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."

Toad-fish, n. In New Zealand, a scarce marine fish of the family Psychrolutidae, Neophrynichthys latus. In Australia, the name is applied to Tetrodon hamiltoni, Richards., and various other species of Tetrodon, family Gymnodontes, 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 Porcupine-fish and Globe-fish,

1836. Ross, 'Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 89:

"The Poisonous or Toad Fish of Van Diemen's Land. (Communicated by James Scott, Esq. R.N. Colonial Surgeon). . . . 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."

Toatoa, n. Maori name of New Zealand tree, Phyllocladus glauca, Carr., N.O. Coniferae. The Mountain Toatoa is P. alpinus, 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."

Tobacco, Colonial. See Tobacco, Native.

Tobacco, Native, n. In Australia generally, a true Tobacco, Nicotiana suaveolens, Lehm., N.O. Solanaceae; readily eaten as a forage plant by stock. In Queensland, the name is also applied to Pituri (q.v.). In Tasmania, the name is given to Cassinia billardieri, De C., N.O. Compositae. 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 Colonial Tobacco.

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, Nicotiana suaveolens."

Toe-ragger, n. 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 tau rika rika, 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."

Toe-toe, and Toi-toi, Maori name of several species of native grass of the genus Arundo, especially Arundo conspicua, A. Cunn. Toe-toe is the right spelling in Maori, given in Williams' 'Maori Dictionary.' In English, however, the word is frequently spelt toi-toi. It is also called Prince of Wales' feather.

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 raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi kakaho, 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 Phorinium tenax 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."

Tohora, n. 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 (Eubalaena Australis), which is like the right whale of the North Sea, but with baleen of less value."

Tohunga, n. Maori word for a wise man. "Perhaps from Maori verb tohu, to think." (Tregear's 'Polynesian Dictionary.') Tohu, a sign or omen; hence Tohunga, 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."

Tolmer's Grass, n. a fibrous plant, Lepidosperma gladiatum, Labill., N.O. Cyperaceae, 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)."

Tomahawk, n. 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 hatchet has practically disappeared, and the word Tomahawk 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 Tommy-axe.

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."

Tomahawk, v. 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."

Tommy-axe, n. a popular corruption of the word Tomahawk (q.v.); it is an instance of the law of Hobson-Jobson.

Tom Russell's Mahogany. See Mahogany.

Tomtit, n. name applied in New Zealand to two New Zealand birds of the genus Myiomoira, the species being M. toitoi, Garnot, in North Island; M. macrocephala, Gmel., in South Island.

1888. W. L. Buller, 'Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 39:

[A full description.]

Tonquin Bean-Tree, n. a Tasmanian variety of Native Sandalwood; also called Tonga Beanwood.

1862. W. Archer, 'Products and Resources of Tasmania,' p. 41:

"'Tonga Bean-wood (Alyxia buxifolia, Br.). The odour is similar to that of the Tonga Bean (Dipteryx odorata). A straggling seaside shrub, three to five inches in diameter."

Tooart, or Tewart, n. a West Australian name for Eucalyptus gomphocephala, or White Gum. See Gum.

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 (Eucalyptus), 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."

Tookytook, n. a corruption of Kotukutuku (q.v.), a Maori name equivalent to Konini, the fruit of the Fuchsia-tree (q.v.).

Toot, n. the anglicised spelling of the Maori word Tutu (q.v.).

Tooted, quasi past participle from Toot. The cattle are tooted, sc. poisoned by the Toot.

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."

Tooth-shell, n. The name is applied, in Europe, to any species of Dentalium and allied genera having a tooth-shaped shell. In Australia, it is the shell of Marinula pellucida, Cooper, a small marine mollusc used for necklaces.

Tope, n. an Australasian Shark, Galeus australis, Macl. It differs somewhat from Galeus canis, the Tope of Britain. Called also the School-Shark, in Australia.

Top-knot Pigeon, n. an Australian bird, Lopholaimus antarcticus, Shaw.

1891. Francis Adams, 'John Webb's End,' p. 33:

"Flying for a moment beside a lovely, melodious top-knot pigeon."

Torea, n. Maori name for all the New Zealand species of the Oyster-catchers (q.v.).

Torpedo, n. a fish, well known elsewhere, and also called elsewhere, the Numb-fish and Cramp fish. 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 Hypnos subnigrum, that of Tasmania is Narcine Tasmaniensis."

Torres-Straits Pigeon, n. See quotation.

1893. Saville Kent, 'Great Barrier Reef,' p. 123:

"Making a bag of the famous Torres Straits pigeons (Myristicivora spilorrhoa), 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."

Tortoise-shell Fish. See Hand-fish.

Totara, n. Maori name for a lofty-spreading New Zealand tree, Podocarpus totara, A. Cunn., N.O. Coniferae,. 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 Mahogany-pine. There are several other species, e.g. P. vivalis, Hook., the Mountain Totara; called also Mahogany Pine. See Mahogany, and Pine.

1832. G. Bennett, in Lambert's 'Genus Pinus,' vol. ii. p. 190:

"This is an unpublished species of Podocarpus, 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 (Podocarpus totara) and Matai (Podocarpus spicata) 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 (Taxus or Podocarpus totara). 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."

Towai, n. Maori name for New Zealand tree, Weinmannia racemosa, Forst., N.O. Saxifrageae, i.q. Kamahai in south of South Island, and Tawhero 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 (Leiospermum racemosum) 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."

Township, n. 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."

Traveller, n. used specifically for a Swagman, a Sundowner. 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."

Travellers' Grass, i.q. Settler's Twine (q.v.).

Tree-creeper, n. 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

Climacteris scandens, Temm., Brown Tree-creeper . 93

C. rufa, Gould, Rufous T. . . . . . . . . 94

C. erythrops, Gould, Red-eyebrowed T. . . . . 95

C. melanotus, Gould, Black-backed T. . . . . 96

C. melanura, Gould, Black-tailed T. . . . . . 97

C. picumnus, Temm., Whitethroated T. . . . . 98

Tree-fern, n. See Fern-tree.

Tree-Kangaroo, called Boongary (q.v.) by the aboriginals. See Dendrolagus and Kangaroo.

Tree-Runner, n. another name for the Sittella (q.v.). The species are—

Black-capped Tree-Runner— Sittella pileata, Gould.

Orange-winged T.— S. chrysoptera, Lath.

Pied T.— S. albata, Ramsay.

Slender-billed T.— S. tenuirostris, Gould.

Striated T.— S. striata, Gould.

White-headed T.— S. leucocephala, Gould.

White-winged T.— S. leucoptera, Gould.

But see Gould's earlier (1848), under Sittella.

Tree-Tit, n. 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, Smicrornis brevirostris, Gould, and Yellow-tinted Tit, S. flavescens, Gould.

Tremandra, n. scientific name of a genus of Australian plants, the Purple Heath-flower. Name given by R. Brown in 1814, from the remarkably tremulous anthers. (Lat. tremere, to tremble, and Grk. 'anaer, 'andros a man, taken as equivalent to "anther.")

Trevally, or Trevalli, or Trevalla, or Travale, n. an Australian fish. In various localities the name is applied to several fishes, which are most of them of the family Carangidae, or Horse-Mackerels. An Old-World name for the Horse-Mackerels is Cavalli (Ital. cavallo, a little horse). Trevalli is sometimes called Cavalli; this was probably its original name in Australia, and Trevalli a later corruption.

The different kinds are—

Black Trevally— Teuthis nebulosa, Quoy, family Teuthididae (a New South Wales fish).

Mackerel T. (so called in Tasmania)— Neptonemus dobula, Gunth., family Carangidae.

Silver T.— Another Tasmanian name for the White Trevally, Caranx georgianus (see below).

Snotgall T.— Neptonemus travale, Casteln. (in Victoria); N. brama, Gunth. in Tasmania); both of the family of Carangidae.

White T.— Caranx georgianus, Cuv. and Val., family Carangidae; (so called in New South Wales, New Zealand, and Tasmania; in Victoria it is called Silver Bream). Teuthis javus, Linn., family Tuethididae.

The Maori name for the Trevally is Awara, and in Auckland it is sometimes called the Yellow-Tail (q.v.). See also quotation, 1886.

Guenther says, the genus Teuthis 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."

Triantelope, n. a European comic variation of the scientific name Tarantula. It is applied in Australia to a spider belonging to a quite different genus, Voconia, 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 tri-antelope, as the common people persist in calling it."

Tribonyx, n. There are several species of this bird in Australia and Tasmania, where they go by the name of Native Hen, and sometimes, erroneously, Moor-hen (q.v.). For the species, see Native Hen. No species of Tribonyx 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 Avifauna, but now omitted from the list . . ."

Ibid. p. liv:

"Tribonyx has never actually occurred in a wild state [in New Zealand]."

Ibid. p. 90:

"Tribonyx, a bird incapable of flight, but admirably adapted for running."

Trichosurus, n. the scientific name of a genus of the Phalangers (q.v.), or Australian Opossums (q.v.). (Grk. trichos, of hair, and 'oura, tail.)

Trickett, n. slang name for a long drink of beer in New South Wales, after Trickett, the New South Wales champion sculler.

Trigger-plant, n. i.q. Hairtrigger (q.v.) plant; called also Jack-in-a-box.

Trigonia, n. a bivalve marine mollusc with a nacreous interior, much admired in Tasmania and used for pendants and necklaces, Trigonia margaritacea, Lamarck, of the order Pectinaceae. It is the largest trigonia 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.

Trooper, n. a mounted policeman. The use is transferred from the name for a private soldier in a cavalry regiment. The Native troopers, or Black police, 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."

Tropic-bird, n. The English name is applied because the bird is usually seen in the tropics. The species observed in Australia are—Red-tailed, Phaeton rubricaudus, Bodd.; White-tailed, P. candidus, Briss.

1848. J. Gould, 'Birds of Australia,'vol. vii. pl. 73:

"Phaeton Phoenicurus, Gmel., Red-tailed Tropic Bird; New Holland Tropic Bird, Latham, 'General History, vol. x. p. 448."

Tropidorhynchus, n. 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. tropis, the keel of a ship, and rhunchos, "beak." They are called Friar Birds (q.v.), and the generic name of Tropidorhynchus has been replaced by Philemon (q.v.).

Trout, n. The English Trout has been naturalised in Australia. In Tasmania, the name of Trout, or Mountain-Trout, is also given to species of the genus Galaxias. See Salmon.

Trumpeter, n. (1) A fish of Tasmanian, New Zealand, and Australian waters, but chiefly of Hobart— Latris hecateia, Richards., family Cirrhitidae, 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 Bastard-Trumpeter, Morwong, and Paper-fish.

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 Crow-Shrike (q.v.), Strepera fuliginosa, Gould.

1832. J. Bischoff, 'Van Diemen's Land,' p. 177:

"We also occasionally heard the trumpeter or black magpie."

Trumpeter-Perch, n. i.q. Mado (q.v.).

Trumpeter-Whiting, n. See Whiting, quotation 1882.

Tuan, n. aboriginal name for the Flying-Squirrel (q.v.). See also Pongo.

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."

Tuatara, n. the Maori name of a New Zealand lizard, or reptile, Hatteria punctata, Gray; called also Sphenodon puntatum.

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 (Rhynchocephalina)."

Tucker, n. Australian slang for food. To tuck in is provincial English for to eat, and tuck is a school-boy word for food, especially what is bought at a pastrycook's. To make tucker 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."

Tui, n. Maori name for the New Zealand bird, Prosthemadera novae-zelandae, Gray; called the Parson-bird (q.v.), and earlier the Poe (q.v.). Another name is the Koko, and the young bird is distinguished as Pi-tui, or Pikari. It is also called the Mocking bird.

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 (Prosthemadera Novae-Zelandae), 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 tuis seemed silent from envy and spleen."

Tulip, Native, i.q. Waratah (q.v.); and see Telopea.

Tulip-tree, n. The name is given, in Australia, to Stenocarpus cunninghamii, R. Br., N.O. Proteaceae, on account of the brilliancy of its bright-red flowers; called also Queensland Fire-tree.

Tulip-wood, n. The name is given, in Australia, to Aphnanthe philipinensis, Planch., N.O. Urticaceae, and to the timber of Harpullia pendula, Planch., N.O. Sapindaceae. It is, further, a synonym for the Emu-Apple.

1845. J. O. Balfour, 'Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39:

"The tulip-wood, with its variegated flowers and delightful perfume, grows in abundance."

Tumata-kuru, n. Maori name for plant better known as Wild Irishman (q.v.), Discaria toumatou, Raoul. "A thorny plant, very difficult to handle." (Vincent Pyke.) Tumatagowry, or Matagory (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."

Tuna, n. See Eel.

Tupakihi, n. i.q. Tutu (q.v.).

Tupara, n. Maori corruption of "two-barrel." Compare the aboriginal word Whilpra (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."

Tupong, n. aboriginal name for a Southern Australian fish, Aphritis bassii, Castln., family Trachinidae. Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson says it is called Marble-fish in the Geelong district. It is also known as the Freshwater Flathead.

Tupuna, n. 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 tupuna was dying . . . The tribe were ke poto or assembled to the last man about the dying chief."

Turbot, n. The name is given to a New Zealand fish, called also Lemon-Sole (q.v.) or Yellow-belly (q.v.), Ammotretis guntheri.

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.'"

Turkey, n. This common English bird-name is applied in Australia to three birds, viz.—

(1) To the bird Eupodotis australis, Gray, which is a true Bustard, but which is variously called the Native Turkey, Plain Turkey (from its frequenting the plains), and Wild Turkey.

(2) To the bird Talegalla lathami, Gould, called the Brush Turkey (from its frequenting the brushes), Wattled Turkey and Wattled Talegalla (from its fleshy wattles), and sometimes, simply, Talegalla. By Latham it was mistaken for a Vulture, and classed by him as the New Holland Vulture. ('General History of Birds,' 1821, vol. i. p. 32.)

(3) To the bird Leipoa ocellata, Gould, called the Scrub-Turkey (from its frequenting the Scrubs, the Lowan (its aboriginal name), the Native Pheasant (of South Australia); in the Mallee district it is called Mallee-bird, Mallee-fowl, Mallee-hen.

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 (Talegalla Lathami, Gould)." [2.]

1847. L. Leichhardt, 'Overland Expedition,' p. 260:

"Several native bustards (Otis Novae Hollandiae, Gould) were shot." [1.]

1848. J. Gould, 'Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 4:

"Otis Australasianus, Gould, Australian Bustard; Turkey, Colonists of New South Wales; Native Turkey, Swan River." [1.]

1848. J. Gould, 'Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 77:

"Talegalla Lathami, 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 (Otis Australasianus), 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 (Talegalla Lathami) 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 (Eupodotis Australis) 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 (Talegalla Lathami) 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 (Talegalla), 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 Megapode, has an egg very long in proportion to its width." [2.]

Turmeric, i.q. Stinkwood (q.v.); also applied occasionally to Hakea dactyloides, Cav., N.O. Proteaceae. See Hakea.

Turnip-wood, n. the timbers of the trees Akania hillii, J. Hook., N.O. Sapindaceae, and Dysoxylon Muelleri, Benth., N.O. Meliaceae, from their white and red colours respectively.

Turpentine, Brush, name given to two trees— Metrosideros leptopetala, F. v. M., also called Myrtle; and Rhodamnia trinervia, Blume, both N.O. Myrtaceae.

Turpentine-Tree, n. The name is applied to many trees in Australia yielding a resin, but especially to the tree called Tallow-Wood (q.v.), Eucalyptus microcorys, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae; to Eucalyptus punctata, De C., N.O. Myrtaceae, called also Leather- Jacket, Hickory, Red-, and Yellow-Gun, and Bastard-Box; and to E. stuartiana, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae. In New Zealand, it is also applied to the Tarata. See Mapau.

1889. J. H. Maiden, 'Useful Native Plants,' p. 523:

"[E. Stuartiana 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."

Turquoise-Berry, n. i.q. Solomon's Seal (q.v.).

Tussock-grass, n. Tussock is an English word for a tuft of grass. From this a plant of the lily family, Lomandra longifolia, R. Br., N.O. Lilaceae, is named Tussock-grass; 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."

Tussocker, n. a New Zealand name for a Sundowner (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."

Tutu, or Toot, n. Maori name for a shrub or small tree, Coriaria ruscifolia, Linn., or C. sarmentosa, 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 Wineberry-bush, and the Maori name is Anglicised into Toot. In Maori, the final u 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 Tupakihi. In Maori, the verb tutu 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 (Coriaria ruscifolia), 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 (Coriaria sarmentosa, Forst. = C. ruscifolia, 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, Decus et tutamen. 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."

Twenty-eight, n. another name for the Yellow-collared Parrakeet. Named from its note. See Parrakeet.

1848. J. Gould, 'Birds of Australia,' vol. v. pl. 19:

"Platycercus Semitorquatus, 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."

Twine Bush, n. i.q. Hakea flexilis. See Hakea.

Twine, Settler's, n. See Settler's Twine.

Two-hooded Furina-Snake. See under Snake.



U

Umbrella-bush, Acacia osswaldi, F. v. M., N.O. Leguminosae.

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."

Umbrella-grass, i.q. Native Millet, Panicum decompositum, R. Br., N.O. Gramineae. See Millet. It is called Umbrella-grass, from the shape of the branches at the top of the stem representing the ribs of an open umbrella.

Umbrella-tree, n. name given to Brassaia actinophylla, Endl., N.O. Araliaceae, from the large leaves being set, like umbrella-ribs, at the top of numerous stems.

Umu, n. 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 umus (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 oumu 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."

Union Nut, n. a fine cabinet timber, Bosistoa sapindiformis, F. v. M., N.O. Rutaceae.

"Unlock the lands." A political cry in Victoria, meaning open up for Free-selection (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.'"

Unpayable, adj. 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."

Utu, n. a Maori word for "Return, price paid, reward, ransom, satisfaction for injuries received, reply." (Williams.) Sometimes corrupted by Englishmen into Hoot (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 Utu, similar to the tapu, 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 lex talionis 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 'utu'—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

Vandemonian, n. and adj. belonging to Van Diemen's land, the old name of Tasmania; generally used of the convicts of the early days; and the demon 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."

Vandemonianism, n. 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."

Van Diemen's Land, 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 Tasmania (q.v.) in 1853, on the granting of Responsible Government.

Vedalia, n. a genus of greedily predatory ladybirds. The V. cardinalis of Australia was imported by the United States Government from Australia and New Zealand into California in 1888-89, in order to kill the fluted scale (Icerya purchasi), a fruit-pest. It destroyed the scale in nine months.

Velvet-fish, n. name given in Tasmania to the fish Holoxenus cutaneus, Gunth., family Cirrhitidae. The skin is covered with minute appendages, so soft to the touch as to suggest velvet; the colour is deep purplish red.

Verandah, n. 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 Verandahs. 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."

V-hut, 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 V hut, 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.'"

Victoria, n. 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."

Village Settlement, 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.

Vine, n. 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."

Vine, Balloon. See Balloon Vine.

Vine, Burdekin. Called also Round Yam, Vitis opaca, F. v. M., N.O. Ampelideae.

Vine, Caustic, i.q. Caustic-Plant (q.v.).

Vine, Lawyer. See Lawyer.

Vine, Macquarie Harbour, or Macquarie Harbour Grape (q.v.). Same as Native Ivy. See Ivy.

1891. 'Chambers' Encyclopaedia,' s.v. Polygonaeae:

"Muhlenbeckia adpressa 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."

Vine, Native Pepper. See Climbing Pepper, under Pepper.

Vine, Wonga Wonga. See Wonga Wonga Vine.



W

Waddy. (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 wood mispronounced by aboriginal lips. L. E. Threlkeld, in his 'Australian Grammar,' at p. 10, enters it as a "barbarism "—"waddy, 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 fire and wood 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 wi (wee) sometimes win. These two forms occur in many parts of Australia with numerous variants, wi being obviously the radical form. Hence there were such variants as wiin, waanap, weenth in Victoria, and at Sydney gweyong, and at Botany Bay we, all equivalent to fire. Wi sometimes took on what was evidently an affixed adjective or modifying particle, giving such forms as wibra, wygum, wyber, wurnaway. The modifying part sometimes began with the sound of d or j (into which of course d enters as an element). Thus modified, wi became wadjano on Murchison River, Western Australia; wachernee at Burke River, Gulf of Carp.; wichun on the Barcoo; watta on the Hunter River, New South Wales; wudda at Queanbeyan, New South Wales. These last two are obviously identical with the Sydney waddy = 'wood.' The argument might be lengthened, but I think what I have advanced shows conclusively that Waddy is the Tasmanian word wi + 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.

Waddy, v. trans. 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."

Waddy Wood, or White Wood, n. name given in Tasmania to the tree Pittosporum bicolor, Hook., N.O. Pittosporeae; 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 Pittosporum bicolor, 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."

Wagtail, or Wagtail Fly-catcher, n. an Australian bird, Rhipidura tricolor, the Black-and-white Fantail, 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 Black-and-white Fantail. See Fantail.

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, Vig. and Horsf. '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.'"

Wahine, n. Maori word for a woman. The 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."

Waipiro, n. Maori name for spirits,— literally, stinking water, from piro, stinking, and wai, water. In New Zealand geography, the word Wai is very common as the first part of many names of harbours, lakes, etc. Compare North-American Indian Fire-water.

1845. W. Brown, 'New Zealand and its Inhabitants,' p. 132:

"Another native keeps a grog-shop, and sells his waipero, as he says, to Hourangi 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 waipiro, 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."

Wairepo, n. Maori name for the fish called Stingray.

Wait-a-while, n. also called Stay-a-while: a thicket tree.

1889. J. H. Maiden, 'Useful Native Plants,' p. 306:

"Acacia colletioides, A. Cunn., N.O. Leguminosae, 'Wait-a-while' (a delicate allusion to the predicament of a traveller desirous of penetrating a belt of it)."

Waka, n. Maori word for canoe. Waka huia is a box for keeping feathers, originally the feathers of the huia (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; Waka-taua or Waka-hitau were canoes, fully carved; the Waka-tetee, which, generally smaller, had a plain figure-head and stern; Waka-tiwai, an ordinary canoe of one piece, and the kopapa or small canoe, usually used for fishing, travelling to cultivation, etc."

Wakiki, n. shell money of the South Sea Islands.

Waler, n. 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."

Walking-Leaf, n. See Phasmid.

Walking-stick, n. See Phasmid.

Walking-stick Palm, n. See under Palm.

Wallaby, n. a name used for the smaller kinds of Kangaroos of the genus Macropus (q.v.), formerly classed as Halmaturus. An aboriginal word. See Collins, 1798, below. (Wolbai, in the Kabi dialect of South Queensland, means a young creature.) Also spelt Walloby, Wallabee, and Wallobi. As in the case of Kangaroo (q.v.), the plural is a little uncertain, Wallaby or Wallabies. Some of them are sometimes called Brush-Kangaroos (q.v.). The following are the species—

Agile Wallaby— Macropus agilis, Gould.

Aru Island W.— M. brunnii, Schraeber.

Black-gloved W.— M. irma, Jourd.

Black-striped W.— M. dorsalis, Gray.

Black-tailed W.— M. ualabatus, Less. and Garm.

Branded W.— M. stigmaticus, Gould.

Cape York W.— M. coxeni, Gray.

Dama W.— M. eugenii, Desm.

Pademelon— M. thetidis, Less.

Parma W.— M. parma , Waterh.

Parry's W.— M. parryi, Bennett.

Red-legged W.— M. wilcoxi, McCoy.

Red-necked W., Grey's W.— M. ruficollis, Desm.

Rufous-bellied W.— M. billardieri, Desm.

Short-tailed W.— M. brachyurus, Quoy and Gaim.

Sombre W.— M. brownii, Ramsay.

In addition, there are six species of Rock-Wallaby (q.v.), genus Petrogale (q.v.). See also Paddymelon.

Three species of Nail-tailed Wallabies, genus Onychogale (q.v.), are confined to Australia. They are the Nail-tailed Wallaby, Onychogale unguifera, Gould; Bridled W., O. frenata, Gould; Crescent W., O. lunata, Gould.

Three species of Hare-Wallabies (genus Lagorchestes, q.v.), confined to Australia, are the Spectacled Hare-Wallaby, Lagorchestes conspiculatus, Gould; Common H. W., L. leporoides, Gould; Rufous H. W., L. hirsutus, Gould.

One species, called the Banded-Wallaby (genus, Lagostrophus, q.v.), confined to Western Australia, is L. fasciatus, Peron and Less.

For etymology, see Wallaroo.

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 (Halmaturus agilis)."

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!'"

Wallaby-Bush, n. a tall shrub or tree, Beyeria viscosa, Miq., N.O. Euphorbiaceae. Same as the Pinkwood of Tasmania.

Wallaby-Grass, n. an Australian grass, Danthonia penicillata, F. v. M., N.O. Gramineae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, 'Useful Native Plants,' p. 82:

"'Wallaby Grass.' This perennial artificial grass is useful for mixed pasture."

Wallaby-skin, 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.

Wallaby track, On the, or On the Wallaby, or Out on the Wallaby, or simply Wallaby, as adj. [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 Wallaby, as a hare tramples its "form." These tracks may lead to water or they may be aimless and rambling. Thus the man "on the wallaby" may be looking for food or for work, or aimlessly wandering by day and getting food and shelter as a Sundowner (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 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."

Wallaroo, n. native name for a large species of Kangaroo, the mountain kangaroo, Macropus robustus, Gould. The black variety of Queensland and New South Wales is called locally the Wallaroo, the name Euro being given in South and Central Australia to the more rufous- coloured variety of the same species.

In the aboriginal language, the word walla meant 'to jump,' and walla-walla '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 Wallurus, 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 (Macropus robustus), 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 (Macropus robustus) 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 (Macropus ualabatus) 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."

Wallflower, Native, n. a Tasmanian name for Pultenaea subumbellata, Hook., N.O. Leguminosae. In Australia, used as another name for one of the Poison- Bushes (q-v.).

Wandoo, n. Western Australian aboriginal word for the White Gum-tree of Western Australia, Eucalyptus redunca, Schauer, N.O. Myrtaceae. It has a trunk sometimes attaining seventeen feet in diameter, and yields a hard durable wood highly prized by wheelwrights.

Waratah, n. an Australian flower. There are three species, belonging to the genus Telopea, N.O. Proteaceae. The New South Wales species, T. speciosissima, R. Br., forms a small shrub growing on hill-sides, as does also the Tasmanian species, T. truncata, R. Br.; the Victorian species, T. oreades, F. v. M., called the Gippsland Waratah, grows to a height of fifty feet. It has a bright crimson flower about three inches in diameter, very regular. Sometimes called the Australian or Native Tulip. As emblematic of Australia, it figures on certain of the New South Wales stamps and postcards. The generic name, Telopea (q.v.), has been corrupted into Tulip (q.v.). Its earliest scientific generic name was Embothrium, 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."

Warbler, n. 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 Fly-eater and Gerygone.) The name has been retained in Australia for the following species—

Grass Warbler— Cisticola exilis, Lath.

Grey W.— Gerygone flaviventris, Gray.

Long-billed Reed W.— Calamoherpe longirostris, Gould.

Reed W.— Acrocephalus australis, Gould.

Rock W.— Origma rubricata, Lath.

In New Zealand, it is now only specifically applied to the—

Bush Warbler— Gerygone silvestris, Potts.

Chatham Island W.— G. albofrontata, Gray.

Grey W.— G. flaviventris, Gray; Maori name, Riro-riro.

1889. Prof. Parker, 'Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,'. 119:

"Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) 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."

Warden, n. 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."

Warehou, n. Maori name for the fish Neptonemus brama, Gunth., called Snotgall-Trevally in Tasmania, and called also Sea-Bream. See Trevally.

Warrener, n. a name applied by Tasmanian children to the larger specimens of the shells called Mariners (q.v.). The name is an adaptation, by the law of Hobson-Jobson, from a Tasmanian aboriginal word, Yawarrenah, given by Milligan ('Vocabulary,' 1890), as used by tribes, from Oyster Bay to Pittwater, for the ear-shell (Haliotis). The name has thus passed from shell to shell, and in its English application has passed on also to the marine shell, Turbo undulatus.

Warrigal, n. and adj. an aboriginal word, originally meaning a Dog. Afterwards extended as an adjective to mean wild; then used for a wild horse, wild natives, 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) A Wild Dog.

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) A Horse.

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 Aborigines. [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 warri, 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."

Warrina, n. See Warrener.

Washdirt, n. 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 dirt (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."

Waterbush, n. an Australian tree, i.q. Native Daphne. See Daphne.

Watergrass, n. a Tasmanian name for Manna grass, Poa fluitans, Scop., N.O. Gramineae.

Water-Gum, n. See Gum.

Water-hole, n. The word pond is seldom used in Australia. Any pond, natural or artificial, is called a Water-hole. 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."