1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand, p. 132:
"Tawiri, white-mapou, white-birch (of Auckland). A small tree, ten to thirty feet high; trunk unusually slender; branches spreading in a fan-shaped manner, which makes it of very ornamental appearance; flower white, profusely produced. The wood is soft and tough."
1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 75:
"By the settlers it is frequently called `black mapou' on account of the colour of the bark. . . . With still less excuse it is sometimes called `black maple,' an obvious corruption of the preceding."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 233:
"I wondered often what was the meaning of this, amongst many other peculiar colonial phrases, `Is the man a good mark?' I heard it casually from the lips of apparently respectable settlers, as they rode on the highway, `Such and such a one is a good mark,"—simply a person who pays his men their wages, without delays or drawbacks; a man to whom you may sell anything safely; for there are in the colony people who are regularly summoned before the magistrates by every servant they employ for wages. They seem to like to do everything publicly, legally, and so become notoriously not `good marks.'"
[So also "bad mark," in the opposite sense.]
The Mariner is called by the Tasmanian Fishery Commissioners the "Pearly Necklace Shell"; when deprived of its epidermis by acid or other means, it has a blue or green pearly lustre.
The shells are made into necklaces, of which the aboriginal name is given as Merrina, and the name of the shell is a corruption of this word, by the law of Hobson-Jobson. Compare Warrener.
1878. `Catalogue of the Objects of Ethnotypical Art in the National Gallery' (Melbourne), p. 52:
"Necklace, consisting of 565 shells (Elenchus Bellulus) strung on thin, well-made twine. The native name of a cluster of these shells was, according to one writer, Merrina."
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 163:
"Perhaps my use of the common colonial term `marsh' may be misunderstood at home, as I remember that I myself associated it at first with the idea of a swamp; but a `marsh' here is what would in England be called a meadow, with this difference, that in our marshes, until partially drained, a growth of tea-trees (Leptospermum) and rushes in some measure encumbers them; but, after a short time, these die off, and are trampled down, and a thick sward of verdant grass covers the whole extent: such is our `marsh.'"
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 129:
"The marsupial type exhibits the economy of nature under novel and very interesting arrangements. . . . Australia is the great head-quarters of the marsupial tribe."
1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 5:
"I believe it was Charles Lamb who said, the peculiarity of the small fore-feet of the Kangaroo seemed to be for picking pockets; but he forgot to mention the singularity characterizing the animal kingdom of Australia, that they have pockets to be picked, being mostly marsupial. We have often amused ourselves by throwing sugar or bread into the pouch of the Kangaroo, and seen with what delight the animal has picked its own pocket, and devoured the contents, searching its bag, like a Highlander his sporran, for more."
[See Kangaroo, quotation 1833.]
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 106:
"An Act known as the Marsupial Act was accordingly passed to encourage their destruction, a reward of so much a scalp being offered by the Government. . . . Some of the squatters have gone to a vast expense in fencing-in their runs with marsupial fencing, but it never pays."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 29:
"One of the sheep-owners told me that in the course of eighteen months he had killed 64,000 of these animals (marsupials), especially wallabies (Macropus dorsalis) and kangaroo- rats (Lagorchestes conspicillatus), and also many thousands of the larger kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)."
1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 9, col. 1:
"In South Australia the Legislature has had to appoint a close season for kangaroos, else would extinction of the larger marsupials be at hand. We should have been forced to such action also, if the American market for kangaroo-hides had continued as brisk as formerly."
1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 1:
"The great island-continent of Australia, together with the South-eastern Austro-Malayan islands, is especially characterized by being the home of the great majority of that group of lowly mammals commonly designated marsupials, or pouched-mammals. Indeed, with the exception of the still more remarkable monotremes [q.v.], or egg-laying mammals, nearly the whole of the mammalian fauna of Australia consists of these marsupials, the only other indigenous mammals being certain rodents and bats, together with the native dog, or dingo, which may or may not have been introduced by man."
1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 30:
"The presence of a predominating marsupial order in Australia has, besides practically establishing the long isolation of that continent from the rest of the globe, also given rise to a number of ingenious theories professing to account for its survival to this last stronghold."
Tree,Petrochelidon nigricans, Vieill.;
Fairy, Lagenoplastes ariel, Gould; called also Bottle-Swallow (q.v.).
1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 128:
". . . the elegant little Fairy Martins (Lagenoplastes ariel), which construct a remarkable mud nest in shape not unlike a retort."
1859. J. T. Thomson, in `Otago Gazette,' Sept. 22, p. 264:
"Much over-run with the scrub called `tomata-guru.'"
Alex. Garvie, ibid. p. 280:
"Much of it is encumbered with matakura scrub."
1892. W. McHutcheson, `Camp Life in Fiordland,' p. 8:
"Trudging moodily along in Indian file through the matagouri scrub and tussock."
1896. `Otago Witness,' 7th May, p. 48:
"The tea generally tastes of birch or Matagouri."
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 124:
"Mr. Buchanan has described a log of matai that he found had been exposed for at least 200 years in a dense damp bush in North-East Valley, Dunedin, as proved by its being enfolded by the roots of three large trees of Griselinia littoralis."
1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand' (ed. 1886), p. 94:
"The varieties of matapo, a beautiful shrub, each leaf a study, with its delicate tracery of black veins on a yellow-green ground."
1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxi. art. xlix. p. 329:
"The tipau, or matipo (pittosporum tenuifolium), makes the best ornamental hedge I know of."
1879. `Tourist,' `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. iii. p. 93:
"An undergrowth of beautiful shrubs, conspicuous amongst these were the Pittosporum or Matipo, which are, however, local in their distribution, unlike the veronicas, which abound everywhere."
1894. `The Australasian,' April 28, p. 732, col. 1:
[Statement as to origin of melitose by the Baron von Mueller.] "Sir Frederick M'Coy has traced the production of mellitose also to a smaller cicade."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 9:
"The soil of the Bricklow scrub is a stiff clay, washed out by the rains into shallow holes, well known by the squatters under the name of melon-holes."
Ibid. p: 77:
"A stiff, wiry, leafless, polyganaceous plant grows in the shallow depressions of the surface of the ground, which are significantly termed by the squatters `Melon-holes,' and abound in the open Box-tree flats."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' p. 220:
"The plain is full of deep melon-holes, and the ground is rotten and undermined with rats."
1800. T. Davies, `Description of Menura superba,' in `Transactions of the Linnaean Society' (1802), vol. vi. p. 208:
"The general colour of the under sides of these two [tail] feathers is of a pearly hue, elegantly marked on the inner web with bright rufous-coloured crescent-shaped spots, which, from the extraordinary construction of the parts, appear wonderfully transparent."
1830. J. D. Lang, `Poems' (edition 1873), p. 116:
"Beneath his shaggy flaxen matThe dreadful marree hangs concealed."
1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 48:
"The old man has broken my head with his meri."
1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' p. 140:
"Of these the greenstone meri was the most esteemed. It weighs six pounds, is thirteen inches long, and in shape resembles a soda-water bottle flattened. In its handle is a hole for a loop of flax, which is twisted round the wrist. Meris are carried occasionally in the girdle, like Malay knives. In conflicts the left hand grasped the enemy's hair, and one blow from the meri on the head produced death."
188]. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 229:
"A land of musket and meri-armed warriors, unprovided with a meat supply, even of kangaroo."
1889. Jessie Mackay, `The Spirit of the Rangatira,' p. 16:
"He brandished his greenstone mere high,And shouted a Maori battle-cry."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 33:
"`No, no, my peg; I thrust it in with this meri,' yells Maori Jack, brandishing his war-club."
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 116:
"Next we have the legitimates . . . such as have legal reasons for visiting this colony; and the illegitimates, or such as are free from that stigma. The pure merinos are a variety of the latter species, who pride themselves on being of the purest blood in the colony."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 429:
"It is also known by the name of `Messmate,' because it is allied to, or associated with, Stringy-bark. This is probably the tallest tree on the globe, individuals having been measured up to 400 ft., 410 ft., and in one case 420 ft., with the length of the stem up to the first branch 295 ft. The height of a tree at Mt. Baw Baw (Victoria) is quoted at 471 ft."
1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 13, col1. 4:
"Away to the north-east a wooded range of mountains rolls along the skyline, ragged rents showing here and there where the dead messmates and white gums rise like gaunt skeletons from the dusky brown-green mass into which distance tones the bracken and the underwood."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 103:
"There she stood in a perfect state of nudity, a little way from the road, by her miam, smiling, or rather grimacing."
1852. Letter from Mrs. Perry, given in Canon Goodman's Church in Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 167:
"We came upon the largest (deserted) native encampment we had ever seen. One of the mia-mias (you know what that is by this time—the a is not sounded) was as large as an ordinary sized circular summer-house, and actually had rude seats all round, which is quite unusual. It had no roof, they never have, being mere break-weathers, not so high as a man's shoulder."
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 366:
"They constructed a mimi, or bower of boughs on the other, leaving portholes amongst the boughs towards the road."
1858. T. McCombie, `History of Victoria,' c. vii. p. 96:
"Their thoughts wandered to their hunting-grounds and mia-mias on the Murray."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 15:
[Notice varied spelling in the same author.] "Many of the diggers resided under branches of trees made into small `miams' or `wigwams.'"
1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 42:
"The next day I began building a little `mi-mi,' to serve as a resting-place for the night in going back at any time for supplies."
1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' (1841-1851), p. 148:
"Of the mia-mias, some were standing; others had, wholly or in part, been thrown down by their late occupants."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 32:
"A few branches thrown up against the prevailing wind, in rude imitation of the native mia-mia."
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 111:
"[The blacks] would compel [the missionaries] to carry their burdens while travelling, or build their mia-mias when halting to camp for the night; in fact, all sorts of menial offices had to be discharged by the missionaries for these noble black men while away on the wilds!"
[Footnote]: "Small huts, made of bark and leafy boughs, built so as to protect them against the side from which the wind blew."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 217:
"The wary and still more dangerously sudden `Micky,' a two-year-old bull."
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. pp. 11, 12:
"The mihanere natives, as a body, were distinctly inferior in point of moral character to the natives, who remained with their ancient customs unchanged. . . . A very common answer from a converted native, accused of theft, was, `How can that be? I am a mihanere.' . . . They were all mihanere, or converts."
1880. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' vol. v. pt. ii. p. 128:
"Another species [of Trepang] is the `milk fish' or `cotton fish,' so called from its power of emitting a white viscid fluid from its skin, which clings to an object like shreds of cotton."
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
"Milk-tree . . . a tall slender tree exuding a milky sap: wood white and very brittle."
1896. `The Australasian,' March 14, p. 488, col. 5:
"One of the very best of the grasses found in the hot regions of Central Australia is the Australian millet, Panicum decompositum. It is extremely hardy and stands the hot dry summers of the north very well; it is nutritious, and cattle and sheep are fond of it. It seeds freely, was used by the aborigines for making a sort of cake, and was the only grain stored by them. This grass thrives in poor soil, and starts into rapid growth with the first autumn rains."
1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' p. 52:
"This shrub is now not uncommon in our greenhouses, having been raised in plenty from seeds brought from Port Jackson. It generally bears its fragrant flowers late in the autumn, and might then at first sight be sooner taken for a Myrtus than a Mimosa."
1802. Jas. Flemming, `Journal of Explorations of Charles Grimes,' in `Historical Records of Port Phillip' (ed. 1879, J. J. Shillinglaw), p. 25:
"Timber; gum, Banksia, oak, and mimosa of sorts, but not large except the gum."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 202:
"Gum-arabic, which exudes from the mimosa shrubs."
1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 18, p. 4, col. 2:
"`Cashmere' shawls do not grow on the mimosa trees."
1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 38:
"The mimosa is a very graceful tree; the foliage is of a light green colour. . . . The yellow flowers with which the mimosa is decked throw out a perfume sweeter than the laburnum; and the gum . . . is said not to be dissimilar to gum-arabic."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 175:
"But, Yarra, thou art lovelier now,With clouds of bloom on every bough;A gladsome sight it is to see,In blossom thy mimosa tree.Like golden-moonlight doth it seem,The moonlight of a heavenly dream;A sunset lustre, chaste and cold,A pearly splendour blent with gold."
"To the River Yarra."
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 255:
"The other exports of Australia Felix consist chiefly of tallow, cured beef and mutton, wheat, mimosa-bark, and gumwood."
1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 34:
"The mimosa—although it sadly chokes the country—when in flower, fills the air with fragrance. Its bark is much used for tanning purposes; and the gum that exudes from the stem is of some value as an export, and is used by the blacks as food."
1870. F. S. Wilson, `Australian Songs,' p. 29:
"I have sat, and watched the landscape, latticed by the goldencurls,Showering, like mimosa-blooms, in scented streams about mybreast."
Bell-Mina—Manorhina melanophrys, Lath.
Bush-M.—Myzantha garrula, Lath.
Dusky-M.—M. obscura, Gould.
Yellow-M.—M. lutea, Gould.
Yellow-throated M.—M. flavigula, Gould.
1803. Lord Valentia, `Voyages,' vol. i. p. 227 [Stanford]:
"During the whole of our stay two minahs were talking most incessantly."
1813. J. Forbes, `Oriental Memoirs,' vol. i. p. 47 [Yule]:
"The mynah is a very entertaining bird, hopping about the house, and articulating several words in the manner of the starling."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 40:
"While at other times, like the miners (genus, Myzantha), it soars from tree to tree with the most graceful and easy movement."
Ibid. vol. iv. pl. 76:
"Myzantha garrula, Vig. and Horsf, Garrulous Honey-eater; miner, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land, M. flavigula, Gould, Yellow-Throated miner."
1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' vol. i. p. 33:
"His common name . . . is said to be given from his resemblance to some Indian bird called mina or miner."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 72:
"The Indian minah is as much at home, and almost as presumptuous, as the sparrow."
(p. 146): "Yellow-legged minahs, tamest of all Australian birds."
1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:
"The plaintive chirp of the mina."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 1:
"A miner's right, a wonderful document, printed and written on parchment, precisely as follows."
[A reduced facsimile is given.]
Ibid. p. 106:
"You produce your Miner's Right . . . The important piece of parchment, about the size of a bank-cheque, was handed to the Court."
1888. R. M. Johnston, `Geology of Tasmania,' p. 337:
"With the exception of their rude inconspicuous flints, and the accumulated remains of their feasts in the `mirnyongs,' or native shell-mounds, along our coasts, which only have significance to the careful observer, we have no other visible evidence of their former existence."
1893. R. Etheridge, jun., `Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,' p. 21 [Title of Paper]:
"The Mirrn-yong heaps at the North-West bank of the RiverMurray."
1855. Rev. R. Taylor, `Te Ika a Maui,' p. 403:
"Miro-miro (Miro albifrons). A little black-and-white bird with a large head; it is very tame, and has a short melancholy song. The miro toi-toi (muscicapa toi-toi) is a bird not larger than the tom-tit. Its plumage is black and white, having a white breast and some of the near feathers of each wing tinged with white."
1879. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xii. art. vii. p. 119:
"Proverb 28: Ma to kanohi miro-miro, [signifying] `To be found by the sharp-eyed little bird.' Lit. `For the miro-miro's eye.' Used as a stimulus to a person searching for anything lost. The miro-miro is the little petroica toi-toi, which runs up and down trees peering for minute insects in the bark."
1882. W. L. Buller, `Manual of the Birds of New Zealand,' p. 23:
"The Petroeca Iongipes is confined to the North Island, where it is very common in all the wooded parts of the country; but it is represented in the South Island by a closely allied and equally common species, the miro albifrons."
(2) Maori name for a New Zealand tree, Podocarpus ferruginea, Don., N.O. Coniferae; the Black-pine of Otago.
1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 308:
"The miro-tree (Podocarpus ferruginea) is found in slightly elevated situations in many of the forests in New Zealand. Height about sixty feet. The wood varies from light to dark-brown in colour, is close in grain, moderately hard and heavy, planes up well, and takes a good polish."
1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 163:
"The Miro is a valuable tree, common in all parts of the colony. . . . It is usually distinguished by its ordinary native name."
(1) In Australia, generally, to various species of Loranthus, N.O. Loranthaceae. There are a great number, they are very common on the Eucalypts, and they have the same viscous qualities as the European Mistletoes.
(2) In Western Australia, to Nuytsia floribunda, R. Br., N.O. Loranthaceae, a terrestrial species attaining the dimensions of a tree—the Flame-tree (q.v.) of Western Australia—and also curiously called there a Cabbage- tree.
(3) In Tasmania, to Cassytha pubescens, R. Br., N.O. Lauraceae.
1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings, p. 43:
"The English mistletoe is the well-known Viscum album, whereas all the Victorian kinds belong to the genus Loranthus, of which the Mediterranean L. Europaeus is the prototype. The generic name arose in allusion to the strap-like narrowness of the petals."
[Greek lowron, from Lat. lorum, a thong, and 'anthos, a flower.]
1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 660:
"Used for food by the natives. The most valuable fodder-grass of the colony. True Mitchell-grass."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 78:
"Mitchell-grass. The flowering spikes resemble ears of wheat.. . . It is by no means plentiful."
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of New Zealand Language' (Church Missionary Society), p. 181:
"Moe [sic], a bird so called."
1839. `Proceedings of Zoological Society,' Nov. 12:
[Description by Owen of Dinornis without the name of Moa. It contained the words—
"So far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be credited, I am willing to risk the reputation for it, on the statement that there has existed, if there does not now exist, in New Zealand a Struthious bird, nearly, if not quite equal in size to the Ostrich."]
1844. Ibid. vol. iii. pt. iii. p. 237:
[Description of Dinornis by Owen, in which he names the Moa, and quotes letter from Rev. W. (afterwards Bishop) Williams, dated Feb. 28, 1842, "to which they gave the name of Moa."]
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 137:
"The new genus Dinornis, which includes also the celebrated moa, or gigantic bird of New Zealand, and bears some resemblance to the present Apteryx, or wingless bird of that country . . . The New Zealanders assert that this extraordinary bird was in existence in the days of their ancestors, and was finally destroyed by their grandfathers."
1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand' (English translation), p. 214:
"First among them were the gigantic wingless Moas, Dinornis and Palapteryx, which seem to have been exterminated already about the middle of the seventeenth century."
[Query, eighteenth century?]
1867. Ibid. p. 181:
"By the term `Moa' the natives signify a family of birds, that we know merely from bones and skeletons, a family of real giant-birds compared with the little Apterygides."
[Footnote]: "Moa or Toa, throughout Polynesia, is the word applied to domestic fowls, originating perhaps from the Malay word mua, a kind of peasants [sic]. The Maoris have no special term for the domestic fowl."
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' Introduction, p. lvi. [Footnote]:
"I have remarked the following similarity between the names employed in the Fijian and Maori languages for the same or corresponding birds: Toa (any fowl-like kind of bird) = Moa (Dinornis)."
1811. G. Paterson, `History of New South Wales,' p. 530:
"Besides herds of kangaroos, four large wolves were seen at Western Port."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia':
[p. 110]: "Herds of kangaroos."
[p. 139]: "An immense herd of kangaroos."
[p. 196]: "Flocks of kangaroos of every size."
1835. T. B. Wilson, `Voyage round the World,' p. 243:
"We started several flocks of kangaroos."
1836. Dec. 26, Letter in `Three Years' Practical Experience of a Settler in New South Wales,' p.44:
"A man buying a flock of sheep, or a herd of cattle . . . While I watched the mop I had collected." [This, thus spelt, seems the earliest instance.]
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 6:
"Droves of kangaroos."
Of Men—
[But with the Australian and not the ordinary English signification.]
1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 223:
"A contractor in a large way having a mob of men in his employ."
1890. `The Argus,' Aug.16, p.13, Col. 2:
"It doesn't seem possible to get a mob of steady men for work of that sort now."
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 69:
"He, tho' living fifty miles away, was one of the `Dunmore mob,' and aided generally in the symposia which were there enjoyed."
Of Blackfellows—
1822. J. West, `History of Tasmania' (1852), vol. ii. p. 12:
"The settlers of 1822 remember a number of natives, who roamed about the district, and were known as the `tame mob'; they were absconders from different tribes."
1830. Newspaper (Tasmanian), March, (cited J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 42):
"A mob of natives appeared at Captain Smith's hut, at his run."
1835. H. Melville, `History of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 75:
"A mob of some score or so of natives, men, women, and children, had been discovered by their fires."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia', p. 107:
"A whole crowd of men on horseback get together, with a mob of blacks to assist them."
1892. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 134:
"At the side of the crowd was a small mob of blacks with their dogs, spears, possum rugs, and all complete."
Of Cattle—
1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 14:
"Now to the stockyard crowds the mob;'Twill soon be milking time."
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 70:
"A number of cattle collected together is colonially termed a mob."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 105:
"A mixed mob of cattle—cows, steers, and heifers— had to be collected."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 120:
"`Mobs' or small sub-divisions of the main herd."
Of Sheep—
1860. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 169:
"It was more horrible to see the drowning, or just drowned, huddled-up `mob' (as sheep en masse are technically called) which had made the dusky patch we noticed from the hill."
1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), May 22, p. 34, col. 2:
"A mob of sheep has been sold at Belfast at 1s. 10d. per head."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 83
"The army of sheep—about thirty thousand in fifteen flocks— at length reached the valley before dark, and the overseer, pointing to a flock of two thousand, more or less, said, `There's your mob.'"
Of Horses—
1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 27:
"All the animals to make friends with, mobs of horses to look at."
1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 197:
"I purchased a mob of horses for the Dunstan market."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 111:
"The stockman came suddenly on a mob of nearly thirty horses, feeding up a pleasant valley."
Of Kangaroos—
1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 59:
"The `old men' are always the largest and strongest in the flock, or in colonial language `mob.'"
1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, `The Bulla Bulla Bunyip':
"About a mile outside the town a four-rail fence skirted the rough track we followed. It enclosed a lucerne paddock. Over the grey rails, as we approached, came bounding a mob of kangaroos, headed by a gigantic perfectly white `old man,' which glimmered ghostly in the moonlight."
Of Ducks—
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia, p. 99:
"They [the ducks] all came in twos and threes, and small mobs."
Of Clothes—
1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 22, p. 2, col. 6:
"They buttoned up in front; the only suit to the mob which did so."
Of Books—
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 72:
"If it was in your mob of books, give this copy to somebody that would appreciate it."
More generally—
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 20:
"A number of cattle together is here usually termed a `mob,' and truly their riotous and unruly demeanour renders the designation far from inapt; but I was very much amused at first, to hear people gravely talking of `a mob of sheep,' or `a mob of lambs,' and it was some time ere I became accustomed to the novel use of the word. Now, the common announcements that `the cuckoo hen has brought out a rare mob of chickens,' or that `there's a great mob of quail in the big paddock,' are to me fraught with no alarming anticipations."
1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia,' p. 114:
"`There will be a great mob of things going down to-day,' said one to another, which meant that there would be a heavy cargo in number; we must remember that the Australians have a patois of their own."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 135:
"What a mob of houses, people, cabs, teams, men, women and children!"
1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 204:
"I heard from the summit the mogo of a native at work on some tree close by."
1868. W. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 20:
"One mute memorial by his bier,His mogo, boomerang, and spear."
1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 52:
"Moguey, a Maori name for a raupo or flax-stick raft."
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church Missionary Society), p. 182:
"Moki, s. A fish so called."
1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealanders,' vol. ii. p. 226:
"In the absence of canoes, a quantity of dried bulrushes are fastened together, on which the native is enabled to cross a stream by sitting astride and paddling with his hands; these humble conveyances are called moki, and resemble those made use of by the Egyptians in crossing among the islands of the Nile. They are extremely buoyant, and resist saturation for a longer period."
1858. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' c. iii. p. 18:
"We crossed the river on mokis. By means of large mokis, carrying upwards of a ton. . . . Moki navigation."
1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82:
"For the benefit of the unlearned in such matters, let me here explain that a `Mokihi' is constructed of Koradies, Anglice, the flowering stalks of the flax,—three faggots of which lashed firmly in a point at the small ends, and expanded by a piece of wood at the stern, constitute the sides and bottom of the frail craft, which, propelled by a paddle, furnishes sufficient means of transport for a single individual."
1769. J. Banks, `Journal,' Nov. 22 (Sir J. D. Hooker's edition, 1896), p. 203:
"They had a much larger quantity of amoca [sic] or black stains upon their bodies and faces. They had almost universally a broad spiral on each buttock, and many had their thighs almost entirely black, small lines only being left untouched, so that they looked like striped breeches. In this particular, I mean the use of amoca, almost every tribe seems to have a different custom."
1896. `The Times' (Weekly Edition), July 17, p. 498 col. 3:
"In this handsome volume, `Moko or Maori Tattooing,' Major-General Robley treats of an interesting subject with a touch of the horrible about it which, to some readers, will make the book almost fascinating. Nowhere was the system of puncturing the flesh into patterns and devices carried out in such perfection or to such an extent as in New Zealand. Both men and women were operated upon among the Maoris."
1888. A. W. Bathgate, `Sladen's Australian Ballads,' p. 22:
[Title]: "To the Moko-moko, or Bell-bird."
[Footnote]: "Now rapidly dying out of our land," sc. NewZealand.
(2) Maori name for the lizard, Lygosoma ornatum, Gray, or Lygosoma moko, Durn. and Bib.
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church Missionary Society), p. 182:
"Moko-moko, a small lizard."
"First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood."
Moloch was the national god of the Ammonites (1 Kings xi. 7), and was the personification of fire as a destructive element.
1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' Narrative, p. 41:
"Numerous lizards such as the strange Moloch horridus, the bright yellow, orange, red and black of which render it in life very different in appearance from the bleached specimens of museum cases."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 173:
"Jimmy, however, had, to my great delight, found mongan (Pseudochirus herbertensis), a new and very pretty mammal, whose habitat is exclusively the highest tops of the scrubs in the Coast Mountains."
1853. C. St. Julian and E. K. Silvester, `The Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' p. 30:
"The Kola, so called by the aborigines, but more commonly known among the settlers as the native bear or monkey, is found in brush and forest lands . . ."
1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,' p. 9:
"A little monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only gum-tree that grew on the premises, grunting and whimpering."
1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 69:
"They began to think they might be already too deep for it, and a small `monkey'-shaft was therefore driven upwards from the end of the tunnel."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 88:
"No one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of `monkeys,' as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the head-station."
The Monotremes are strictly confined to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. They are the Platypus (q.v.), and the Echidna (q.v.), or Ant-eating Porcupine.
the Black, Gallinula tenebrosa, Gould; Rufous-tailed, G. ruficrissa, Gould.
1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 169:
"The Rail-like bird, the Black-tailed Tribonyx, or Moor-Hen of the colonists, which, when strutting along the bank of a river, has a grotesque appearance, with the tail quite erect like that of a domestic fowl, and rarely resorts to flight." [The Tribonyx is called Native Hen, not Moorhen.]
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 182:
"`Mooning' opossums is a speciality with country boys. The juvenile hunter utilises the moon as a cavalry patrol would his field-glass for every suspected point."
1890. E. Davenport Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 66:
"They had to go through the process known as `mooning.' Walking backwards from the tree, each one tried to get the various limbs and branches between him and the moon, and then follow them out to the uttermost bunch of leaves where the 'possum might be feeding."
The bird is heard far more often than seen, hence confusion has arisen as to what is the bird that utters the note. The earlier view was that the bird was Podargus cuvieri, Vig. and Hors., which still popularly retains the name; whereas it is really the owl, Ninox boobook, that calls "morepork" or "mopoke" so loudly at night. Curiously, Gould, having already assigned the name Morepork to Podargus, in describing the Owlet Night-jar varies the spelling and writes, "little Mawepawk, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." The New Zealand Morepork is assuredly an owl. The Podargus has received the name of Frogmouth and the Mopoke has sometimes been called a Cuckoo (q.v.). See also Boobook, Frogsmouth.
The earliest ascertained use of the word is—
1827. Hellyer (in 1832), `Bischoff, Van Diemen's Land,' p. 177:
"One of the men shot a `more pork.'"
The Bird's note—
1868. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 19:
"The Austral cuckoo spokeHis melancholy note—`Mo-poke.'"
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs and Wattle Bloom,' p. 236:
"Many a still night in the bush I have listened to the weird metallic call of this strange bird, the mopoke of the natives, without hearing it give expression to the pork-shop sentiments."
Podargus—
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 4:
"Podargus Cuvieri, Vig. and Horsf, More-pork of the Colonists."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 33:
"We are lulled to sleep by the melancholy, sleep-inspiring, and not disagreeable voices of the night bird Podargus— `More-pork! more-pork!'"
1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule.':
"Podargus or Mopoke. [Close Season.] The whole year."