, or whatever sum may be mutually agreed upon, +into a hat. Dice are then produced, and each man takes three +throws. The Nut who throws highest keeps the whole of the +subscribed capital, and out of it pays for the drinks of the +rest." + +<hw>Tamure</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the New Zealand +<i>Schnapper</i> fish (q.v.). + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 206: + +"Tamure <i>s</i>. Bream fish." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 93: + +"There are many other sorts of fish, including the tamure, or +snapper, the manga, or barracouta, the mango, or dog-fish, of +which the natives catch large quantities, and the hapuka. This +last fish is caught in pretty deep water, near reefs and rocks. +It often attains a great size, attaining as much as 112 pounds. +It bears a considerable resemblance to the cod in form, but is, +however, of far finer flavour." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 413: + +"Tamure, kouarea (the snapper), is a large fish like the +bream." + +1879. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xii. art. vii. p. 118: + +"The tamure is the snapper (Pagrus unicolor), a common fish on +all the coasts." + +<hw>Tandan</hw>, <i>n</i>. the aboriginal name for the +<i>Catfish (q</i>.v.) or <i>Eel-fish</i> (q.v.), +<i>Copidoglanis tandanus</i>, Mitchell (or <i>Plotosus +tandanus</i>). Mitchell, who first discovered and described +the Cat-fish, called it the <i>Tandan</i>, or <i>Eel-fish</i>. + +1838. T. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' pp. 44, 45, pl. 5: + +"In this piece of water we caught some small fish, two of them +being of a rather singular kind, resembling an eel in the head +and shape of the tail." + +[p. 45]: "On my return to the camp in the evening, I made a +drawing of the eel fish which we had caught early in the day +(fig. 2, pl. 5)." + +<hw>Tanekaha</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name of a New Zealand tree; +also called <i>Celery-topped Pine</i>, <i>Phyllocladus +trichomanoides</i>, Don., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 306: + +"The Tanakaha Tree (<i>Podocarpus asplenifolius</i>) is found +scattered over a large portion of the northern island of New +Zealand. . . Height, sixty to eighty feet. . . The wood is +close and straight in the grain. . . It works up well, is +tough and very strong; so much so that the New Zealanders say +it is the `strong man' among their forest trees." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125: + +"Tanakaha. A slender, handsome tree, sixty feet high; trunk +rarely exceeds three feet in diameter; wood pale, +close-grained, and excellent for planks and spars; resists +decay in moist positions in a remarkable manner." + +<hw>Tangi</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced <i>Tang-y</i>) +Maori word for a lamentation, a cry, or dirge. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 207: + +"Tangi, <i>s</i>. a cry or lamentation." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 194: + +"They wrapped the mutilated corpse in his red blanket, and bore +it, lashed to a tree, to the village, where the usual tangi +took place." + +1873. Lieut.-Colonel St. John, `Pakeha Rambles through Maori +Lands,' p. 154: + +"Shortly afterwards a `tangi' was held over those of the party +whose remains could be identified." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p.191: + +"Perhaps some old woman did a quiet tangi over his grave." + +1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 41: + +"'Tis the tangi floats on the seaborne breeze, + In its echoing notes of wild despair." + +<hw>Taniwha</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a mythical monster. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 207: + +"Taniwa, <i>s</i>. a sea-monster so called." + +1842. W. R. Wade, `Journey in New Zealand' (Hobart Town), +p. 34: + +"Hearing us use the word <i>tapu</i>, as we looked towards it, +one of our boatmen quickly repeated that the place was tapued +for the tanewa (a water demon). `And I wonder,' was his +irreverent addition, `what this same tanewa may be! An old pot +leg, perhaps!'" + +1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, p. 51, col. 2: + +"The river at one time is reported as having been infested with +taniwhas--gigantic fish that used to swallow the natives--and a +Maori pointed out a deep pool under some willows, and told me +his grandfather had been seized by one of these monsters at +that spot, dragged to the bottom and eaten. This taniwha, +which was about forty feet in length and had a long mane, was +in the habit of sometimes standing almost erect in the water, +and frightening the women and children out of their wits. It +had a tremendous-sized head, and its mouth somewhat resembled +the beak of a very large bird. Its neck was about six feet in +circumference and was covered with scales, as likewise its body +down to its tail, which was formed by a series of fin-shaped +projections, and somewhat resembled in form the tail of a grey +duck. It had two short legs which were as big around as the +body of a half-grown pig, and with one kick it could knock a +hole through the stoutest canoe." + +<hw>Tannergrams</hw>, <i>n</i>. very recent New Zealand slang. +On 1st of June, 1896, the New Zealand Government reduced the +price of telegrams to sixpence (slang, a `tanner') for twelve +words. + +1896. `Oamaru Mail,' June 13: + +"Tannergrams is the somewhat apt designation which the new +sixpenny telegrams have been christened in commercial +vernacular." + +<hw>Tappa</hw>, <i>n</i>. South-sea Island word. A native +cloth made from the bark of the Paper-mulberry, <i>Broussonetia +papyrifera</i>, Benth. + +1886. `Art journal: Exhibition Supplement,' p. 24: + +"The Tappa, or native cloth [of Fiji], made from the bark of a +tree. . . Has been extensively used in the draping of the +court." + +1888. H. S. Cooper, `The Islands of the Pacific,' p. 9: + +"Tappa, a native cloth of spotless white, made from the bark +of the mulberry-tree.' + +<hw>Tapu</hw>, <i>adj</i>. a Maori word, but common also to +other Polynesian languages. The origin of the English word +<i>taboo</i>. It properly means `prohibited.' There was a +sacred <i>tapu</i>, and an unclean <i>tapu</i>. What was +consecrated to the gods was forbidden to be touched or used +by the people. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 208: + +"Tapu, <i>a</i>. sacred, inviolable." + +1835. W. Yate, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 84: + +"This system of consecration--for that is the most frequent +meaning of the term `tapu'--has prevailed through all the +islands of the South Seas, but nowhere to a greater extent than +in New Zealand." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 194: + +"They wrapped the mutilated corpse in his red blanket, and +bore it, lashed to a tree, to the village, where the usual +tangi took place after it had been deposited in the wahi tapu, +or sacred ground.'" + +1859. A. S. Thomson, M.D., `Story of New Zealand,' p. 100: + +"The primary meaning of the Maori word <i>tapu</i> is `sacred'; +<i>tabut</i> is a Malay word, and is rendered `the Ark of the +Covenant of God'; <i>taboot</i> is a Hindoo word signifying +`a bier,' `a coffin,' or `the Ark of the Covenant'; <i>ta</i> +is the Sanscrit word `to mark,' and <i>pu</i> `to purify.'" + +[There is no authority in this polyglot mixture.] + +1879. Clement Bunbury, `Fraser's Magazine,' June, `A Visit to +the New Zealand Geysers,' p. 767: + +"I had not much time to examine them closely, having a proper +fear of the unknown penalties incurred by the violation of +anything `tapu' or sacred." + +1893. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 21, p. 10, col. 1: + +"He seeks treasures which to us are tapu." + +<hw>Tapu</hw>, <i>n</i>. the state of being consecrated or +forbidden. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 25: + +"We found no natives, the cove being under tapu, on account of +its being the burial-place of a daughter of Te Pehi, the late +chief of the Kapiti, or Entry Island, natives." + +1847. A. Tennyson, `Princess,' canto iii. l. 261: + +". . . Women up till this + Cramp'd under worse than South-Sea-Isle taboo, + Dwarfs of the gynaeceum." + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 24: + +"But chiefly thou, mysterious Tapu, + From thy strange rites a hopeful sign we draw." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 281: + +"The tapu, which either temporarily or permanently renders +sacred an object animate or inanimate, is the nearest approach +to the Hindoo religious exclusive-ism." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 89: + +"His sole `tapu' a far securer guard + Than lock and key of craftiest notch and ward." + +Ibid. p. 100: + +"Avenge each minor breach of this taboo." + +<hw>Tapu</hw>, <i>v</i>. originally to mark as sacred, +and later to place under a ban. English, <i>taboo</i>. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 284: + +"The tapued resting-place of departed chieftains." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 29, p. 40, col. 2: + +"I . . . found the telegraph office itself tabooed." + +1893. R. L. Stevenson, `Island Nights' Entertainments,' p. 39: + +"By Monday night I got it clearly in my head I must be +tabooed." + +<hw>Tara</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Maori name for the birds +<i>Sterna caspia</i>, Pallas, and <i>S. frontalis</i>, +Gray, the Sea-Swallow, or <i>Tern</i> (q.v.). + +(2) A Tasmanian aboriginal name for the fern <i>Pteris +aquilina</i>, L., <i>N.O. Polypodeae</i>. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 129: + +"The most extensively diffused eatable roots of Van Diemen's +Land are those of the tara fern . . . greatly resembles +<i>Pteris aquilina</i>, the common fern, brake, breckon, +or brackin, of England . . . it is known among the aborigines +by the name of tara . . . the root of the tara fern possesses +much nutritive matter." + +<hw>Taraire</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree; +formerly <i>Nesodaphne tarairi</i>, Hook., now <i>Beilschmiedia +tarairi</i>, Benth. and Hook., <i>N.O. Laurineae</i>. + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Tarairi. Used for most of the purposes for which sycamore is +applied in Europe." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 129: + +"Tarairi. A lofty forest tree, sixty to eighty feet high, +with stout branches. Wood white, splits freely, but not much +valued." + +<hw>Tarakihi</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the fish +<i>Chilodactylus macropterus</i>, Richards.; called in Sydney +the <i>Norwong</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tarata</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +tree <i>Pittosporum eugenioides</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>; called also <i>Mapau</i>, +<i>Maple</i>, etc. See <i>Mapau</i>. + +1876. W. <i>n</i>. Blair, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. ix., art. x. p. 143: + +"A small tree seldom exceeding thirty feet in height, and +twelve inches in diameter. It has pale green shining leaves +and purple flowers. The wood of a dirty white colour, is tough +and fibrous." + +1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xii. art. xlix. p. 329: + +"The tarata or Lemon-wood, a most beautiful tree, also used +for hedges." + +1889. E. H. and S. Featon, `New Zealand Flora,' p. 35: + +"The Tarata. This elegant tree is found on the east coast of +both islands. It attains a height of from twenty to thirty +feet, and has a stem from twelve to eighteen inches in +diameter. It is known to the settlers in some parts as +`Lemon-wood.' When displaying its profuse masses of pale +golden flowers, it is very pretty." + +<hw>Tare, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied in Tasmania to +the plant <i>Swainsonia lessertiaefolia</i>, De C., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +<hw>Taro</hw>, <i>n</i>. a familiar food plant, +<i>Colocasia</i> species, widely cultivated in tropical +regions, especially in Polynesia. The word is Polynesian, +and much used by the Maoris. + +1846. J. Lindley, `Vegetable Kingdom,' p. 128 [Stanford]: + +"Whole fields of <i>Colocasia macrorhyza</i> are cultivated +in the South Sea Islands under the name tara or kopeh roots." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 374: + + "Many a bed, + That late in such luxurious neatness spread, + Of melons, maize and taro--now a wreck." + +1878. Lady Brassey, `Voyage in the Sunbeam,' p. 263: + +"A good-looking man was busy broiling beef-steaks, stewing +chickens and boiling <i>taro</i>, and we had soon a plentiful +repast set before us." + +<hw>Tarsipes</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific generic name +of the <i>Tait</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tarwhine</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish, <i>Chrysophrys +sarba</i>, Forsk. See <i>Black-Bream</i>. It is somewhat +difficult to distinguish the fish from its close relation the +Black-Bream, <i>Chrysophrys australis</i>, Gunth. Both are +excellent food, and frequently abundant in brackish waters. + +<hw>Tar-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given by the Otago bushmen to +the tree <i>Darrydium colensoi</i>, Hook.; Maori name, +<i>Manoao</i> (q.v.). (Kirk, `Forest Flora,' p. 189.) + +<hw>Tasmania</hw>, <i>n</i>. island and colony, formerly called +Van Diemen's Land. The new name, from that of the Dutch +navigator, Abel Jansen Tasman, was officially adopted in 1853, +when the system of transportation ceased. The first quotations +show it was in popular use much earlier. + +1820. Lieut. Charles Jeffreys, `Delineation of the Island of +Van Dieman's Land,' p. 1: + +"Van Dieman's Land, or Tasmania, is an island of considerable +extent." + +1823. `Godwin's Emigrant's Guide to Van Diemen's Land, more +properly called Tasmania': + +[Title.] + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 8: + +"Over Van Diemen's Land (or Tasmania, as we love to call +it here), New South Wales enjoys also many advantages." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 491: + +"Tasmania is a more musical <i>alias</i> adopted by the island. +It has been given in titular distinction to the first bishop, +my excellent and accomplished friend Dr. Nixon, and will +doubtless be its exclusive designation when it shall have +become a free nation." + +1892. A. and G. Sutherland, `History of Australia,' p. 41: + +"The wild country around the central lakes of Tasmania." + +<hw>Tasmanian</hw>, <i>adj</i>. belonging or native to +Tasmania. + +1825. A. Bent, `The Tasmanian Almanack for the Year of our +Lord 1825' + +[Title.] + +<hw>Tasmanian</hw>, <i>n</i>. an inhabitant of Tasmania, +a colonist. The word is also used of the aborigines, +the race of whom is now extinct. + +<hw>Tasmanian Devil</hw>, <i>n</i>. the only species of the +genus <i>Sarcophilus</i> (q.v.), <i>S. ursinus</i>. + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 156: + +"Like many of its kindred, the Tasmanian Devil is a burrowing +and nocturnal animal. In size it may be compared to a Badger, +and owing to its short limbs, plantigrade feet, and short +muzzle, its gait and general appearance are very Badger or +Bear-like." + +<hw>Tasmanian Tiger</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Native +Wolf</i>, <i>Marsupial Wolf</i>, <i>Zebra Wolf</i>, and +<i>Hyaena</i>; genus, <i>Thylacinus</i> (q.v.). It is the +largest carnivorous marsupial extant, and is so much like a +wolf in appearance that it well deserves its vernacular name of +<i>Wolf</i>, though now-a-days it is generally called +<i>Tiger</i>. There is only one species, <i>Thylacinus +cynocephalus</i>, and the settlers have nearly exterminated it, +on account of its fierce predatory habits and the damage it +inflicts on their flocks. The Tasmanian Government pays L1 for +every one destroyed. The Van Diemen's Land Company in the +North-West of the Island employs a man on one of its runs who +is called the "tiger-catcher." + +1813. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 430: + +"About Port Dalrymple an animal was discovered which bore some +resemblance to the hyena both in shape and fierceness; with a +wide mouth, strong limbs, sharp claws and a striped skin. +Agreeably to the general nature of New South Wales quadrupeds, +this animal has a false belly. It may be considered as the +most formidable of any which New South Wales has been yet found +to produce, and is very destructive; though there is no +instance of its attacking the human species." + +1832. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 85: + +"During our stay a native tiger or hyena bounded from its lair +beneath the rocks." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Friends and Foes,' p. 65: + +"There is another charming fellow, which all the people here +call the Tiger, but as a tiger is like a great cat, and this +beast is much more like a dog, you will see how foolish this +name is. I believe naturalists call it the dog-faced opossum, +and that is not much better . . . the body is not a bit like +that of an opossum." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 273: + +"The `Tasmanian tiger' is of the size of a shepherd's dog, a +gaunt yellow creature, with black stripes round the upper part +of its body, and with an ugly snout. Found nowhere but in +Tasmania, and never numerous even there, it is now slowly +disappearing." + +<hw>Tasmanian Whiptail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian fish, +<i>Coryphaenoides tasmaniae</i>, family <i>Macruridae</i>, +or deep-sea Gadoids, an altogether different fish from +<i>Myliobatis aquila</i>, the <i>Eagle</i> or <i>Whiptail +Ray</i>, which also occurs in Tasmania, but is found all +over the world. + +<hw>Tasmanite</hw>, <i>n</i>. a mineral. "A resinous, +reddish-brown, translucent, hydrocarbon derivative (C40H6202S), +found in certain laminated shales of Tasmania, <i>Resiniferous +shale</i>." (`Standard.') + +<hw>Tassel-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a thread-fish of Queensland, +of the genus <i>Polynemus</i>, family <i>Polynemidae</i>. +Polynemoid fish have free filaments at the humeral arch below +the pectoral fins, which Guenther says are organs of touch, +and to be regarded as detached portions of the fin; in some +the filaments or threads are twice as long as the fish. + +<hw>Tassy</hw>, <i>n</i>. a pet name for Tasmania. + +1894. `The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 3, col. 5: + +"To-day Tassy--as most Victorian cricketers and footballers +familiarly term our neighbour over the straits--will send a team +into the field." + +<hw>Tattoo</hw>, <i>v</i>. and <i>n</i>. to mark the human +body with indelible pigments. The word is Polynesian; its +first occurrence in English is in Cook's account of Tahiti. +The Tahitian word is <i>Tatau</i>, which means tattoo marks +on the human skin, from <i>Ta</i>, which means a mark or +design. (Littre.) The Maori verb, <i>ta</i>, means to cut, +to tattoo, to strike. See <i>Moko</i>. + +1773. `Hawkesworth's Voyages' (Cook's First Voyage; at +Tahiti, 1769), vol. ii. p. 191: + +"They have a custom of staining their bodies . . . which they +call <i>Tattowing</i>. They prick the skin, so as just not to +fetch blood, with a small instrument, something in the form of +a hoe. . . . The edge is cut into sharp teeth or points +. . . they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black +. . . The teeth, thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and +the handle to which they are fastened being struck by quick +smart blows, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into +the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible +stain." + +1777. Horace Walpole, `Letters,' vol. vi. p. 448: + +"Since we will give ourselves such torrid airs, I wonder we +don't go stark and tattoo ourselves." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 109: + +"A very famous artist in tatu came with the party, and was kept +in constant and profitable employment. Everybody, from the +renowned warrior to the girl of twelve years old, crowded to be +ornamented by the skilful chisel. . . . The instruments used +were not of bone, as they used formerly to be; but a graduated +set of iron tools, fitted with handles like adzes, supplied +their place. . . . The staining liquid is made of charcoal." + +1847. A. Tennyson, `Princess,' canto ii. l. 105: + +". . . Then the monster, then the man; + Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, + Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' vol. i. c. iv. +p. 74: + +"First among the New Zealand list of disfigurations is +tattooing, a Polynesian word signifying a repetition of taps, +but which term is unknown in the language of the New +Zealanders; <i>moko</i> being the general term for the +tattooing on the face, and <i>whakairo</i> for that on the +body." [But see Moko.] + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 17: + +"Lips no stain of tattoo had turned azure." + +Ibid. p. 104: + +"A stick knobbed with a carved and tattoo'd wooden head." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 3: + +"Thy rugged skin is hideous with tattooing." + +<hw>Tawa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree, +<i>Nesodaphne tawa</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Laurineae</i>. The +newer name is <i>Beilschmiedia tawa</i>, Benth. and Hook. f. +Allied to <i>Taraire</i> (q.v.). A handsome forest tree with +damson-like fruit. + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 129: + +"Tawa. A lofty forest tree, sixty to seventy feet high, with +slender branches. The wood is light and soft, and is much used +for making butter-kegs." + +<hw>Tawara</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the flower of the +<i>Kie-kie</i> (q.v.), <i>Freycinetia Banksii</i>. + +<hw>Tawhai</hw>, or <hw>Tawai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name +for several species of New Zealand Beech-trees, +<i>N.O. Cupuliferae</i>. The settlers call them <i>Birches</i> +(q.v.). + +1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition': + +"Tawhai. Large and durable timber, used for sleepers." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125: + +"Tawhai, Red-birch (from colour of bark). A handsome tree, +eighty to one hundred feet high. <i>Fagus Menziesii</i>, Hook. +[also called large-leaved birch]. Tawhai, Tawhairaunui, +Black-birch of Auckland and Otago (from colour of bark), +<i>Fagus fusca</i>, Hook." + +<hw>Tawhiri</hw>, or <hw>Tawiri</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name +for the <i>Black Mapau</i>. A name applied to the tree +<i>Pittosporum tenuifolium</i>, <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. +It is profusely covered with a fragrant white blossom. +See <i>Mapau</i>. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 108: + +"Its floor . . . with faint tawhiri leaves besprent " + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 21: + +"The early breeze that . . . stole + The rich Tawhiri's sweet perfume." + +<hw>Tea</hw>, n.-- + +<i>Billy-tea</i>, or <i>Bush-tea</i>. Tea made in a +<i>billy</i> (q.v.). There is a belief that in order to bring +out the full flavour it should be stirred with a gum-stick. + +<i>New Zealand tea</i>. Tea made of the leaves +of <i>Manuka</i> (q.v.). <i>See Tea</i>-tree. + +<hw>Sweet-tea</hw>, or <hw>Botany-Bay tea</hw>, or +<i>Australian tea</i>. (Called also Native Sarsaparilla. +See <i>Sarsaparilla</i>.) A plant, <i>Smilax glycyphylla</i>, +Smith., <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. + +1788. D. Considen, letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Nov. 18, in +`Historical Records of New South Wales,' vol. i. part ii. +p. 220: + +"I have sent you some of the sweet tea of this country, which +I recommend, and is generally used by the marines and convicts. +As such it is a good anti-scorbutic, as well as a substitute +for that which is more costly." + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 195: + +"The sweet-tea, a creeping kind of vine . . . the taste is +sweet, exactly like the liquorice-root of the shops. Of this +the convicts and soldiers make an infusion which is tolerably +pleasant, and serves as no bad succedaneum for tea." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 203: + +"`Sweet tea' . . . The decoction made from its leaves . . . +is similar in properties, but more pleasant in taste, than that +obtained from the roots of <i>S. officinalis</i>, or Jamaica +sarsaparilla. The herb is a common article of trade among +Sydney herbalists." + +<hw>Tea-broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand name for the +<i>Tea-tree</i> (q.v.). + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' [Notes] p. 505: + +"Manuka. . . . The settlers often call it `tea-broom.'" + +<hw>Teak</hw>, <i>n</i>. The original Teak is an East Indian +timber-tree, <i>Tectina grandis</i>, but the name has been +transferred to other trees in different parts of the world, +from a similarity in the hardness of their wood. In Australia, +it is given to <i>Dissiliaria baloghioides</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>; to <i>Endiandra glauca</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; and to <i>Flindersia Bennettiana</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. In New Zealand, it is +<i>Vitex littoralis</i>; Maori name, <i>Puriri</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Teal</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common English name given to the +small ducks of the genus <i>Querquedula</i>. In Australia, the +name is applied to <i>Anas castanea</i>, Eyton; and to the +<i>Grey Teal</i>, <i>A. gibberifrons</i>, Mull. See also +<i>Goose-teal</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 291: + +"Brown returned with . . . four teals (<i>Querquedula +castanea</i>)." [The old name.] + +<hw>Tea-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. (Very frequently, but +erroneously, spelt <i>Ti-tree</i>, and occasionally, +more ridiculously still, <i>Ti-tri</i>, q.v.) A name given +in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania to several species +of trees and shrubs whose leaves were used by Captain Cook's +sailors, by escaped convicts, and by the early settlers as +a ready substitute for the leaves of the Chinese Tea-plant +(<i>Thea chinensis</i>) for making tea. The trees of the +genera <i>Leptospermum</i> and <i>Melaleuca</i> were the +earliest used, in Australia and New Zealand, in this way. +When in blossom, the branches of many species, with their +little white flowers, and the general appearance of their +leaves, bear a strong resemblance to those of the true Tea-plant. +Their leaves, though exceedingly aromatic, have not, however, +the same flavour. Nevertheless, it was probably this superficial +likeness which first suggested the experiment of making an +infusion from them. Some of the species of <i>Leptospermum</i> +and <i>Melaleuca</i> are so closely allied, that their names +are by some botanists interchanged and used as synonyms for the +same plant. + +Although not all of the species of these two genera were used +for making tea, yet, as a tree-name, the word <i>Tea-tree</i> +is indifferently and loosely used to denote nearly all of them, +especially in the form <i>Tea-tree scrub</i>, where they grow, +as is their habit, in swamps, flat-land, and coastal districts. +Other trees or plants to which the name of <i>Tea-tree</i> was +occasionally given, are species of the genera <i>Kunzea</i> +and <i>Callistemon</i>. + +The spelling <i>Ti-tree</i> is not only erroneous as to the +origin of the name, but exceedingly misleading, as it confuses +the Australian <i>Tea-tree</i> with another <i>Ti</i> (q.v.) +in Polynesia (<i>Cordyline ti</i>). This latter genus is +represented, in Australia and New Zealand, by the two species +<i>Cordyline australis</i> and <i>C. indivisa</i>, +the <i>Cabbage-trees</i> (q.v.), or <i>Cabbage palms</i> (q.v.), +or <i>Ti-palms</i> (q.v.), or <i>Ti</i> (q.v.), which are a +marked feature of the New Zealand landscape, and are of the +lily family (<i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>), while the genera +<i>Leptospermum</i> and <i>Melaleuca</i> are of the myrtle +family (<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>). + +As to the species of the Australian <i>Tea-tree</i>, that first +used by Cook's sailors was either--<i>Leptospermum +scoparium</i>, R. and G. Forst., + +or +<i>L. lanigerum</i>, Smith. + +The species most used for infusions was-- + +<i>L. fravescens</i>, Smith (syn. <i>L. thea</i>, Willd., +and <i>Melaleuca thea</i>, Willd.). + +The <i>Coast Tea-tree</i>, common on the Victorian shores, +and so useful as a sand-binder, is-- + +<i>L. laevigatum</i>, F. v. M. + +The <i>Common Australian Tea-tree</i> (according to Maiden) is +<i>Melaleuca leucodendron</i>, Linn.; called also <i>White +Tea-tree</i>, <i>Broad-leaved T.-t.</i>, <i>Swamp T.-t</i>., +and <i>Paper-bark T.-t</i>. + +The name, however, as noted above, is used for all species +of <i>Melaleuca</i>, the <i>Swamp Tea-tree</i> being +<i>M. ericifolia</i>, Smith, and the <i>Black</i>, +or <i>Prickly-leaved Tea-tree</i>, <i>M. styphelioides</i>, +Smith. + +Of the other genera to which the name is sometimes applied, +<i>Kunzea pedunculata</i>, F. v. M., is called <i>Mountain +Tea-tree</i>, and <i>Callistemon salignus</i>, De C., is +called-- + +<i>Broad-leaved</i>, or <i>River Tea-tree</i>. + +In New Zealand, the Maori name <i>Manuka</i> (q.v.) is more +generally used than <i>Tea-tree</i>, and the tree denoted by +it is the original one used by Cook's sailors. + +Concerning other plants, used in the early days for making +special kinds of infusions and drinking them as <i>tea</i>, +see under <i>Tea</i>, and <i>Cape-Barren Tea</i>. + +1777. Cook's `Voyage towards the South Pole and Round the +World' [2nd Voyage], vol. i. p. 99: + +"The beer certainly contributed not a little. As I have already +observed, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce +leaves; but finding that this alone made the beer +too astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quantity +of the tea plant (a name it obtained in my former voyage from +our using it as tea then, as we also did now), which partly +destroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beer +exceedingly palatable, and esteemed by every one on board." + +[On page 100, Cook gives a description of the tea-plant, and +also figures it. He was then at Dusky Bay, New Zealand.] + +1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 229: + +"Tea Tree of New South Wales, <i>Melaleuca</i> (?) +<i>Trinervia</i>. This is a small shrub, very much +branched. . . . It most nearly approaches the <i>Leptospermum +virgatum</i> of Forster, referred by the younger Linnaeus, +perhaps improperly, to <i>Melaleuca</i>." + +1820. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and Descriptive +Delineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land,' p. 133: + +"Of course they [the Bushrangers] are subject to numerous +privations, particularly in the articles of tea, sugar, +tobacco, and bread; for this latter article, however, they +substitute the wild yam, and for tea they drink a decoction of +the sassafras and other shrubs, particularly one which they +call the tea-tree bush." + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' +p. 175: + +"On Monday the bushrangers were at a house at Tea-tree Brush." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 200: + +"The leaves of the tea-tree furnished the colonists with a +substitute for the genuine plant in the early period of the +colony, and from their containing a saccharine matter required +no sugar." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 78: + +"This boy got some bark from a tree called the tea-tree, which +makes excellent torches." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 25: + +"The tea-tree grows in wet situations . . . the leaves infused +make a pleasant beverage, and with a little sugar form a most +excellent substitute for tea." + +1834. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 134: + +"<i>Leptospermum lanigerum</i>, Hoary tea-tree; <i>Acacia +decurrens</i>, Black wattle; <i>Conaea alba</i>, Cape-Barren +tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea +in the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of +<i>Cryptocarya glaucescens</i>, the Australian Sa<i>s</i>afras" +(sic) [q.v.]. + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39: + +"The Australian myrtles, or tea-trees, are to be found in thick +clusters, shading rocky springs. . . . Its leaves I have +seen made into a beverage called tea. It, however, was +loathsome, and had not the slightest resemblance to any known +Chinese tea." + +1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 85: + +"Often we had to take the boat down the river several miles, +to cut reeds amongst the tea-tree marshes, to thatch our houses +with." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix;' p. 33: + +"A great quantity of the tea-tree (<i>Leptospermum</i>) scrubs, +which formerly lined both banks of the Yarra." + +(p. 84): "It is allied to the myrtle family (<i>Melaleuca</i>) +. . . A decoction of the leaves is a fair substitute for tea, +yielding a beverage of a very aromatic flavour." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 210: + +"Dense with tea-trees and wattles shrouding the courses of the +stream." + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 126: + +"Half-hidden in a tea-tree scrub, + A flock of dusky sheep were spread." + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 14: + +"Through the tea-tree scrub we dashed." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 70: + +"Chiefly covered with fern and tea-tree (manuka) scrub." + +1871. T. Bracken, `Behind the Tomb,' p. 60: + +"Sobbing through the tea-tree bushes, + Low and tender, loud and wild, + Melancholy music gushes." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 2o6: + +<i>Table of Tasmanian woods found in low marshy ground</i>. + + Hgt. Dia. Used. + +Swamp Tea-tree 12 ft. 6 in. Useless. + +Tea-tree 30 " 9 " } Turners' and + } Agricultural +Musk Tea-tree 12 " small } Implements. + +1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 18: + +"We have among them [the Myrtaceae] . . . the native +tea-trees, inappropriately so called, as these bushes and trees +never yield substitutes for tea, although a New Zealand species +was used in Captain Cook's early expedition, to prepare a +medicinal infusion against scurvy; these so-called tea-trees +comprise within our colony [Victoria], species of Leptospermum, +Kunzea, Melaleuca and Callistemon, the last-mentioned genus +producing flowers with long stamens, on which the appellation +of `Bottle-brushes' has been bestowed." + +1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 78: + +"Numerous flowering shrubs, such as the tea-tree, native lilac, +and many another that varies the colour and softly scents the +atmosphere." + +1880. Mrs.Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 221: + +"Thickets of tea-tree, white with lovely hawthorn-like +flowers." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 19: + +"Along the water's edge, noble titrees, whose drooping branches +swept the stream, formed a fringe, the dark green of their +thick foliage being relieved." + +1883. C. Harpur, `Poems,' p. 78: + +"Why roar the bull-frogs in the tea-tree marsh?" + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 84: + +"Shading a brook the tea-trees grew, + Spangled with blossoms of whitish hue, + Which fell from the boughs to the ground below, + As fall from heaven the flakes of snow." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 112: + +"The bottle-brush flowers of the ti-trees." + +1888. Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, `Select Extra-Tropical +Plants,' p. 221: + +"The somewhat aromatic leaves of <i>Liscoparium</i> (Forster) +were already in Captain Cook's Expedition used for an +antiscorbutic Tea, hence the name tea-tree for this and some +allied plants." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 76: + +"The intrusive ti-tree. . . . The dark line of ti-tree in the +foreground . . ." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' pp. 235, 236: + +"<i>Leptospermum scoparium</i>, Forster, the <i>Manuka</i>. +. . . It is commonly termed `tea-tree' by the settlers, but +must not be confounded with the `ti' or `toi' of the Maories, +which is a handsome palm-lily, <i>Cordyline australis</i>, +often termed `cabbage-tree' by the bushmen." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 38: + +"<i>Leptospermum scoparium</i>, Tea Tree. It is said that this +is the shrub the leaves of which were utilized by the crews of +Captain Cook's ships for the purpose of making `tea,' and that +they were also used with spruce leaves in equal quantity for +the purpose of correcting the astringency in brewing a beer +from the latter. It is exceedingly common about Sydney, so +large quantities would therefore be available to the sailors. +Species of this genus are exceedingly abundant not far from the +coast, and the leaves would be very readily available, but the +taste of the infusion made from them is too aromatic for the +European palate." + +[In Maiden's admirable book slips are very rare. But he is +mistaken here in the matter of the abundance of the tree at +Sydney having any reference to the question. Captain Cook had +but one ship, the <i>Endeavour</i>; and it never entered Port +Jackson. It is true that <i>L. scoparium</i> was the tree used +by Cook, but he was then at Dusky Bay, New Zealand, and it was +there that he used it. See quotations 1777 and 1877.] + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 24: + +"The well-known <i>Melaleuca Leucadendron</i>, called by the +colonists tea-tree, from which is extracted what is known in +medicine as cajeput oil." + +1893. `The Australasian,' Jan 14: + +"The ti-tree on either side of the road was in bloom, its soft, +fluffy, creamy bushes gathering in great luxuriance on the tops +of the taller trees, almost hiding the green." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4: + +"There was many a shorthorned Hereford hidden in the innermost +recesses of that tick and sand-fly infested ti-tree that knew +not the cunning of a stockman's hand." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods': + +"No. 133, Coast tea-tree, <i>Leptospermum laevigatum</i>, +F. v. M. No. 142, Swamp tea-tree, <i>Melaleuca ericifolia</i>, +Smith." + +<hw>Teetee</hw>. Same as <i>Ti-Ti</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Telopea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of the genus +containing the flower called the <i>Waratah</i> (q.v.), +from the Greek <i>taelowpos</i>, `seen from afar,' in allusion +(as the author of the name, Robert Brown, himself says) to +the conspicuous crimson flowers. The name has been corrupted +popularly into <i>Tulip</i>, and the flower is often called +the <i>Native Tulip</i>. + +1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 110: + +"The beautiful crimson flowering shrub, with dark green +rhododendron-like leaves, which grows in the upper region +of Mount Wellington. . . . The generic name is derived from +<i>telopos</i>, seen at a distance. It has been corrupted +into tulip tree, to which it bears not the least resemblance." + +<hw>Tena koe</hw>, a Maori salutation used in North Island of +New Zealand. Lit. "That is you," and meaning "How do you do?" + +<i>Tena</i> and <i>Tera</i> both mean `<i>that</i>'; but +<i>tena</i> implies the idea of nearness, `that near you,' +<i>tera</i> the idea of distance, `that (or there) away +yonder.' Hence, while Tena koe is a welcome, Tera koe +would be an insult. + +<hw>Tench</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang term, used during the days of +transportation, for the Hobart Town Penitentiary, or Prisoners' +Barracks--a corruption of "<i>'tentiary</i>," which is for +<i>Penitentiary</i>. It is now obsolete. + +1859. Caroline Leakey, `The Broad Arrow,' vol. ii. p. 32: + +"Prisoners' barracks, sir--us calls it Tench." + +<hw>Teraglin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish of New South Wales, +<i>Otolithus atelodus</i>, Gunth. The name <i>Teraglin</i> +is stated to be aboriginal. Sometimes called <i>Jew-fish</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Thickhead</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name applied to the +Australian birds of the genus <i>Pachycephala</i> (q.v.). +They are often called <i>Thrushes</i>. The species are-- + +The Banded Thickhead + <i>Pachycephala pectoralis</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Black T.-- + <i>P. melanura</i>, Gould. + +Gilbert's T.-- + <i>P. gilbertii</i>, Gould. + +Grey-tailed T.-- + <i>P. glaucura</i>, Gould (confined to Tasmania). + +Lunated T.-- + <i>P. falcata</i>, Gould. + +Olivaceous T.-- + <i>P. olivacea</i>, Vig. and Hors. (confined to Tasmania). + +Pale-breasted T.-- + <i>P. pallida</i>, Ramsay. + +Plain-coloured T.-- + <i>P. simplex</i>, Gould. + +Red-throated T.-- + <i>P. rufigularis</i>, Gould. + +Rufous-breasted T.-- + <i>P. rufiventris</i>, Lath. + +Shrike-like T.-- + <i>Pachycephala lanoides</i>, Gould. + +Torres-straits T.-- + <i>P. fretorum</i>, De Vis. + +Western T.-- + <i>P. occidentalis</i>, Ramsay. + +White-throated T.-- + <i>P. gutturalis</i>, Lath.; called also +the <i>Thunder-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +"Thick-heads. [Close season.] From the first day of August to +the twentieth day of December next following in each year." + +<hw>Thornback</hw>, <i>n</i>. special name for one of the +Stingrays, <i>Raia lemprieri</i>, Richards., or <i>Raja +rostata</i>, Castln., family <i>Raijdae</i>. + +1875. `Melbourne Spectator,' Aug. 28, p. 201, col. 3: + +"A thornback skate . . . weighing 109 lbs., has been caught +. . . at North Arm, South Australia." + +<hw>Thousand-Jacket</hw>, <i>n</i>. a North Island name for +<i>Ribbon-wood</i> (q.v.), a New Zealand tree. Layer after +layer of the inner bark can be stripped off. + +1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii. p. 210: + +"Koninny [sic], raupo, toi-toi, supplejack, thousand-jacket, +and the like, are names of things known well enough to the +inhabitants of Napier and Taranaki, but to the average +stay-at-home Englishman they are nouns which only vexatiously +illustrate the difference between names and things." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Flora of New Zealand,' p. 87: + +"Hoheria populnea. The Houhere. Order--Malvaceae. . . In the +north of Auckland the typical form is known as `houhere'; but +Mr. Colenso informs me the varieties are termed `houi' and +`whau-whi' in the south . . . By the settlers all the forms +are termed `ribbon-wood,' or less frequently `lace-bark'-- +names which are applied to other plants: they are also termed +`thousand-jacket.'" + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +"`Thousand-jacket' is a picturesque name for a many-named New +Zealand tree, the bark of which peels, and peels, and peels +again, though in the number chosen there is certainly a note of +exaggeration." + +<hw>Throwing-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. native Australian weapon, +by means of which the spear is thrown. See <i>Woomera</i>. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. i. +p. 12: + +"The principals who perform it come from, Cammer-ray, armed +with shields, clubs, and throwing-sticks." + +Ibid. c. i. p. 26: + +"The throwing-stick is used in discharging the spear. The +instrument is from two to three feet in length, with a shell +on one end and a hook on the other." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. +p. 72: + +"Natives . . . seemingly ignorant of the use of the +throwing-stick." + +1879. J. D. Woods, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' +Introd. p. xviii: + +"The spear is propelled by a wommerah or throwing-stick, having +at one end a kangaroo's tooth, fixed so as to fit into a notch +at the end of the spear. This instrument gives an amount of +leverage far beyond what would be excited by unaided muscular +strength." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 251: + +"It is supposed that if the hair of a person is tied on the +end of the throwing-stick. . . and roasted before the fire +with some kangaroo fat, the person to whom it belonged will +pine away and die." + +1885. H. H. Hayter, `Carboona,' p. 24: + +"Warrk Warrk, having a dart on his throwing-stick ready +adjusted, hurled it." + +<hw>Thrush</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English bird-name is +applied in Australia and New Zealand to four different genera +of birds, viz.-- + +(1) <i>Collyriocincla</i>, the Shrike-Thrushes (q.v.); the name +<i>Collyriocincla</i> is a compound of two Greek bird-names, +<i>kolluriown</i> /corr. from kolluriowu in Morris/, `a bird, +probably of the <i>thrush</i> kind, Arist. H. A. 9, 23, 2' +(`L. & S.' /1869 p.864/), and <i>kigalos</i>, `a kind of +<i>wag-tail</i> or <i>water-ousel</i>' (`L. & S.'). The next +two genera are derived in a similar way from <i>gaer</i>, +earth, and <i>'opos</i>, mountain. + +(2) <i>Geocincla</i>, the Ground-Thrushes (q.v.). + +(3) <i>Oreocincla</i>, the Mountain-Thrush (q.v.). + +(4) <i>Pachycephala</i> (q.v.); called Thrushes, +but more often Thickheads (q.v.). + +(5) <i>Turnagra</i> (the New Zealand Thrushes), viz.-- + + <i>T. hectori</i>, Buller, North Island Thrush. + <i>T. crassirostris</i>, Gmel., South Island Thrush. + +The name <i>Thrush</i> was also applied loosely, by the early +writers and travellers, to birds of many other genera which +have since been more accurately differentiated. The common +English thrush has been acclimatised in Australia, Tasmania, +and New Zealand. + +<hw>Thunder-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. an early name for one +of the <i>Thickheads</i> (q.v.), or <i>Pachycephalae</i> +(q.v.). See also quotation, 1896. + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 239: + + "`This species,' Mr. Caley says, `is called +<i>Thunder-bird</i> by the colonists. . . . The natives tell +me, that when it begins to thunder this bird is very noisy.'" + +1848. J. Gould,' Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 64: + +"<i>Pachycephala Gutturalis</i>, Thunder Bird, +Colonists of New South Wales." + +1896. A. J. North, `List of the Insectivorous Birds of New +South Wales,' part i. p. 3: + +"Pachycephala gutturalis, <i>Latham</i>. `Yellow-breasted +Thick-head.' . . . From its habit of starting to sing +immediately after a clap of thunder, the report of a gun, +or any other loud and sudden noise, it is known to many +residents of New South Wales as the Thunder-bird.' + +"Pachycephala rufiventris, <i>Latham</i>. `Rufous-breasted +Thickhead.' . . . Also known as the `Thunder-bird.'" + +<hw>Thunder-dirt</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, a gelatinous +covering of a fungus (<i>Ileodictyon cibarium</i>) formerly +eaten by the Maoris. + +<hw>Thylacine</hw>, and <hw>Thylacinus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the +scientific name of the genus of the animal called variously the +<i>Tasmanian Tiger</i> (q.v.), <i>Hyaena</i>, <i>Tasmanian +Wolf</i>, <i>Zebra Wolf</i>, and <i>Marsupial Wolf</i>. The +first spelling is the Anglicised form of the word. (Grk. +<i>thulakos</i>, a pouch, and <i>kuown</i>, a dog.) + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 153: + +"The Thylacine appears to be generally found among caverns and +rocks and the deep and almost impenetrable glens in the +neighbourhood of the highest mountains of Tasmania." + +<hw>Ti</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name of various species of trees of +the genus <i>Cordyline</i>, <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>. It exists +in the Pacific Islands as <i>C. Ti</i>, and in New Zealand the +species are <i>C. australis</i> and <i>C. indivisa</i>. It is +called in New Zealand the <i>Cabbage-tree</i> (q.v.), and the +heart used to be eaten by the settlers. The word is +Polynesian. In Hawaiian, the form is <i>Ki</i>; in Maori, +<i>Ti</i>. Compare <i>Kanaka</i> (q.v.) and <i>Tangata</i>. +By confusion, <i>Tea</i>, in <i>Tea-tree</i> (q.v.), is +frequently spelt <i>Ti</i>, and <i>Tea-tree</i> is sometimes +spelt <i>Ti-tri</i> (q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 58: + +"In these natural shrubberies, too, and especially in wet +situations, a kind of cabbage-tree, called ti by the natives, +flourishes to great abundance." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor,' Te Ika a Maui,' p. 435: + +"The ti (<i>Cordyline australis</i> or <i>Dracoena +australis</i>) is found in great abundance. Though so common, +it has a very foreign look . . . the leaf is that of a flag, +the flower forms a large droop and is very fragrant." + +1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 52: + +"Ti-ti palms are dotted here and there, and give a foreign and +tropical appearance to the whole." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 297: + +"An abundance of narrow strips of the tough, fibrous leaves of +the ti-palm." + +1890. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xviii. art. lvii. p. 486: + +"In these plains stand a number of cabbage-trees (<i>Cordyline +Australis</i>), the ti-trees of the Maori. These often bear +only a single head of long narrow harsh leaves at the top of +their tall slender stems, but sometimes they are slightly +branched, the branches also only bearing a similar tuft." + +1892. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 22, p. 7, col. 2: + +"A small grove of ti-palms or cabbage-tree." + +<hw>Tiaki</hw> (spelt also <hw>Tieke</hw>), <i>n</i>. Maori +name for the <i>Saddle-back</i> or <i>Jack-bird</i> (q.v.). + +1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 56: + +"Tiaki or purourou. This elegant bird is about the size of the +sky-lark." + +<hw>Tieke</hw>, <i>n</i>. Same as <i>Tiaki</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tiers</hw>, <i>pl. n</i>. used in Tasmania as the usual +word for mountains, in the same way as the word <i>Ranges</i> +(q.v.) in Australia. + +1876. W. B. Wildey, `Australasia and Oceanic Region,' p. +320: + +"Two chains of mountains, the eastern and western tiers, run +through it nearly north and south." + +1891. `The Australasian,' April 4, p. 670, col. 2: + +"That stuff as they calls horizontal, a mess of branches and + root, + The three barren tiers; and the Craycroft, that 'ud settle + a bandicoot." + +<hw>Tiersman</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian word for one who lives +in the <i>Tiers</i> (q.v.). + +1852. F. Lancelott, `Australia as it is,' vol. ii. p. 115: + +"Splatters, or, as they are commonly called tiersmen, reside in +the forest of stringy bark . . ." + +<hw>Tiger-Cat</hw>, <i>n</i>. special name applied +to the <i>Common</i> and <i>Spotted-tailed Native Cat</i>. +See under <i>Cat</i>. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 52: + +"The skins of the . . . opossum, tiger-cat, and platypus +. . . are exported." + +1852. Ronald C. Gunn, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal +Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 11: + +"<i>Dasyurus maculatus</i>, Shaw. . . . The <i>Spotted +Martin</i>, Phillip's `Voy. to Botany Bay, p. 276. Martin +Cat,' pl. 46. `Tiger Cat' of the Colonists of Tasmania, +to which island it is confined. It is distinguished from +<i>D. viverrinus</i>, the `Native Cat' of the Colonists, +by its superior size and more robust form; also from +the tail being spotted as well as the body." + +1891. `Guide to the Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"After the opossums comes a specimen of the tiger-cat +(<i>Dasyurus maculatus</i>); this animal, which is so +destructive to poultry, is well known throughout the +country in Victoria." + +<hw>Tiger, Tasmanian</hw>. See <i>Thylacine</i> +and <i>Tasmanian Tiger</i>. + +<hw>Tiger-Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Tihore</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a species of New +Zealand flax. Name used specially in the North Island for the +best variety of <i>Phormium</i> (q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 286: + +"The species of <i>Phormium tenax</i> thus cultivated is +the tihore, literally the `skinning' flax. This name describes +the ease with which it submits to the scraping process." + +<hw>Tiki</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the Creator of man, and +thence taken to represent an ancestor. The Maoris made large +wooden images to represent their <i>Tiki</i>, and gave the name +of <i>Tiki</i> to these images. Later they were made in +miniature in greenstone (q.v.), and used as neck ornaments. +See <i>Heitiki</i>. + +<hw>Tit</hw>, <i>n</i>. common English bird name. +Applied in Australia to the following species-- + +Broad-tailed Tit-- + <i>Acanthiza apicalis</i>, Gould. + +Brown T.-- + <i>A. pusilla</i>, Lath. + +Buff T.-- + <i>Geobasileus reguloides</i>, V. and H. + +Chestnut-rumped T.-- + <i>Acanthiza uropygialis</i>, Gould. + +Little T.-- + <i>A. nana</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Plain T.-- + <i>A. inornata</i>, Gould. + +Red-rumped T.-- + <i>A. pyrrhopygia</i>, Gould. + +Scaly-breasted T.-- + <i>A. squamata</i>, De Vis. + +Scrub T.-- + <i>Sericornis magna</i>, Gould. + +Striated T.-- + <i>Acanthiza lineata</i>, Gould. + +Tasmanian T.-- + <i>A. diemenensis</i>, Gould; called also <i>Brown-tail</i>. + +Yellow-rumped T.-- + <i>Geobasileus chrysorrhoea</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +See also <i>Tree-tit</i>. + +<hw>Tit-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given in North Australia +to the Sea-slug, or Trepang; because the appearance of its +tentacles suggests the teat of a cow. + +1880. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the Linnaean +Society of New South Wales,' vol. v. pt. ii. p. 128: + +"G. F. Jaeger, in 1833, . . . enumerates four [species of +<i>Trepang</i>), viz. <i>Trepang edulis</i>, <i>T. ananas</i>, +<i>T. impatiens</i> and <i>T. peruviana</i>. The first of +these is certainly found on the reefs, and is called by the +fishermen `redfish.' . . . Next to this is the `tit-fish' +. . . studded with somewhat distant large tentacles, which +project nearly an inch or so." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 22: + +"They were engaged in smoking a large haul of `tit' fish, which +they had made on a neighbouring reef." + +<hw>Ti-ti</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the sea-bird +<i>Pelecanoides urinatrix</i>, Gmel., the Diving-petrel. +Spelt also <i>tee-tee</i>. + +1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 14, p. 963, col. 1 (`A Lady +in the Kermadecs'): + + "The petrels--there are nine kinds, and we have names of our +own for them, the black burrower, the mutton-bird, the white +burrower, the short-billed ti-ti, the long-billed ti-ti, the +little storm petrel, and three others that we had no names +for--abound on the island." + +<hw>Tititpunamu</hw>, <i>n</i>. (spelt also +<hw>Tititipunamu</hw>), <i>n</i>. Maori name for the bird +<i>Acanthidositta chloris</i>, Sparm., the <i>Rifleman</i> +(q.v.). It has many other Maori names. + +<hw>Titoki</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand tree, +<i>Alectryon excelsum</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>. +Also called New Zealand Oak and New Zealand Ash. See +<i>Alectryon</i>. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 317: + +"The berry of the titoki tree might be turned to account. The +natives extract a very fine oil from it." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 253: + +The youth, with hands beneath his head, + Against a great titoki's base." + +1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences or Incidents of +Thirty-four Years in New Zealand,' p: 16: + +"For this purpose, titoki was deemed the most suitable timber, +from its hardness and crooked growth resembling English oak." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 131: + +"Titoki, a beautiful tree with large panicles of reddish +flowers . . . Wood has similar properties to ash. Its +toughness makes it valuable for wheels, coachbuilding, etc." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 183: + +"It is sometimes termed `the New Zealand ash,' doubtless on +account of its resembling that tree in the shape of its foliage +and in the toughness of its wood, but it is most generally +known as the `titoki.'" + +1896. `Otago Witness,' June 23, p. 42, col. 2: + +"The saddling-paddock and the scales are surrounded by a fence +made of stout titoki saplings, on which are perched the +knowing." + +<hw>Ti-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. erroneous spelling of +<i>Tea-tree</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Manuka</i>. + +<hw>Titri</hw>, <i>n</i>. corruption for <i>Tea-tree</i> +(q.v.), from the fancy that it is Maori, or aboriginal +Australian. On the railway line, between Dunedin and +Invercargill, there is a station called "<i>Titri</i>," +evidently the surveyor's joke. + +1895. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 19, p. 23, col. 3: + +"Our way lay across two or three cultivations into a grove of +handsome titri. Traversing this we came to a broad, but +shallow and stony creek, and then more titri, merging into +light bush." + +<hw>Toad-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New Zealand, a scarce marine +fish of the family <i>Psychrolutidae</i>, <i>Neophrynichthys +latus</i>. In Australia, the name is applied to <i>Tetrodon +hamiltoni</i>, Richards., and various other species of +<i>Tetrodon</i>, family <i>Gymnodontes</i>, poisonous fishes. + +Toad-fishes are very closely allied to Porcupine-fishes. +"Toads" have the upper jaw divided by a median suture, while +the latter have undivided dental plates. See +<i>Porcupine-fish</i> and <i>Globe-fish</i>, + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 89: + +"The Poisonous or <i>Toad Fish</i> of Van Diemen's Land. +(<i>Communicated by James Scott, Esq. R.N. Colonial +Surgeon</i>). . . . The melancholy and dreadful effect +produced by eating it was lately instanced in the neighbourhood +of Hobart Town, on the lady of one of the most respectable +merchants, and two children, who died in the course of three +hours . . . The poison is of a powerful sedative nature, +producing stupor, loss of speech, deglutition, vision and +the power of the voluntary muscles, and ultimately an entire +deprivation of nervous power and death." + +1844. J. A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings,' p. 24: + +"The toad-fish eaten, soon the body dies." + +<hw>Toatoa</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name of New Zealand tree, +<i>Phyllocladus glauca</i>, Carr., <i>N.O. Coniferae</i>. +The Mountain Toatoa is <i>P. alpinus</i>, Hook. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 120: + +"The toa toa, a small tree which is much prized by the natives +for walking-sticks, and only grows, they say, in the +neighbourhood of Tonga Riro. The stick underneath the bark is +of a bright red colour, which takes a fine polish." + +<hw>Tobacco, Colonial</hw>. See <i>Tobacco, Native</i>. + +<hw>Tobacco, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia generally, +a true Tobacco, <i>Nicotiana suaveolens</i>, Lehm., +<i>N.O. Solanaceae</i>; readily eaten as a forage plant +by stock. In Queensland, the name is also applied to +<i>Pituri</i> (q.v.). In Tasmania, the name is given to +<i>Cassinia billardieri</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Compositae</i>. +Various American tobaccos are also naturalised, and their +growing and manufacture is an industry. Tobacco manufactured +in the colonies, whether from imported American leaf or from +leaf grown in the colonies, is called <i>Colonial Tobacco</i>. + +1848. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia,' p. 64: + +"In the rich soil near the river-bed, we saw the yellowish +flowers of the native tobacco, <i>Nicotiana suaveolens</i>." + +<hw>Toe-ragger</hw>, <i>n</i>. In the bush a term of abuse; +though curiously in one or two parts of New South Wales the +word "toey," which is derived from it, is a term of praise, a +"swell." The word has been explained as of convict origin, +that the rags were used to soothe the galling of fetters; but +the explanation is not satisfactory, for the part galled by the +irons would not be the toe, but the ankle. A writer in `Truth' +has cleared up the word (see quotation). It is of Maori +origin. Away from Maoriland "toe-rigger" had no meaning, and a +false meaning and origin were given by the change of vowel. + +1896. `Truth' (Sydney), Jan. 12: + +"The bushie's favorite term of opprobrium `a toe-ragger' is +also probably from the Maori. Amongst whom the nastiest term +of contempt was that of <i>tau rika rika</i>, or slave. The +old whalers on the Maoriland coast in their anger called each +other toe-riggers, and to-day the word in the form of +toe-ragger has spread throughout the whole of the South Seas." + +<hw>Toe-toe</hw>, and <hw>Toi-toi</hw>, Maori name of several +species of native grass of the genus <i>Arundo</i>, especially +<i>Arundo conspicua</i>, A. Cunn. <i>Toe-toe</i> is the right +spelling in Maori, given in Williams' `Maori Dictionary.' In +English, however, the word is frequently spelt <i>toi-toi</i>. +It is also called <i>Prince of Wales' feather</i>. + +1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses, +Session II. No. xvii. of the former Legislative Council of +New Zealand': + +[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.] + +"Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of every +building constructed wholly or in part of <i>raupo, nikau, +toitoi</i>, <i>wiwi kakaho</i>, straw or thatch of any +description [ . . . L20]." + +1849. C. Hursthouse, `Settlement of New Plymouth,' p. 13: + +"A species of tall grass called `toetoe.'" + +1861. C. C. Bowen, `Poems,' p. 57: + +"High o'er them all the toi waved, + To grace that savage ground." + +1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 110: + +"Thatching it with tohi, or swamp-grass." + +1892. `The Katipo,' Jan. i. [sic] p. 3 [description of the +Title-cut]: + +"The toi toi and <i>Phorinium tenax</i> in the corners are +New Zealand emblems." + +1895. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 19, p. 6, col. 3: + +"Where Christmas lilies wave and blow, + Where the fan-tails tumbling glance, + And plumed toi-toi heads the dance." + +<hw>Tohora</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a whale. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 136: + +"Fable of the Kauri (pine-tree) and Tohora (whale)." + +1878. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xi. art. iv. pt. 2, p. 90: + +"Looking at it as it lay extended, it resembled a very large +whale (nui tohora)." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 21: + +"In the open sea, and to the south, the most prized whale next +to the sperm is the black whale, or tohora (<i>Eubalaena +Australis</i>), which is like the right whale of the North Sea, +but with baleen of less value." + +<hw>Tohunga</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a wise man. +"Perhaps from Maori verb <i>tohu</i>, to think." (Tregear's +`Polynesian Dictionary.') <i>Tohu</i>, a sign or omen; +hence <i>Tohunga</i>, a dealer in omens, an augur. + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf and Amohia,' p. 102: + +"But he whose grief was most sincere + The news of that unwonted death to hear, + Was Kangapo, the Tohunga--a Priest + And fell Magician famous far and near." + +1873. `Appendix to Journals of House of Representatives,' +G. 1, B. p. 9: + +"I am a tohunga who can save the country if you will follow my +advice." + +1878. F. E. Maning, `Heke's War, told by an Old Chief,' +`New Zealand Reader,' p. 153: + +"Amongst these soldiers there was not one tohunga--not a man at +all experienced in omens--or they must have had some warning +that danger and defeat were near." + +1893. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 21, p. 10, col. 2: + +"She would consult a tohunga. The man she selected-- +one of the oldest and most sacred of the Maori priests, +prophet, medicine-man, lawyer and judge." + +<hw>Tolmer's Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fibrous plant, +<i>Lepidosperma gladiatum</i>, Labill., <i>N.O. Cyperaceae</i>, +suitable for manufacture of paper. It is not a true grass, and +is classed by Maiden (`Useful Native Plants,' p. 626) under +fibres. + +1882. A. Tolmer, `Reminiscences,' p. 298: + +"The plant that has since by courtesy borne my name (Tolmer's +grass)." + +<hw>Tomahawk</hw>, <i>n</i>. a word of North-American Indian +origin, applied in English to the similarly shaped short +one-handed axe or hatchet. The word is not frequent in +England, but in Australia the word <i>hatchet</i> has +practically disappeared, and the word <i>Tomahawk</i> to +describe it is in every-day use. It is also applied to the +stone hatchet of the Aboriginals. A popular corruption of it +is <i>Tommy-axe</i>. + +1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xii. +p. 466: + +"A plentiful assortment of . . . knives, shirts, toma-hawkes +[sic], axes, jackets, scissars [sic], etc., etc., for the +people in general." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 259: + +"We . . . observed recent marks of the stone tomahawk +of the natives." + +1851. G. W. Rusden, `Moyarra,' canto i. 17, p. 25: + +"One hand he wreathed in Mytah's hair, + Whirled then the tomahawk in air." + +1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Fours /sic/ Years in Queensland,' p. 721: + +"They [the Aboriginals] cut out opossums from a tree or sugar +bag (wild honey) by means of a tomahawk of green stone; the +handle is formed of a vine, and fixed in its place with gum. +It is astonishing what a quantity of work is got through in the +day with these blunt tomahawks." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 60: + +"Lay aside thy spears (I doubt them); + Lay aside thy tomahawk." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 206: + +"The aborigines have obtained iron tomahawks." + +1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 73: + +"Men had to cleave out a way for themselves with tomahawks." + +1888. A. Reischek, in Buller's `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 94: + +"The snow had been blown together, and was frozen so hard that +I had to take my tomahawk to chop it down so as to get softer +snow to refresh myself with a wash." + +<hw>Tomahawk</hw>, <i>v</i>. tr. to cut sheep when shearing +them. + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 147: + +"Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully +`tomahawked' by the new hands." + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 96: + +"Some men never get the better of this habit, but `tomahawk' +as badly after years of practice as when they first began." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162: + +"The Shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong, + After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along + The `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn + before, + And the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half + a score." + +<hw>Tommy-axe</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular corruption of the word +<i>Tomahawk</i> (q.v.); it is an instance of the law of +Hobson-Jobson. + +<hw>Tom Russell's Mahogany</hw>. See <i>Mahogany</i>. + +<hw>Tomtit</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied in New Zealand to two +New Zealand birds of the genus <i>Myiomoira</i>, the species +being <i>M. toitoi</i>, Garnot, in North Island; +<i>M. macrocephala</i>, Gmel., in South Island. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 39: + +[A full description.] + +<hw>Tonquin Bean-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian variety of +<i>Native Sandalwood</i>; also called <i>Tonga Beanwood</i>. + +1862. W. Archer, `Products and Resources of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"`Tonga Bean-wood (<i>Alyxia buxifolia</i>, Br.). The odour +is similar to that of the <i>Tonga Bean</i> (<i>Dipteryx +odorata</i>). A straggling seaside shrub, three to five inches +in diameter." + +<hw>Tooart</hw>, or <hw>Tewart</hw>, <i>n</i>. a West +Australian name for <i>Eucalyptus gomphocephala</i>, +or <i>White Gum</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. iv. p. 181: + +`Another valuable tree is the tooart, a kind of white gum." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 187: + +"The Tewart Tree (<i>Eucalyptus</i>), a variety of the White +Gum, found principally in the Swan River and King George's +Sound District of Western Australia. . . . Of straight growth +and noble dimensions. The wood is of a yellowish or straw +colour, hard, heavy, tough, strong and rigid. . . . It is used +in ship-building for beams, keelsons, stern-posts, +engine-bearers, and for other works below the line of +flotation." + +<hw>Tookytook</hw>, <i>n</i>. a corruption of <i>Kotukutuku</i> +(q.v.), a Maori name equivalent to <i>Konini</i>, the fruit of +the <i>Fuchsia-tree</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Toot</hw>, <i>n</i>. the anglicised spelling +of the Maori word <i>Tutu</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tooted</hw>, quasi <i>past participle</i> from <i>Toot</i>. +The cattle are <i>tooted</i>, sc. poisoned by the <i>Toot</i>. + +1863. G. Butler, `Canterbury Settlement,' p. 98: + +"As, then, my bullocks could not get tuted." + +1891. T. H. Potts, `New Zealand Country Journal,' p. 201: + +"His hearty salutation in its faultiness proved to be about on +a par with `rummy-rum,' `triddy' and `toot.' The last word +reminds me of a man near by who was even judged to be somewhat +vain of his Maori accent and pronunciation. With one word he +was indeed very particular, he could not bring himself to use +that manifest corruption `toot.' With him it was ever `tutu.' +He had to make rather a boggle or dodge of it when he used the +colonial made verb formed on his favourite Maori noun." + +<hw>Tooth-shell</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied, in +Europe, to any species of <i>Dentalium</i> and allied genera +having a tooth-shaped shell. In Australia, it is the shell of +<i>Marinula pellucida</i>, Cooper, a small marine mollusc used +for necklaces. + +<hw>Tope</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australasian Shark, <i>Galeus +australis</i>, Macl. It differs somewhat from <i>Galeus +canis</i>, the <i>Tope</i> of Britain. Called also the +<i>School-Shark</i>, in Australia. + +<hw>Top-knot Pigeon</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, +<i>Lopholaimus antarcticus</i>, Shaw. + +1891. Francis Adams, `John Webb's End,' p. 33: + +"Flying for a moment beside a lovely, melodious <i>top-knot +pigeon</i>." + +<hw>Torea</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for all the New Zealand +species of the <i>Oyster-catchers</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Torpedo</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish, well known elsewhere, and +also called elsewhere, the <i>Numb-fish</i> and <i>Cramp +fish</i>. For the Australian species, see quotation. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 100: + +"Our Torpedo or Electric Ray is <i>Hypnos subnigrum</i>, +that of Tasmania is <i>Narcine Tasmaniensis</i>." + +<hw>Torres-Straits Pigeon</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation. + +1893. Saville Kent, `Great Barrier Reef,' p. 123: + +"Making a bag of the famous Torres Straits pigeons +(<i>Myristicivora spilorrhoa</i>), a large white variety, +highly esteemed for the table, which, arriving from the north +[that is New Guinea], is distributed from October until the end +of March throughout the tree-bearing islets and mainland coast, +as far south as Keppel Bay." + +<hw>Tortoise-shell Fish</hw>. See <i>Hand-fish</i>. + +<hw>Totara</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a lofty-spreading +New Zealand tree, <i>Podocarpus totara</i>, A. Cunn., +<i>N.O. Coniferae</i>,. In Maori, the accent falls on +the first syllable; but in English use it is often placed +on the second, and from Mr. Polack's spelling it must have +been so as early as 1840. Called also <i>Mahogany-pine</i>. +There are several other species, e.g. <i>P. vivalis</i>, Hook., +the <i>Mountain Totara</i>; called also <i>Mahogany Pine</i>. +See <i>Mahogany</i>, and <i>Pine</i>. + +1832. G. Bennett, in Lambert's `Genus Pinus,' vol. ii. p. 190: + +"This is an unpublished species of <i>Podocarpus</i>, called +Totara by the natives. . . . The value placed on this tree by +the natives is sometimes the occasion of quarrels, terminating +in bloodshed, if it is cut down by any except the party by whom +it is claimed. . . It is not unusual for the trees to descend +from father to son." + +1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealanders,' +vol. i. p. 227: + +"The totarra or red-pine." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 221: + +"The totara is one of the finest trees in the forest, and is +the principal wood used by the natives, whether for canoes, +houses, or fencing." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' [Notes] p. 80: + +"The place received its name from a number of large totara +trees." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 134: + +"Totara (<i>Podocarpus totara</i>) and Matai (<i>Podocarpus +spicata</i>) are large and beautiful trees found in every +forest." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 107: + +"One lone totara-tree that grew + Beneath the hill-side." + +1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 308: + +"The Totara Tree (<i>Taxus</i> or <i>Podocarpus totara</i>). +Height, eighty to ninety feet. The wood is red in colour, +close, straight, fine and even in grain . . . a good substitute +for mahogany." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 227: + +"With the exception of the kauri, the totara affords the most +valuable timber in New Zealand, but unlike the kauri it is +found almost throughout the colony." + +<hw>Towai</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for New Zealand tree, +<i>Weinmannia racemosa</i>, Forst., <i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>, +i.q. <i>Kamahai</i> in south of South Island, and +<i>Tawhero</i> in North Island (Wellington). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 95: + +"Its banks . . . are covered almost wholly with the towai. +This tree has very small dark leaves.It is used for ship- +building, and is called by Englishmen the `black birch.'" + +1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 43: + +"The ake . . . and towai (<i>Leiospermum racemosum</i>) +are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 132: + +"Towhai, Kamahi. A large tree; trunk two to four feet in +diameter, and fifty feet high. Wood close-grained and heavy, +but rather brittle. . . . The bark is largely used for +tanning. The extract of bark is chemically allied to the gum +kino of commerce, their value being about equal." + +<hw>Township</hw>, <i>n</i>. a village, a possible future town. +In the United States, the word has a definite meaning--a +district, subordinate to a county, the inhabitants having power +to regulate their local affairs; in Australia, the word has no +such definite meaning. It may be large or small, and sometimes +consists of little more than the post-office, the public-house, +and the general store or shop. + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 7: + +"The timber of a hundred and twenty acres was cut down . . . +a small township marked out, and a few huts built." + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' vol. ii. p. 40: + +"It used to seem to me a strange colonial anomaly to call a +very small village a `township,' and a much larger one a +`town.' But the former is the term applied to the lands +reserved in various places for future towns." + +1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 79: + +"There's a certain township and also a town,-- + (For, to ears colonial, I need not state + That the two do not always homologate)." + +1888. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' +p. 439: + +[Mr. Parker is a Canadian who lived four years in Australia] + +"A few words of comparison here. A pub of Australia is a +tavern or hotel in Canada; a township is a village; a +stock-rider is a cow-boy; a humpy is a shanty; a warrigal or +brombie 1s a broncho or cayuse; a sundowner is a tramp; a +squatter is a rancher; and so on through an abundant list." + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 276: + +"Villages, which are always called `townships,' spring up +suddenly round a railway-station or beside some country inn." + +1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost): + +"A township--the suffix denotes a state of being--seems to be +a place which is not in the state of being a town. Does its +pride resent the impost of village that it is glad to be called +by a name which is no name, or is the word loosely appropriated +from America, where it signifies a division of a county? It is +never found in England." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 38: + +"There stands the town of Dandaloo-- + A township where life's total sum + Is sleep, diversified with rum." + +<hw>Traveller</hw>, <i>n</i>. used specifically for a +<i>Swagman</i>, a <i>Sundowner</i>. See quotation. + +1868. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher' (Reprint), +p. 41: + +"At the station where I worked for some time (as +`knock-about-man') three cooks were kept during the `wallaby' +season--one for the house, one for the men, and one for the +travellers. Moreover, `travellers' would not unfrequently +spend the afternoon at one of the three hotels (which, with a +church and a pound, constituted the adjoining township), and +having `liquored up' extensively, swagger up to the station, +and insist upon lodging and food--which they got. I have no +desire to take away the character of these gentlemen +travellers, but I may mention as a strange coincidence, that, +was the requested hospitality refused by any chance, a +bush-fire invariably occurred somewhere on the run within +twelve hours." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 12, p. 8, col. 7: + +"Throughout the Western pastoral area the strain of feeding the +`travellers,' which is the country euphemism for bush +unemployed, has come to be felt as an unwarranted tax upon the +industry, and as a mischievous stimulus to nomadism." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 8, p. 249, col. 2: + +". . . never refuses to feed travellers; they get a good tea +and breakfast, and often 10 to 20 are fed in a day. These +travellers lead an aimless life, wandering from station to +station, hardly ever asking for and never hoping to get any +work, and yet they expect the land-owners to support them. Most +of them are old and feeble, and the sooner all stations stop +giving them free rations the better it will be for the real +working man. One station-owner kept a record, and he found that +he fed over 2000 men in twelve months. This alone, at 6d. a +meal, would come to L100, but this is not all, as they `bag' as +much as they can if their next stage is not a good feeding +station." + +<hw>Travellers' Grass</hw>, i.q. <i>Settler's Twine</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tree-creeper</hw>, <i>n</i>. popular name applied to +members of an old Linnaean genus of birds. The Australian +species are enumerated by Gould in quotation. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv.: + + Plate + + <i>Climacteris scandens</i>, Temm., Brown Tree-creeper . 93 + + <i>C. rufa</i>, Gould, Rufous T. . . . . . . . . 94 + + <i>C. erythrops</i>, Gould, Red-eyebrowed T. . . . . 95 + + <i>C. melanotus</i>, Gould, Black-backed T. . . . . 96 + + <i>C. melanura</i>, Gould, Black-tailed T. . . . . . 97 + + <i>C. picumnus</i>, Temm., Whitethroated T. . . . . 98 + + +<hw>Tree-fern</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Fern-tree</i>. + +<hw>Tree-Kangaroo</hw>, called <i>Boongary</i> (q.v.) +by the aboriginals. See <i>Dendrolagus</i> and <i>Kangaroo</i>. + +<hw>Tree-Runner</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Sittella</i> (q.v.). The species are-- + +Black-capped Tree-Runner-- + <i>Sittella pileata</i>, Gould. + +Orange-winged T.-- + <i>S. chrysoptera</i>, Lath. + +Pied T.-- + <i>S. albata</i>, Ramsay. + +Slender-billed T.-- + <i>S. tenuirostris</i>, Gould. + +Striated T.-- + <i>S. striata</i>, Gould. + +White-headed T.-- + <i>S. leucocephala</i>, Gould. + +White-winged T.-- + <i>S. leucoptera</i>, Gould. + +But see Gould's earlier (1848), under <i>Sittella</i>. + +<hw>Tree-Tit</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word tit is terminally +applied to many little English birds. In Australia, +this new compound has been adopted for the two species, +Short-billed Tree-tit, <i>Smicrornis brevirostris</i>, +Gould, and Yellow-tinted Tit, <i>S. flavescens</i>, Gould. + +<hw>Tremandra</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus of +Australian plants, the <i>Purple Heath-flower</i>. Name given +by R. Brown in 1814, from the remarkably tremulous anthers. +(Lat. <i>tremere</i>, to tremble, and Grk. <i>'anaer</i>, +<i>'andros</i> a man, taken as equivalent to "anther.") + +<hw>Trevally</hw>, or <hw>Trevalli</hw>, or <hw>Trevalla</hw>, +or <hw>Travale</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish. +In various localities the name is applied to several fishes, +which are most of them of the family <i>Carangidae</i>, +or <i>Horse-Mackerels</i>. An Old-World name for the +Horse-Mackerels is <i>Cavalli</i> (Ital. <i>cavallo</i>, +a little horse). <i>Trevalli</i> is sometimes called +<i>Cavalli</i>; this was probably its original name +in Australia, and <i>Trevalli</i> a later corruption. + +The different kinds are-- + +Black Trevally-- + <i>Teuthis nebulosa</i>, Quoy, family <i>Teuthididae</i> +(a New South Wales fish). + +Mackerel T. (so called in Tasmania)-- + <i>Neptonemus dobula</i>, Gunth., family <i>Carangidae</i>. + +Silver T.-- + Another Tasmanian name for the White Trevally, <i>Caranx +georgianus</i> (see below). + +Snotgall T.-- + <i>Neptonemus travale</i>, Casteln. (in Victoria); + <i>N. brama</i>, Gunth. in Tasmania); both of the family +of <i>Carangidae</i>. + +White T.-- + <i>Caranx georgianus</i>, Cuv. and Val., family +<i>Carangidae</i>; (so called in New South Wales, New Zealand, +and Tasmania; in Victoria it is called <i>Silver Bream</i>). + <i>Teuthis javus</i>, Linn., family <i>Tuethididae</i>. + +The Maori name for the <i>Trevally</i> is <i>Awara</i>, +and in Auckland it is sometimes called the <i>Yellow-Tail</i> +(q.v.). See also quotation, 1886. + +Guenther says, the genus <i>Teuthis</i> is readily recognised +by the peculiar structure of the ventral fins, which have an +outer and an inner spine and three soft rays between. + +1769. `Capt. Cook's Journal' (edition Wharton, 1893), p. 164: + +"Several canoes came off to the ship, and two or three of them +sold us some fish--cavallys as they are called--which occasioned +my giving the Islands the same name." + +1886. R. A. Sherrin, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 99: + +"Dr. Hector says: `The trevalli is the arara of the Maoris, or +the trevalli or cavalli of the fishermen . . . In Auckland it +is sometimes called the yellow-tail, but this name appears to +be also used for the king-fish. The fish known as trevalli in +the Dunedin market is a different fish, allied to the +warehou.'" + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Fisheries Act' (Second Schedule): + +"Travale." + +<hw>Triantelope</hw>, <i>n</i>. a European comic variation of +the scientific name <i>Tarantula</i>. It is applied in +Australia to a spider belonging to a quite different genus, +<i>Voconia</i>, a perfectly harmless spider, though popularly +supposed to be poisonous. It has powerful mandibles, but will +attack nobody unless itself attacked. + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 173: + +"The tarantulas, or `triantelopes,' as the men call them, are +large, ugly spiders, very venomous." + +1860. A Lady, `My Experiences in Australia,' p. 151: + +"There is no lack of spiders either, of all sorts and sizes, up +to the large tarantula, or <i>tri-antelope</i>, as the common +people persist in calling it." + +<hw>Tribonyx</hw>, <i>n</i>. There are several species of this +bird in Australia and Tasmania, where they go by the name of +<i>Native Hen</i>, and sometimes, erroneously, <i>Moor-hen</i> +(q.v.). For the species, see <i>Native Hen</i>. No species of +<i>Tribonyx</i> has been found wild in New Zealand, though +other birds have been mistaken for the genus. + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. +(Introd.), p. xiv: + +"I ought perhaps here to refer to a species mentioned in the +former Introduction as a newly discovered addition to the New +Zealand <i>Avifauna</i>, but now omitted from the list . . ." + +Ibid. p. liv: + +"<i>Tribonyx</i> has never actually occurred in a wild state +[in New Zealand]." + +Ibid. p. 90: + +"<i>Tribonyx</i>, a bird incapable of flight, but admirably +adapted for running." + +<hw>Trichosurus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus +of the <i>Phalangers</i> (q.v.), or Australian <i>Opossums</i> +(q.v.). (Grk. <i>trichos</i>, of hair, and <i>'oura</i>, +tail.) + +<hw>Trickett</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang name for a long drink of +beer in New South Wales, after Trickett, the New South Wales +champion sculler. + +<hw>Trigger-plant</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Hairtrigger</i> +(q.v.) plant; called also <i>Jack-in-a-box</i>. + +<hw>Trigonia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bivalve marine mollusc with a +nacreous interior, much admired in Tasmania and used for +pendants and necklaces, <i>Trigonia margaritacea</i>, Lamarck, +of the order <i>Pectinaceae</i>. It is the largest +<i>trigonia</i> occurring in Australasia, and the only one +found in Tasmania. Numerous extinct species are characteristic +of the Mesozoic rocks. The only living species existing are +confined to Australia. + +<hw>Trooper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a mounted policeman. The use is +transferred from the name for a private soldier in a cavalry +regiment. The <i>Native troopers</i>, or <i>Black police</i>, +in Queensland, are a force of aboriginal police, officered by +white men. + +1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. viii. p. 100: + +"A violent effort [was] made by the troopers on duty to +disperse an assemblage which occupied the space of ground in +front of the hustings." + +1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 51: + +"A trooper spies him snoring in the street." + +1868. J. A. B., `Meta,' canto iii. ver. 20, p. 72: + +"The felon crew . . . hard pressed by troopers ten." + +<hw>Tropic-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English name is applied +because the bird is usually seen in the tropics. The species +observed in Australia are--Red-tailed, <i>Phaeton +rubricaudus</i>, Bodd.; White-tailed, <i>P. candidus</i>, +Briss. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,'vol. vii. pl. 73: + +"<i>Phaeton Phoenicurus</i>, Gmel., Red-tailed Tropic Bird; +New Holland Tropic Bird, Latham, `General History, vol. x. +p. 448." + +<hw>Tropidorhynchus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name of a genus +of birds peculiar to Australia and New Guinea. The typical +species has a knob on the bill, and the head and neck destitute +of feathers. From Grk. <i>tropis</i>, the keel of a ship, +and <i>rhunchos</i>, "beak." They are called <i>Friar Birds</i> +(q.v.), and the generic name of <i>Tropidorhynchus</i> has been +replaced by <i>Philemon</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Trout</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English Trout has been +naturalised in Australia. In Tasmania, the name of +<i>Trout</i>, or <i>Mountain-Trout</i>, is also given to +species of the genus <i>Galaxias</i>. See <i>Salmon</i>. + +<hw>Trumpeter</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A fish of Tasmanian, +New Zealand, and Australian waters, but chiefly of Hobart-- +<i>Latris hecateia</i>, Richards., family <i>Cirrhitidae</i>, +much esteemed as a food-fish, and weighing sometimes 50 or 60 +lbs. The name is probably from the noise made by the fish when +taken out of the water. The name was formerly given to a +different fish in Western Australia. +See also <i>Bastard-Trumpeter</i>, <i>Morwong</i>, +and <i>Paper-fish</i>. + +1834. M. Doyle, `Letters and Journals of G. F. Moore, Swan +River Settlement,' p. 191: + +"Many persons are trying to salt fish, which are very numerous +in the river about and below Perth, as you must have seen by +one of my letters, in which I mentioned our having taken 10,000 +at one draught of the seine; these are of the kind called +herrings, but do not look very like them; they make a noise +when out of the water, and on that account are also called +trumpeters." + +1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' vol. ii. p. 65: + +"The finest kinds are the guard-fish of the mainland and the +trumpeter of the Derwent in Tasmania." + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 45: + +"The first of these [Latris] is the genus of the well-known +`Hobart Town trumpeter,' a fish deservedly of high reputation." + +(2) An obsolete name in Tasmania for the black +<i>Crow-Shrike</i> (q.v.), <i>Strepera fuliginosa</i>, Gould. + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 177: + +"We also occasionally heard the trumpeter or black magpie." + +<hw>Trumpeter-Perch</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Mado</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Trumpeter-Whiting</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Whiting</i>, +quotation 1882. + +<hw>Tuan</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the +<i>Flying-Squirrel</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Pongo</i>. + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 57: + +"The flying-squirrel, or tuan, is much sought after for its +fine fur; of these there are two kinds, a large one of a dark +colour, only found 1n the mountains; and a smaller description +found in all parts of the colony, and better known by the +native name, tuan." + +1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 274: + +"The Touan, the little grey flying-squirrel, only begins to fly +about at night, and slides down from his bough sudden and +sharp." + +<hw>Tuatara</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name of a New Zealand +lizard, or reptile, <i>Hatteria punctata</i>, Gray; called +also <i>Sphenodon puntatum</i>. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 218: + +"Tua tira, a species of lizard." + +1863. `Mahoe Leaves,' p. 47: + +"A small boy of a most precocious nature, who was termed `tua +tara,' from a horrid sort of lizard that the natives abhor." + +1890. `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition': + +"The Tuatara is the largest existing New Zealand reptile. It +is closely allied to the Lizards; but on account of certain +peculiarities of structure, some of which tend to connect it +with the Crocodiles, is placed by Dr. Guenther in a separate +order (<i>Rhynchocephalina</i>)." + +<hw>Tucker</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian slang for food. +<i>To tuck in</i> is provincial English for to eat, and +<i>tuck</i> is a school-boy word for food, especially what +is bought at a pastrycook's. <i>To make tucker</i> means +to earn merely enough to pay for food. + +1874. Garnet Walch, `Head over Heels,' p. 73: + +"For want of more nourishing tucker, + I believe they'd have eaten him." + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 33: + +"We heard of big nuggets, but only made tucker." + +1890. `The Argus,' June 14, p. 14, col. 1: + +"When a travelling man sees a hut ahead, he knows there's water +inside, and tucker and tea." + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 83: + +"I took my meal in the hut, but we'd both the same kind of +tucker." + +<hw>Tui</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand bird, +<i>Prosthemadera novae-zelandae</i>, Gray; called the +<i>Parson-bird</i> (q.v.), and earlier the <i>Poe</i> (q.v.). +Another name is the <i>Koko</i>, and the young bird is +distinguished as <i>Pi-tui</i>, or <i>Pikari</i>. It is also +called the <i>Mocking bird</i>. + +1835. W. Yate, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 52: + +"Tui. This remarkable bird, from the versatility of its talents +for imitation, has by some been called `the Mocking-Bird.'" + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 80: + +"The little birds were chiefly the tui, or mocking-bird. It +resembles a blackbird in size and plumage, with two graceful +bunches of white feathers under the neck. It abounds in the +woods, and is remarkably noisy and active . . . it imitates +almost every feathered inhabitant of the forest, and, when +domesticated, every noise it hears." + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 170: + +"I saw several birds named the Tooi; they are black, about +the size of a starling, and are sometimes called Parson-birds, +as they have two white feathers like clergymen's bands in front +of them." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 166: + +"One of the prettiest creatures is the tui, Parson-Bird of the +colonists (<i>Prosthemadera Novae-Zelandae</i>), which roves +about in the lofty, leafy crowns of the forest-trees." + +1881. J. L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 102: + +"The tui, with his grand, rich note, made the wood musical." + +1884. T. Bracken, `Lays of Maori,' p. 21: + +"Woo the Bell-bird from his nest, to ring + The Tui up to sing his morning hymns." + +Ibid. p. 101: + + "I hear the swell + Of Nature's psalms through tree and bush, + From tui, blackbird, finch and thrush." + +1889. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. facing +p. 94.: + +[A plate entitled] "Tui, or parson-bird." + +Ibid. pp. 94-100: + +[A full description.] + +1893. D. Frobisher, `Sketches of Gossipton,' p. 61: + +As the forest soft echoes brought back their sweet chorus, + The <i>tuis</i> seemed silent from envy and spleen." + +<hw>Tulip, Native</hw>, i.q. <i>Waratah</i> (q.v.); +and see <i>Telopea</i>. + +<hw>Tulip-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given, +in Australia, to <i>Stenocarpus cunninghamii</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>, on account of the brilliancy of its +bright-red flowers; called also <i>Queensland Fire-tree</i>. + +<hw>Tulip-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given, +in Australia, to <i>Aphnanthe philipinensis</i>, Planch., +<i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>, and to the timber of <i>Harpullia +pendula</i>, Planch., <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>. It is, +further, a synonym for the <i>Emu-Apple</i>. + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39: + +"The tulip-wood, with its variegated flowers and delightful +perfume, grows in abundance." + +<hw>Tumata-kuru</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for plant better +known as <i>Wild Irishman</i> (q.v.), <i>Discaria toumatou</i>, +Raoul. "A thorny plant, very difficult to handle." (Vincent +Pyke.) <i>Tumatagowry</i>, or <i>Matagory</i> (q.v.), is the +Southern corruption of contractors, labourers, and others. + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 16: + +"Upon the arid flats, patches of Tumatu-kuru, and of a +purple-flowering broom, struggle to maintain a scraggy +existence." + +1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 283: + +"The tumatakuru merits a place in this work rather on account +of its value in the past than of its present usefulness. In +the early days of settlement in the South Island this afforded +the only available timber in many mountain-valleys, and was +frequently converted by hand sawyers for building purposes; +being of great durability, it was found very serviceable, +notwithstanding its small dimensions: the formation of roads +has deprived it of value by facilitating the conveyance of +ordinary building timber." + +<hw>Tuna</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Eel</i>. + +<hw>Tupakihi</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Tutu</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Tupara</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori corruption of "two-barrel." +Compare the aboriginal word <i>Whilpra</i> (q.v.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 109: + +"He had previously despatched a messenger to me, +begging me to bring some tupara, or `two-barrel.'" + +1881. J. L.Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 137: + +"They were labouring under the `tupera fever' [in 1840]. The +percussion-gun had made its appearance, and the natives were +not slow to see how much more effectual a weapon it was than +the old flint `brown-bess.' And when they saw the tupera, +double-barrelled gun, the rage at once set in to possess it." + +<hw>Tupong</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a Southern +Australian fish, <i>Aphritis bassii</i>, Castln., family +<i>Trachinidae</i>. Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson says it is +called <i>Marble-fish</i> in the Geelong district. +It is also known as the <i>Freshwater Flathead</i>. + +<hw>Tupuna</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word, meaning ancestor, +progenitor, male or female. Often used in the Land Courts +in the question: "Who are your tupuna?" + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 113: + +"I asked his permission to ascend Tonga Riro . . . But he +steadily refused, saying, `I would do anything else to show +you my love and friendship, but you must not ascend my tepuna, +or ancestor.'" + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 202: + +"Tupuna, to stand, to spring; an ancestor; hence Tu-pu, to +grow." + +1863. F. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `Old New Zealand,' p. 196: + +"One evening a smart, handsome lad came to tell me his +<i>tupuna</i> was dying . . . The tribe were ke poto or +assembled to the last man about the dying chief." + +<hw>Turbot</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to +a New Zealand fish, called also <i>Lemon-Sole</i> (q.v.) +or <i>Yellow-belly</i> (q.v.), <i>Ammotretis guntheri</i>. + +1876. `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. viii. +p. 215: + +"Turbot--a fish not uncommon in the Dunedin market, where it +goes by the name of `lemon-sole.'" + +<hw>Turkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English bird-name is +applied in Australia to three birds, viz.-- + +(1) To the bird <i>Eupodotis australis</i>, Gray, which +is a true <i>Bustard</i>, but which is variously called the +<i>Native Turkey</i>, <i>Plain Turkey</i> (from its frequenting +the plains), and <i>Wild Turkey</i>. + +(2) To the bird <i>Talegalla lathami</i>, Gould, called +the <i>Brush Turkey</i> (from its frequenting the brushes), +<i>Wattled Turkey</i> and <i>Wattled Talegalla</i> (from its +fleshy wattles), and sometimes, simply, <i>Talegalla</i>. +By Latham it was mistaken for a Vulture, and classed by him +as the <i>New Holland Vulture</i>. (`General History of Birds,' +1821, vol. i. p. 32.) + +(3) To the bird <i>Leipoa ocellata</i>, Gould, called the +<i>Scrub-Turkey</i> (from its frequenting the Scrubs, the +<i>Lowan</i> (its aboriginal name), the <i>Native Pheasant</i> +(of South Australia); in the Mallee district it is called +<i>Mallee-bird</i>, <i>Mallee-fowl</i>, <i>Mallee-hen</i>. + +In the following quotations the number of the bird referred +to is placed in square brackets at the end. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 14: + +"We passed several nests of the Brush-Turkey (<i>Talegalla +Lathami</i>, Gould)." [2.] + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 260: + +"Several native bustards (<i>Otis Novae Hollandiae</i>, +Gould) were shot." [1.] + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 4: + +"<i>Otis Australasianus</i>, Gould, Australian Bustard; Turkey, +Colonists of New South Wales; Native Turkey, Swan River." [1.] + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 77: + +"<i>Talegalla Lathami</i>, Wattled Talegalla; Brush-Turkey +of the Colonists." [2.] + +1872. C. H. Eden, `My wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122: + +"The bird that repaid the sportsman best was the plain turkey +or bustard (<i>Otis Australasianus</i>), a noble fellow, the +male weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds. They differ from +the European birds in being good flyers. . . . The length of +the wings is very great, and they look like monsters in the +air." [1.] + +1872. Ibid. p. 124: + +"The scrub-turkey (<i>Talegalla Lathami</i>) is a most curious +bird; its habitat is in the thickest scrubs. In appearance it +much resembles the English hen turkey, though but little larger +than a fowl." [2.] + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 214: + +"Look at this immense mound. It is a scrub-turkey's nest. +Thirty or forty lay their eggs in it. One could hardly imagine +they could gather such a huge pile of sticks and earth and +leaves. They bury their eggs, and heap up the nest until the +laying time ceases. The moist heap heats and incubates the +eggs. The young turkeys spring out of the shell, covered with +a thick warm coat, and scratch their way into daylight, strong +and able to provide food for themselves." [3.] + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"The bustard (<i>Eupodotis Australis</i>) is known by the +colonists as the native turkey. It is excellent eating and is +much sought after on that account. The hen bird lays only one +egg, depositing it on the bare ground. Formerly they were +numerous in the neighbourhood of Melbourne, but they have now +been driven further inland; they are still abundant on the +western plains and on the open Saltbush country of the Lower +Murray. They are difficult to approach on foot, but it is easy +to get within gunshot of them on horseback or driving. The +natives used formerly to capture them in an ingenious manner by +means of a snare; they approached their intended victim against +the wind under cover of a large bush grasped in the left hand, +while in the right was held a long slender stick, to the end of +which was fastened a large fluttering moth, and immediately +below a running noose. While the bird, unconscious of danger, +was eyeing and pecking at the moth, the noose was dexterously +slipped over its head by the cunning black, and the astonished +bird at once paid the penalty of its curiosity with its life." +[1.] + +1891. Ibid.: + +"In the first division are several specimens of the +Brush-Turkey (<i>Talegalla Lathami</i>) of Australia. These +birds have excited world-wide interest in scientific circles, +by their ingenious mode of incubating. They construct a large +mound of vegetable mould and sand; mixed in such proportions +that a gentle heat will be maintained, which hatches the buried +eggs. The young chicks can look after themselves shortly after +bursting the egg-shell." [2.] + +1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British +Colonies,' p. 274: + +"The brush-turkeys, which are not really turkeys but birds of +that size, build big mounds of decaying vegetable matter, lay +their eggs on the top, cover them over with leaves, and leave +the whole to rot, when the heat of the sun above and of the +fermentation below, hatches the eggs, and the young creep out +to forage for themselves without ever knowing their parents." +[2.] + +1893. Professor H. A. Strong, in `Liverpool Mercury,' Feb. +13: + +"The well-known `wild turkey' of Australian colonists is a +bustard, and he has the good sense to give a wide berth to the +two-legged immigrants indeed the most common method of +endeavouring to secure an approach to him is to drive up to him +in a buggy, and then to let fly. The approach is generally +made by a series of concentric circles, of which the victim is +the centre. His flesh is excellent, the meat being of a rich +dark colour, with a flavour resembling that of no other game +bird with which I am acquainted." [1.] + +1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 3, col. 5: + +"The brush-turkey (<i>Talegalla</i>), another of the +sand-builders, lays a white egg very much like that of a swan, +while the third of that wonderful family, the scrub-hen or +<i>Megapode</i>, has an egg very long in proportion to its +width." [2.] + +<hw>Turmeric</hw>, i.q. <i>Stinkwood</i> (q.v.); also applied +occasionally to <i>Hakea dactyloides</i>, Cav., +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. See Hakea. + +<hw>Turnip-wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. the timbers of the trees +<i>Akania hillii</i>, J. Hook., <i>N.O. Sapindaceae</i>, +and <i>Dysoxylon Muelleri</i>, Benth., N.O. Meliaceae, +from their white and red colours respectively. + +<hw>Turpentine, Brush</hw>, name given to two trees-- +<i>Metrosideros leptopetala</i>, F. v. M., also called +<i>Myrtle</i>; and <i>Rhodamnia trinervia</i>, Blume, +both <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<hw>Turpentine-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is applied to many +trees in Australia yielding a resin, but especially to the tree +called <i>Tallow-Wood</i> (q.v.), <i>Eucalyptus microcorys</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>; to <i>Eucalyptus punctata</i>, +De C., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, called also <i>Leather- +Jacket</i>, <i>Hickory</i>, <i>Red</i>-, and <i>Yellow-Gun</i>, +and <i>Bastard-Box</i>; and to <i>E. stuartiana</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. In New Zealand, it is also applied to +the <i>Tarata</i>. See <i>Mapau</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 523: + +"[<i>E. Stuartiana</i> is] frequently called Turpentine Tree, +or Peppermint Tree. In Victoria it is known as Apple Tree, +Apple-scented Gum, White Gum, and Mountain Ash. It is the +Woolly Butt of the county of Camden (New South Wales). +Occasionally it is known as Stringybark. It is called Box +about Stanthorpe (Queensland), Tea Tree at Frazer's Island +(Queensland), and Red Gum in Tasmania." + +<hw>Turquoise-Berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Solomon's Seal</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Tussock-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tussock is an English word +for a tuft of grass. From this a plant of the lily family, +<i>Lomandra longifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Lilaceae</i>, +is named <i>Tussock-grass</i>; it is "considered the best +native substitute for esparto." (`Century.') + +1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. v. p. 38: + +"The roof was neatly thatched with the tall, strong +tussock-grass." + +<hw>Tussocker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand name +for a <i>Sundowner</i> (q.v.). + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby': + +"Now, a `sun-downer,' or `tussocker'--for the terms are +synonymous--is a pastoral loafer; one who loiters about till +dusk, and then makes for the nearest station or hut, to beg for +shelter and food." + +<hw>Tutu</hw>, or <hw>Toot</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a +shrub or small tree, <i>Coriaria ruscifolia</i>, Linn., or +<i>C. sarmentosa</i>, Forst., of New Zealand, widely +distributed. It bears greenish flowers, and shiny pulpy black +berries. From these the Maoris make a wine resembling light +claret, taking care to strain out and not to crush the seeds, +which are poisonous, with an action similar to that of +strychnine. It goes also by the name of <i>Wineberry-bush</i>, +and the Maori name is Anglicised into <i>Toot</i>. In Maori, +the final <i>u</i> is swallowed rather than pronounced. In +English names derived from the Maori, a vowel after a mute +letter is not sounded. It is called in the North Island +<i>Tupakihi</i>. In Maori, the verb <i>tutu</i> means to be +hit, wounded, or vehemently wild, and the name of the plant +thus seems to be connected with the effects produced by its +poison. To "eat your toot": used as a slang phrase; to become +acclimatised, to settle down into colonial ways. + +1857. R. Wilkin, in a Letter printed by C. Hursthouse, +`New Zealand,' p. 372: + +"The plant called `tutu' or `toot' appears to be universal over +New Zealand. If eaten by sheep or cattle with empty stomachs, +it acts in a similar manner to green clover, and sometimes +causes death; but if partaken of sparingly, and with grass, it +is said to possess highly fattening qualities. None of the +graziers, however, except one, with whom I conversed on the +subject, seemed to consider toot worth notice; . . . it is +rapidly disappearing in the older settled districts and will +doubtless soon disappear here." + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' p. 395: + +"The wild shrub Tutu (<i>Coriaria ruscifolia</i>), greedily +devoured by sheep and cattle, produces a sort of `hoven' +effect, something like that of rich clover pastures when stock +break in and over feed. . . . Bleeding and a dose of spirits +is the common cure. . . Horses and pigs are not affected by +it." + +1861. C. C. Bowen, `Poems,' p. 57: + +"And flax and fern and tutu grew In wild luxuriance round." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 139: + +"The toot-plant, tutu or tupakihi of the Maoris (<i>Coriaria +sarmentosa</i>, Forst. = <i>C. ruscifolia</i>, L.), is a small +bush, one of the most common and widely distributed shrubs of +the islands. [New Zealand.] It produces a sort of `hoven' or +narcotic effect on sheep and cattle, when too greedily eaten. +It bears a fruit, which is produced in clusters, not unlike a +bunch of currants, with the seed external, of a purple colour. +The poisonous portion of the plant to man are the seeds and +seedstalks, while their dark purple pulp is utterly innoxious +and edible. The natives express from the berries an agreeable +violet juice (carefully avoiding the seed), called native +wine." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 103: + + "The tutu-tree, + Whose luscious purple clusters hang so free + And tempting, though with hidden seeds replete + That numb with deadly poison all who eat." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 131: + +"Tupakihi, tree tutu. A perennial shrub ten to eighteen feet +high; trunk six to eight inches in diameter. The so-called +berries (fleshy petals) vary very much in succulence. . . . +The juice is purple, and affords a grateful beverage to the +Maoris; and a wine, like elderberry wine, has been made from +them. The seeds and leaves contain a poisonous alkaloid, and +produce convulsions, delirium and death, and are sometimes +fatal to cattle and sheep." + +1884. Alfred Cox, `Recollections,' p. 258: + +"When footpaths about Christchurch were fringed with tutu +bushes, little boys were foolish enough to pluck the beautiful +berries and eat them. A little fellow whose name was `Richard' +ate of the fruit, grew sick, but recovered. When the punster +heard of it, he said, `Ah! well, if the little chap had died, +there was an epitaph all ready for him, <i>Decus et +tutamen</i>. Dick has ate toot, amen.'" + +1889. G. P. Williams and W. P. Reeves, `Colonial Couplets,' +p. 20: + +"You will gather from this that I'm not `broken in,' + And the troublesome process has yet to begin + Which old settlers are wont to call `eating your tutu;' + (This they always pronounce as if rhyming with boot)." + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby, p. 16 [Footnote]: + +"The poisonous tutu bushes. A berry-bearing, glossy-leaved +plant, deadly to man and to all animals, except goats." + +1891. T. H. Potts, `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. xv. +p. 103: + +"The Cockney new chum soon learnt to `eat his toot,' and he +quickly acquired a good position in the district." + +<hw>Twenty-eight</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the +<i>Yellow-collared Parrakeet</i>. Named from its note. +See <i>Parrakeet</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 19: + +"<i>Platycercus Semitorquatus</i>, Quoy and Gaim., +Yellow-collared Parrakeet; Twenty-eight Parrakeet, Colonists of +Swan River. It often utters a note which, from its resemblance +to those words, has procured for it the appellation of +`twenty-eight' Parrakeet from the Colonists; the last word or +note being sometimes repeated five or six times in succession." + +<hw>Twine Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Hakea flexilis</i>. +See <i>Hakea</i>. + +<hw>Twine, Settler's</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Settler's +Twine</i>. + +<hw>Two-hooded Furina-Snake</hw>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + + + + +U + + +<hw>Umbrella-bush</hw>, <i>Acacia osswaldi</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 363: + +"Often called `Umbrella-Bush,' as it is a capital shade tree. +A small bushy tree." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue--Economic Woods,' No. 17: + +"The plant is exquisitely adapted for tall hedges. It is often +called the `umbrella tree,' as it gives a capital shade. The +heart-wood is dark, hard, heavy and close-grained." + +<hw>Umbrella-grass</hw>, i.q. <i>Native Millet</i>, <i>Panicum +decompositum</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. See +<i>Millet</i>. It is called <i>Umbrella-grass</i>, from the +shape of the branches at the top of the stem representing the +ribs of an open umbrella. + +<hw>Umbrella-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to <i>Brassaia +actinophylla</i>, Endl., <i>N.O. Araliaceae</i>, from the large +leaves being set, like umbrella-ribs, at the top of numerous +stems. + +<hw>Umu</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word, signifying a native oven. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 75: + +"The tangi had terminated; the umu or `cooking holes' were +smoking away for the feast." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika, a Maui,' p. 389: + +"The native oven (umu hangi) is a circular hole of about two +feet in diameter and from six to twelve inches deep." + +1872. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. v. +p. 96: + +". . . being all in and around the <i>umus</i> (or native +ovens) in which they had been cooked." + +1882. S. Locke, `Traditions of Taupo,' `Transactions of the +New Zealand Institute,' vol. xv. art. liv. p. 440: + +"They killed Kurimanga the priest and cooked him in an oven, +from which circumstance the place is called Umu-Kuri." + +1889. S. P. Smith, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xxii. p. 98: + +"An oven of stones, exactly like a Maori umu or hangi." + +1893. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxvi. +p. 432: + +"The <i>oumu</i> or haangi, in which food was cooked, was only +a hole scooped in the ground, of a size proportioned to that +which was to be cooked." + +<hw>Union Nut</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fine cabinet timber, +<i>Bosistoa sapindiformis</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. + +<hw>"Unlock the lands."</hw> A political cry in Victoria, +meaning open up for <i>Free-selection</i> (q.v.) the lands +held by squatters on lease. + +1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia,' p. 290: + +"The democratic party, that had for its watchword the +expressive phrase, `Unlock the lands.'" + +<hw>Unpayable</hw>, <i>adj</i>. not likely to pay for working; +not capable of yielding a profit over working expenses. +(A very rare use.) + +1896. `The Argus,' Dec. 26, p. 5, col. 3: + +"Unpayable Lines.--The Commissioner of Railways has had a +return prepared showing the results of the working of 48 lines +for the year ending 30th June, 1896. Of these, 33, covering +515 miles, do not pay working expenses, and are reckoned to be +the worst lines in the colony." + +<hw>Utu</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Maori word for "Return, price paid, +reward, ransom, satisfaction for injuries received, reply." +(Williams.) Sometimes corrupted by Englishmen into <i>Hoot</i> +(q.v.). + +1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealand,' +vol. ii. p. 63: + +"Utu or payment is invariably expected for any injustice +committed, and is exacted in some shape, the sufferer feeling +debased in his own opinion until he obtains satisfaction. The +<i>Utu</i>, similar to the <i>tapu</i>, enters into everything +connected with this people." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 29: + +"He asserted that we should pay for the tapu; but suggested as +an amendment that the utu or `payment' should be handed to +him." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 252: + +"Utu, which may be freely translated `blood for blood,' +is with him [the Maori] a sacred necessity. It is the +<i>lex talionis</i> carried out to the letter. The exact +interpretation of the formidable little word `Utu' is, +I believe, `payment.'" + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 61: + +"The learned commissioner's court was instantly besieged by +bands of natives vociferating for more `utu' (payment), and +threatening the settlers with the tomahawk if more `utu' were +not instantly accorded." + +1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 470: + +"Besides that, for such shining service done, + A splendid claim, he reckoned, would arise + For `<i>utu</i>'--compensation or reward." + +1873. H. Carleton, `Life of Henry Williams,' p. 79: + +"Blood for blood, or at least blood money, is Maori law. +Better the blood of the innocent than none at all, is a +recognised maxim of the Maori law of utu." + + + +V + + +<hw>Vandemonian</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. belonging to +Van Diemen's land, the old name of Tasmania; generally used +of the convicts of the early days; and the <i>demon</i> in +the word is a popular application of the law of Hobson-Jobson. +Now obsolete. + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' (edition 1855), p. 533: + +"The Van Diemonians, as they unpleasingly call themselves, +or permit themselves to be called, are justly proud of their +horse-flesh." + +1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia' (2nd edit.), +p. 171: + +"One of the first acts of the Legislative Assemblies created by +the Australian Reform Bill of 1850 was to pass . . . acts +levelled against Van Diemonian expirees." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i, p. 367: + +"Unquestionably some of the Van Diemenian convicts." + +1867. `Cassell's Magazine,' p. 440: + +"`I never wanted to leave England,' I have heard an old +Vandemonian observe boastfully. `I wasn't like one of these +`Jemmy Grants' (cant term for `emigrants'); I could always +earn a good living; it was the Government as took and sent me +out." + +<hw>Vandemonianism</hw>, <i>n</i>. rowdy conduct like that of +an escaped convict; the term is now obsolete. + +1863. `Victorian Hansard,' April 22, vol. ix. p. 701: + +"Mr. Houston looked upon the conduct of hon. gentlemen opposite +as ranging from the extreme of vandemonianism to the extreme of +nambypambyism." + +<hw>Van Diemen's Land</hw>, the name given to the colony now +called Tasmania, by Abel Jansz Tasman, the Dutch navigator, +in 1642, after Anthony Van Diemen, Governor-General of the +Dutch East Indies. The name was changed to <i>Tasmania</i> +(q.v.) in 1853, on the granting of Responsible Government. + +<hw>Vedalia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a genus of greedily predatory +ladybirds. The <i>V. cardinalis</i> of Australia was imported +by the United States Government from Australia and New Zealand +into California in 1888-89, in order to kill the <i>fluted +scale</i> (<i>Icerya purchasi</i>), a fruit-pest. It destroyed +the scale in nine months. + +<hw>Velvet-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania +to the fish <i>Holoxenus cutaneus</i>, Gunth., family +<i>Cirrhitidae</i>. The skin is covered with minute +appendages, so soft to the touch as to suggest velvet; +the colour is deep purplish red. + +<hw>Verandah</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, the heat of the sun +makes verandahs much commoner than in England. They are an +architectural feature of all dwelling-houses in suburb or in +bush, and of most City shops, where they render the broad +side-walks an almost continuous arcade. "Under the Verandah " +has acquired the meaning, "where city men most do congregate." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. xxvii. +p. 418: + +"In Melbourne there is the `verandah'; in Sandhurst there is a +`verandah'; in Ballaarat there is a `verandah.' The verandah is +a kind of open exchange--some place on the street pavement, +apparently selected by chance, on which the dealers in mining +shares do congregate." + +1895. Modern. Private Letter of an Australian on Tour: + +"What I miss most in London is the <i>Verandahs</i>. With this +everlasting rain there is no place to get out of a shower, +as in Melbourne. But I suppose it pays the umbrella-makers." + +<hw>V-hut</hw>, a term used in the province of Canterbury, +New Zealand. See quotations. + +1857. R. B. Paul, `Letters from Canterbury,' p. 57: + +"The form is that of a <i>V hut</i>, the extremities of the +rafters being left bare, so as to form buttresses to the walls" +(of the church). + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury,' p. 73: + +"I am now going to put up a V-hut on the country that I took up +on the Rangitata. . . . It consists of a small roof set up on +the ground; it is a hut all roof and no walls." + +1879. C. L.Innes, `Canterbury Sketches,' p. 20: + +"In case my readers may not know what a `V' hut is like, I will +describe one:--It is exactly as if you took the roof off a +house and stood it on the ground, you can only stand upright in +the middle." + +1896. Jan. A Traveller's note: + +"Not long ago a Canterbury lady said--`I was born in a V-hut, +and christened in a pie-dish.'" + +<hw>Victoria</hw>, <i>n</i>. the name of the smallest of all +the Australian colonies. It was separated from New South Wales +in 1851, when it was named after Queen Victoria. Sir Thomas +Mitchell had before given it the name of "Australia Felix," and +Dr. J. D. Lang wanted the name "Phillipsland." He published a +book with that title in 1847. Previous to separation, the name +used was "the Port Phillip District of New South Wales." + +<hw>Village Settlement</hw>, the system, first adopted in New +Zealand, whence it spread to the other colonies, of settling +families on the land in combination. The Government usually +helps at first with a grant of money as well as granting the +land. + +<hw>Vine</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, the word is loosely +applied to many trailing or creeping plants, which help to +form scrubs and thickets. In the more marked cases specific +adjectives are used with the word. See following words. + +1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 22: + +"With thick creepers, commonly called `vines.'" + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 21: + +"Impenetrable vine-scrubs line the river-banks at intervals." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 25: + +"Vitis in great abundance and of many varieties are found +especially in the scrubs, hence the colonists call this sort +of brush, vine-scrub." + +<hw>Vine, Balloon</hw>. See <i>Balloon Vine</i>. + +<hw>Vine, Burdekin</hw>. Called also <i>Round Yam</i>, +<i>Vitis opaca</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Ampelideae</i>. + +<hw>Vine, Caustic</hw>, i.q. <i>Caustic-Plant</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Vine, Lawyer</hw>. See <i>Lawyer</i>. + +<hw>Vine, Macquarie Harbour</hw>, or <hw>Macquarie Harbour +Grape</hw> (q.v.). Same as <i>Native Ivy</i>. See <i>Ivy</i>. + +1891. `Chambers' Encyclopaedia,' s.v. <i>Polygonaeae</i>: + +"<i>Muhlenbeckia adpressa</i> is the Macquarie Harbour Vine of +Tasmania, an evergreen climbing or trailing shrub of most rapid +growth, sometimes 60 feet in length. It produces racemes of +fruit somewhat resembling grapes or currants, the nut being +invested with the large and fleshy segments of the calyx. The +fruit is sweetish and subacid, and is used for tarts." + +1884. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 99: + +"How we saw the spreading myrtles, + Saw the cypress and the pine, + Saw the green festoons and bowers + Of the dark Macquarie vine, + Saw the blackwoods and the box-trees, + And the spiral sassafrases, + Saw the fairy fern-trees mantled + With their mossy cloak of grasses." + +<hw>Vine, Native Pepper</hw>. See <i>Climbing Pepper</i>, +under <i>Pepper</i>. + +<hw>Vine, Wonga Wonga</hw>. See <i>Wonga Wonga Vine</i>. + + + +W + + +<hw>Waddy</hw>. (1) An aboriginal's war club. But the word is +used for wood generally, even for firewood. In a kangaroo +hunt, a man will call out, "Get off and kill it with a waddy," +i.e. any stick casually picked up. In pigeon-English, "little +fellow waddy" means a small piece of wood. + +In various dictionaries, e.g. Stanford, the word is entered as +of aboriginal origin, but many now hold that it is the English +word <i>wood</i> mispronounced by aboriginal lips. +L. E. Threlkeld, in his `Australian Grammar,' at p. 10, enters +it as a "barbarism "--"<i>waddy</i>, a cudgel." A `barbarism,' +with Threlkeld, often means no more than `not in use on the +Hunter River'; but in this case his remark may be more +appropriate. + +On the other hand, the word is given as an aboriginal word in +Hunter's `Vocabulary of the Sydney Dialect' (1793), and in +Ridley's `Kamilaroi' (1875), as used at George's River. The +Rev. J. Mathew writes: + +"The aboriginal words for <i>fire</i> and <i>wood</i> are very +often, in fact nearly always, interchangeable, or interchanged, +at different places. The old Tasmanian and therefore original +Australian term for wood and fire, or one or the other +according to dialect, is <i>wi</i> (wee) sometimes <i>win</i>. +These two forms occur in many parts of Australia with numerous +variants, <i>wi</i> being obviously the radical form. Hence +there were such variants as <i>wiin, waanap</i>, <i>weenth</i> +in Victoria, and at Sydney <i>gweyong</i>, and at Botany Bay +<i>we</i>, all equivalent to fire. <i>Wi</i> sometimes took on +what was evidently an affixed adjective or modifying particle, +giving such forms as <i>wibra, wygum, wyber</i>, +<i>wurnaway</i>. The modifying part sometimes began with the +sound of <i>d</i> or <i>j</i> (into which of course <i>d</i> +enters as an element). Thus modified, <i>wi</i> became +<i>wadjano</i> on Murchison River, Western Australia; +<i>wachernee</i> at Burke River, Gulf of Carp.; <i>wichun</i> +on the Barcoo; <i>watta</i> on the Hunter River, New South +Wales; <i>wudda</i> at Queanbeyan, New South Wales. These last +two are obviously identical with the Sydney <i>waddy</i> = +`wood.' The argument might be lengthened, but I think what I +have advanced shows conclusively that <i>Waddy</i> is the +Tasmanian word <i>wi</i> + a modifying word or particle." + +1814. Flinders, `Voyage,' vol. ii. p. 189: + +"Some resembling the whaddie, or wooden sword of the natives of +Port Jackson." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 20: + +"It is amusing to see the consequential swagger of some of +these dingy dandies, as they pass lordly up our streets, with a +waddie twirling in their black paws." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 66: + +"Such a weapon as their waddy is: it is formed like a large +kitchen poker, and nearly as heavy, only much shorter in the +handle. The iron-bark wood, of which it is made, is very hard, +and nearly as heavy as iron." + +1844. Mrs. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' +p. 106: + +"The word `waddie,' though commonly applied to the weapons of +the New South Wales aborigines, does not with them mean any +particular implement, but is the term used to express wood of +any kind, or trees. `You maan waddie 'long of fire,' means +`Go and fetch firewood.'" + +1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 17: + +"The Lachlan black, who, with his right hand full of spears, +his whaddie and heleman in his left, was skipping in the air, +shouting his war cry." + +185o. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 54: + +"A waddy, a most formidable bludgeon." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 101: + +"The waddy is a heavy, knobbed club about two feet long, and is +used for active service, foreign or domestic. It brains the +enemy in the battle, or strikes senseless the poor gin in cases +of disobedience or neglect." + +1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, `The Bulla Bulla +Bunyip': + +"The landlord swore to the apparition of a huge blackfellow +flourishing a phantasmal `waddy.'" + +1879. C. W. Schuermann, `Native Tribes of Australia--Port +Lincoln Tribe,' p. 214: + +"The wirris, by the whites incorrectly named waddies, are also +made of gum saplings; they are eighteen inches in length, and +barely one inch in diameter, the thin end notched in order to +afford a firm hold for the hand, while towards the other end +there is a slight gradual bend like that of a sword; they are, +however, without knobs, and every way inferior to the wirris of +the Adelaide tribes. The natives use this weapon principally +for throwing at kangaroo-rats or other small animals." + +1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 18: + +"The `waddy' is a powerful weapon in the hands of the native. +With unerring aim he brings down many a bird, and so materially +assists in replenishing the family larder." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 74: + +"A general name for all Australian clubs is `waddy,' and, +although they are really clubs, they are often used as missiles +in battle." + +(2) The word is sometimes used for a walking-stick. + +<hw>Waddy</hw>, <i>v. trans</i>. to strike with a waddy. + +1855. Robert Lowe (Viscount Sherbrooke), `Songs of the +Squatters,' canto ii. st. 7: + +"When the white thieves had left me, the black thieves + appeared, + My shepherds they waddied, my cattle they speared." + +1869. `Victorian Hansard,' Nov. 18, vol. ix. p. 2310, col. 2: + +"They were tomahawking them, and waddying them, and breaking +their backs." + +1882. A. Tolmer, `Reminiscences,' p. 291: + +"In the scuffle the native attempted to waddy him." + +1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 3: + +"Only three weeks before he had waddied his gin to death +for answering questions asked her by a blacktracker." + +1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 45: + +"For they waddied one another, till the plain was strewn with + dead, + While the score was kept so even that they neither got + ahead." + +<hw>Waddy Wood</hw>, or <hw>White Wood</hw>, <i>n</i>. name +given in Tasmania to the tree <i>Pittosporum bicolor</i>, +Hook., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>; from which the aboriginals +there chiefly made their Waddies. + +1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van +Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 156: + +"11th October, 1848. . . a sample of a very fine close-grained +white timber, considered by him suitable for wood-engraving +purposes, obtained in a defile of Mount Wellington. It seems +to be the young wood of <i>Pittosporum bicolor</i>, formerly in +high estimation amongst the Aborigines of Tasmania, on account +of its combined qualities of density, hardness, and tenacity, +as the most suitable material of which to make their warlike +implement the waddie." + +<hw>Wagtail</hw>, or <hw>Wagtail Fly-catcher</hw>, <i>n</i>. +an Australian bird, <i>Rhipidura tricolor</i>, the +<i>Black-and-white Fantail</i>, with black-and-white plumage +like a pied wagtail. See also quotation, 1896. The name is +applied sometimes in Gippsland, and was first used in Western +Australia as a name for the <i>Black-and-white Fantail</i>. +See <i>Fantail</i>. + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Head-Station,' p. 24: + +"He pointed to a Willy-wagtail which was hopping cheerfully +from stone to stone." + +1896. A. J. North, `List of the Insectivorous Birds of New +South Wales,' pt i. p. 13: + +"Salltoprocta motacilloides, <i>Vig. and Horsf</i>. `Black and +White Fantail.' `Water Wagtail.'. . . From this bird's habit +of constantly swaying its lengthened tail feathers from side to +side it is locally known in many districts as the `Willy +Wagtail.'" + +<hw>Wahine</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a woman. +The <i>i</i> is long. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 29: + +"Having enquired how many (wives) the Kings of England had, he +laughed heartily at finding they were not so well provided, and +repeatedly counted `four wahine' (women) on his fingers." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 289: + +"A group of whyenees and piccaninnies." + +1893. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 21, p. 11, col. 5: + +"It is not fit that a daughter of the great tribe should be +the slave-wife of the pakeha and the slave of the white wahine." + +<hw>Waipiro</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for spirits,-- +literally, stinking water, from <i>piro</i>, stinking, +and <i>wai</i>, water. In New Zealand geography, the word +<i>Wai</i> is very common as the first part of many names +of harbours, lakes, etc. Compare North-American Indian +<i>Fire-water</i>. + +1845. W. Brown, `New Zealand and its Inhabitants,' p. 132: + +"Another native keeps a grog-shop, and sells his +<i>waipero</i>, as he says, to <i>Hourangi</i> drunken +pakehas." + +1863. F. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `Old New Zealand,' p. 169: + +"He would go on shore, in spite of every warning, to get some +water to mix with his <i>waipiro</i>, and was not his canoe +found next day floating about with his paddle and two empty +case bottles in it?" + +1873. Lt.-col. St. John, `Pakeha Rambles through Maori +Lands,' p. 167: + +"When we see a chance of getting at waipiro, we don't stick at +trifles." + +1887. The Warrigal, `Picturesque New Zealand,' `Canterbury +Weekly Press,' March 11: + +"The priest was more than epigrammatic when he said that the +Maoris' love for `waipiro' (strong waters) was stronger than +their morals." + +<hw>Wairepo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the fish called +<i>Stingray</i>. + +<hw>Wait-a-while</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called +<i>Stay-a-while</i>: a thicket tree. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 306: + +"<i>Acacia colletioides</i>, A. Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, +`Wait-a-while' (a delicate allusion to the predicament of a +traveller desirous of penetrating a belt of it)." + +<hw>Waka</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for canoe. <i>Waka +huia</i> is a box for keeping feathers, originally the +feathers of the <i>huia</i> (q.v.). + +1874. W. M. Baynes, `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 81: + +"`Whaka' is the native name, or rather the native genetic term, +for all canoes, of which there are many different kinds, as +tete, pekatu, kopapa, and others answering in variety to our +several descriptions of boats, as a `gig,' a `whaleboat,' a +`skiff,' a `dingy,' etc." + +1878. R. C. Barstow, `On the Maori Canoe,' `Transactions +of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. 72: + +"Canoes may be divided into four classes; <i>Waka-taua</i> +or <i>Waka-hitau</i> were canoes, fully carved; the +<i>Waka-tetee</i>, which, generally smaller, had a plain +figure-head and stern; <i>Waka-tiwai</i>, an ordinary canoe +of one piece, and the <i>kopapa</i> or small canoe, usually +used for fishing, travelling to cultivation, etc." + +<hw>Wakiki</hw>, <i>n</i>. shell money of the South Sea +Islands. + +<hw>Waler</hw>, <i>n</i>. Anglo-Indian name for an Australian +horse imported from New South Wales into India, especially for +the cavalry. Afterwards used for any horse brought from +Australia. + +1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 134: + +"Horses are exported largely from Australia to India even. +I have heard men from Bengal talk of the `Walers,' meaning +horses from New South Wales." + +1866. G. 0. Trevelyan, `Dawk Bungalow,' p. 223 [Yule's +`Hobson Jobson']: + +"Well, young Shaver, have you seen the horses? How is the +Waler's off fore-leg?" + +1873. `Madras Mail,' June 25 [Yule's `Hobson Jobson']: + +"For sale. A brown Waler gelding." + +1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 224: + +"The soul of the Regiment lives in the Drum-Horse who carries +the silver kettle-drums. He is nearly always a big piebald +Waler." + +1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 62: + +"C. R. Gaunt is Senior Subaltern of the 4th (Royal Irish) +Dragoon Guards, at present stationed at Rawul Pindi in India. +He won the Regimental Cup Steeplechase this year on an +Australian mare of his own. Australian horses are called +`Walers' in India, from the circumstance of their being +generally imported from New South Wales." + +<hw>Walking-Leaf</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Phasmid</i>. + +<hw>Walking-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Phasmid</i>. + +<hw>Walking-stick Palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Palm</i>. + +<hw>Wallaby</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name used for the smaller kinds +of Kangaroos of the genus <i>Macropus</i> (q.v.), formerly +classed as <i>Halmaturus</i>. An aboriginal word. See +Collins, 1798, below. (<i>Wolbai</i>, in the Kabi dialect of +South Queensland, means a young creature.) Also spelt +<i>Walloby, Wallabee</i>, and <i>Wallobi</i>. As in the case +of <i>Kangaroo</i> (q.v.), the plural is a little uncertain, +<i>Wallaby</i> or <i>Wallabies</i>. Some of them are sometimes +called <i>Brush-Kangaroos</i> (q.v.). The following are the +species-- + +Agile Wallaby-- + <i>Macropus agilis</i>, Gould. + +Aru Island W.-- + <i>M. brunnii</i>, Schraeber. + +Black-gloved W.-- + <i>M. irma</i>, Jourd. + +Black-striped W.-- + <i>M. dorsalis</i>, Gray. + +Black-tailed W.-- + <i>M. ualabatus</i>, Less. and Garm. + +Branded W.-- + <i>M. stigmaticus</i>, Gould. + +Cape York W.-- + <i>M. coxeni</i>, Gray. + +Dama W.-- + <i>M. eugenii</i>, Desm. + +Pademelon-- + <i>M. thetidis</i>, Less. + +Parma W.-- + <i>M. parma</i> , Waterh. + +Parry's W.-- + <i>M. parryi</i>, Bennett. + +Red-legged W.-- + <i>M. wilcoxi</i>, McCoy. + +Red-necked W., Grey's W.-- + <i>M. ruficollis</i>, Desm. + +Rufous-bellied W.-- + <i>M. billardieri</i>, Desm. + +Short-tailed W.-- + <i>M. brachyurus</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Sombre W.-- + <i>M. brownii</i>, Ramsay. + +In addition, there are six species of <i>Rock-Wallaby</i> +(q.v.), genus <i>Petrogale</i> (q.v.). See also +<i>Paddymelon</i>. + +Three species of <i>Nail-tailed Wallabies</i>, genus +<i>Onychogale</i> (q.v.), are confined to Australia. +They are the Nail-tailed Wallaby, <i>Onychogale unguifera</i>, +Gould; Bridled W., <i>O. frenata</i>, Gould; Crescent W., +<i>O. lunata</i>, Gould. + +Three species of <i>Hare-Wallabies</i> (genus +<i>Lagorchestes</i>, q.v.), confined to Australia, are the +Spectacled Hare-Wallaby, <i>Lagorchestes conspiculatus</i>, +Gould; Common H. W., <i>L. leporoides</i>, Gould; Rufous H. W., +<i>L. hirsutus</i>, Gould. + +One species, called the <i>Banded-Wallaby</i> (genus, +<i>Lagostrophus</i>, q.v.), confined to Western Australia, +is <i>L. fasciatus</i>, Peron and Less. + +For etymology, see <i>Wallaroo</i>. + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 614 [Vocabulary]: + +"Wal-li-bah--a black kangaroo." + +1830. R. Dawson' `Present State of Australia,' p. 111: + +"In the long coarse grass with which these flats are always +covered, a species of small kangaroo is usually found, which +the natives call the `wallaby.' Their colour is darker than +that of the forest kangaroo, approaching almost to that of a +fox, and they seat themselves in the grass like a hare or a +rabbit." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 28: + +"The wallabee is not very common." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. c. ix. +p. 267: + +"The Wallaby are numerous on this part of the island." + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 49: + +"Rock wallabies were very numerous." + +Ibid. c. xii. p. 418: + +"They returned with only a red wallabi (<i>Halmaturus +agilis</i>)." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 37: + +"The rock Wallaby, or Badger, also belongs to the family of the +kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is +three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown." + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 12: + +"Sipping doubtfully, but soon swallowing with relish, a plate +of wallabi-tail soup." + +1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery +and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 18: + +"Eyre succeeded in shooting a fine wallaby." + +[Note]: "A small kind of kangaroo, inhabiting the scrub." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. vii. +p. 117: + +"I have also been frowned upon by bright eyes because I could +not eat stewed wallabi. Now the wallabi is a little kangaroo, +and to my taste it is not nice to eat even when stewed to the +utmost with wine and spices." + +1880. Garnet Watch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 7: + +"To hear . . . that wallabies are `the women of the native +race' cannot but be disconcerting to the well-regulated +colonial mind." [He adds a footnote]: "It is on record that a +journalistically fostered impression once prevailed, to high +English circles, to the effect that a certain colonial Governor +exhibited immoral tendencies by living on an island in the +midst of a number of favourite wallabies, whom he was known +frequently to caress." + +188x. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 213: + +"Now one hears the pat-pat-pat of a wallaby." + +1885. J. B. Stephens, `To a Black Gin,' p. 5: + +"Of tons of 'baccy, and tons more to follow,-- + Of wallaby as much as thou could'st swallow,-- + Of hollow trees, with 'possums in the hollow." + +1886. J. A. Froude, `Oceana,' p. 309: + +"My two companions . . . went off with the keeper [sic] to +shoot wallaby. Sir George (Grey) has a paternal affection for +all his creatures, and hates to have them killed. But the +wallaby multiply so fast that the sheep cannot live for them, +and several thousands have to be destroyed annually." + +1888. Sir C. Gavan Duffy, in the `Contemporary Review,' +vol. liii. p. 3: + + "`Morality!' exclaimed the colonist. `What does your lordship +suppose a wallaby to be?' `Why, a half-caste, of course.' +`A wallaby, my lord, is a dwarf kangaroo!'" + +<hw>Wallaby-Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tall shrub or tree, +<i>Beyeria viscosa</i>, Miq., <i>N.O. Euphorbiaceae</i>. +Same as the <i>Pinkwood</i> of Tasmania. + +<hw>Wallaby-Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian grass, +<i>Danthonia penicillata</i>, F. v. M., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 82: + +"`Wallaby Grass.' This perennial artificial grass is useful +for mixed pasture." + +<hw>Wallaby-skin</hw>, the skin, with the hair on it, +of the wallaby, prized as a warm and ornamental fur for rugs. + +1890. `The Argus,' June13, p.6, col. 2: + +"A quantity of hair, a wallaby-skin rug. + +<hw>Wallaby track, On the</hw>, or <hw>On the Wallaby</hw>, +or <hw>Out on the Wallaby</hw>, or simply <hw>Wallaby</hw>, +as <i>adj</i>. [slang]. Tramping the country on foot, looking +for work. Often in the bush the only perceptible tracks, and +sometimes the only tracks by which the scrub can be penetrated, +are the tracks worn down by the <i>Wallaby</i>, as a hare +tramples its "form." These tracks may lead to water or they +may be aimless and rambling. Thus the man "<i>on the +wallaby</i>" may be looking for food or for work, +or aimlessly wandering by day and getting food and shelter +as a <i>Sundowner</i> (q.v.) at night. + +1869. Marcus Clarke, `Peripatetic Philosopher' (Reprint), +p. 41: + +"The Wimmera district is noted for the hordes of vagabond +`loafers' that it supports, and has earned for itself the name +of `The Feeding Track.' I remember an old bush ditty, which I +have heard sung when <i>I</i> was on the `Wallaby.' . . . At +the station where I worked for some time (as `knockabout man') +three cooks were kept during the `wallaby' season--one for the +house, one for the men, and one for the travellers." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 82: + +"`What is the meaning of `out on the wallaby'?' asked Ernest. +`Well, it's bush slang, sir, for men just as you or I might be +now, looking for work or something to eat; if we can't get +work, living on the country, till things turn round a little.'" + +Ibid. p. 388: + +"Our friends who pursue the ever-lengthening but not arduous +track of the wallaby in Australia." + +1893. Gilbert Parker, `Pierre and his People,' p. 242: + +"The wallaby track? That's the name in Australia for trampin' +west, through the plains of the Never Never Country, lookin' +for the luck o' the world." + +1894. Longmans' `Notes on Books' (May 31), p. 206: + +"`On the Wallaby: a Book of Travel and Adventure.' `On the +Wallaby' is an Australianism for `on the march,' and it is +usually applied to persons tramping the bush in search of +employment." + +1894. Jennings Carmichael, in `Australasian,' Dec. 22, +p. 1127, col. 5: + +"A `wallaby' Christmas, Jack, old man!-- + Well, a worse fate might befall us! +The bush must do for our church to-day, + And birds be the bells to call us. + The breeze that comes from the shore beyond, + Thro' the old gum-branches swinging, +Will do for our solemn organ chords, + And the sound of children singing." + +1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 134: + +"Though joys of which the poet rhymes + Was not for Bill an' me + I think we had some good old times + Out on the Wallaby." + +<hw>Wallaroo</hw>, <i>n</i>. native name for a large species +of Kangaroo, the mountain kangaroo, <i>Macropus robustus</i>, +Gould. The black variety of Queensland and New South Wales is +called locally the <i>Wallaroo</i>, the name <i>Euro</i> being +given in South and Central Australia to the more rufous- +coloured variety of the same species. + +In the aboriginal language, the word <i>walla</i> meant +`to jump,' and <i>walla-walla</i> `to jump quickly.' + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.: + +"The wallaroo, of a blackish colour, with coarse shaggy fur, +inhabiting the hills." + +1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 157: + +"Some very fierce and ready to attack man, such as the large +mountain `wolloroo.'" + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 481: + +"Charley shot a Wallooroo just as it was leaping, frightened +by our footsteps, out of its shady retreat to a pointed rock." + +[On p. 458, Leichhardt spells <i>Wallurus</i>, plural] + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 50: + +"The Wallaroos grope through the tufts of the grass." + +1868 (before). C. Harpur, `Creek of the Four Graves'(edition +1883), p. 49: + + "Up the steep, +Between the climbing forest-growths they saw, +Perched on the bare abutments of the hills, +Where haply yet some lingering gleam fell through, +The wallaroo look forth." + +[Footnote]: "A kind of large kangaroo, peculiar to the higher +and more difficult mountains." + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 328: + +"A wallaroo, a peculiar kind of kangaroo (<i>Macropus +robustus</i>), which was kept tame at a station, showed a +marked fondness for animal food, particularly for boiled salt +beef. A dove had been its companion, and these two animals +were the best of friends for half-a-year, when the wallaroo one +day killed its companion and partly ate it." + +1895. `The Australasian,' June 22, 1181, col. 1 [Answers to +Correspondents]: + +"Professor Baldwin Spencer kindly deals with the question as +follows:--What is the distinction between a wallaroo and a +wallaby?--A wallaroo is a special form of kangaroo (<i>Macropus +robustus</i>) living in the inland parts of Queensland and New +South Wales. Wallaby is the name given to several kinds of +smaller kangaroos, such as the common scrub wallaby +(<i>Macropus ualabatus</i>) of Victoria. The wallaroo is +stouter and heavier in build, its fur thicker and coarser, +and the structure of its skull is different from that of an +ordinary wallaby." + +<hw>Wallflower, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for +<i>Pultenaea subumbellata</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. +In Australia, used as another name for one of the <i>Poison- +Bushes</i> (q-v.). + +<hw>Wandoo</hw>, <i>n</i>. Western Australian aboriginal +word for the <i>White Gum-tree</i> of Western Australia, +<i>Eucalyptus redunca</i>, Schauer, <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. +It has a trunk sometimes attaining seventeen feet in diameter, +and yields a hard durable wood highly prized by wheelwrights. + +<hw>Waratah</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian flower. There are +three species, belonging to the genus <i>Telopea</i>, +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>. The New South Wales species, +<i>T. speciosissima</i>, R. Br., forms a small shrub +growing on hill-sides, as does also the Tasmanian species, +<i>T. truncata</i>, R. Br.; the Victorian species, +<i>T. oreades</i>, F. v. M., called the <i>Gippsland +Waratah</i>, grows to a height of fifty feet. It has a bright +crimson flower about three inches in diameter, very regular. +Sometimes called the <i>Australian</i> or <i>Native Tulip</i>. +As emblematic of Australia, it figures on certain of the New +South Wales stamps and postcards. The generic name, +<i>Telopea</i> (q.v.), has been corrupted into <i>Tulip</i> +(q.v.). Its earliest scientific generic name was +<i>Embothrium</i>, Smith. + +1793. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' p. 19: + +"The most magnificent plant which the prolific soil of New +Holland affords is, by common consent both of Europeans and +Natives, the Waratah." + +1801. Governor King, in `Historical Records of New South +Wales' (1896), vol, iv. p. 514 (a Letter to Sir Joseph Banks): + +"I have also sent in the Albion a box of waratahs, and the +earth is secured with the seed." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales,' vol. ii. +p. 66: + +"Bennillong assisted, placing the head of the corpse, near +which he stuck a beautiful war-ra-taw." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 98: + +[Description, but not the name.] +"A plant called the gigantic lily also flourishes on the tops +of these mountains, in all its glory. Its stems, which are +jointy, are sometimes as large as a man's wrist, and ten feet +high, with a pink and scarlet flower at the top, which when in +full blossom (as it then was) is nearly the size of a small +spring cabbage." + +1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 66: + +"Interspersed with that magnificent shrub called warratah or +tulip-tree, and its beautiful scarlet flowers." + +1857. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 44: + +"The most common of them was, however, the Telopia [sic] +Tasmaniensis, or waratah, or scarlet tulip tree, as it has +been occasionally termed by stock-keepers." + +1864. J. S. Moore, `Spring Life Lyrics,' p. 115: + +"The lily pale and waratah bright +Shall encircle your shining hair." + +1883. D. B. W. Sladen, `Poetry of Exiles': + +"And waratah, with flame-hued royal crown, + Proclaim the beauties round Australia's own." + +1885. Wanderer, `Beauteous Terrorist,' etc., p. 62: + +"And the waratahs in state, + With their queenly heads elate, + And their flamy blood-red crowns, + And their stiff-frill'd emerald gowns." + +1888. D. Macdonald, I Gum Boughs,' p. 188: + +"Outside the tropical Queensland forests, the scarlet flowering +gum of Western Australia, and the Waratah, of Blue Mountains +fame, are its [i.e. the wattle's] only rivals." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 9, col. 1: + +"The memory of many residents runs back to the time when the +waratah and the Christmas-bush, the native rose and fuchsia, +grew where thickly-peopled suburbs now exist. . . . The +waratah recedes yearly." + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Sept. 2, p. 5, col. 6: + +"The wattles and waratahs are creditable instances of the +value of our Australian flowers for art purposes, and the +efforts of the artists to win recognition for their +adaptability as subjects for the artist's brush are deserving +of acknowledgment." + +<hw>Warbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. This English birdname is applied +loosely to many birds of different genera in Australia and New +Zealand. + +The majority of the Australian Warblers have now had other +names assigned to them. (See <i>Fly-eater</i> and +<i>Gerygone</i>.) The name has been retained in Australia +for the following species-- + +Grass Warbler-- + <i>Cisticola exilis</i>, Lath. + +Grey W.-- + <i>Gerygone flaviventris</i>, Gray. + +Long-billed Reed W.-- + <i>Calamoherpe longirostris</i>, Gould. + +Reed W.-- + <i>Acrocephalus australis</i>, Gould. + +Rock W.-- + <i>Origma rubricata</i>, Lath. + +In New Zealand, it is now only specifically applied to the-- + +Bush Warbler-- + <i>Gerygone silvestris</i>, Potts. + +Chatham Island W.-- + <i>G. albofrontata</i>, Gray. + +Grey W.-- + <i>G. flaviventris</i>, Gray; Maori name, <i>Riro-riro</i>. + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,'. +119: + +"Grey Warbler (<i>Gerygone flaviventris</i>) also belongs +to an Australian genus. It is remarkable for its curious and +beautifully formed nest, and as being the foster-parent to the +Longtailed Cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the Warbler's nest." + +<hw>Warden</hw>, <i>n</i>. The term is applied specifically to +the Government officer, with magisterial and executive powers, +in charge of a goldfield. + +1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 141: + +"The chief official in a digging settlement, the padra [sic] of +the district, is entitled the warden." + +<hw>Warehou</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for +the fish <i>Neptonemus brama</i>, Gunth., called +<i>Snotgall-Trevally</i> in Tasmania, and called +also <i>Sea-Bream</i>. See <i>Trevally</i>. + +<hw>Warrener</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied by Tasmanian +children to the larger specimens of the shells called +<i>Mariners</i> (q.v.). The name is an adaptation, +by the law of Hobson-Jobson, from a Tasmanian aboriginal word, +<i>Yawarrenah</i>, given by Milligan (`Vocabulary,' 1890), as +used by tribes, from Oyster Bay to Pittwater, for the ear-shell +(<i>Haliotis</i>). The name has thus passed from shell to +shell, and in its English application has passed on also to +the marine shell, <i>Turbo undulatus</i>. + +<hw>Warrigal</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. an aboriginal +word, originally meaning a Dog. Afterwards extended as an +adjective to mean <i>wild</i>; then used for a <i>wild +horse</i>, <i>wild natives</i>, and in bush-slang for a +worthless man. The following five quotations from vocabularies +prove the early meaning of the word in the Port Jackson +district, and its varying uses at later dates elsewhere. + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 411: + +"Warregal--a large dog." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 614 [Vocab.]: + +"Wor-re-gal--dog." + +1859. D. Bunce, `Language of Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 17: + +"Ferocious, savage, wild--warragul." (adj.) + +Ibid. p. 46: + +"Wild savage--worragal." (noun.) 1879. + +Wyatt, `Manners of Adelaide Tribes,' p. 21: + +"Warroo=wild." + +The quotations which follow are classed under the different +meanings borne by the word. + +(1) <i>A Wild Dog</i>. + +1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 153: + +"I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, +does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal." + +1880. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting': + + "To scoop its grassless grave + Past reach of kites and prowling warrigals." + +1887. `Illustrated Australian News,' March 5: + +[A picture of two dingoes, and beneath them the following +quotation from Kendall--]: + +"The warrigal's lair is pent in bare + Black rocks, at the gorge's mouth." + +1888. `Australian Ballads and Rhymes' (edition Sladen),, +p. 297: + +"The following little poem, entitled `The Warrigal' (Wild Dog) +will prove that he (H. Kendall) observed animal life as +faithfully as still life and landscape: + +`The sad marsh-fowl and the lonely owl + Are heard in the fog-wreath's grey, + Where the Warrigal wakes, and listens and takes + To the woods that shelter the prey.'" + +1890. G. A. Sala, in `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 1: + +"But at present warrigal means a wild dog." + +1891. J. B. O`Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 22: + +"There, night by night, I heard the call + The inharmonious warrigal + Made, when the darkness swiftly drew + Its curtains o'er the starry blue." + +(2) <i>A Horse</i>. + +1881. `The Australasian,' May 21, p. 647, col. 4 ["How we +ran in `The Black Warragal'": Ernest G. Millard, Bimbowrie, +South Australia]: + +"You must let me have Topsail today, Boss,. + If we're going for that Warrigal mob." + +1888. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 44: + +"Six wild horses--warrigals or brombies, as they are +called--have been driven down, corralled, and caught. +They have fed on the leaves of the myall and stray bits of +salt-bush. After a time they are got within the traces. +They are all young, and they look not so bad." + +1890. `The Argus, `June 14, p.4, col. 2: + +"Mike will fret himself to death in a stable, and maybe kill +the groom. Mike's a warrigal he is." + +(3) Applied to <i>Aborigines</i>. [See Bunce quotation, 1859.] + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xii. p. 249: + +"He's a good shot, and these warrigal devils know it." + +1896. Private Letter from Station near Palmerville, North +Queensland: + +"Warrigal. In this Cook district, and I believe in many +others, a blackfellow who has broken any of the most stringent +tribal laws, which renders him liable to be killed on sight by +certain other blacks, is <i>warri</i>, an outlaw." + +(4) As adjective meaning wild. + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. viii. p. 68: + +"Here's a real good wholesome cabbage--warrigal cabbage the +shepherds call it." + +<hw>Warrina</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Warrener</i>. + +<hw>Washdirt</hw>, <i>n</i>. any alluvial deposit from which +gold is obtained by washing; or "the auriferous gravel, sand, +clay, or cement, in which the greatest proportion of gold is +found." (Brough Smyth's `Glossary,' 1869.) Often called +<i>dirt</i> (q.v.). + +1896. `Melbourne Argus,' April 30, p. 7, col. 6: + +"In colour the washdirt is of a browner and more iron-stained +appearance than the white free wash met across the creek." + +<hw>Waterbush</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, +i.q. <i>Native Daphne</i>. See <i>Daphne</i>. + +<hw>Watergrass</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for <i>Manna +grass</i>, <i>Poa fluitans</i>, Scop., <i>N.O. Gramineae</i>. + +<hw>Water-Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Water-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. The word <i>pond</i> is seldom +used in Australia. Any pond, natural or artificial, is called +a <i>Water-hole</i>. The word also denotes a depression or +cavity in the bed of an intermittent river, which remains full +during the summer when the river itself is dry. + +1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. 80: + + +"There was no smoke to betray a water-hole." + +1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 245: + +"The deep pools, called colonially `water-holes.'" + +1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vii. p. 181: + +"`Water-holes' appeared at intervals, but they seemed to have +little water in them." + +1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Explorations in Australia,' p. 58: + +"About four miles from last night's camp the chain of large +water-holes commences, and continues beyond tonight's camp." + +1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 15: + +"The water-hole was frozen over, so she was obliged to go on +farther, where the water ran." + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 26, p. 94, col. 1: + +"A bottomless water-hole, about 300 feet wide, exists at +Maryvale homestead, Gipps Land." + +1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Broad Outlines of Long Years in +Australia,' p. 97: + +"`That will be another water-hole.' `What an ugly word . . . +why don't you call them pools or ponds?' `I can't tell you why +they bear such a name, but we never call them anything else, +and if you begin to talk of pools or ponds you'll get well +laughed at.'" + +1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9: + +[The murderer] has not since been heard of. Dams and +waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result." + +<hw>Water-Lily</hw>. See <i>Lily</i>. + +<hw>Water-Mole</hw>, i.q. <i>Platypus</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Water-Myrtle</hw>, an Australian tree, <i>Tristania +neriifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. + +<hw>Water-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree from which water is +obtained by tapping the roots, <i>Hakea leucoptera</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>; called also <i>Needle-bush</i>. The +quotation describes the process, but does not name the tree. + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 199: + +"I expressed my thirst and want of water. Looking as if they +understood me, they [the aboriginals] hastened to resume their +work, and I discovered that they dug up the roots for the sake +of drinking the sap . . . They first cut these roots into +billets, and then stripped off the bark or rind, which they +sometimes chew, after which, holding up the billet, and +applying one end to the mouth, they let the juice drop into +it." + +<hw>Wattle</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given to very many of +the various species of <i>Acacia</i> (q.v.), of which there +are about 300 in Australia, besides those in Tasmania and +New Zealand. There is no English tree of that name, but the +English word, which is common, signifies "a twig, a flexible +rod, usually a hurdle; . . . the original sense is something +twined or woven together; hence it came to mean a hurdle, woven +with twigs; Anglo-Saxon, <i>watel</i>, a hurdle." (Skeat.) +In England the supple twigs of the osier-willow are used for +making such hurdles. The early colonists found the long pliant +boughs and shoots of the indigenous <i>Acacias</i> a ready +substitute for the purpose, and they used them for constructing +the partitions and outer-walls of the early houses, by forming +a "wattling" and daubing it with plaster or clay. (See +<i>Wattle-and-dab</i>.) The trees thus received the name of +<i>Wattle-trees</i>, quickly contracted to Wattle. Owing to +its beautiful, golden, sweet-scented clusters of flowers, +the <i>Wattle</i> is the favourite tree of the Australian poets +and painters. The bark is very rich in tannin. (See +<i>Wattle-bark</i>.) The tree was formerly called +<i>Mimosa</i> (q.v.). The following list of vernacular names +of the various <i>Wattles</i> is compiled from Maiden's `Useful +Native Plants'; it will be seen that the same vernacular name +is sometimes applied to several different species-- + +Black Wattle-- + <i>Acacia binervata</i>, De C., of Illawarra and South. + <i>A. decurrens</i>, Willd., older colonists of New South +Wales. + <i>A. cunninghamii</i>, Hook. + <i>A. nervifolia</i>, Cunn. + +Broad-leaved W.-- + <i>A. pycnantha</i>, Benth. + +Broom W.-- + <i>A. calamifolia</i>, Sweet. + +Feathery W.-- + <i>A. decurrens</i>, Willd. + +Golden W. (q.v.)-- + <i>A. pycnantha</i>, Benth.; in Victoria, South Australia, +and Tasmania. It is also called <i>Green Wattle</i>, and also, +for the sake of distinction between some other tan-bark wattles, +the <i>Broad-leaved Wattle</i>. + <i>A. longifolia</i>, Willd.; in New South Wales and +Queensland. + +Green W.-- + <i>A. decurrens</i>, Willd., older colonists New South Wales. + <i>A. pycnantha</i>, Benth. + <i>A. discolor</i>, Willd.; so called in Tasmania, and called +also there <i>River Wattle</i>. + +Hickory W.-- + <i>A. aulacocarpa</i>, Cunn. + +Prickly W.-- + <i>A. sentis</i>, F. v. M. + <i>A. juniperina</i>, Willd. + +Silver W.-- + <i>A. dealbata</i>, Link. <i>Silver Wattle</i>, +owing to the whiteness of the trunk, and the silvery +or ashy hue of its young foliage. + <i>A. decurrens</i>, Willd. + <i>A. melanoxylon</i>, R. Br. (Blackwood). + <i>A. podalyriafolia</i>, Cunn.; called <i>Silver Wattle</i>, +as it has foliage of a more or less grey, mealy, or silvery +appearance. + +Weeping W.-- + <i>A. saligna</i>, Wendl. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 201: + +"The acacias are the common wattles of this country, their bark +affording excellent tan, as well as an extract to export to +England; while from their trunks and branches clear +transparent beads of the purest Arabian gum are seen suspended +in the dry spring weather, which our young currency bantlings +eagerly search after and regale themselves with." + +1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean +Society,' vol. xv. p. 328: + +"One of my specimens . . . I shot in a green wattle-tree close +to Government House." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 23: + +"The black and silver Wattle (the <i>Mimosa</i>), are trees +used in housework and furniture." + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134: + +"<i>Leptospermum lanigerum</i>, hoary tea-tree, <i>Acacia +decurrens</i>, and black wattle; <i>Corraea alba</i>, Cape +Barren tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes +for tea in the colonies." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. +c. iv. p. 132: + +"Black wattle . . . indication of good soil . . . produce +gum." + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849.' p. 32: + +"Few, indeed, of the native Australian flowers emit any perfume +except the golden and silver wattle (the <i>Mimosae</i> tribe): +these charm the senses, and fully realize the description we +read of in the `Arabian Nights' Entertainments' of those +exotics, the balmy perfume of which is exhaled far and near." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 337: + +"These trees were termed `Wattles,' from being used, in the +early days of the colony, for forming a network or wattling of +the supple twigs for the reception of the plaster in the +partitions of the houses." + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 40: + +"Silver Wattle (<i>Acacia dealbata</i>, Lindl.), so called +from the whiteness of the trunk and the silvery green of +the foliage." + +1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Twenty-three Years in Tasmania and +Victoria,' p. 33: + +"The mimosa, or wattle, . . . ushers in the Spring with its +countless acres of charming and luxuriant yellow and highly +scented blossom . . . The tanning properties of its bark are +nearly equal in value to those of the English oak." + +1867. A. G. Middleton, `Earnest,' p. 132: + +"The maidens were with golden wattles crowned." + +1877. F. V. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 24: + +"The generic name [Acacia] is so familiarly known, that the +appellation `Wattle' might well be dispensed with. Indeed the +name Acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many +popular writings for the numerous Australian species." + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 837: + +"Called `Silver Wattle.' The bark, which is used for tanning, +is said to give a light colour to leather; value, L3 10s. per +ton." + +1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 43: + +"A dense clump of wattles, a sort of mimosa--tall, feathery, +graceful trees, with leaves like a willow and sweet-scented +yellow flowers." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 349: + +"The ordinary name for species of the genus <i>Acacia</i> in +the colonies is `Wattle.' The name is an old English one, and +signifies the interlacing of boughs together to form a kind of +wicker-work. The aboriginals used them in the construction of +their abodes, and the early colonists used to split the stems +of slender species into laths for `wattling' the walls of their +rude habitations." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 122: + +"It pleased him yearly to see the fluffy yellow balls bedeck +his favourite trees. One would have said in the morning that +a shower of golden shot had bespangled them in the night-time. +Late in the autumn, too, an adventurous wattle would sometimes +put forth some semi-gilded sprays--but sparsely, as if under +protest." + +1896. J. B. O`Hara, `Songs of the South' (Second Series), +p. 22: + +"Yet the spring shed blossoms around the ruin, + The pale pink hues of the wild briar rose, + The wild rose wasted by winds that blew in + The wattle bloom that the sun-god knows." + +<hw>Wattle-and-Dab</hw>, a rough mode of architecture, very +common in Australia at an early date. The phrase and its +meaning are Old English. It was originally +<i>Wattle-and-daub</i>. The style, but not the word, is +described in the quotation from Governor Phillip, 1789. + +1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage to Botany Bay,' p. 124: + +"The huts of the convicts were still more slight, being +composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs, +and plaistered up with clay." + +1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 66: + +"<i>Wattle and daub</i>. . . . You then bring home from the +bush as many sods of the black or green wattle (<i>acacia +decurrens</i> or <i>affinis</i>) as you think will suffice. +These are platted or intertwined with the upright posts in the +manner of hurdles, and afterwards daubed with mortar made of +sand or loam, and clay mixed up with a due proportion of the +strong wiry grass of the bush chopped into convenient lengths +and well beaten up with it, as a substitute for hair." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 201: + +"The hut of the labourer was usually formed of plaited twigs +or young branches plastered over with mud, and known by the +summary definition of `wattle and dab.'" + +1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 179: + +"Wattles, so named originally, I conceive, from several of the +genus being much used for `wattling' fences or huts. A `wattle +and dab' but is formed, in a somewhat Robinson Crusoe style, of +stout stakes driven well into the ground, and thickly +interlaced with the tough, lithe wattle-branches, so as to make +a strong basket-work, which is then dabbed and plastered over +on both sides with tenacious clay mortar, and finally +thatched." + +1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 21: + +"It was built of what is known as `wattle and dab,' or poles +and mud, and roofed with the bark of the gum-tree." + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting,' p. 5: + +"Others were of weather boards, wattle and dab, or slabs." + +<hw>Wattle-bark</hw>, <i>n</i>. the bark of the wattle; +much used in tanning, and forms a staple export. + +1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), Aug. 14, p. 178 col. 2: + +"A proprietor of land at Mount Gambier has refused L4000 for +the wattle-bark on his estate." + +1877. [? Exact date lost.] `Melbourne Punch': + +"What'll bark? Why, a dog'll." + +1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 140: + +"The bark of this species is used in tanning light skins, but +the bark is considered weak in tannin, and only worth thirty +shillings per ton in Queensland. Called `Black-wattle bark.'" + +1893. `Melbourne Stock and Station Journal,' May 10 [advt.]: + +"Bark.--There is a moderate inquiry for good descriptions, but +faulty are almost unsaleable:--Bundled Black Wattle, superior, +L5 to L6 per ton; do. do., average, L3 to L4 10s. per ton; +chopped Black Wattle, L5 to L6 5s. per ton; ground, approved +brands, up to L8 per ton; do., average, L5 to L6 per ton." + +1896. `The Leader,' a weekly column: + +"Kennel Gossip. By Wattle Bark." + +<hw>Wattled Bee-eater</hw>. See <i>Bee-eater</i>. + +<hw>Wattle-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, so called +from the wattles or fleshy appendages hanging to his ear. In +the <i>Yellow</i> species they are an inch long. The species +are-- + +Brush Wattle-bird-- + <i>Anelobia mellivora</i>, Lath. + +Little W.-- + <i>A. lunulata</i>, Gould. + +Red W.-- + <i>Acanthochaera carunculata</i>, Lath. + +Yellow W.-- + <i>A. inauris</i>, Gould. + +The earlier scientific names occur in the quotation, 1848. +In New Zealand, the <i>Kokako</i> (q.v.) is also called a +<i>Wattle-bird</i>, and the name used to be applied to the +<i>Tui</i> (q.v.). + +1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' +p. 152: + +"The wattle-bird, which is about the size of a snipe, +and considered a very great delicacy." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv.: + +"<i>Anthochaera inauris</i>, Wattled Honey-eater; Wattled Bird +of the Colonists of Van Diemen's Land" (pl. 54). +"<i>A. Carunculata</i>, Wattled Bird of the Colonists; the +<i>Merops Carunculatus</i> of older writers "(pl. 55). +"<i>A. Mellivora</i>, Vig. and Horsf., Bush Wattle Bird" +(pl. 56). "<i>A. Lunulata</i>, Gould, Little Wattle Bird, +Colonists of Swan River" (pl. 57). + +1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 11: + +"Kangaroo-steaks frying on the fire, with a piece of cold +beef, and a wattle-bird pie also ready on the board." + +1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 62: + +"The notes peculiar to the <i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>, +or <i>platypus</i>, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier +bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . The +wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's +o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop-where-you-are.'" + +1864. E. F. Hughes, `Portland Bay,' p. 9: + +"Tedious whistle of the Wattle-bird." + +186. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 111: + +"This bird they called the Wattle-bird, and also the Poy-bird, +from its having little tufts of curled hair under its throat, +which they called poies, from the Otaheitan word for ear-rings. +The sweetness of this bird's note they described as +extraordinary, and that its flesh was delicious, but that it +was a shame to kill it." + +1885. J. Hood, `Land of Fern,' p. 36: + +"The wattle-bird, with joyous scream + Bathes her soft plumage in the cooling stream." + +1871. T. Bracken, `Behind the Tomb,' p. 79: + +"The wattle-bird sings in the leafy plantation." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 119: + +"The pretty, graceful wattle-birds are . . . much esteemed +for the table, cooked as snipe and woodcocks are in England +. . . Our pretty, elegant wattle-bird wears a pair of long +pendant drops, shaded from the deepest amber to white, lovelier +than any goldsmith's work. Its greyish plumage, too, is very +beautiful; the feathers on the breast are long, pointed, and +tinted with golden yellow." + +1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265: + +"The droll double note of the wattle-bird." + +1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +"Close season. All Honey-eaters (except Wattle-birds and +Leatherheads); from 1st day of August to loth day of December." + +<hw>Wattle-gold</hw>, <i>n</i>. poetic name for the blossom +of the <i>Wattle</i>. + +1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads, Dedn., p. 9: + +"In the spring, when the wattle-gold trembles + `Twixt shadow and shine." + +1883. Keighley, `Who are You?' p. 54: + +"My wealth has gone, like the wattle-gold + You bound one day on my childish brow." + +<hw>Wattle-gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. the gum exuding +from the <i>Wattles</i>. + +1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 41: + +"Wattle-Gum, the gum of the Silver Wattle (<i>Acacia +dealbata</i>, Lindl.), is exceedingly viscous, and probably +quite as useful as Gum-Arabic. The gum of the Black Wattle +(<i>Acacia mollissima</i>, Willd.), which is often mixed with +the other, is very often inferior to it, being far less +viscous." + +<hw>Wax-cluster</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian shrub, +<i>Gaultheria hispida</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Ericaceae</i>. A +congener of the English winter-green, or American checkerberry, +with white berries, in taste resembling gooseberries; called +also <i>Chucky-chucky</i> (q.v.), and <i>Native Arbutus</i>. + +1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 133: + +"<i>Gaultheria hispida</i>. The wax-cluster, abundant in the +middle region of Mount Wellington, and in other elevated and +moist situations in the colony. This fruit is formed by the +thickened divisions of the calyx, enclosing the small seed +vessel; when it is ripe it is of a snowy white. The flavour is +difficult to describe, but it is not unpleasant. In tarts the +taste is something like that of young gooseberries, with a +slight degree of bitterness." + +1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 11 +[Footnote]: + +"<i>Gaultheria hispida</i>.--The `Snowberry' or `Wax cluster' +is also called native Arbutus, from the form of the white +flowers which precede the fruit. The latter is of a peculiar +brioche-like form, and as the deep clefts open, the crimson +seed-cells peep through." + +<hw>Wax-Eye</hw>, i.q. one of the many names for the bird +called <i>Silver-Eye</i>, <i>White-Eye</i>, <i>Blight-Bird</i>, +etc. See <i>Zosterops</i>. + +<hw>Waybung</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for an Australian +Chough, <i>Corcorax melanoramphus</i>, Vieill. + +<hw>Weaver-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. The English name +<i>Weaver-bird</i>, in its present broad sense as applied +to a wide variety of birds, is modern. It alludes to their +dexterity in "weaving" their nests. It is applied in Australia +to <i>Callornis metallica</i>, a kind of Starling. + +1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 96: + +"The elegant, metallic-looking, `glossy starlings' (Callornis +metallica) greedily swoop, with a horrible shriek, upon the +fruit of the Australian cardamom tree. The ingenious nests of +this bird were found in the scrubs near Herbert Vale--a great +many in the same tree. Although this bird is a starling, the +colonists call it `weaver-bird.'" + +<hw>Wedge-bill</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird. This +English name for a species of humming-bird is applied in +Australia to <i>Sphenostoma cristata</i>, Gould. + +1890. `Victorian Statutes--Game Act' (Third Schedule): + +"Wedge-bill. [Close season.] From 1st day of August to 10th +day of December next following in each year." + +<hw>Weeping-Gum</hw>. See <i>Gum</i>. + +<hw>Weeping-Myall</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, <i>Acacia +pendula</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. See <i>Myall</i>. + +<hw>Weka</hw>, <i>n</i>. the Maori name for the <i>Wood-hen</i> +(q.v.) of New Zealand, so called from its note. There are two +species-- + +South-Island Weka, or Wood-hen-- + <i>Ocydromus australis</i>, Strick. + +North-Island W., or W.-h.-- + <i>Ocydromus brachypterus</i>, Buller. + +The specimens intergrade to such an extent that precise +limitation of species is extremely difficult; but Sir W. L. +Buller set them out as these two in 1878, regarding other +specimens as varieties. The birds are sometimes called +<i>Weka-Rails</i>, and the Maori name of <i>Weka-pango</i> is +given to the <i>Black Wood-hen</i> (<i>0. fuscus</i>, Du Bus.). + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 95: + +"Two young weka, or wood-hens, about as large as sparrows +. . . were esteemed a valuable addition to our scanty supper." + +1864. R. L. A. Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains' (edition +1884), p. 263: + + "Wood-hens, or Waikas, are a great stand-by in the bush. +Their cry can be imitated, and a man knowing their language +and character can catch them easily. They call each other by +name, pronounced `Weeka,' latter syllable being shrill and +prolonged, an octave higher than the first note. . . . The +wood-hen is about the size of a common barn-door fowl; its +character is cunning, yet more fierce than cunning, and more +inquisitive than either." + +1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 28: + +"Until the numbers of the wekas are considerably reduced. They +are very like a hen pheasant without the long tail-feathers, +and until you examine them you cannot tell they have no wings, +though there is a sort of small pinion among the feathers, with +a claw at the end of it. They run very swiftly, availing +themselves cleverly of the least bit of cover." + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 167: + +"Another famous bird of chase with the natives is the weka +(<i>Ocydromus Australis</i>), or the wood-hen, belonging to +the class of rails, which have already become quite scarce upon +North Island. In the grassy plains and forests of the Southern +Alps, however, they are still found in considerable numbers. +It is a thievish bird, greedy after everything that glistens; +it frequently carries off spoons, forks, and the like, but it +also breaks into hen-coops, and picks and sucks the eggs." + +1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 286: + +"Fortunately, the weka bears so obnoxious a character as an +evil-doer that any qualm of conscience on the score of cruelty +is at once stilled when one of these feathered professors of +<i>diablerie</i> is laid to rest." + +1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 105: + +[A full description.] + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82: + +"We-ki! we-ki! we-ka! Three times the plaintive cry of +the `wood-hen' was heard. It was a preconcerted signal." + +<hw>Weka, Rail</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Weka</i>. + +<hw>Well-in</hw>, <i>adj</i>. answering to `well off,' `well to +do,' `wealthy'; and ordinarily used, in Australia, instead of +these expressions. + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 1: + +"He's a well-in squatter that took up runs or bought them +cheap before free-selection, and land-boards, and rabbits, and +all the other bothers that turn a chap's hair grey before his +time." + +<hw>Western Australia</hw>, the part of the Continent first +sighted in 1527 by a Portuguese, and the last to receive +responsible government, in 1890. It had been made a Crown +colony in 1829. + +<hw>Westralia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common abbreviation for +<i>Western Australia</i> (q.v.). The word was coined to meet +the necessities of the submarine cable regulations, which +confine messages to words containing not more than ten letters. + +1896. `The Studio,' Oct., p. 151: + +"The latest example is the El Dorado of Western Australia, +or as she is beginning to be more generally called `Westralia,' +a name originally invented by the necessity of the electric +cable, which limits words to ten letters, or else charges +double rate." + +1896. `Nineteenth Century,' Nov., p. 711 [Title of article]: + +"The Westralian Mining Boom." + +<hw>Weta</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand insect-- +a huge, ugly grasshopper, <i>Deinacrula megacephala</i>, +called by bushmen the <i>Sawyer</i>. + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 123: + +"The weta, a suspicious-looking, scorpion-like creature, +apparently replete with `high concocted venom,' but perfectly +harmless." + +1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' +p. 141: + +"One of the ugliest-looking creatures that I have ever seen. +It is called `Weta,' and is of tawny scorpion-like colour, +with long antenna and great eyes, and nasty squashy-looking +body, with (I think) six legs. It is a kind of animal which no +one would wish to touch: if touched, it will bite sharply, some +say venomously. It is very common but not often seen, and +lives chiefly among dead wood and under stones." + +1888. J. Adams, `On the Botany of Te Moehau,' `Transactions of +New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxi. art. ii. p. 41: + +"Not a sound was heard in that lonely forest, except at long +intervals the sharp noise produced by the <i>weta</i>." + +<hw>W. F.'s</hw>, old Tasmanian term for wild cattle. + +1891. James Fenton, `Bush Life in Tasmania Fifty Years Ago,' +p. 24: + +"Round up a mob of the wildest W.F.'s that ever had their ears +slit." + +[Note]: "This was the brand on Mr. William Field's wild +cattle." + +<hw>Whalebone-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Mint-Tree</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Whaler</hw>, <i>n</i>. used specifically as slang +for a <i>Sundowner</i> (q.v.); one who cruises about. + +1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 12, p. 8. col. 8: + +"The nomad, the `whaler,' it is who will find the new order +hostile to his vested interest of doing nothing." + +<hw>Whaler/2</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Sydney to the Shark, +<i>Carcharias brachyurus</i>, Gunth., which is not confined to +Australasia. + +<hw>Whare</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a house; +a dissyllable, variously spelt, rhyming with `quarry.' +It is often quaintly joined with English words; e.g. a +<i>sod-whare</i>, a cottage built with sods. In a Maori +vocabulary, the following are given: <i>whare-kingi</i>, +a castle; <i>whare-karakia</i>, a church; <i>whare-here</i>, +the lock-up. + +1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' +(Church Missionary Society), p. 225: + +"Ware, <i>s</i>. a house, a covering." + +1833. `Henry Williams' Journal: Carleton's Life,' p. 151: + +"The Europeans who were near us in a raupo <i>whare</i> +(rush house)." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 26: + +"We were much amused at seeing the ware-puni, or sleeping- +houses, of the natives. These are exceedingly low, and covered +with earth, on which weeds very often grow. They resemble in +shape and size a hot-bed with the glass off." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' c. x. p. 265 (Third +Edition, 1855): + +"Sitting in the sun at the mouth of his warree, smoking his +pipe." + +1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' [Notes] p. 76: + +"I fell upon what I thought a good place on which to fix my +warre, or bush-cottage." + +1857. `Paul's Letters from Canterbury,' p. 89: + +"Then pitch your tent, or run up a couple of grass +<i>warres</i> somewhat bigger than dog-kennels." + +1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 33: + +"The old slab wharry." + +Ibid. p. 132: + +"The village was sacked and the wharries one after another set +fire to and burnt.'" + +1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences or Incidents of Thirty-Four +Years in New Zealand,' p. 87: + +"In the roughest colonial whare there is generally one or more +places fitted up called bunks." + +1882. R. C. Barstow, `Transactions of the New Zealand +Institute,' vol. xv. art. liii. p. 428: + +"Raupo whares were put up." + +1889. `Cornhill Magazine,' Jan., p. 35: + +"Ten minutes more brought us to my friend's `whare,'--the Maori +name for house." + +1886. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, p. 42: + +"The pas close at hand give up their population,--only the +blind, the sick, and the imbecile being left to guard the +grimy, smoke-dried whares." + +<hw>Whata</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a storehouse on posts +or other supports, like a <i>Pataka</i> (q.v.). <i>Futtah</i> +(q.v.) is a corruption, probably of Irish origin. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 167: + +"In one corner was a ware-puni, occupied by Barrett and his +family, and in the middle a wata, or `storehouse,' stuck upon +four poles about six feet high, and only approachable by a +wooden log with steps cut in it." + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 57: + +"A chief would not pass under a stage or wata (a food-store)." + +Ibid. p. 468: + +"Wata, stand or raised platform for food: <i>Fata</i>, +Tahaiti." + +[Also an illustration, "an ornamental food-store," p. 377.] + +1891. Rev. J. Stack, `Report of Australasian Association +for Advancement of Science,' #G. vol. iii. p. 378: + +"The men gathered the food and stored it in Whatas or store- +rooms, which were attached to every chief's compound, and built +on tall posts protect the contents from damp and rats." + +<hw>Whau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the New Zealand +Cork-tree, <i>Entelea arborescens</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Tiliaceae</i>. + +<hw>Whee-Whee</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird not identified. + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 232: + +"In the morning the dull monotonous double note of the +whee-whee (so named from the sound of its calls), chiming in at +regular intervals as the tick of a clock, warns us . . . it +is but half an hour to dawn." + +<hw>Whekau</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for the bird +<i>Sceloglaux albifacies</i>, Gray, a New Zealand owl, +which is there called the <i>Laughing-Jackass</i>. +See <i>Jackass</i>. + +1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' [Supplement]: + +"<i>Sceloglaux Albifacies</i>, Wekau. Another of the strange +inhabitants of our antipodal country, New Zealand. An owl it +unquestionably is, but how widely does it differ from every +other member of its family." + +1885. A. Reischek, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xviii. art. xiii. p. 97: + +"<i>Athene albifacies</i>, Laughing owl (whekau). Owls are +more useful than destructive, but this species I never saw in +the north or out-lying islands, and in the south it is +extremely rare, and preys mostly on rats." + +1885. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xviii. +p. 101: + +"Already several species have disappeared from the mainland +. . . or are extremely rare, such as . . . Laughing owl +(Whekau)." + +<hw>Whelk</hw>, or <hw>Native Whelk</hw>, <i>n</i>. +a marine mollusc, <i>Trochocochlea constricta</i>. +See <i>Perriwinkle</i>. + +<hw>Whilpra</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation, and compare +the Maori word <i>Tupara</i> (q.v.) + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kumai,' p. 211: + +"The term whilpra being a corruption of wheelbarrow, which the +Lake Torrens natives have acquired from the whites as the name +for a cart or waggon." + +<hw>Whio</hw>, <i>n</i>. (originally <hw>Whio-Whio</hw>), +also<hw>Wio</hw>, Maori name for the New Zealand Duck, +<i>Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus</i>, Gmell., called the +<i>Blue-Duck</i> or <i>Mountain Duck</i> of New Zealand. +See <i>Duck</i>, Professor Parker's quotation, 1889. +The bird has a whistling note. The Maori verb, <i>whio</i>, +means to whistle. + +1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 407: + +"Wio (<i>Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus</i>), the blue duck, +is found abundantly in the mountain-streams of the south part +of the North Island, and in the Middle Island. It takes its +name from its cry." + +1877. W. Buller, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. x. art. xix. p. 199: + +"Captain Mair informs me that the wio is plentiful in all the +mountain-streams in the Uriwera country. When marching with the +native contingent in pursuit of Te Kooti, as many as forty or +fifty were sometimes caught in the course of the day, some +being taken by hand, or knocked over with sticks or stones, +so very tame and stupid were they." + +1885. H. Martin, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' +vol. xviii. art. xxii. p. 113: + +"<i>Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus</i>, Whio, Blue Duck. +Both Islands." [From a list of New Zealand birds that +ought to be protected.] + +<hw>Whip-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Coach-whip</i>. + +<hw>Whip-snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. or <i>Little Whip-Snake</i>. +See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Whip-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. variety of dwarf +<i>Eucalypt</i>; one of the Mallees; forming thick scrub. + +1874. M. C., `Explorers,' p. 123: + +"He had lost his way, when he would fain have crost + A patch of whip-stick scrub." + +<hw>Whip-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A fancy name for a small +Kangaroo. See <i>Pretty-Faces</i>, quotation. + + (2) A Tasmanian fish; see under <i>Tasmanian Whiptail</i>. + +<hw>Whistling Dick</hw>, <i>n</i>. Tasmanian name for a +<i>Shrike-Thrush</i>. Called also <i>Duke- Willy</i>. + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,'vol. ii. pl. 77: + +"<i>Colluricincla Selbii</i>, Jard., Whistling Dick of the +Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." + +<hw>Whistling Duck</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Duck</i>. The bird +named below by Leichhardt appears to be a mistake; vide Gould's +list at word <i>Duck</i>. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 287: + +"The <i>Leptotarsis</i>, Gould (whistling duck), which +habitually crowd close together on the water." + +<hw>Whitebait</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish; not, as in England, +the fry of the herring and sprat, but in Victoria, <i>Engraulis +antarcticus</i>, Castln.; and in New Zealand, the young fry of +<i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, Jenyns (<i>Inanga</i>, q.v.). +The young of the <i>New Zealand Smelt</i> (q.v.), <i>Retropinna +richardsonii</i>, Gill, are also called <i>Whitebait</i>, +both in New Zealand and in Tasmania. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 85: + +"Anchovies or <i>Engraulis</i> have a compressed body with a +very wide lateral mouth, and a projecting upper jaw. Scales +large. We have two species--<i>E. antarcticus</i>, Casteln., +and <i>E. nasutus</i>, Casteln. The first-named species is by +many erroneously believed to be identical, or at most a variety +of <i>E. encrassicholus</i> of Europe. Count Castelnau states +that it is very common in the Melbourne market at all seasons, +and goes by the name of `whitebait.'" + +1883. `Royal Commission on Fisheries of Tasmania, p. iv: + +"<i>Retropinna Richardsonii</i>, whitebait or smelt. Captured +in great abundance in the river Tamar, in the prawn nets, +during the months of February and March, together with a +species of <i>Atherina</i>, and <i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, +and are generally termed by fishermen whitebait. Dr. Guenther +had formerly supposed that this species was confined to New +Zealand; it appears, however, to be common to Australia and +Tasmania." + +<hw>Whitebeard</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to the plant +<i>Styphelia ericoides</i>, <i>N.O. Epacrideae</i>. + +<hw>White-Eye</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the bird called +variously <i>Silver-Eye</i>, <i>Wax-Eye</i>, +<i>Blight-Bird</i>, etc., <i>Zosterops</i> (q.v.). + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 81: + +"<i>Zosterops Dorsalis</i>, Vig. and Horsf, Grey-backed +<i>Zosterops</i>; White-eye, Colonists of New South Wales." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Nov. 14, p. 461: + +"The unique migration on the part of the white-eyes has not +been satisfactorily accounted for. One authority invents the +ingenious theory that the original white-eyes went to New +Zealand after the memorable `Black Thursday' of Australia in +1851." + +<hw>White-face</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name applied to the Australian +bird, <i>Xerophila leucopsis</i>, Gould. Another species is +the <i>Chestnut-breasted White face</i>, <i>X. pectoralis</i>, +Gould. + +<hw>White Gallinule</hw>, <i>n</i>. one of the birds of the +family called <i>Rails</i>. The <i>White Gallinule</i> was +recorded from New South Wales in 1890, and also from Lord Howe +Island, off the coast, and from Norfolk Island. The modern +opinion is that it never existed save in these two islands, and +that it is now extinct. It was a bird of limited powers of +flight, akin to the New Zealand bird, <i>Notornis mantilli</i> +which is also approaching extinction. Only two skins of the +White Gallinule are known to be in existence. + +1789. Governor Phillip,' Voyage to Botany Bay,' p. 273 and +fig.: + +"White Gallinule. This beautiful bird greatly resembles the +purple Gallinule in shape and make, but is much superior in +size, being as large as a dunghill fowl. . . . This species +is pretty common on Lord Howe's Island, Norfolk Island, and +other places, and is a very tame species." + +1882. E. P. Ramsay, `Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of +New South Wales,' p. 86: + +"The attention of some of our early Naturalists was drawn +to this Island by finding there, the now extinct `White +Gallinule,' then called (<i>Fulica alba</i>), but which +proves to be a species of <i>Notornis</i>." + +<hw>White-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of New Zealand, +<i>Clitonyx albicapilla</i>, Buller. Found in North Island, +but becoming very rare. See <i>Clitonyx</i>. + +<hw>White-lipped Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>White-Pointer</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales name for +the <i>White-Shark</i>. See <i>Shark</i>. + +<hw>White-top</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for <i>Flintwood</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>White-Trevally</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian fish. +See <i>Trevally</i>. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish and Fisheries of New +South Wales,' p. 59: + +"<i>Caranx georgianus</i>, the `white trevally.' . . There are +several other species of Caranx in Port Jackson. In Victoria +it is called silver bream. Count Castelnau says it is very +beautiful when freshly taken from the water, the upper part +being a light celestial blue or beautiful purple, the lower +parts of a silvery white with bright iridescent tinges . . . +There is another fish called by this name which has already +been described amongst the <i>Teuthidae</i>, but this is the +White Trevally as generally known by New South Wales +fishermen." + +<hw>Whitewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for +<i>Cattle-Bush</i> (q.v.). A Tasmanian name for +<i>Pittosporum bicolor</i>, Hook., <i>N.O. Pittosporeae</i>. +Called <i>Cheesewood</i> in Victoria, and variously applied, +as a synonym, to other trees; it is also called <i>Waddy-wood</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Whiting</hw>, <i>n</i>. Four species of the fish of the +genus <i>Sillago</i> are called <i>Whiting</i> in Australia +(see quotation). The <i>New Zealand Whiting</i> is +<i>Pseudophycis breviusculus</i>, Richards., and the +<i>Rock-Whiting</i> of New South Wales is <i>Odax +semifaciatus</i>, Cuv. and Val., and <i>O. richardsonii</i>, +Gunth.; called also <i>Stranger</i> (q.v.). <i>Pseudophycis</i> +is a Gadoid, <i>Sillago</i> belongs to the +<i>Trachinidae</i>, and <i>Odax</i> to the family +<i>Labridae</i> or Wrasses. + +1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' +p. 65: + +"The `whitings' are not like those of Europe. There are, in +all, four Australian species--the common sand-whiting +<i>(Sillago maculata</i>), abundant on the New South Wales +coast; the trumpeter-whiting (<i>S. bassensis</i>), +also abundant here, and the most common species in Brisbane; +<i>S. punctata</i>, the whiting of Melbourne, and rare on +this coast; and <i>S. ciliata</i>." + +<hw>Widgeon</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common English name for a Duck +of the genus <i>Mareca</i>, extended generally by sportsmen to +any wild duck. In Australia, it is used as another name for +the <i>Pink-eyed</i> (or <i>Pink-eared</i>) <i>Duck</i>. It is +also used, as in England, by sportsmen as a loose term for many +species of Wild-Duck generally. + +<hw>Wild Dog</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Dingo</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Wild Geranium</hw>, <i>n</i>. In Australia, the species +is <i>Pelargonium australe</i>, Willd., <i>N.O. Geraniaceae</i>. + +<hw>Wild Irishman</hw>, a spiny New Zealand shrub, <i>Discaria +toumatou</i>, Raoul, <i>N.O. Rhamneae</i>. The Maori name is +<i>Tumata-Kuru</i> (q.v.). + +1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 133: + +"Certain species of <i>Acyphilla</i> and <i>Discaria</i>, +rendering many tracts, where they grow in larger quantities, +wholly inaccessible. On account of their slender blades +terminating in sharp spines the colonists have named them +`spear-grass,' `wild Irishman,' and `wild Spaniard.'" + +[This is a little confused. There are two distinct plants in +New Zealand-- + +(1) <i>Discaria toumatou</i>, a spiny shrub or tree; +called <i>Tumatakuru Matagory</i>, and <i>Wild Irishman</i>. + +(2) <i>Aciphylla colensoi</i>, a grass, called +<i>Sword-grass</i>, <i>Spear grass</i>, <i>Spaniard</i>, +and <i>Scotchman</i>. + +1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35: + +"Interspersed with the <i>Spaniards</i> are generally clumps +of `<i>Wild Irishman</i>'--a straggling sturdy bramble, ready +to receive and scratch you well if you attempt to avoid the +<i>Spaniard</i>'s weapons." + +1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 131: + +"Tumata kuru, Wild Irishman. A bush or small tree with +spreading branches; if properly trained would form a handsome +hedge that would be stronger than whitethorn. The species were +used by the Maoris for tattooing." + +1892. Malcolm Ross, `Aorangi,' p. 37: + +"Almost impenetrable scrub, composed mainly of wild +<i>Irishman</i> (Discaria toumatou) and Sword-grass +(Aciphylla Colensoi)." + +1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5: + +". . . national appellations are not satisfactory. It seems +uncivil to a whole nation--another injustice to Ireland--to +call a bramble a wild Irishman, or a pointed grass, with the +edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a Spaniard. One +could not but be amused to find the name Scotchman applied to a +smaller kind of Spaniard." + +<hw>Wild Parsnip</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Parsnip</i>. + +<hw>Wild Rosemary</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Rosemary</i>. + +<hw>Wild Turkey</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Turkey</i>. + +<hw>Wild Yam</hw>, <i>n</i>. a parasitic orchid, <i>Gastrodia +sesamoides</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Orchideae</i>. + +<hw>Wilga</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree. Called also <i>Dogwood</i> +and <i>Willow</i>, <i>Geijera parviflora</i>, Lindl., +<i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>. Adopted by the colonists from the +aboriginal name. + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 123: + +"We rode out through a wilga scrub." + +(p. 230): "She'd like to be buried there--under a spreading +wilga tree." + +<hw>Willow Myrtle</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree, <i>Agonis +flexuosa</i>, De C., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>, with willow-like +leaves and pendent branches, native of West Australia, and +cultivated for ornament as a greenhouse shrub. + +<hw>Willow, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Boobialla</i> +(q.v.), and also another name for the <i>Poison-berry Tree</i> +(q.v.). + +<hw>Willy-Wagtail</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Wagtail</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Willy Willy</hw>, <i>n</i>. native name for a storm on +North-west of Australia. + +1894. `The Age,' Jan. 20, p. 13, col. 4 [Letter by `Bengalee']: + +"Seeing in your issue of this morning a telegraphic report of a +`willy willy' in the north-west portion of West Australia, it +may be of interest to hear a little about these terrific storms +of wind and rain. The portion of the western coast most +severely visited by these scourges is said to be between the +North-wet Cape and Roebuck Bay; they sometimes reach as far +south as Carnarvon and north as far as Derby. The approach of +one of these storms is generally heralded by a day or too of +hot, oppressive weather, and a peculiar haze. Those having +barometers are warned of atmospheric disturbances; at other +times they come up very suddenly. The immense watercourses to +be seen in the north-west country, the bed of the Yule River, +near Roebourne, for instance, and many other large creeks and +rivers, prove the terrible force and volume of water that falls +during the continuance of one of these storms. The bed of the +Yule River is fully a mile wide, and the flood marks on some of +the trees are sufficient proof of the immense floods that +sometimes occur. Even in sheltered creeks and harbours the +wind is so violent that luggers and other small craft are blown +clean over the mangrove bushes and left high and dry, sometimes +a considerable distance inland. The willy willy is the name +given to these periodical storms by the natives in the +north-west." + +1895. C. M. Officer, Private Letter: + +"In the valley of the Murray between Swan Hill and Wentworth, +in the summer time during calm weather, there are to be seen +numerous whirlwinds, carrying up their columns of dust many +yards into the air. These are called by the name willy willy." + +<hw>Windmill J.P.</hw>, expression formerly used in New South +Wales for any J.P. who was ill-educated and supposed to sign +his name with a cross x. + +<hw>Wine-berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Tutu</i>. In Australia, +the name is given to <i>Polyosma cunninghamii</i>, Benn., +<i>N.O. Saxifrageae</i>. + +<hw>Winery</hw>, <i>n</i>. an establishment for making +wines. An American word which is being adopted in Australia. + +1893. `The Argus,' Oct. 6, p. 7, col. 6 +[Letter headed `Wineries']: + +"I would suggest that the idea of small local wineries, each +running on its own lines, be abandoned, and one large company +formed, having its headquarters in Melbourne with wineries in +various centres. The grapes could be brought to these depots +by the growers, just as the milk is now brought to the +creameries." + +<hw>Winter Cherry</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Balloon Vine</i>. + +<hw>Winter Country</hw>, in New Zealand (South Island), +land so far unaffected by snow that stock is wintered on it. + +<hw>Wire-grass</hw>, and <hw>Wiry-grass</hw>. See +<i>Grass</i>. + +1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' +(1841-1851), p. 81: + +"Sparsely-scattered tussocks of the primest descriptions; +the wire-grass, however, largely predominating over the +kangaroo-grass." + +<hw>Wirrah</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a fish +of New South Wales, <i>Plectropoma ocellatum</i>, Gunth. + +1884. E. P. Ramsav. `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' +vol. v. p. 311: + +"Another of the <i>Percidae</i> . . . the wirrah of the +fishermen, is more plentiful. It is when first caught a +handsome fish, of a pale olive-brown or olive-green colour, +with numerous bright blue dots on spots of a lighter tint." + +<hw>Witchetty</hw>, <i>n</i>. native name for the grub-like +larva of one or more species of longicorn beetles. The natives +dig it out of the roots of shrubs, decaying timber and earth, +in which it lives, and eat it with relish. It is sometimes +even roasted and eaten by white children. + +1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 191: + +"Dr. Stirling writes . . . [The marsupial mole] was fed on +the `witchetty' (a kind of grub) . . . two or three small +grubs, or a single large one, being given daily." + +<hw>Wiwi</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a jointed rush. + +1842. W. R. Wade, `A Journey in the Northern Island of New +Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 122: + +"The roof is usually completed with a thick coating of wiwi +(a small rush), and then the sides receive a second coating +of raupo, and sometimes of the wiwi over all." + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 380: + +"[The walls] were lined outside with the wiwi or fine grass." + +[See also <i>Raupo</i>, 1843 quotation.] + +<hw>Wiwi/2</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang name for a Frenchman, +from "<i>Oui, Oui</i>!" + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 94: + +"If I had sold the land to the white missionaries, might they +not have sold it again to the Wiwi (Frenchmen) or Americans." + +1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand, the Britain of the South,' +vol. i. p. 14: + +"De Surville's painful mode of revenge, and the severe +chastisement which the retaliatory murder of Marion brought on +the natives, rendered the Wee-wees (Oui, oui), or people of the +tribe of Marion, hateful to the New Zealanders for the next +half-century." + +1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 236: + +"Before the Wewis, as the French are now called, departed." + +1873. H. Carleton, `Life of Henry Williams,' p. 92: + +"The arrival of a French man-of-war was a sensational event +to the natives, who had always held the Oui-oui's in dislike." + +1881. Anon., `Percy Pomo,' p. 207: + +"Has [sic] the Weewees puts it." + +<hw>Wiwi/3</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a native weapon. + +1845. Charles Griffith, `Present State and Prospects of the +Port Phillip District of New South Wales,' p. 155: + +"The wiwi is an instrument not so well known. It is composed +of a long straight withy, about two feet long, to which is +attached a head, made of a piece of wood four inches long, +in the shape of two cones joined together at the base . . . +This they strike against the ground, at a little distance to +one side of them, whence it rises at right angles to its first +direction, and flies with the swiftness of an arrow for about +one hundred yards, and at a height of about ten feet from the +ground." + +<hw>Wobbegong</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New South Wales aboriginal name +for a species of Shark, <i>Crassorhinus barbatus</i>, Linn., +family <i>Scyllidae</i>; also known as the <i>Carpet-Shark</i>, +from the beautifully mottled skin. The fish is not peculiar to +Australia, but the name is. + +<hw>Wobbles</hw>, <i>n</i>. a disease in horses caused by +eating palm-trees in Western Australia. + +1896. `The Australasian,' Feb. 15, p. 319: + +"The palm-trees for years cost annoyance and loss to farmers +and graziers. Their stock being troubled with a disease called +`wobbles,' which attacked the limbs and ended in death. +A commission of experts was appointed, who traced the disease +to the palms, of which the cattle were very fond." + +<hw>Wolf</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Native Wolf</i>, +<i>Marsupial Wolf</i> and <i>Zebra Wolf</i>, <i>Tasmanian +Tiger</i> and <i>Hyaena</i>; genus, <i>Thylacinus</i> (q.v.). +It is the largest carnivorous marsupial extant, and is so much +like a wolf in appearance that it well deserves its vernacular +name of <i>Wolf</i>, though now-a-days it is generally called +<i>Tiger</i>. See <i>Tasmanian Tiger</i>. + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"The first occupants we notice in this cage are two marsupial +wolves, <i>Thylacinus cynocephalus</i>, or Tasmanian tigers as +they are commonly called. These animals are becoming scarce, +as, owing to their destructiveness among sheep, they are +relentlessly persecuted by run-holders." + +<hw>Wollomai</hw>, <i>n</i>. the aboriginal name of the fish +called <i>Schnapper</i> (q.v.). In 1875 a horse named +<i>Wollomai</i> won the Melbourne Cup. Since then numerous +houses and estates have been named <i>Wollomai</i>. + +<hw>Wombat</hw>, <i>n</i>. a marsupial animal of the genus +<i>Phascolomys</i> (q.v.). It is a corruption of the +aboriginal name. There are various spellings; that nearest +to the aboriginal is <i>womback</i>, but the form <i>wombat</i> +is now generally adopted. The species are--the Common Wombat, +<i>Phascolomys mitchelli</i>, Owen; Tasmanian W., +<i>P. ursinus</i>, Shaw; Hairy-nosed W., <i>P. latifrons</i>, +Owen. + +1798. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis (1814),' +Intro. p. cxxviii, `Journal,' Feb. 16: + +"Point Womat, a rocky projection of Cape Barren Island, where a +number of the new animals called womit were seen, and killed." + +Ibid. p. cxxxv: + +"This little bear-like quadruped is known in New South Wales, +and called by the natives, <i>womat, wombat</i>, or +<i>womback</i>, according to the different dialects, +or perhaps to the different renderings of the wood rangers +who brought the information . . . It burrows like the badger." + +1799. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales (1802),' +vol. ii. p. 153 [`Bass's Journal,' Jan.]: + +"The <i>Wom-bat</i> (or, as it is called by the natives of Port +Jackson, the <i>Womback</i>,) is a squat, thick, short-legged, +and rather inactive quadruped, with great appearance of stumpy +strength, and somewhat bigger than a large turnspit dog." + +1802. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' vol. ii. p. 156: + +"In the opinion of Mr. Bass this Wombat seemed to be very +oeconomically made." + +18x3. `History of New South Wales' 0818), p. 431: + +"An animal named a wombat, about the size of a small +turnspit-dog, has been found in abundance in Van Diemen's Land, +and also, though less frequently, in other parts of New South +Wales. Its flesh has in taste a resemblance to pork." + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 318: + +"The wombat, a large animal of the size of a mastiff, +burrowing in the ground, feeding on grass and roots +and attaining considerable fatness." + +1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' p. 175: + +"The dogs had caught . . . two badgers or woombacks." + +1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 58: + +"The Wombat is a large kind of badger, which burrows in the +ground to a considerable depth, and is taken by the blacks for +food; it makes a noise, when attacked in its hole, something +similar to the grunting of a pig." + +1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 129: + +"Mere rudimentary traces (of a pouch) in the pig-like wombat." + +1853. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 325: + +"The Wombat, commonly called in the colony Badger +(<i>Phascolomys wombat</i>, Peron.), is an animal weighing +forty to eighty pounds, having a large body with short legs. +Notwithstanding its burrowing habits, and the excessive +thickness and toughness of its skin, it is usually so easily +killed that it is becoming less and less common." + +1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society +of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 67: + +"Wombat. This clumsy, but well-known animal (<i>Phascolomys +wombat</i>), during the day conceals himself in his gloomy lair +in the loneliest recesses of the mountains, and usually on the +banks of a creek, and at night roams about in search of food, +which it finds by grubbing about the roots of gigantic +eucalypti." + +1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Vic. toria,' vol. i. p. 211: + +"The wombat resembles a large badger in the shortness of its +legs, but has a little of the pig and the bear in its shape, +hair, and movements." + +1862. W. M. Thackeray, `Roundabout Papers,' p. 82: + +"Our dear wambat came up and had himself scratched very +affably. . . . + +"Then I saw the grey wolf, with mutton in his maw; + Then I saw the wambat waddle in the straw." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kumai,' p. 265: + +"Wombat is cooked, then opened and skinned." + +1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 81: + +"The wombat is very powerful, and can turn a boulder almost +as large as itself out of the way when it bars the road." + +1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 183: + +"There are large numbers of wombats in the district, and these +animals, burrowing after the fashion of rabbits, at times reach +great depths, and throw up large mounds." + +1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4: + +"The wombat's grunt is strictly in harmony with his piggish +appearance." + +<hw>Wombat-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. hole made by <i>Wombat</i> +(q.v.). + +1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,' +p. 181: + +"He took them but a little way from where they had camped, and +disclosed in the hillside what looked like a good-sized wombat +or rabbit-hole." + +<hw>Wommera</hw>. See <i>Woomera</i>. + +<hw>Wonga</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for the bulrush, +<i>Typha angustifolia</i>, Linn. It is the same as the +<i>Raupo</i> (q.v.) of New Zealand, and is also known as +<i>Bulrush</i>, <i>Cat's Tail</i> and <i>Reed Mace</i>, +and in Europe as the `Asparagus of the Cossacks.' +For etymology, see next word. + +<hw>Wonga-wonga</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian pigeon, +<i>Leucosarcia picata</i>, Lath.; it has very white flesh. +The aboriginal word <i>wonga</i> is explained as coming from +root signifying the idea of `quiver motion,' `sudden springing up' +and the word is thus applied as a name for the <i>bulrush</i>, +the <i>vine</i>, and the <i>pigeon</i>. Some, however, think +that the name of the pigeon is from the bird's note. In +Gippsland, it was called by the natives <i>Wauk-wauk-au</i>, +sc. `that which makes <i>wauk-wauk</i>.' + +1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. +p. 321: + +"We have a large pigeon named the Wanga-wanga, of the size and +appearance of the ringdove, which is exquisite eating also." + +1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. c. x. +p. 314: + +"At Captain King's table I tasted the Wonga-wonga pigeon." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 63: + +"<i>Leucosarcia Picata</i>, Wonga-wonga, Aborigines of New +South Wales; White-fleshed and Wonga-wonga Pigeon, Colonists +of New South Wales." + +1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), c. i. +p. 12: + +"A delicate wing of the Wonga-wonga pigeon." + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 174: + +"Nothing can surpass in delicacy the white flesh of the +Wonga-wonga (<i>Leucosarcia picata</i>)." + +1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 213: + +"Hark! there goes a Wonga-wonga, high up in the topmost +branches of the great cedar." + +1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne': + +"The Wonga-Wonga (<i>Leucosarcia Picata</i>) is also +represented. This Pigeon, though less bright in plumage than +the last-named, exceeds it in size; both are excellent eating." + +<hw>Wonga-wonga Vine</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name for the hardy, +evergreen climber, <i>Tecoma australis</i>, R. Br., +<i>N.O. Bignoniaceae</i>. There are several varieties, all +distinguished by handsome flowers in terminal panicles. They +are much cultivated in gardens and for ornamental bower-trees. + +<hw>Woodhen</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to several birds +of New Zealand of the Rail family, and of the genus +<i>Ocydromus</i>; some of them are called by the Maori name +of <i>Weka</i> (q.v.). The species are-- + +Black Woodhen-- + <i>Ocydromus fuscus</i>, Du Bus.; Maori name, +<i>Weka-pango</i>. + +Brown W.-- + <i>O. earli</i>, Gray. + +Buff W.-- + <i>O. australis</i>, Gray; called also <i>Weka</i>. + +North-Island W.-- + <i>O. brachypterus</i>, Buller; called also <i>Weka</i>. + +South-Island W.-- + Same as <i>Buff W</i>.; see above. + +1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. +p. 95: + +"Two young weka, or wood-hens, about as large as sparrows . . . +were esteemed a valuable addition to our scanty supper." + +1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82: + +"We-ka! we-ka! we-ka! Three times the plaintive cry +of the `wood hen `was heard. It was a preconcerted signal." + +<hw>Wood-duck</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given by the colonists of +New South Wales and "Swan River" to the <i>Maned Goose</i>, +<i>Branta jubata</i>, Latham. + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 147: + +"The wood-duck (<i>Bernicla jubata</i>) abounded on the larger +water-holes." + +1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vii. pl. 3: + +"<i>Bernicla jubata</i>, Maned Goose; Wood-Duck, Colonists of +New South Wales and Swan River." + +<hw>Wood Natives</hw>, or <hw>Wood Savages</hw>, obsolete names +for the Australian aborigines. + +1817. O'Hara, `History of New South Wales,' p. 161: + +". . . robbed by a number of the inland or wood natives . . ." + +Ibid. p. 201: + +"The combats of the natives near Sydney were sometimes +attended by parties of the inland or wood savages." + +<hw>Wooden Pear</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tree peculiar to New South +Wales and Queensland, <i>Xylomelum pyriforme</i>, Smith, +<i>N.O. Proteaceae</i>; called also <i>Native Pear</i>. + +1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 322: + +"The Wooden Pear-tree of the colonists (<i>Xylomelum +pyriforme</i>) is peculiar to Australia; its general appearance +is very ornamental, especially when the tree is young; +the flowers grow in clusters in long spikes, but are not +conspicuous. This tree attains the height of from fifteen to +twenty feet, and a circumference of six to eight feet. It is +branchy; the wood is of dark colour, and being prettily marked, +would form an ornamental veneering for the cabinet-maker. +When young, in the Australian bush, this tree bears a close +resemblance to the young Warratah, or Tulip-tree (<i>Telopea +speciosissima</i>)." + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 615: + +"Native Pear-Wooden Pear. This moderate-sized tree produces a +dark-coloured, prettily-marked wood. It is occasionally used +for making picture-frames, for ornamental cabinet-work, for +veneers, and walking-sticks. When cut at right-angles to the +medullary rays it has a beautiful, rich, sober marking." + +<hw>Woollybutt</hw>, a name given to one of the Gum trees, +<i>Eucalyptus longifolia</i>, Link. See <i>Gum</i>. + +1843. James Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian +Colonies,' p. 445 (October 1836.): + +"One called here the Woolly Butted Gum seems identical with the +black butted gum of Tasmania." + +1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue Economic Woods,' p. 28: + +"The Woollybutt grown at Illawarra is in very high repute for +wheelwright's work " + +<hw>Woolly-headed Grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. an indigenous +Australian grass, <i>Andropogon bombycinus</i>, R. Br. + +1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 72: + +"Woolly-headed Grass, a valuable pasture-grass, highly spoken +of by stock-owners, and said to be very fattening." + +<hw>Wool-man</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal mispronunciation of +<i>old man</i> (q.v.). + +1830. Robert Dawson, `The Present State of Australia,' p. 139: + +"The male kangaroos were called by my natives old men, +`wool-man,' and the females, young ladies, `young liddy.'" + +<hw>Wool-shed</hw>, <i>n</i>. the principal building of +a station, at which the shearing and wool-packing is done. +Often called the <i>Shed</i>. + +1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' vol. ii. p. 23: + +"In some instances the flood has swept away the wool-sheds." + +1851. `Australasian' [Quarterly], vol. i. p. 298: + +". . . we next visit the `wool-shed,' and find the original +slab-built shed has been swept away, to make room for an +imposing erection of broad-paling . . ." + +1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. +p. 126: + +"The wool-shed is a large building open on every side, with a +high-pitched roof,--all made of wood and very rough. The sheep +are driven in either at one end or both, or at three sides, +according to the size of the station and the number of sheep to +be shorn. They are then assorted into pens, from which the +shearers take them on to the board;--two, three or four shearers +selecting their sheep from each pen. The floor, on which the +shearers absolutely work, is called `the board.'" + +1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 9, p. 4, col. 1: + +"You would find them down at Reed's wool-shed now." + +<hw>Woomera</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal name for a +<i>throwing-stick</i> (q.v.); spelt in various ways (seven in +the quotations), according as different writers have tried to +express the sound of the aboriginal word. + +1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 407 [in a Vocabulary]: + +"<i>Womar</i>--a throwing stick." + +1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South +Wales,' p. 613: + +"Wo-mer-ra--throwing stick." + +1814. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar' [as spoken on +Hunter's River, etc.], p. 10: + +"As a barbarism--wommerru, a weapon." + +1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 240: + +"Pieces of hard iron-bark to represent their war weapon, the +womerah . . . the whirling womerahs." + +1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior +of Eastern Australia,' vol. ii. p. 342: + +"The spear is thrown by means of a <i>wammera</i>, which is +a slight rod, about three feet long, having at one end a niche +to receive the end of a spear." + + +1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 492: + +"But showed the greatest reluctance in parting with their +throwing-sticks (wommalas)." + +185o. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 58: + +"They employ also, as a warlike weapon, a smaller kind of spear +or javelin, which is discharged by means of a notched stick +called a Woomera; and with this simple artillery I have seen +them strike objects at 150 yards' distance. They also employ +this minor spear in capturing the Bustard." + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum-trees,' +p. 13: + +"Then the Wamba Wamba warriors, + Sprang unto their feet with Tchgrels + Ready fitted to their Womrahs." + +Ibid. (In Glossary) pp. 84, 85: + +"<i>Tchgrel</i>, reed spear. + <i>Womrah</i>, spear heaver." + +1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, the Founder of Victoria,' +p. 20: + +"Taking with him, therefore, on board the Port Phillip, +presents of spears, wommeras, boomerangs, and stone tomahawks, +he tried to get from the Williamstown waters." + +1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' +p. 48: + +"Spears all ready shipped, that is, having the hook of the +Womerar (throwing-stick) placed in the small cavity made for +that purpose in the end of the spear, with both raised in +readiness for launching at the object." + +1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 73: + +"The `womara' is an instrument of wood, from twenty-four to +thirty inches long, and a little thicker than a spear. Unlike +the spear, it is not thrown at the enemy in battle, but remains +always in the black man's hand . . . he ornaments it +profusely, back and front. . . . The point is turned up, +exactly like the point of a lady's crochet needle. . . . +The spears have a dimpled hole worked in their butt end, which +hole receives the point of the hook end of the `throw-stick.'" + +<hw>Worm-Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>. + +<hw>Wrasse</hw>, <i>n</i>. This English name for many fishes is +given, in New Zealand, to <i>Labrichthys bothryocosmus</i>, +Richards. Called also <i>Poddly, Spotty</i>, and +<i>Kelp-fish</i>. + +<hw>Wreck-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian species is +<i>Polyprion ceruleum</i>, family Percoidae. Guenther says +that the European species has the habit of accompanying +floating wood. Hence the name. + +<hw>Wren</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English bird-name is +assigned in Australia to birds of several genera, viz.-- + +Banded Wren-- + <i>Malurus splendens</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Black-backed W.-- + <i>M. melanotus</i>, Gould. + +Blue W.-- + <i>M. cyaneus</i>, Lath. + +Blue-breasted W.-- + <i>M. pulcherrimus</i>, Gould. + +Bower's W.-- + <i>M. cruentatus</i>, Gould. + +Chestnut-rumped Ground W.-- + <i>Hylacola pyrrhopygia</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Emu-wren (q.v.)-- + <i>Stipiturus malachurus</i>, Lath. + +Goyder's Grass W.-- + <i>Amytis goyderi</i>, Gould. + +Grass W.-- + <i>A. textilis</i>, Quoy and Gaim.; called by Gould +the <i>Textile Wren</i>. + +Large-tailed Grass W.-- + <i>A. macrura</i>, Gould. + +Longtailed W.-- + <i>Malurus gouldii</i>, Sharpe. + +Lovely W.-- + <i>M. amabilis</i>, Gould. + +Orange-backed W.-- + <i>M. melanocephalus</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +Purple-crowned W.-- + <i>M. coronatus</i>, Gould. + +Red-rumped Ground W.-- + <i>Hylacola cauta</i>, Gould. + +Red-winged W.-- + <i>Malurus elegans</i>, Gould. + +Silvery Blue W.-- + <i>M. cyanochlamys</i>, Gould. + +Striated Grass W.-- + <i>Amytis striatus</i>, Gould; +called also the <i>Porcupine bird</i> (q.v.). + +Turquoise W.-- + <i>Malurus callainus</i>, Gould. + +Variegated W.-- + <i>M. lamberti</i>, Vig. and Hors. + +White-backed W.-- + <i>M. leuconotus</i>, Gould. + +White-winged W.-- + <i>M. leucopterus</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +See also <i>Scrub-Wren</i>. + +In New Zealand, the name is applied to the Bush-Wren, +<i>Xenicus longipes</i>, Gmel., and the Rock (or Mountain) +Wren, <i>X. gilviventris</i>, von Pelz. + +<hw>Wry-billed Plover</hw>, <i>n</i>. a very rare bird +of New Zealand, <i>Anarhynchus frontalis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,' +p. 116: + +"The curious wry-billed plover . . . the only bird known in +which the bill is turned not up or down, but to one side--the +right." + +<hw>Wurley</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for an aboriginal's +hut. For other words expressing the same thing, see list under +<i>Humpy</i>. In the dialect of the South-East of South +Australia <i>oorla</i> means a house, or a camp, or a bird's +nest. + +1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 110: + +"Seeking, hoping help to find; + Sleeping in deserted wurleys." + +1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 233: + +"Immediately went across to the blacks' wurleys, where I found +King sitting in a but which the natives had made for him." + +1879. G. Taplin, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' p. 12, +and Note: + +"In case of a man having two wives, the elder is always +regarded as the mistress of the hut or wurley. The word +<i>wurley</i> is from the language of the Adelaide tribe. +The Narrinyeri word is <i>mante</i>. I have used `wurley' +because it is more generally understood by the colonists." + +1880. P. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting on the Warrego': + + "`My hand + + Must weather-fend the wurley'. This he did. + He bound the thick boughs close with bushman's skill, + Till not a gap was left where raging showers + Or gusts might riot. Over all he stretched + Strong bands of cane-grass, plaited cunningly." + +1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 42 + + "He took + His axe, and shaped with boughs and wattle-forks + A wurley, fashioned like a bushman's roof." + + + +X + + +<hw>Xanthorrhoea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus +of Australian plants, <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>, having thick +palm-like trunks. They exude a yellow resin. +(Grk. <i>Xanthos</i>, yellow, and <i>rhoia</i>, a flow, +sc. of the resin.) They are called <i>Black Boys</i> +and <i>Grass-trees</i> (q.v.). + + + +Y + + +<hw>Yabber</hw>, <i>n</i>. Used for the talk of the aborigines. +Some think it is the English word <i>jabber</i>, with the first +letter pronounced as in German; but it is pronounced by the +aborigines <i>yabba</i>, without a final <i>r</i>. <i>Ya</i> +is an aboriginal stem, meaning to speak. In the Kabi dialect, +<i>yaman</i> is to speak: in the Wiradhuri, <i>yarra</i>. + +1874. M. K. Beveridge, `Lost Life,' pt. iii. p. 37: + + "I marked +Much yabber that I did not know." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 28: + +"Longing to fire a volley of blacks' yabber across a London +dinner-table." + +1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 23: + +"The volleys of abuse and `yabber yabber' they would then utter +would have raised the envy of the greatest `Mrs. Moriarty' in +the Billingsgate fishmarket." + +1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 55: + +"Is it French or Queensland blacks' yabber? Blest if I +understand a word of it." + +<hw>Yabber</hw>, <i>v. intr</i>. (See noun.) + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 19: + +"They yabbered unsuspiciously to each other." + +1887. J. Farrell, `How he died,' p. 126: + +"He's yabbering some sort of stuff in his sleep." + +<hw>Yabby</hw>, <i>n</i>. properly <i>Yappee</i>, aboriginal +name for a small crayfish found in water-holes in many parts +of Australia, <i>Astacopsis bicarinatus</i>. The Rev. F. A. +Hagenauer gives <i>Yappy</i>, in `Curr's Australian Race,' +vol. iii. p. 554, as a Gippsland word. Such variants as +the following occur--<i>Yappitch, kapich</i>, <i>yabbechi, +yaabity</i>. The distinction between the thin and thick +consonants is usually uncertain. + +1894. `The Argus,' Oct. 6, p. 11, col. 2: + +"In the case of small crayfish, called `yabbies,' . . . these +may be found all over Australia, both in large and small +lagoons. These creatures, whilst nearing a drought, and as the +supply of water is about to fail, burrow deeply in the beds of +the lagoons, water-holes, or swamps, piling up the excavations +on the surface over their holes, which I take, amongst other +reasons, to be a provision against excessive heat." + +1897. `The Australasian,' Jan. 30, p. 224, col. 4: + +"The bait used is `yabby,' a small crayfish found in the sand +on the beach at low tide. The getting of the bait itself is +very diverting. The yabbies are most prized by fish and +fishermen, and the most difficult to obtain. The game is very +shy, and the hunter, when he has found the burrow, has to dig +rapidly to overtake it, for the yabby retires with marvellous +rapidity, and often half a dozen lifts of wet sand have to be +made before he is captured. There is no time to be lost. In +quite twenty-five per cent. of the chases the yabbies get away +through flooding and collapse of the hole." + +<hw>Yakka</hw>, v. frequently used in Queensland bush-towns. +"You yacka wood? Mine, give 'im tixpence;"--a sentence often +uttered by housewives. It is given by the Rev. W. Ridley, in +his `Kamilaroi, and other Australian Languages,' p. 86, as the +Turrubul (Brisbane) term for <i>work</i>, probably cognate with +<i>yugari, make</i>, same dialect, and <i>yengga, make</i>, +Kabi dialect, Queensland. It is used primarily for <i>doing +work of any kind</i>, and only by English modification (due to +"hack") for <i>cut</i>. The spelling <i>yacker</i> is to be +avoided, as the final <i>r</i> is not heard in the native +pronunciation. + +<hw>Yam</hw>, <i>n</i>. a West Australian tuber, <i>Dioscorea +hastifolia</i>, Ness., <i>N.O. Dioscorideae</i>. "One of the +hardiest of the Yams. The tubers are largely consumed by the +local aborigines for food; it is the only plant on which they +bestow any kind of cultivation." (Mueller, <i>apud</i> Maiden, +p. 22.) + +<hw>Yam, Long</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tuber, <i>Discorea +transversa</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Dioscorideae</i>. "The small +tubers are eaten by the aborigines without any preparation." +(Thozet, apud Maiden, p. 23.) + +<hw>Yam, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tuber, <i>Ipomaea</i> spp., +<i>N.O. Convolvulaceae</i>. The tubers are sometimes eaten +by the aboriginals. + +<hw>Yam, Round</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Burdekin Vine</i>, under +<i>Vine</i>. + +<hw>Yam-stick</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation 1882, Tolmer. + +1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings,' p. 27. + +"One leg's thin as Lierah's yamstick." + +1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 195: + +"Behind the pair stands the boy's mother holding her +`yam-stick' erect, resting on the ground." + +1882. A. Tolmer, `Reminiscences,' vol. ii. p. 101: + +"The natives dig these roots with the yam-stick, an +indispensable implement with them made of hard wood, about +three feet in length, thick at one end and edged; it is +likewise used amongst the aboriginal tribes of South Australia, +like the waddy, as a weapon of offence." + +1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iii. p. 31: + +"Why, ole Nanny fight you any day with a yam-stick." + +<hw>Yama</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a tree; +probably a variant of <i>Yarrah</i> (q.v.). + +1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 54: + +"The `Yama,' a species of the eucalyptus inhabiting the +immediate banks, grew here, as on the Darling, to a gigantic +size. . . . The `yama' is certainly a pleasing object, in +various respects; its shining bark and lofty height inform the +traveller at a distance of the presence of water; or at least +the bed of a river or lake." + +<hw>Yan Yean</hw>, <i>n</i>. the reservoir from which Melbourne +obtains its water supply: hence commonly used for water from +the tap. + +1871. Dogberry Dingo, `Australian Rhymes and jingles,' p. 8: + +"O horror! What is this I find? + The Yan Yean is turned off." + +<hw>Yarra-Bend</hw>, <i>n</i>. equivalent to the English word +<i>Bedlam</i>. The first lunatic asylum of the colony of +Victoria stood near Melbourne on a bend of the river Yarra. + +<hw>Yarrah</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a species of +Eucalyptus, <i>E. rostrata</i>, Schlecht; often called the +<i>River Gum</i>, from its habit of growing along the banks of +watercourses, especially in the dry interior of the continent. +According to Dr. Woolls (<i>apud</i> Maiden, p. 511), +<i>Yarrah</i> is "a name applied by the aboriginals to almost +any tree." The word is not to be confused with <i>Jarrah</i> +(q.v.). As to etymology, see <i>Yarraman</i>. + +<hw>Yarra-Herring</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Melbourne to a +fresh-water fish, <i>Prototroctes maraena</i>, Gunth.; called +also <i>Grayling</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Yarraman</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a horse. +Various etymologies are suggested; see quotation, 1875. +The river "Yarra Yarra" means ever flowing, sc. fast. + +[A possible derivation is from <i>Yaran</i>, a common word in +New South Wales and South Queensland, and with slight variation +one of the most common words in Australia, for beard and +sometimes hair. The mane would suggest the name. +--J. Mathew.] + +1848. T. L. Mitchell, `Tropical Australia,' p. 270: + +"It was remarkable that on seeing the horses, they exclaimed +`Yarraman,' the colonial natives' name for a horse, and that of +these animals they were not at all afraid, whereas they seemed +in much dread of the bullocks." + +1875. W. Ridley, `Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages,' +p. 21: + +"Horse-yaraman. All the Australians use this name, probably +from the neighing of the horse, or as some think from `yira' +or `yera,' teeth (<i>teeth</i>), and `man' (<i>with</i>)." + +Ibid. p. 104: + +"Language of George's River. Horse--yaraman (from `yara,' throw +fast)." + +1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 4: + +"Yarraman being the native word for horse." + +<hw>Yarran</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name adopted by the +colonists for several <i>Acacias</i> (q.v.)--<i>Acacia +homalophylla</i>, A. Cunn., called also <i>Spearwood</i>; +<i>A. linifolia</i>, Willd., called also <i>Sally</i>; <i>A. +pendula</i>, A. Cunn., called also <i>Boree</i>, and +<i>Weeping</i> or <i>True Myall</i> (see <i>Myall</i>). + +1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 99: + +"That infernal horse . . . pretty near broke my leg and +chucked me out over a yarran stump." + +<hw>Yate</hw>, or <hw>Yate-tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. a large West +Australian tree, <i>Eucalyptus cornuta</i>, Labill., yielding +a hard tough elastic wood considered equal to the best ash. + +<hw>Yellow-belly</hw>, <i>n</i>. In New South Wales, the name +is given to a fresh-water fish, <i>Ctenolates auratus</i>; +called also <i>Golden-Perch</i>. See <i>Perch</i>. In Dunedin +especially, and New Zealand generally, it is a large flounder, +also called <i>Lemon-Sole</i>, or <i>Turbot</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Yellow Fever</hw>, sc. the gold-fever. + +1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 47: + +"Evident symptoms of the return of the `yellow' fever, +and a journey to the new goldfields seemed to be the only cure." + +<hw>Yellow-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a bird of New +Zealand, <i>Clitonyx ochrocephala</i>, or <i>Native Canary</i> +(q.v.), common in South Island. See <i>Clitonyx</i>. + +<hw>Yellow Jacket</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to various +gum-trees, and especially to <i>Eucalyptus melliodora</i>, +Cunn., <i>E. ochrophlora</i>, F. v. M., and <i>E. rostrata</i>, +Schlecht, all of the <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>. They all have a +smooth yellowish bark, and many other names are applied to the +same trees. + +<hw>Yellow Lily</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the +<i>Native Leek</i>. See <i>Leek</i>. + +<hw>Yellow-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in Victoria +to the fish <i>Caranx trachurus</i>, Cuv. and Val.; the +<i>Horse-Mackerel</i> (q.v.) of England. In New South Wales, +it is <i>Trachurus declivis</i>, a slightly different species, +also called <i>Scad</i>; but the two fish are perhaps the same. +<i>Seriola grandis</i>, Castln., also of the <i>Carangidae</i> +family, is likewise called <i>Yellow-tail</i> in Melbourne. In +New Zealand, the word is used for the fish <i>Latris +lineata</i>, of the family of <i>Sciaenidae</i>, and is also a +name for the <i>King-fish</i>, <i>Seriola lalandii</i>, and for +the <i>Trevally</i>. + +<hw>Yellow Thyme</hw>, <i>n</i>. a herb, <i>Hibbertia +serpyllifolia</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Dilleneaceae</i>. + +<hw>Yellow-wood</hw>, a name applied to several Australian +trees with the epithets of <i>Dark, Light, Deep</i>, etc., in +allusion to the colour of their timber, which is allied to +<i>Mahogany</i>. They are--<i>Acronychia laevis</i>, Forst., +<i>N.O. Rutaceae</i>; <i>Rhus rhodanthema</i>, F. v. M., +<i>N.O. Anacardiaciae</i>; <i>Flindersia oxleyana</i>, +F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>. See also <i>Satin-wood</i>. + +<hw>Yuro</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Euro</i> (q.v.). + + + +Z + + +<hw>Zebra</hw>-fish, <i>n</i>. name given to the fish +<i>Neotephraeops zebra</i>, Richards. + +<hw>Zebra-Wolf</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Tasmanian Wolf</i>, +or <i>Tasmanian Tiger</i> (q.v.). + +<hw>Zelanian</hw>, a scientific term, meaning `pertaining to +New Zealand,' from <i>Zelania</i>, a Latinised form of +<i>Zealand</i>. + +<hw>Zosterops</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of a genus +of Australian birds, often called also popularly by that name, +and by the names of <i>Wax-eye</i>, <i>White-eye</i>, +<i>Silver-eye</i> (q.v.), <i>Ring-eye</i>, <i>Blight-bird</i> +(q.v.), etc. From the Greek <i>zowstaer</i>, a girdle, +`anything that goes round like a girdle' (`L. & S.'), and +<i>'owps</i>, the eye; the birds of the genus have a white +circle round their eyes. The bird was not generally known in +New Zealand until after <i>Black Thursday</i> (q.v.), in 1851, +when it flew to the Chatham Islands. Some observers, however, +noted small numbers of one species in Milford Sound in 1832. +New Zealand birds are rarely gregarious, but the +<i>Zosterops</i> made a great migration, in large flocks, +from the South Island to the North Island in 1856, +and the Maori name for the bird is `The Stranger' (<i>Tau-hou</i>). +Nevertheless, Buller thinks that the species +<i>Z. caerulescens</i> is indigenous in New Zealand. + +(See under <i>Silver-eye</i>, quotation 1888.) +The species are-- + + <i>Zosterops caerulescens</i>, Lath. + +Green-backed Z.-- + <i>Z. gouldi</i>, Bp.; called also <i>Grape-eater</i>, +and <i>Fig-eater</i> (q.v.). + +Gulliver's Z.-- + <i>Z. gulliveri</i>, Castln. and Ramsay. + +Pale-bellied Z.-- + <i>Z. albiventer</i>, Homb. and Jacq. + +Yellow Z.-- + <i>Z. lutea</i>, Gould. + +Yellow-rumped Z.-- + <i>Z. westernensis</i>, Quoy and Gaim. + +Yellow-throated Z.-- + <i>Z. flavogularis</i>, Masters. + +1897. A. J. Campbell (in `The Australasian,' Jan. 23), p. 180, +col. 3: + +"I have a serious charge to prefer against this bird [the Tawny +Honeyeater] as well as against some of its near relatives, +particularly those that inhabit Western Australia, namely, the +long-billed, the spine-billed, and the little white-eye or +zosterops. During certain seasons they regale themselves too +freely with the seductive nectar of the flaming bottle-brush +(<i>Callistemon</i>). They become tipsy, and are easily caught +by hand under the bushes.In the annals of ornithology I know of +no other instance of birds getting intoxicated." + +Edward E. Morris + +Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and +Usages + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Dictionary of Austral English, by Edward Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DICTIONARY OF AUSTRAL ENGLISH *** + +***** This file should be named 27977.txt or 27977.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/7/27977/ + +Produced by Geoffrey Cowling + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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