Austral English

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS OF NAMES (continued 2)

Reading edition

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 (Cernua bidyana), a very coarse but firm fish, which makes a groaning noise when taken out of the water."

<hw>Big-head</hw>, n. a fish. The name is used locally for various fishes; in Australia it is Eleotris nudiceps, Castln., family Gobiidae, a river fish. Of the genus Eleotris, 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 Bull-head (2).

<hw>Billabong</hw>, n. 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, billa means a river and bung dead. See Bung. Billa 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 pill , 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, Bilo is given for River.

Billabong is often regarded as a synonym for Anabranch (q.v.); but there is a distinction. From the original idea, the Anabranch implies rejoining the river; whilst the Billabong implies continued separation from it; though what are called Billabongs 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 billy-bonn [sic], from the circumstance of the water carrier returning from it with his pitcher (billy) empty (bong, 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>, n. 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>, n. 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 quart-pot (q.v.), chiefly because of its top-handle and its lid. Another suggested derivation is that billy is shortened from billycan, which is said to be bully-can (sc. Fr. bouili). In the early days "boeuf bouilli" 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 billa (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 billy 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>, n. 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> [g soft], n. stomach or belly. Aboriginal. The form at Botany Bay was bindi; at Jervis Bay, binji.

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>, n. In New Zealand, the trees called birches are really beeches (q.v.), but the term birch is used very vaguely; see quotation 1889. In Tasmania, the name is applied to Dodonaea ericifolia, Don., N.O. Sapindaceae.

1853. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 125:

"White-birch of Nelson and Otago (from colour of bark), Black-heart Birch of Wellington, Fagus solandri, 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), Fagus fusca, N.O. Cupuliferae, 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 [Fagus solandri, 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>, n. a New Zealand shrub or tree, Pisonia brunoniana, Endl., N.O. Nyctagineae; Maori name, Parapara.

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 (Zosterops) 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>, n. a small fungus of the genus Cyathus, four species of which occur in Queensland.

<hw>Bitter-Bark</hw>, n. an Australian tree, Petalostigma quadrilo culare, F. v. M., N.O. Euphorbiacea. Called also Crab-tree, Native Quince, Emu apple, and Quinine-tree. The bark contains a powerful bitter essence, which is used medicinally. The name is also applied to Tabernaemontana orientalis, R. Br., N.O. Apocyneae, and to Alstonia constricta, F. v. M., N.O. Aporynacece, 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>, n. a Tasmanian name for the Native Hop. See Hops and Hopbush.

<hw>Bittern</hw>, n. bird-name well known in England. The Australian species are—

The Bittern—

Botaurus paeciloptilus, Wagl.

Black B.—

Butoroides flavicollis, Lath.

Green B.—

B. javanica, Horsfield.

Little B.—

Ardetta pusilla, Vieill.

<hw>Blackberry, Native</hw>, or <hw>Bramble</hw>, n. called also Raspberry. Three species of the genus Rubus occur in Queensland—Rubus moluccanus, Linn., R. parvifolius, Linn., R.

rosifolius, Smith, N.O. Rosaceae See also Lawyer.

<hw>Blackbird</hw>, n. "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>, n. 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>, adj.

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>, n. a grass-tree. Name applied to all species of the genus Xanthorroea, but especially to X. preissii, Endl., N.O. Liliaceae. Compare Maori-head.

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 Xanthorrhoea, 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>, n. an Australian fish, Chrysophrys australis, Gunth., family Sparidae, or Sea-Breams; called in Tasmania Silver-Bream, the fish there called Black-Bream being another of the Sparidae, Girella tricuspidata, Cuv. and Val. See Tarwhine and Black-fish.

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 42:

"Chrysophrys comprises the tarwhine and black-bream of the Sydney fishermen. . . . We have two species in Australia. . . . The black-bream, C. australis, Gunth., and the tarwhine, C. sarba, 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>, n. Eucalyptus pilularis, Smith, Victoria; E. regnans, F. v. M., New South Wales; a timber tree, a gum. Another name is Flintwood. 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>, n. a New Zealand fish, Notothenia angustata.

<hw>Blackfellow</hw>, n. 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>, n. The Tasmanian species so called is Athyrium australe, Presl., N.O. Polypodeae.

<hw>Black-fish</hw>, n. The name is given, especially in Sydney, to the sea-fishes Girella simplex, Richards (see Ludrick), and Girella tricuspidata, Cuv. and Val.; also to a fresh-water fish all over Australia, Gadopsis marmoratus, Richards. G. marmoratus 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. Girella belongs to the family Sparida, or Sea-Breams, and Gadopsis to the Gadopsidae, 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 Black-fish or Black-whale, 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 Black-War.

<hw>Black-Perch</hw>, n. a river fish of New South Wales. Therapon niger, Castln., family Percidae. A different fish from those to which the name is applied elsewhere. See Perch.

<hw>Black-and-white Ringed Snake</hw>. See under Snake.

<hw>Black Rock-Cod</hw>, n. an Australian fish, chiefly of New South Wales, Serranus daemeli, Gunth.; a different fish from the Rock-Cod of the northern hemisphere. The Serrani belong to the family Percidae, and are commonly called "Sea-perches."

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 33:

"The genus Serranus 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' (Serranus damelii, Guenther), without exception the very best of all our fishes."

<hw>Black-Snake.</hw> See under Snake.

<hw>Black-Swan.</hw> See Swan.

<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>, n. 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 Trevally.

<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 en masse 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>, n. 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>, n. an Australian timber, Acacia melanoxylon, R. Br.; often called Lightwood; 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>, n. a Queensland shrub, Atriplex vesicarium, Heward, N.O. Salsolaceae. The Latin and vernacular names both refer to "the bladdery appendage to fruiting perianth." (Bailey.) See Saltbush.

<hw>Blandfordia</hw>, n. the scientific name of the Gordon-Lily (see under Lily). The plant was named after George, Marquis of Blandford, son of the second Duke of Marlborough. The Tasmanian aboriginals called the plant Remine, which name has been given to a small port where it grows in profusion on the west coast.

<hw>Bleeding-Heart</hw>, n. another name for the Kennedya (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 Sandy-blight.

<hw>Blight-bird</hw>, n. a bird-name in New Zealand for the Zosterops (q.v.). Called also Silver-eye (q.v.), Wax-eye, and White-eye (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:

"Zosterops lateralis, 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>, n. i.q. Shovel-nose (q.v.).

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods `Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales, p. 97:

"Rhinobatus granulatus 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. Rhinobatus Bongainvillei, Muell and Heule, Habitat Port Jackson. Shovel-nosed Ray of Sydney fishermen."

<hw>Blind-your-Eyes</hw>, n. another name for the Milky Mangrove. See Mangrove.

, doing the</hw>, v. 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>, n. name given to the Sanguineous Honey-eater. See Honey-eater.

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 63:

"Myzomela sanguinolenta, Sanguineous Honey-eater. Blood-bird of the Colonists of New South Wales."

<hw>Blood-sucker</hw>, n. popular name for certain species of Lizards belonging to the genus Amphibolurus (Grammatophora). Especially applied to A. muricata, 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>, n. a name applied, with various epithets, to many of the Gum-trees (q.v.), especially to—(1) Eucalyptus corymbosa, Smith, sometimes called Rough-barked bloodwood; (2) E. eximia, Schauer, Mountain or Yellow bloodwood; (3) Baloghia lucida, Endl., N.O. Euphorbiaceae, 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 Eucalyptus)."

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 (Eucalyptus corymbosa)."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' 448:

"It [E. eximia] 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 E. corymbosa."

<hw>Blow</hw>, n. 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> n. 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>, v. 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>, n. a boaster. (See Blow, v.)

1890. Rolf Boldrewood,' A Colonial Reformer,' p. 411:

"A regular Sydney man thinks all Victorians are blowers and speculators."

<hw>Blowing</hw>, verbal n. 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>, n. The name is given in Tasmania to the flower Wahlenbergia gracilis, De C., N.O. Campanulaceae.

<hw>Blueberry</hw>, n. i.q. Native Currant (q.v.). The name is also given to Dianella longifolia, R. Br., N.O. Liliaceae.

<hw>Blueberry Ash</hw>, n. a Victorian tree, Elaeocarpus holopetalus, 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>, n. an Australian forage plant, a kind of Salt-bush, Kochia pyrainidata, Benth, N.O. Chenopodiaceae.

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>, n. name given to a New Zealand fish, Percis colias, family Trachinidae. Called also in New Zealand Rock-Cod (q.v.). The fish is of a different family from the Cod of the northern hemisphere.

<hw>Blue-creeper</hw>, n. name given to the creeper, Comesperma volubile, Lab., N.O. Campanulaceae.

<hw>Blue-eye</hw>, n. a bird name. The Blue faced Honey-eater (q.v.).

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 68:

"Entomyza cyanotis, Swains. Blue-faced Entomyza. Blue-eye of the colonists."

<hw>Blue-fish</hw>, n. name given in Sydney to Girella cyanea, of the family Sparidae, or Sea-Breams. It is different from the Blue-fish of the American coasts, which is of the family Carangidae.

<hw>Blue-Groper</hw>, n. a fish of New South Wales and Tasmania, Cossyphus gouldii, one of the Labridae or Wrasses, often called Parrot-Fish in Australia. Called also Blue-head in Tasmania. Distinct from the fish called the Groper (q.v).

<hw>Blue-gum</hw>, n. See under Gum. 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>, n. Tasmanian name for the fish called the Blue-Groper (q.v.)

<hw>Blue Lobelia</hw>, n. The indigenous species in Tasmania which receives this name is Lobelia gibbosa, Lab., N.O. Campanulaceae.

<hw>Blue-pointer</hw>, n. a name given in New South Wales to a species of Shark, Lamna glauca, Mull. and Heule, family Lamnidae, 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>, n. 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 dolerites and anaemesites, the former being well represented by the light-coloured Malmsbury `bluestone' so extensively employed in buildings in Melbourne."

<hw>Blue-tongued Lizard</hw>, n. name given to Tiliqua nigroluteus, Gray, a common Australian and Tasmanian lizard belonging to the family Scincidae. 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>, n. a sportsman's name (as in England) for the bird called the Shoveller (q.v.).

<hw>Bluey</hw>, n. (1) A blue blanket commonly used by swagmen in Australia. He wraps his bundle in it, and the whole is called a Swag (q.v.). To hump bluey 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>, n. 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."

With a full board, 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>, n. a name applied in England to various dissimilar fishes which have projecting snouts. (`Century.') In New Zealand it is given to Cyttus australis, family Cyttidae, which is related to the John Dory (q.v.). This name is sometimes applied to it, and it is also called Bastard Dory (q.v.). In Melbourne the Boar-fish is Histiopterus recurvirostris, family Percidae, and Pentaceropsis recurvirostris, family Pentacerotidae. Mrs. Meredith, in `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' 1880 (pl. vi.), figures Histiopterus recurvirostris with the vernacular name of Pig-faced Lady. It is a choice edible fish.

<hw>Boil down</hw>, v. 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>, n. a name in Australia for the fruit of the widely distributed plant Caesalpina bonducella, Flem., N.O. Leguminosae. Called Molucca Beans in Scotland and Nicker Nuts elsewhere.

<hw>Bonito</hw>, n. Sir Frederick McCoy says that the Tunny, the same fish as the European species Thynnus thynnus, family Scombridae, or Mackerels, is called Bonito, erroneously, by the colonists and fishermen. The true Bonito is Thynnus pelamys, 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. Sardine (q.v.).

<hw>Boobook</hw>, n. an owl. Ninox boobook (see Owl); Athene boobook (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 mopoke.

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>, n. English bird-name. Used in Australia for the Brown-Gannet. See Gannet.

<hw>Boobyalla</hw>, or <hw>Boobialla</hw>, n. the aboriginal name for the tree Acacia longifolia, Willd., N.O. Leguminosae, also called Native Willow. A river in Tasmania bears the name of Boobyalla, the tree being plentiful on the coast.

1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p63:

"Acacia sophora. 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 Acacia, 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. (Acacia Maritinia) 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>, n. name of a very large kangaroo, Macropus giganteus, 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 (Macropus major, 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 Booma, 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 Booma, 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>, n. 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 woomera (q.v.), which is a different weapon, being a throwing stick, that is, an instrument with which to throw spears, whilst the boomerang 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 burramaronga, also boomori. 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 boomerang and woomera (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 point blank, 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 (Acacia excelsa), or Myall (Acacia pendula), 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>, n. the tree-kangaroo of North Queensland, a marsupial tree-climber, about the size of a large wallaby, Dendrolagus lumholtzii, Collett. A native name. Bangaray = 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>, n. a rite amongst the aborigines of eastern Australia; the ceremony of admitting a young black to the rights of manhood. Aboriginal word.

The word bur, 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>, n. a plant, Pollichia zeylanica, F. v. M., N.O. Boragineae. The so-called Native Borage 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 (Trichodesina zeylanica, R. Br.)."

<hw>Borak</hw>, n. 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 barrack (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>, n. i.q. Corrobbery (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>, n. aboriginal name for the tree Acacia pendula, A. Cunn., N.O. Leguminosae; a variety of Myall, probably from Queensland aboriginal word Booreah, fire. It would be preferred by black or white man as firewood over any other timber except giddea (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>, n. 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>, n. 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 N.O. Rutaceae.

1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 72:

"Boronia variabilis. 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>, n. a slang name in the bush for a farmer, larger than a Cockatoo (see Cockatoo, n. 2), who employs other labour as well as working himself.

<hw>Botany Bay</hw>, n. 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 cooey; 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>, n. a vegetable common to all the colonies, Atriplex cinereum, Poir, N.O. Salsolaceae.

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 (Atriplex halimus, Rhagodur billardiera; and Salicornia arbuscula), 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 Atriplex as a vegetable, and spoke very highly of it."

<hw>Botany-Bay Oak</hw>, or <hw>Botany-Bay Wood</hw>, n. a trade name in England for the timber of Casuarina. See Beef-wood.

<hw>Bottle-brush</hw>, n. name given to various species of Callistemon and Melaleuca, N.O. Myrtaceae; the Purple Bottle-brush is Melaleuca squamea, Lab. The name is also more rarely given to species of Banksia, or Honeysuckle (q.v.). The name bottle-brush 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 Callistemon are like bottle-brushes in shape."

<hw>Bottle-Gourd</hw>, n. an Australian plant, Lagenaria vulgaris, Ser., N.O. Cucurbitaceae.

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>, n. a popular name for the bird Lagenoplastis ariel, otherwise called the Fairy Martin. See Martin. The name refers to the bird's peculiar retort shaped nest. Lagenoplashs is from the Greek lagaenos, a flagon, and plautaes, 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>, n. an Australian tree, various species of Sterculia, i.q. Kurrajong (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>, n. 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>, v. 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>, n. 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> n. Australian bird. See quotation, 1891. See Ptilonorhynchinae. The following are the varieties—-

Fawn-breasted Bower-bird— Chlamydoderea cerviniventris, Gould.

Golden B.—

Prionodura newtoniana, De Vis.

Great B.—

Chlambydodera nuchalis, Gould (`Birds of Australia,' vol.iv. pl. 9).

Queensland B.—

C. orientalis, Gould.

Satin B.—

Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, Vieillot.

Spotted B.—

Chlamydodera maculata, Gould (ibid. pl. 8).

Yellow-spotted B.—

C. gutttata, Gould.

And the Regent-bird (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>, n. The name is applied to many Eucalypts, and to a few trees of the genus Tristania, as given below, all of the N.O. Myrtaceae, 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 Box. China-, Heath-, and Native-Box (q.v. below) are of other Natural Orders and receive their names of Box from other reasons. The following table is compiled from Maiden:—

Bastard Box— Eucalyptus goniocalyx, F. v. M.; E. largiflorens, F. v. M. (called also Cooburn); E. longifolia, Link.; E. microtheca, F. v. M.; E. polyanthema, F. v. M.; E. populifolia, Hook. (called also Bembil or Bimbil Box and Red Box); Tristania conferta, R. Br.; T. laurana, R. Br., all of the N.O. Myrtaceae.

Black Box— Eucalyptus obliqua, L'Herit.; E. largiflorens, F. v. M.; E. microtheca, F. v. M.

Brisbane Box—- Tristania conferta, R. Br.

Broad-leaved Box— Eucalyptus acmenoides, Schau.

Brown Box— Eucalyptus polyanthema, Schau.

Brush Box— Tristania conferta, R. Br.

China Box— Murraya exotica, Linn., N.O. Rutaceae (not a tree, but a perfume plant, which is found also in India and China).

Dwarf, or Flooded Box— Eucalyptus microtheca, 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 goborro.)

Grey Box— Eucalyptus goniocalyx, F. v. M.; E. hemiphloia, F. v. M.; E. largiflorens, F. v. M.; E. polyanthema, Schau.; E. saligna, Smith.

Gum-topped Box— Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M.

Heath Box— Alyxia buxifolia, R. Br., N.O. Apocyneae (called also Tonga-beanwood, owing to its scent)

Iron-bark Box— Eucalyptus obliqua, L'Herit.

Narrow-leaved Box— Eucalyptus microtheca, F. v. M.

Native Box— Bursaria spinosa, Cav., N.O. Pittosporeae. (Called also Box-thorn and Native-Olive. It is not a timber-tree but a forage- plant. See quotation, 1889.)

Poplar Box— Eucalyptus populifolia, Hook.

Red Box— Eucalyptus populifolia, Hook.; E. polyanthema, Schau.; Tristania conferta, R. Br.

Thozet's Box— Eucalyptus raveretiana, F. v. M.

White Box— Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M.; E. odorata, Behr.; E. populifolia, Hook.; Tristania conferta, R. Br.

Yellow Box— Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M. E. largiflorens, F. v. M. E. melliodora, 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 Yarra, 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 (Eucalyptus melliodora). 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>, n. See succeeding verb.

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>, v. 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>, n. This word means in Australia the stiff, low-crowned, felt hat, called a billy-cock or bowler. The silk-hat is called a bell-topper (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>, n. a New Zealand wood, Olea lanceolata, Hook., N.O. Jasminea (Maori name, Maire). Used by the `Wellington Independent' (April 19, 1845) for woodcuts, and recommended as superior to box-wood for the purpose. See also Box, n.

<hw>Boyla</hw>, n. 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>, n. See Blackberry.

<hw>Bread, Native</hw>, n. a kind of fungus. "The sclerotium of Polyporus mylitta, 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 Mylitta Australis. 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. . . . Mylitta Australis. 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 fungus known as `native bread,' Mylitta Australis, 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 truffle, 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 native bread, 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, Gardenia edulis, F. v. M., N.O. Rubiaceae.

<hw>Breakaway</hw>, n.(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>, n. The name is applied in Australia to various species of Chrysophrys, family Sparidae, and to other fishes of different families. The Black-Bream (q.v.) is C. australis, Gunth. The Bony-Bream is also called the Sardine (q.v.). The Silver-Bream (q.v.) or White-Bream is Gerres ovatus, Gunth., family Percidae. The Red-Bream is a Schnapper (q.v.) one year old. The popular pronunciation is Brim, and the fishes are all different from the various fishes called Bream in the northern hemisphere. See also Tarwhine and Blue-fish.

<hw>Brickfielder</hw>, n. (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 Southerly Buster (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, upwards of fifty degrees! 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 flames was an impossibility. Perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for fumes; 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 flames nor fumes,—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 dust 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 dust 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 dust 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 dust, 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 blackness and its suffocating character,—all which applied accurately to the true brickfielder.]

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 dust.]

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 dust, 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 dust.

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 brickfielder as a name for a dusty 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 `Southerly Buster' 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 brickfielder was assigned originally to the latter part—the dusty 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 sirocco (spelt earlier schirocco, and in Spanish and other languages with the sh sound, not the s) is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root sharaga, `it rose.' The name of the wind, sirocco, 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 sand-laden, densely hazy and black, and therefore `choking,' like the brickfielder. The not unnatural assumption that writers by comparing a brickfielder with a sirocco, thereby imply that a brickfielder 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 dust, 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 tramontane, 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 brickfielder, 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>, n. obsolete form of Brigalow (q.v.).

<hw>Brigalow</hw>, n. and adj. Spellings various. Native name, Buriargalah. In the Namoi dialect in New South Wales, Bri or Buri is the name for Acacia pendula, Cunn.; Buriagal, relating to the buri; Buriagalah == place of the buri tree. Any one of several species of Acacia, especially A. harpophylla, F. v. M., H.O. Leguminosae. 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]: "Brigaloe 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>, n. a small and very bony rhomboidal fish of New Zealand, Pseudorhombus scaphus, family Pleuronectidae. The true Brill of Europe is Rhombus levis.

<hw>Brisbane Daisy</hw>, n. See Daisy, Brisbane.

<hw>Bristle-bird</hw>, n. a name given to certain Australian Reed-warblers. They are—Sphenura brachyptera, Latham; Long-tailed B.—S. longirostris, Gould; Rufous-headed B.—S. broadbentii, McCoy. See Sphenura.

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>, n. a settlers' name for Griselinia littoralis, Raoul; Maori name, Paukatea.

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 (Griselinia littoralis) 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>, n. 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>, n. a bird with a lustrous shoulder, Phaps chalcoptera, Lath. Called also Bronze-wing Pigeon.

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: