1882. W. Macleay, `Descriptive Catalogue of Australian fishes' ('Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' vol. vi. p. 256):
"Osteoglossum leichhardtii, Gunth. Barramundi of the aborigines of the Dawson River."
1892. Baldwin Spencer, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria,' vol. iv. [Note on the habits of Ceratodus forsterii]
"It has two common names, one of which is the `Burnett Salmon' and the other the `Barramunda" . . . the latter name . . . is properly applied to a very different form, a true teleostean fish (Osteoglossum leichhardtii) which is found . . . further north . . . in the Dawson and Fitzroy . . . Mr. Saville Kent states that the Ceratodus is much prized as food. This is a mistake, for, as a matter of fact, it is only eaten by Chinese and those who can afford to get nothing better."
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 221:
"The burwan is a nut much relished by our natives, who prepare it by roasting and immersion in a running stream, to free it from its poisonous qualities."
1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 238
"The Burrowan, which grows in a sandy soil, and produces an inedible fruit, resembling the pine-apple in appearance."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 41:
"Burrawang nut, so called because they used to be, and are to some extent now, very common about Burrawang, N.S.W. The nuts are relished by the aboriginals. An arrowroot of very good quality is obtained from them."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 48:
"I have spent a good deal of my time in the woods, or bush, as it is called here.'
1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 85:
"With the exception of two or three little farms, comprising about 20 or 30 acres of cultivation, all was `bush' as it is colonially called. The undergrowth was mostly clear, being covered only with grass or herbs, with here and there some low shrubs."
1837. J. D. Lang, `New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 253:
"His house was well enough for the bush, as the country is generally termed in the colony."
1855. From a letter quoted in Wathen's `The Golden Colony,' p. 117:
"`The Bush,' when the word is used in the towns, means all the uninclosed and uncultivated country . . . when in the country, `the Bush' means more especially the forest. The word itself has been borrowed from the Cape, and is of Dutch origin."
1857. `The Argus,' Dec. 14, p. 5, col. 7:
"`Give us something to do in or about Melbourne, not away in the bush,' says the deputation of the unemployed."
1861. T. McCombie,' Australian Sketches,' p. 123:
"At first the eternal silence of the bush is oppressive, but a short sojourn is sufficient to accustom a neophyte to the new scene, and he speedily becomes enamoured of it."
1865. J. F. Mortlock, `Experiences of a Convict,' p. 83:
"The `bush,' a generic term synonymous with `forest' or `jungle,' applied to all land in its primaeval condition, whether occupied by herds or not."
1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra and Manaro,' p. 113:
"All the advantages of civilized life have been surrendered for the bush, its blanket and gunyah."
1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 250:
"The technical meaning of the word `bush.' The bush is the gum-tree forest, with which so great a part of Australia is covered, that folk who follow a country life are invariably said to live in the bush. Squatters who look after their own runs always live in the bush, even though their sheep are pastured on plains. Instead of a town mouse and a country mouse in Australia, there would be a town mouse and a bush mouse; but mice living in the small country towns would still be bush mice."
Ibid. c. xx. p. 299:
"Nearly every place beyond the influence of the big towns is called `bush,' even though there should not be a tree to be seen around."
1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67, n.:
"Bush was a general term for the interior. It might be thick bush, open bush, bush forest, or scrubby bushterms which explain themselves."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40:
"The first thing that strikes me is the lifeless solitude of the bush. . . . There is a deep fascination about the freedom of the bush."
1890. E. W. Hornung [Title]:
"A Bride from the Bush."
1896. `Otago Daily Times,' Jan. 27, p. 2, col. 5:
"Almost the whole of New South Wales is covered with bush. It is not the bush as known in New Zealand. It is rather a park-like expanse, where the trees stand widely apart, and where there is grass on the soil between them."
1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 75:
"The round trundling of our cart wheels, it is well known, does not always improve the labours of Macadam, much less a bush road."
1848. Letter by Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's `Church in Victoria, during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,'p. 75:
"A hard bush sofa, without back or ends."
1849. J. Sidney, `Emigrants' Journal, and Travellers' Magazine,' p. 40 (Letter from Caroline Chisholm):
"What I would particularly recommend to new settlers is `Bush Partnership'—Let two friends or neighbours agree to work together, until three acres are cropped, dividing the work, the expense, and the produce—this partnership will grow apace; I have made numerous bush agreements of this kind . . . I never knew any quarrel or bad feeling result from these partnerships, on the contrary, I believe them calculated to promote much neighbourly good will; but in the association of a large number of strangers, for an indefinite period, I have no confidence."
1857. W. Westgarth, `Victoria,' c. xi. p. 250:
"The gloomy antithesis of good bushranging and bad bush-roads."
[Bush-road, however, does not usually mean a made-road through the bush, but a road which has not been formed, and is in a state of nature except for the wear of vehicles upon it, and perhaps the clearing of trees and scrub.]
1864. `The Reader,' April 2, p. 40, col. 1 (`O.E.D.'):
"The roads from the nascent metropolis still partook mainly of the random character of `bush tracks.'"
1865. W. Hewitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 211:
"Dr. Wills offered to go himself in the absence of any more youthful and, through bush seasoning, qualified person."
1880. `Blackwood's Magazine,' Feb., p. 169 [Title]:
"Bush-Life in Queensland."
1881. R. M. Praed, `Policy and Passion,' c. i. p. 59:
"The driver paused before a bush inn."
[In Australia the word "inn" is now rare. The word "hotel" has supplanted it.]
1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv.p. 3:
"Not as bush roads go. The Australian habit is here followed of using `bush' for country, though no word could be more ludicrously inapplicable, for there is hardly anything on the way that can really be called a bush."
1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (exact date lost):
"Canada, Cape Colony, and Australia have preserved the old significance of Bush—Chaucer has it so—as a territory on which there are trees; it is a simple but, after all, a kindly development that when a territory is so unlucky as to have no trees, sometimes, indeed, to be bald of any growth whatever, it should still be spoken of as if it had them."
1896. Rolf Boldrewood, in preface to `The Man from Snowy River':
"It is not easy to write ballads descriptive of the bushland of Australia, as on light consideration would appear."
1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 104:
"About Byrock we met the bush liar in all his glory. He was dressed like—like a bush larrikin. His name was Jim."
1882. `Pall Mall Gazette,' June 29, p. 2, col. 1:
"A broken-down, deserted shanty, inhabited once, perhaps, by rail-splitters or bush-fallers." [`O.E.D.,' from which this quotation is taken, puts (?) before the meaning; but "To fall" is not uncommon in Australia for "to fell."]
1868. C. Dilke, `Greater Britain,' vol. ii. part iii. c. iii. p. 32:
"The smoke from these bush-fires extends for hundreds of miles to sea."
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxii. p. 156:
"A reserve in case of bush-fires and bad seasons."
(2) Name often used for a layman who fancies he knows all about the law without consulting a solicitor. He talks a great deal, and `lays down the law.'
1896. H. G. Turner, `Lecture on J. P. Fawkner':
"For some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in Tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, and under the exceptional circumstances of the Colony, was not restricted to members of the legal profession, and the term Bush Lawyer probably takes its origin from the practice of this period."
1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 235:
". . . the omnipresent bush-magpie. Here he may warble all the day long on the liquid, mellifluous notes of his Doric flute, fit pipe indeed for academic groves . . . sweetest and brightest, most cheery and sociable of all Australian birds."
1852. `Blackwood's Magazine,' p. 522 (`O.E.D.'):
"Where the wild bushman eats his loathly fare."
1880. J. Mathew, song, `The Bushman:'
"How weary, how dreary the stillness must be!But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me."
1886. Frank Cowan: `Australia; a Charcoal Sketch':
"The bushman . . . Gunyah, his bark hovel; Damper, his unleavened bread baked in the ashes; Billy, his tea-kettle, universal pot and pan and bucket; Sugar-bag, his source of saccharine, a bee-tree; Pheasant, his facetious metaphoric euphism for Liar, quasi Lyre-bird; Fit for Woogooroo, for Daft or Idiotic; Brumby, his peculiar term for wild horse; Scrubber, wild ox; Nuggeting, calf-stealing; Jumbuck, sheep, in general; an Old-man, grizzled wallaroo or kangaroo; Station, Run, a sheep- or cattle-ranch; and Kabonboodgery—an echo of the sound diablery for ever in his ears, from dawn to dusk of Laughing Jackass and from dusk to dawn of Dingo—his half-bird -and-beast-like vocal substitute for Very Good. . . ."
1896. H.Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 71:
"He was a typical bushman, . . . and of the old bush school; one of those slight active little fellows, whom we used to see in cabbage-tree hats, Crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and elastic-side boots."
(2) One who has knowledge of the bush, and is skilled in its ways. A "good bushman" is especially used of a man who can find his way where there are no tracks.
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' pp. 78, 79:
"It is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as Mr. Batman would venture upon such an expedition had he not been well. In fact a better bushman at this time could not be met with."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 3:
"The worst bushman had to undertake the charge of the camp, cook the provisions, and look after the horses, during the absence of the rest on flying excursions."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40:
"Very slight landmarks will serve to guide a good bushman, for no two places are really exactly alike."
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 78:
"One of the best bushmen in that part of the country: the men said he could find his way over it blindfold, or on the darkest night that ever was."
(3) Special sense. See quotation.
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 80:
"Some were what is termed, par excellence, bushmen—that is, men who split rails, get posts, shingles, take contracts for building houses, stockyards, etc.—men, in fact, who work among timber continually, sometimes felling and splitting, sometimes sawing."
1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 261:
"A good laugh at the bushmanship displayed."
"Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseenIn murders and in outrage, boldly here."(`Richard II.,' III. ii. 39.)
"Ranger" is used in modern English for one who protects and not for one who robs; as `the Ranger' of a Park.
1806. May 4, `Sydney Gazette' or `New South Wales Advertiser, given in `History of New South Wales,' p. 265:
"Yesterday afternoon, William Page, the bushranger repeatedly advertised, was apprehended by three constables."
1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 166:
[The settlements in Van Diemen's Land have] "been infested for many years past by a banditti of runaway convicts, who have endangered the person and property of every one. . . . These wretches, who are known in the colony by the name of bushrangers. . ."
1820. Lieut. Chas. Jeffreys, `Van Dieman's [sic] Land,' p. 15:
"The supposition . . . rests solely on the authority of the Bush Rangers, a species of wandering brigands, who will be elsewhere described."
1838. T. L. `Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 9:
"Bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which happily can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted police."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 81:
"This country [Van Diemen's Land] is as much infested as New South Wales with robbers, runaway convicts, or, as they are termed, Bush-rangers."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 77:
"The whole region was infested by marauding bands of bush-rangers, terrible after nightfall."
1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 252:
"Whilst he was engaged in this duty in Victoria, a band of outlaws—'bushrangers' as they are colonially termed— who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in the mountain ranges."
1827. `Captain Robinson's Report,' Dec. 23
"It was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to their dress; which very much assisted the crime of `bush-ranging.'"
1896. Modern. Up-country manservant on seeing his new mistress:
"My word! a real lady! she's no bush-scrubber!"
1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 507:
"The police are baffled by the false reports of the confederates and the number and activity of the bush telegraphs."
1893. Kenneth Mackay, `Out Back,' p. 74:
"A hint dropped in this town set the bush telegraphs riding in all directions."
1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 1:
"But who has championed the cause of the woman of the bush— or, would it be more correct to say bushwoman, as well as bushman?—and allowed her also a claim to participate in the founding of a nation?"
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 108:
[A full description.]
1661. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 115:
"I left my seat to reach a shelter, which was so many miles off, that I narrowly escaped being `bushed.'"
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 283:
"The poor youth, new to the wilds, had, in the expressive phrase of the colonials, got bushed, that is, utterly bewildered, and thus lost all idea of the direction that he ought to pursue."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 29:
"I get quite bushed in these streets."
1896. `The Argus,' Jan. 1, p. 4, col. 9:
"The Ministry did not assume its duty of leading the House, and Mr. Higgins graphically described the position of affairs by stating that the House was `bushed;' while Mr. Shiels compared the situation to a rudderless ship drifting hither and thither."
1863. F. Fowler, in `Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1:
"The cold wind or southerly buster which . . . carries a thick cloud of dust . . . across the city."
1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 587:
"Southerly Busters by `Ironbark.'"
1886. F. Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch':
"The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; and red-hot Simoom."
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 40:
"Generally these winds end in what is commonly called a `southerly buster.' This is preceded by a lull in the hot wind; then suddenly (as it has been put) it is as though a bladder of cool air were exploded, and the strong cool southerly air drives up with tremendous force. However pleasant the change of temperature may be it is no mere pastime to be caught in a `southerly buster,' but the drifting rain which always follows soon sets matters right, allays the dust, and then follows the calm fresh bracing wind which is the more delightful by contrast with the misery through which one has passed for three long dreary days and nights."
1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 302, col. 1:
"You should see him with Commodore Jack out in the teeth of the `hard glad weather,' when a southerly buster sweeps up the harbour."
1896. H. A.Hunt, in `Three Essays on Australian Weather' (Sydney), p. 16:
An Essay on Southerly Bursters, . . . with Four Photographs and Five Diagrams."
[Title of an essay which was awarded the prize of L 25 offered by the Hon. Ralph Abercrombie.]
The Butcher-bird—Cracticus torquatus, Lath.; formerlyC. destructor, Gould.
Black B.—C. quoyi, Less.
Black-throated B.—C. nigrigularis, Gould.
Grey B. (Derwent Jackass)—C. cinereus, Gould (see Jackass).
Pied B.—C. picatus, Gould.
Rufous B.—C. rufescens, De Vis.
Silver-backed B.—C. argenteus, Gould.
Spalding's B.—C. spaldingi, Masters.
White-winged B.—C. leucopterus, Cav.
The bird is sometimes called a Crow-shrike.
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 213:
"Mr. Caley observes—Butcher-bird. This bird used frequently to come into some green wattle-trees near my house, and in wet weather was very noisy; from which circumstance it obtained the name of `Rain-bird.'"
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. Pl. 52:
"Cracticus Destructor. Butcher Bird, name given by colonists of Swan River, a permanent resident in New South Wales and South Australia. I scarcely know of any Australian bird so generally dispersed."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 50:
"Close to the station one or two butcher-birds were piping their morning song, a strange little melody with not many notes, which no one who has heard it will ever forget."
1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' vol. iii. p. 44:
"In the bay are large quantities of . . . butter-fish."
1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 533:
"The `butter-fish,' or `kelp-fish' of the colonists of New Zealand (C. pullus), is prized as food, and attains to a weight of four or five pounds."
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 248:
"Those curious crustaceans that I have heard called `butterfly lobsters'. . . the shell of the head and body (properly known as the carapace) expands into something like wing-forms, entirely hiding the legs beneath them."
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 30:
"`The cabbage garden,' old cynical Sir John Robertson, of New South Wales, once called Victoria, but a garden notwithstanding. Better at any rate `the cabbage garden' than the mere sheep run or cattle paddock."
1769. `Capt. Cook's Journal,' ed. Wharton (1893), p. 144:
"We likewise found one Cabage Tree which we cut down for the sake of the cabage."
1802. G.Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' p. 60:
"Even the ships crews helped, except those who brought the cabbage trees."
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. 132:
"Cabbage-tree . . . grew in abundance."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 72:
"Several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the cabbage-palm."
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 414:
"Clumps of what the people of King George's Sound call cabbage-trees."
1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 240:
"There stands an isolated `cabbage-tree' (Ti of the natives; Cordyline Australis) nearly thirty feet high, with ramified branches and a crown of luxuriant growth."
(2) A large, low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, made out of the leaves of the Cabbage-tree (Livistona).
1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' 335:
"This hat, made of white filaments of the cabbage-tree, seemed to excite the attention of the whole party."
1852. G. F. P., `Gold Pen and Pencil Sketches,' xv.:
"With scowl indignant flashing from his eye,As though to wither each unshaven wretch,Jack jogs along, nor condescends reply,As to the price his cabbage-tree might fetch."
1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, The Bulla Bulla Bunyip':
"Lushy Luke endeavoured to sober himself by dipping his head in the hollowed tree-trunk which serves for the water-trough of an up-country Australian inn. He forgot, however, to take off his `cabbage-tree' before he ducked, and angry at having made a fool of himself, he gave fierce orders, in a thick voice, for his men to fall in, shoulder arms, and mark time."
1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 160, 161:
"The cabbage-palm was also a new species, called by Mr. Brown the Livistonia inermis. It was abundant; but the cabbage (the heart of the young budding leaves) too small to be useful as an article of food, at least to a ship's company. But the leaves were found useful. These dried and drawn into strips were plaited into hats for the men, and to this day the cabbage-tree hat is very highly esteemed by the Australians, as a protection from the sun, and allowing free ventilation." [Note]: "A good cabbage-tree hat, though it very much resembles a common straw hat, will fetch as much as L3."
1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 527:
". . . trousers, peg-top shaped, and wore a new cabbage-tree hat."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 33:
"A brand-new cabbage-tree hat protected his head."
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes `(edition 1855), p. 17:
"There are to be found round the doors of the Sydney Theatre a sort of `loafers' known as the Cabbage-tree mob,—a class who, in the spirit of the ancient tyrant, one might excusably wish had but one nose in order to make it a bloody one. . . . Unaware of the propensities of the cabbagites he was by them furiously assailed."
1896. `The Australasian,' Jan. 11, p. 76, col. 1:
"From the trees sounds the shrill chirp of large green cicada (native cads as the bushmen call them)."
1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 68:
"A cadet, as they are called—he is a clergyman's son learning sheepfarming under our auspices."
1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 6:
"The military designation of cadet was applied to any young fellow who was attached to a sheep or cattle station in the same capacity as myself. He was `neither flesh nor fowl nor good red herring,' neither master nor man. He was sent to work with the men, but not paid."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' pp. 46, 47:
" I was shown my camp, which was a slab but about a hundred yards away from the big house. . . . I was rather tired, and not sorry for the prospect of a camp."
(2) A place for mustering cattle.
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 64:
"All about the run, at intervals of fire or six miles, are cattle-camps, and the cattle that belong to the surrounding districts are mustered on their respective camps."
1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 26:
"There was never his like in the open bush,And never his match on the cattle-camps."
(3) In Australia, frequently used for a camping-out expedition. Often in composition with "out," a camp-out.
1869. `Colonial Monthly,' vol. iv.p. 289:
"A young fellow with even a moderate degree of sensibility must be excited by the novelty of his first `camp-out' in the Australian bush."
1880. R. H. Inglis, `Australian Cousins,' p. 233:
"We're going to have a regular camp; we intend going to PortHocking to have some shooting, fishing, and general diversion."
(4) A name for Sydney and for Hobart, now long obsolete, originating when British military forces were stationed there.
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 70:
"It is the old resident—he who still calls Sydney, with its population of twelve thousand inhabitants, the camp,—that can appreciate these things: he who still recollects the few earth-huts and solitary tents scattered through the forest brush surrounding Sydney Cove (known properly then indeed by the name of `The Camp')."
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 193:
"Living during the winter in Hobarton, usually called `the camp,' in those days."
1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 125:
"I like to hear of benighted or belated travellers when they have had to `camp out,' as it is technically called."
1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we saw in Australia,' p. 208:
"So the Bishop determined to `camp-out' at once where a good fire could be made."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 43:
"There is room here for fifty, rolled up on the floor; and should that fail them, there is no end of other places; or the bush, as a fall back, where, indeed, some of them prefer camping as it is."
1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 14, p. 963, col. 1: `A Lady in the Kermadecs':
"For three months I `camped out' there alone, shepherding a flock of Angoras."
(2) By extension, to sleep in any unusual place, or at an unusual time.
1893. `Review of Reviews' (Australasian ed. ), March, p. 51:
"The campaign came to an abrupt and somewhat inglorious close,Sir George Dibbs having to `camp' in a railway carriage, andSir Henry Parkes being flood-bound at Quirindi."
1896. Modern:
"Visitor,—`Where's your Mother?' `Oh, she's camping.'" [The lady was enjoying an afternoon nap indoors.]
(3) To stop for a rest in the middle of the day.
1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,' p. 180:
"We'll have lunch first before we investigate the caves—if it's agreeable to you. I will take the horses out, and we'll find a nice place to camp before they come."
(4) To floor or prove superior to. Slang.
1886. C. H. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 207:
"At punching oxen you may guessThere's nothing out can camp him.He has, in fact, the slouch and dress,Which bullock-driver stamp him."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 44:
"Pig-faces. It was the canajong of the Tasmanian aboriginal. The fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: the leaves are eaten baked."
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 56:
"Clitonyx Ochrocephala. Yellow-head. `Canary' of the colonists."
(2) Slang for a convict. See quotations. As early as 1673, `canary-bird' was thieves' English for a gaol-bird.
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 117:
"Convicts of but recent migration are facetiously known by the name of canaries, by reason of the yellow plumage in which they are fledged at the period of landing."
1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. ii. p. 72:
"The prisoners were dressed in yellow-hence called `canary birds.'"
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. vi. p. 49:
"Can't you get your canaries off the track here for about a quarter of an hour, and let my mob of cattle pass ?"
1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 472:
"Candle-nut. The kernels when dried and stuck on a reed are used by the Polynesian Islanders as a substitute for candles, and as an article of food in New Georgia. These nuts resemble walnuts somewhat in size and taste. When pressed they yield a large proportion of pure palatable oil, used as a drying-oil for paint, and known as country walnut-oil and artists' oil."
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 114, [Footnote]:
"The `Cape Barren Goose' frequents the island from which it takes its name, and others in the Straits. It is about the same size as a common goose, the plumage a handsome mottled brown and gray, somewhat owl-like in character."
[Cape Barren Island is in Bass Strait, between Flinders Island and Tasmania. Banks Strait flows between Cape Barren Island and Tasmania. The easternmost point on the island is called Cape Barren.]
1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134:
"Leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree; Acacia decurrens, black wattle; Correa alba, Cape Barren tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colony."
1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' p. 60:
"Cape Weed. Cryptostemma Calendulaceum. (Natural Order, Compositae.) This weed, which has proved such a pest in many parts of Victoria, was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope, as a fodder plant. It is an annual, flowering in the spring, and giving a bright golden hue to the fields. It proves destructive to other herbs and grasses, and though it affords a nutritious food for stock in the spring, it dies off in the middle of summer, after ripening its seeds, leaving the fields quite bare."
1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 10:
"Native Caper Tree or Wild Pomegranate. Natural Order, Capparideae. Found in the Mallee Scrub. A small tree. The wood is whitish, hard, close-grained, and suitable for engraving, carving, and similar purposes. Strongly resembles lancewood."
1879. W. Quin, `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. iii. p. 55:
"Many a rare old tusker finds a home in the mountain gorges. The immense tusks at Brooksdale attest the size of the wild boars or Captain Cooks, as the patriarchs are generally named."
1894. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 85:
"The leanness and roughness of the wild pig gives it quite a different appearance from the domesticated variety; and hence a gaunt, ill-shaped, or sorry-looking pig is everywhere called in derision a `Captain Cook.'"
(2) A kind of water worm that eats into timber between high and low water on a tidal river.
1890. C. Lumholtz,' Among Cannibals,' p. 96:
"The Australian cardamom tree." [Footnote]: "This is a fictitious name, as are the names of many Australian plants and animals. The tree belongs to the nutmeg family, and its real name is Myristica insipida. The name owes its existence to the similarity of the fruit to the real cardamom. But the fruit of the Myristica has not so strong and pleasant an odour as the real cardamom, and hence the tree is called insipida."
1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated,' Feb., p. 321:
"For the water-holders or `carriers' (made to fit the bodies of the horses carrying them, or to `ride easily' on pack-saddles)."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 64:
"The native carrot . . . was here withered and in seed."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 124:
"Native carrot. Stock are very fond of this plant when young. Sheep thrive wonderfully on it where it is plentiful. It is a small annual herbaceous plant, growing plentifully on sandhills and rich soil; the seeds, locally termed `carrot burrs,' are very injurious to wool, the hooked spines with which the seeds are armed attaching themselves to the fleece, rendering portions of it quite stiff and rigid. The common carrot belongs, of course, to this genus, and the fact that it is descended from an apparently worthless, weedy plant, indicates that the present species is capable of much improvement by cultivation."
(2) In Tasmania Geranium dissectum, Linn., is also called "native carrot."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 408:
"Native cascarilla. A small tree; wood of a yellowish colour, close-grained and firm."
1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' c. xxii. p. 271:
"New Holland Cassowary. [Description given.] This bird is not uncommon to New Holland, as several of them have been seen about Botany Bay, and other parts. . . . Although this bird cannot fly, it runs so swiftly that a greyhound can scarcely overtake it. The flesh is said to be in taste not unlike beef."
1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xi. p. 438:
"The cassowary of New South Wales is larger in all respects than the well-known bird called the cassowary."
1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement):
"Casuarius Australis, Wall., Australian Cassowary, sometimes called Black Emu."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 73:
"One day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick brushwood. The Australian cassowary is found in Northern Queensland from Herbert river northwards, in all the large vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high mountains of the coasts."
Ibid. p. 97.
"The proud cassowary, the stateliest bird of Australia . . . this beautiful and comparatively rare creature.'"
1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':
"The Australian cassowary. . . . They are somewhat shorter and stouter in build than the emu."
1806. `Naval Chronicles,' c. xv. p. 460:
"Clubs made of the wood of the Casuarina."
1814. R. Brown, `Botany of Terra Australis,' in M. Flinders' `Voyage to Terra Australis,' vol. ii. p. 571:
"Casuarinae. The genus Casuarina is certainly not referable to any order of plants at present established . . . it may be considered a separate order. . . . The maximum of Casuarina appears to exist in Terra Australis, where it forms one of the characteristic features of the vegetation."
1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 160:
"The dark selvage of casuarinas fringing its bank."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 10:
"The vegetation assumed a new character, the eucalyptus and casuarina alternating with the wild cherry and honeysuckle."
1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 34:
"The scientific name of these well-known plants is as appropriate as their vernacular appellation is odd and unsuited. The former alludes to the cassowary (Casuarius), the plumage of which is comparatively as much reduced among birds, as the foliage of the casuarinas is stringy among trees. Hence more than two centuries ago Rumph already bestowed the name Casuarina on a Java species, led by the Dutch colonists, who call it there the Casuaris-Boom. The Australian vernacular name seems to have arisen from some fancied resemblance of the wood of some casuarinas to that of oaks, notwithstanding the extreme difference of the foliage and fruit; unless, as Dr. Hooker supposes, the popular name of these trees and shrubs arose from the Canadian `Sheack.'"
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 397:
"From a fancied resemblance of the wood of casuarinas to that of oak, these trees are called `oaks,' and the same and different species have various appellations in various parts."
1890. C. Lumholtz; `Among Cannibals,' p. 33:
"Along its banks (the Comet's) my attention was drawn to a number of casuarinas—those leafless, dark trees, which always make a sad impression on the traveller; even a casual observer will notice the dull, depressing sigh which comes from a grove of these trees when there is the least breeze.'"
The Cat-bird—Ailuraedus viridis, Lath.
Spotted C.—Ailuraedus maculosus, Ramsay.Pomatostomus rubeculus, Gould.
Tooth-billed C.—Scenopaeus dentirostris, Ramsay.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 11:
"Its loud, harsh and extraordinary note is heard; a note which differs so much from that of all other birds, that having been once heard it can never be mistaken. In comparing it to the nightly concert of the domestic cat, I conceive that I am conveying to my readers a more perfect idea of the note of this species than could be given by pages of description. This concert, like that of the animal whose name it bears, is performed either by a pair or several individuals, and nothing more is required than for the hearer to shut his eyes from the neighbouring foliage to fancy himself surrounded by London grimalkins of house-top celebrity."
1888. D.Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 36:
"One of the most peculiar of birds' eggs found about the Murray is that of the locally-termed `cat-bird,' the shell of which is veined thickly with dark thin threads as though covered with a spider's web."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals.' p. 96:
"The cat-bird (AEluraedus maculosus), which makes its appearance towards evening, and has a voice strikingly like the mewing of a cat."
1893. `The Argus,' March 25:
"Another quaint caller of the bush is the cat-bird, and its eggs are of exactly the colour of old ivory."
1896. G. A. Keartland, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' pt. ii. Zoology, p. 92:
"Their habit of mewing like a cat has gained for them the local cognomen of cat-birds."
1851. J. Henderson, `Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 207:
"The Cat-fish, which I have frequently caught in the McLeay, is a large and very ugly animal. Its head is provided with several large tentacatae, and it has altogether a disagreeable appearance. I have eat its flesh, but did not like it."
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 213 [Footnote]:
"Mr. Frank Buckland . . . writing of a species of rock-fish, says—`I found that it had a beautiful contrivance in the conformation of its mouth. It has the power of prolongating both its jaws to nearly the extent of half-an-inch from their natural position. This is done by a most beautiful bit of mechanism, somewhat on the principle of what are called `lazy tongs.' The cat-fish possesses a like feature, but on a much larger scale, the front part of the mouth being capable of being protruded between two and three inches when seizing prey.'"
The animal is more correctly called a Dasyure (q.v.).The species are—
Black-tailed Native CatDasyurus geoffroyi, Gould.
Common N.C. (called also Tiger Cat, q.v.)—D. viverrimus, Shaw.
North Australian N.C.—D. hallucatus, Gould.
Papuan N.C.—D. albopienetatus, Schl.
Slender N.C.—D. gracilis, Ramsay.
Spotted-tailed N.C. (called also Tiger Cat)—D. maculatus, Kerr.
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 67:
"The native cat is similar [to the Tiger Cat; q.v.] but smaller, and its for is an ashy-grey with white spots. We have seen two or three skins quite black, spotted with white, but these are very rare."
1885. H. H.Hayter, `Carboona,' p. 35:
"A blanket made of the fur-covered skins of the native cat."
1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4:
"The voices of most of our night animals are guttural and unpleasing. The 'possum has a throaty half-stifled squeak, the native cat a deep chest-note ending with a hiss and easily imitated." [See Skirr.]
1801. J. J. Fletcher, `Proceedings of the Linnaean Society, New South Wales,' vol. vi. (2nd series), p. 265:
"Notaden bennettii, the Catholic frog, or as I have heard it called the Holy Cross Toad, I first noticed in January 1885, after a heavy fall of rain lasting ten days, off and on, and succeeding a severe drought."
1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 220:
"The cat's-head fern; though why that name was given to it I have not the remotest idea. . . . It is full of beauty—the pinnules so exquisitely formed and indented, and gemmed beneath with absolute constellations of Spori Polystichum vestitum."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 117:
"Cattle-bush . . . The leaves of this tree are eaten by stock, the tree being frequently felled for their use during seasons of drought."