"The popular name seems to be indifferently Death Adder or Deaf Adder. The harmless horny spine at the end of the tail is its most dangerous weapon, in the popular belief."
Diamond-Snake.
Name applied in New South Wales and Queensland to Python spilotes, Lacep., a non-venomous snake reaching a large size. In Tasmania the same name is given to Hoplocephalus superbus, Gray, a venomous snake more properly called the Copperhead Snake.
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 78:
"Charley killed a diamond snake, larger than any he had ever seen before."
1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip,' c. iii. p. 43:
"The diamond snake is that most dreaded by the natives."
1869. G. Krefft, `The Snakes of Australia,' p. 29:
"Diamond snakes are found in almost every kind of country that offers them sufficient shelter."
1895. G. Metcalfe, `Australian Zoology,' p. 27:
"As a rule, diamond snakes have almost every scale of the body marked with a yellow spot in the centre. . . . The abdominal plates are yellow, and more or less blotched with black, and many species . . . have a number of diamond-shaped yellow spots upon the body, formed by a few of the lighter scales, and hence their name has probably arisen."
Green Tree-Snake.
Name given, owing to its colour, to the commonest Australian tree-snake, Dendrophis punctulata, Gray. It is a non-venomous form, feeding on frogs, young birds, and eggs, and rarely exceeds the length of six feet.
1869. G. Krefft, `The Snakes of Australia,' p. 24:
"Young and half grown Tree Snakes are olive-green above and light brown below . . . when angry, the body of this serpent expands in a vertical direction, whilst all venomous snakes flatten their necks horizontally. The green Tree snake, in a state of excitement is strongly suggestive of one of the popular toys of childhood."
Little Whip-Snake.
Name applied to a small venomous species of snake, Hoplocephalus flagellum, McCoy. Common in parts of Victoria, but not exceeding a foot in length.
1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. c. xxvii. p. 190:
"He wished it had been a whip-snake instead of a magpie."
1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. xx. p. 199:
"A whip-snake . . . reared itself upon its lithe body, and made a dart at Barrington's arm."
1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. iii. p. 24:
"I saw a large `whip-snake' lying on the path."
Tiger-Snake.
Name applied in Australia and Tasmania to Hoplocephalus curtus, Schlegel, but this species is often also known in the latter as the Carpet Snake (q.v.). The popular name is derived from the cross-banded colouring along the body, and also from its activity. It varies much in colour from a dark olive green to a light yellowish brown, the darker cross bands being sometimes almost indistinguishable. It may reach a length of four feet, and is viviparous, producing about thirty young ones in January or February.
1875. `The Spectator' (Melbourne), Aug. 21, p. 190, col. 1:
"On Tuesday a tiger-snake was seen opposite the door of theSandridge police court."
1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Decade i. pl. 3:
"This species, which goes under the colonial name in Victoria of Tiger snake, from its tawny cross banded colouring and ferocity, is well known to frequently inflict bites rapidly fatal to men and dogs. . . . In Tasmania this is popularly called `Carpet snake,' a name which properly belongs to the harmless snake so called on the mainland."
Two-hooded Furina-Snake.
Name applied to a small, venomous snake, Furina bicuculata, McCoy.
1879. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Decade iii. pl. 32:
"Furina bicuculata (McCoy). The Two-hooded Furina-snake. . . . This rare and beautiful little snake is a clear example of the genus Furina."
White-lipped-Snake.
Name given to a small venomous species of whip-snake, Hoplocephalus coronoides, Gunth., found in Tasmania and Victoria, and reaching a length of about eighteen inches.
1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 71:
"Whip snakes, H. flagellum and H. coronoides."
Worm-Snake.
Name given to various species of the genus Typhlops, comprising small, non-venomous, smooth, round-bodied snakes, which burrow in warm sandy soil, and feed upon insects such as ants. The eyes are covered over by translucent plates, and the tail scarcely tapering at all, and sometimes having two black spots, gives the animal the appearance of having a head at each end. The commoner forms are the Blackish Worm-Snake (Typhlops nigrescens, Gray), and Schlegel's Worm-Snake (T. polygrammicus, Schlegel).
1881. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Decade vi. pl. 103:
"The `Blackish Worm snake' is not uncommon in the northern warmer parts of the colony. . . . These worm snakes are perfectly harmless, although, like the Slow-Worms and their allies in other countries, they are popularly supposed to be very poisonous."
1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 58:
"The Sneeze-weed (Cotula or Centipeda Cunninghamii). A dwarf, erect, odorous herb . . . can be converted into snuff."
1886. Dr. Woolls, in `Sydney Morning Herald,' Dec. 25 (quoted by Maiden):
"Dr. Jockel is, I believe, the first medical man in Australia who has proved the value of Myriogyne in a case of ophthalmia. This weed, growing as it does on the banks of rivers and creeks, and in moist places,, is common in all the Australian colonies and Tasmania, and it may be regarded as almost co-extensive with the disease it is designed to relieve."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 210:
"Along the shore are flocks of a species of bird which some sportsmen and the game-sellers in the city are pleased to call snipe. They are probably tringa, a branch of the sea-plover family."
1697. Dampier, `Voyage,' vol. i:
"The chiefest fish are bonetas, snooks, cavallys."
Snook is an old name, but it is doubtful whether it is used in the Old World for the same fish. Castelnau says it is the snook of the Cape of Good Hope.
1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 14, under `Thyrsites Atun, Barracoota':
"This is, I believe, the fish called snoek in Cape Colony."
1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 436:
"Th. atun from the Cape of Good Hope, South Australia, New Zealand, and Chili, is preserved, pickled or smoked. In New Zealand it is called `barracuda' or `snoek,' and exported from the colony into Mauritius and Batavia as a regular article of commerce."
1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 31:
"Tethering my good old horse to a tussock of snow-grass."
1895. `The Australasian,' Sept. 7, p. 461, col. 1:
"`Inquirer.'—The term soak in Western Australia, as used on maps and plans, signifies a depression holding moisture after rain. It is also given to damp or swampy spots round the base of granite rocks. Wells sunk on soaks yield water for some time after rain. All soaks are of a temporary character."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 82:
"Parallel poles, resting on forks driven into the bed of the water-hole, were run out on the surface of the stream, forming square soak-holes, a long, narrow lane leading to the dry land."
1854. G. H. Haydon, `The Australian Emigrant,' p. 59:
"It was a red ant, upwards of an inch in length—`that's a soldier, and he prods hard too.'"
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 308:
"The pain caused by a wound from this grass-seed is exactly like that from the bite of a soldier-ant."
1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 62:
"The notes peculiar to the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, or platypus, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . The wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's o'clock,'—the leather-head the `stop where-you-are.'"
[Mr. Bunce's observations are curiously confused. The `Soldier-bird' is also called `Four o'clock,' but it is difficult to say what `wattle bird' is called `what's o'clock'; the `notes' of the platypus must be indeed `peculiar.']
1896. Mrs. Langloh Parker, `Australian Legendary Tales,' p. 108 [Title of Tale]:
"Deegeenboyah the Soldier-bird."
1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 10:
"But maybe you're only a Johnnie,And don't know a horse from a hoe?Weel, weel, don't get angry, my Sonny,But, really, a young `un should know."
Shakspeare, `King John,' IV. i. 117:
"And like a dog that is compelled to fight,Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on."
1896. Mrs. Langloh Parker, `Australian Legendary Tales,' p. 90:
"She went quickly towards her camp, calling softly, `Birree gougou,' which meant `Sool 'em, sool 'em,' and was the signal for the dogs to come out."
1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 13:
"The southern cross is a very great delusion. It isn't a cross. It is a kite, a kite upside down, an irregular kite upside down, with only three respectable stars and one very poor and very much out of place. Near it, however, is a truly mysterious and interesting object called the coal sack: it is a black patch in the sky distinctly darker than all the rest of the heavens. No star shines through it. The proper name for it is the black Magellan cloud."
1868. Mrs. Riddell, `Lay of Far South,' p. 4:
"Yet do I not regret the loss,Thou hast thy gleaming Southern Cross."
1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. 35:
"The Southern Cross rose gem-like above the horizon."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 202:
"The spade-press—that friendly adjunct of the pioneer squatter's humble wool-shed."
1857. `Paul's Letters from Canterbury,' p. 108:
"The country through which I have passed has been most savage, one mass of Spaniards."
1862. J. Von Haast, `Geology of Westland,' p. 25:
"Groves of large specimens of Discaria toumatoo, the Wild Irishman of the settlers, formed with the gigantic Aciphylla Colensoi, the Spaniard or Bayonet-grass, an often impenetrable thicket."
1863. S. Butler, `First Year of Canterbury Settlement,' p. 67:
"The Spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intil the bane,' and I assure you we were hard set to make any headway at all."
1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35:
"The least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall into a Spaniard is a thing to be remembered all one's life."
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 287:
"Carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves of Spaniards (Aciphylla), which here attain the larger dimensions, carrying flower-spikes up to six feet long."
1890. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxiii. p. 197:
"Here were rats which lived under the dead leaves of the prickly `Spaniard,' and possibly fed on the roots. The Spaniard leaves forked into stiff upright fingers about 1 in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point."
1896. `Otago Witness,' May 7, p. 48 "Prickly as the points of the Spaniard."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 44:
"Very disagreeable, however, was the abundance of burr and of a spear-grass (Aristida)."
1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 463 [Note]:
"On the south coast there is a grass seed which has similar properties. The seeds are sharp and covered with fine barbs, and once they penetrate the skin they will work their way onwards. They catch in the wool of sheep, and in a short time reach the intestines. Very often I have been shown the omentum of a dead sheep where the grass seeds were projecting like a pavement of pegs. The settlers call it spear-grass, and it is, I believe, a species of Anthistiria."
1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. v. p. 86:
"Sheep in paddocks cannot be so well kept clear of spear-grass."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 90:
"Heteropogon contortus, Spear Grass. A splendid grass for a cattle-run, as it produces a great amount of feed, but is dreaded by the sheep-owner on account of its spear-like seeds."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 23:
"A nocuous kind of grass, namely the dreaded spear-grass (Andropogon contortus), which grows on the coast, and which rendered sheep-raising impossible."
1865. J. O. Tucker, `Australian Story,' c. i. p. 84:
"The only recompense was . . . to light his pipe and have a `spell.'"
1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 84:
"Having a spell—what we should call a short holiday."
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 42:
"In order to spell the oars, we landed at a point on the east side."
1880. G. n. Oakley, in `Victoria in 1880,' p. 114:
"He `spelled' upon the ground; a hollow gumBore up his ample back and bade him rest;And creaked no warning when he sat uponA war-ant's nest."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxiv. p. 328:
"There's a hundred and fifty stock-horses there, spelling for next winter's work."
1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' Narrative, p. 48:
"We camped beside a water-pool containing plenty of fish, and here we spelled for a day to allow some of us to go on and photograph Chamber's Pillar."
The Slender Spine-bill— Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, Gould; inhabiting Australia and Tasmania, and called Cobbler's Awl in the latter colony.
White-eyebrowed S.—A. superciliosus, Gould; of Western Australia.
Though related to the genus Myzomela, the pattern of their colouration differs widely.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 61:
"Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris. Slender-billed Spine-bill. Cobbler's Awl, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land."
Ibid. pl. 62:
"Acanthorhynchus superciliosus, Gould. White-eyebrowed Spine-bill."
The Desert Spinifex of the early explorers, and of many subsequent writers, is not a true Spinifex, but a Fescue; it is properly called Porcupine Grass (q.v.), and is a species of Triodia. The quotations, 1846, 1887, 1890, and 1893, involve this error.
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. c. vi. p. 209:
"In the valley was a little sandy soil, nourishing theSpinifex."
1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 125:
"The Desert Spinifex of our colonists is a Fescue, but a true Spinifex occupies our sand-shores; . . . the heads are so buoyant as to float lightly on the water, and while their uppermost spiny rays act as sails, they are carried across narrow inlets, to continue the process of embarking."
1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 239:
"Though grasses are sadly conspicuous by their absence, saline plants, so nutritious for stock, occur amidst the real deserts of Spinifex."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 43:
"On the broad sandy heights . . . the so-called spinifex is found in great abundance. This grass (Triodia irritans) is the traveller's torment, and makes the plains, which it sometimes covers for hundreds of miles, almost impassable. Its blades, which have points as sharp as needles, often prick the horses' legs till they bleed."
1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated Magazine,' Feb., p. 325:
"They evidently preferred that kind of watercress to the leaves of the horrid, prickly Spinifex, so omnipresent in the north-western district."
1896. R. Tate, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,' Botany, p. 119:
"A species of Triodia (`porcupine grass,' or incorrectly `spinifex' of explorers and residents) dominates sandy ground and the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands."
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 159:
"`Sawed stuff' and `split stuff,' by which is meant timber which is sawn into regular forms and thicknesses, as flooring boards, joints, battens, &c., and that which is split into `posts and rails,' slabs, or paling. Some of the species of eucalyptus, or gum-trees, are peculiarly adapted for splitting. The peppermint-tree (Eucalyptus piperita) and the `Stringy Bark' are remarkable for the perfectly straight grain which they often exhibit, and are split with surprising evenness and regularity into paling and boards for `weather-boarding' houses and other purposes, in lengths of six or eight feet by one foot wide, and half or one-third of an inch thick. . . . Any curve in a tree renders it unfit for splitting, but the crooked- grained wood is best for sawing. . . . All houses in the colony, with few exceptions, are roofed with split shingles."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 105:
"There were two splitters located near us . . . they had a licence to split timber on the crown lands."
1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads—Wolf and Hound,' p. 32:
"At the splitter's tent I had seen the trackOf horse hoofs, fresh on the sward."
Royal Spoonbill—Platalea regia.
Yellow-billed S.—P. flavipes.
P. regia has a fine crest in the breeding season; hence the name.
1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among Gum-trees,' p. 79:
"The sun is sinking in the western sky,And ibises and spoonbills thither fly.
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 216:
"Spotted or Leopard Tree. The gum from this tree forms good adhesive mucilage. It reminds one strongly of East-India gum-arabic of good quality. During the summer months large masses, of a clear amber-colour, exude from the stem and branches. It has a very pleasant taste, is eaten by the aboriginals, and forms a very common bushman's remedy in diarrhoea."
1878. P. Thomson, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xi. art. lii. p. 384:
"Wrasse, parrot-fish, and spotties are often in the market. There are two kinds of spotties, a big and a little. The wrasse and the parrot-fish are mostly caught outside amongst the kelp, and these, with the spotty, are indiscriminately called kelp-fish by the fishermen."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. iii. p. 23:
"A `sprag,' being a stout piece of hard wood, was inserted between the rope and the iron roller on which the rope ran."
1846. Feb. 11, `Speech by Rev. J. D. Lang,' quoted in `Phillipsland,' p. 410:
In whatever direction one moves out of Melbourne, whether north, east, or west, all he sees or hears is merely a repetition of this colonial note—`I squat, thou squattest, he squats; we squat, ye or you squat, they squat.'. . . Exeunt omnes. `They are all gone out a-squatting.'"
1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 236:
"The regulations . . . put an end to squatting within the boundaries of location, and reduced it to a system without the boundaries."
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 136:
"The Speaker squats equally and alternately on the woolsack of the House and at his wool-stations on the Murrumbidgee. One may squat on a large or small scale, squat directly or indirectly, squat in person or by proxy."
1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' p. 68:
"Some spot,Found here and there, where cotters squatWith self-permission."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 119:
"Squatting, in its first phase, was confined to the region round about Sydney; it was not until the pass through the Blue Mountains was discovered that the flocks and herds of the colonists began to expand."
1864. W. Westgarth, `Colony of Victoria,' p. 272:
"The great Riverine district, which is one vast series of squattages . . . the toil and solitude of a day's journey between the homesteads of adjacent squattages."
1835. T. A. Murray (Evidence before Legislative Council of New South Wales on Police and Gaols):
"There are several parties of squatters in my neighbourhood. I detected, not long since, three men at one of their stations in the act of slaughtering one of my own cattle. I have strong reason to suspect that these people are, in general, illicit sellers of spirits."
1835. W. H. Dutton (Evidence before same Committee):
"These persons (squatters) are almost invariably the instigators and promoters of crime, receivers of stolen property, illegal vendors of spirits, and harbourers of runaways, bushrangers, and vagrants."
1843. Rev. W. Pridden, `Australia Its History and Present Condition,' pp. 332-3:
"The squatters, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate which have not yet become any person's private property. By the natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some other property. Thus . . . the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. But this is too bright a picture to form an average specimen. . . . Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they choose spots of waste land near a high road . . . there the squatters knock up what is called a `hut.' In such places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are procured in return."
Ibid. p. 334:
"The rich proprietors have a great aversion to the class of squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, only on a much larger scale. . ."
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. 260:
"This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from Tasmania."
1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 235:
"A set of men who were to be found upon the borders of every large estate, and who were known by the name of squatters. These were ticket-of-leave holders, or freedmen who erected a but on waste land near a great public road, or on the outskirts of an estate."
1897. Australian Steam Navigation Company, `Guide Book,' p. 29:
"Nowaday squatters may be interested and possibly shocked on learning that in March, 1836, a petition was being largely signed for the prevention of `squatting, through which so much crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as `squatting' was but another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, and harbouring bushrangers and assigned servants. The term `squatter,' as applied to the class it now designates—without which where would Australia now be?—was not in vogue till 1842."
(2) A pastoral tenant of the Crown, often renting from the Crown vast tracts of land for pasturage at an almost nominal sum. The term is still frequently, but incorrectly, used for a man rearing and running stock on freehold land. Pastoralist is now the more favoured term.
1840. F. P. Labillicre, `Early History of the Colony of Victoria' (edition 1878), vol. ii. p. 189:
"In a memorandum of December 19th, 1840, `on the disposal of Lands in the Australian Provinces,' Sir George Gipps informs the Secretary of State on the subject, and states that,—'A very large proportion of the land which is to form the new district of Port Phillip is already in the licensed occupation of the Squatters of New South Wales, a class of persons whom it would be wrong to confound with those who bear the same name in America, and who are generally persons of mean repute and of small means, who have taken unauthorized possession of patches of land. Among the Squatters of New South Wales are the wealthiest of the land, occupying, with the permission of the Government, thousands and tens of thousands of acres. Young men of good families and connexions in England, officers of the army and navy, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, are also in no small number amongst them.'"
1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 8, p. 3, col. 3:
"The petitioner has already consigned the whole country to the class squatter in perpetuity."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 165:
"The squatters of Australia Felix will meet on horseback, upon Batman's Hill, on the 1st of June, for the purpose of forming a Mutual Protection Society. From the Murray to the sea-beach, from the Snowy Mountains to the Glenelg, let no squatter be absent."
1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366:
"`Squatters.' A word not to be found in `Johnson's Dictionary'; of Canadian extraction, literally to sit on the haunches: in Australia a term applied to the sheep farmers generally; from their being obliged frequently to adopt that position."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' (Introd.), p. 15:
"We were received with the greatest kindness by my friends the `squatters,' a class principally composed of young men of good education, gentlemanly habits, and high principles."
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 168:
"The Port Phillip squatters, as occupants of the territory ofNew South Wales, were afterwards required to take out an annualdepasturing licence in terms of a Colonial Act passed atSydney."
(p. 246): "The modern squatters, the aristocratic portion of the colonial community."
1851. `Australasian,' p. 298:
"In 1840 the migratory flockmaster had become a settled squatter. A wretched slab but is now his home; for furniture he has a rough bush-made table, and two or three uncouth stools."
1861. T. McCombie, Australian Sketches,' p. 128:
"The term squatter was applied in the first instance to signify, as in America, such as erected huts on unsold land. It thus came to be applied to all who did not live on their own land, to whom the original and more expressive name of settler continued to be applied. When the owners of stock became influential from their education and wealth, it was thought due to them to change this term for one more suitable to their circumstances, as they now included in their order nearly every man of mark or wealth in Australia. The Government suggested the term `tenants of the Crown,' the press hinted at `licensed graziers,' and both terms were in partial use, but such is the prejudice in favour of what is already established, that both were soon disused, and the original term finally adopted."
1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria,' p. 478:
"The term `squatter' . . . is thus derived:—A flock-master settling in Australia could drive his stock to, and occupy, any tract of country, which, from its extent and pastoral capabilities, might meet his comprehensive views; always provided, that such lands had not been already appropriated. . . . Early flock-masters were always confirmed in their selection of lands, according to the quantity of stock they possessed. . . . The Victorian Squatter who can number but five or six thousand sheep is held to be a man of no account. . . . Those only, who can command the shearing of from ten to forty thousand fleeces annually, are estimated as worthy of any note."
1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 47:
"The squatters (as owners of sheepstations are called)."
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 94:
"In the language of the times, Messrs. Evans, Lancey, and subsequently J. P. Fawkner, were squatters. That term is somewhat singular as applied to the latter, who asserts that he founded the colony to prevent its getting into the hands of the squatters. The term was then applied to all who placed themselves upon public lands without licence."
1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 265:
"It is not too much to say that all the early success of Australia was due to the squatters of New South Wales, who followed the steps of Captain McArthur."
1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 532:
"I have been a super, a small freeholder, and a middling-sized squatter, at different times."
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 165:
"The Squatters are the large leaseholders and landed proprietors of the colony, whose cry has always been that the country was unfit for agricultural settlement, and only adapted for the pastoral pursuits in which they were engaged. . . . It is true the old squatter has been well-nigh exterminated."
1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 36:
"The pastoral enterprise of the adventurous squatters.Originally unrecognized trespassers on Crown lands. . . ."
(3) Applied as a nickname to a kind of Bronze-wing Pigeon (q.v.).
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122:
"On the plains you find different kinds of pigeons, the squatters being most common—plump, dust-coloured little fellows, crouching down to the ground quite motionless as you pass. I have frequently killed them with my stock-whip."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 114:
"Gentle little squatter-pigeons cooed lovingly in answer to their mates on all sides."
1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iii. p. 25:
"The Squatterarchy of the Koorong rose up in a body and named its hero, martyr."
1866 (circiter). `Political parody':
"The speaker then apologised, the Members cried, Hear, Hear;And e'en the ranks of squatterdom could scarce forbear tocheer."
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 94:
"Writes to another at a distance upon the subject of squatterdom."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' (Introd.), p. 13:
"During my recent excursions through the squatting districts,I had accustomed myself to a comparatively wild life."
1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 268:
"The large extent of land occupied by each Squatting Station."
1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2:
"A gathering of the squatting and bush life of Australia."
1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 118:
"Throughout the Colony generally, English are the most numerous, then the Scotch, then the Irish, amongst the Squattocracy."
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 59:
"The howl for the abolition of the squattocracy had not yet been fostered under the malign influence of shortsighted politicians."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 35 (`Century'):
"The bloated squattocracy represents Australian conservatism."
1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 243:
"The hearty, hospitable manner of the colonial `squatocracy.'"
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. iv. p. 42:
"He trusted to pass into the ranks of the Squatocracy."
1854. `Melbourne Morning Herald,' Feb. 18, p. 4, col. 5:
"Squattocratic Impudence." [A heading.]
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 45:
"Strepera Anaphonensis, Grey Crow-shrike; Squeaker of the Colonists."
1855. W. Blandowski, `Transactions of Philosophical Society, Victoria,' vol. i. p. 63:
"The Squeaker (Strepera anaphonensis) is a shy and solitary bird, living entirely on the flats, and is remarkable on account of its frequenting only the same locality. He is hence easily distinguished from the Gymnorhina tibicen, whose shrill and piping voice is so well known on all the high lands."
1896. A. J. North, `List of Insectivorous Birds of New South Wales,' part i. p. 1:
"A local name is often more apt to mislead and confuse than to assist one in recognizing the particular species on which it is bestowed. This is chiefly due to the same local name being applied to two or more species.For instance, Corcorax melanorhamphus, Xerophila leucopsis, and Myzantha garrula are all locally known in different parts of the Colony by the name of `Squeaker.'"
1883. `Report of the Royal Commission on the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. xi:
"None of the Squid family seems to be sought after, although certain kinds are somewhat abundant in our waters. It is stated by the New South Wales Fisheries Enquiry Commission, 1880, that `the cephalopods might be made a source of a considerable profit for exportation to Japan and China. In both these countries all animal substances of a gelatinous character are in great request, and none more than those of the cuttle-fish tribe; the squid (Sepioteuthis australis) is highly appreciated, and in consequence is highly prized. The cuttle-fish (sepia) is of rather inferior quality, and the star-fish of the fishermen (octopus) not used at all.'"
1892. R L. Stevenson, `The Wrecker,' p. 345:
"You can't fill up all these retainers on tinned salmon for nothing; but whenever I could get it, I would give 'em squid. Squid's good for natives, but I don't care for it, do you?— or shark either."
1869. J. F. Blanche, `Prince's Visit,' p. 25:
"For steam and stampers now are all the rage."
1880. A. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 76:
"The battery was to have eight stampers."
1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 11:
"This, with the old battery, brings the number of stampers up to sixty."
Ibid. p. 15:
"A battery of twenty-six stamp heads."
1896. Modern talk in the train:
"The horse started to stop, and the backers commenced to hoot."
1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. (Introd.):
"They . . . will only be occupied as distant stock-stations."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 120:
"Their [squatters'] huts or houses, gardens, paddocks, etc., form what is termed a station, while the range of country over which their flocks and herds roam is termed a run."
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 35:
"The lecturer assured his audience that he came here to prevent this country being a squatting station."
1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 17:
"The sturdy station-children pull the bush flowers on my grave."
1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 4:
"Station—the term applied in the colonies to the homesteads of the sheep-farmers or squatters."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood,'Miner's Right,' c. xviii. p. 171:
"Men who in their youth had been peaceful stockmen and station-labourers."
1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125:
"I'm travelen' down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand,I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand,And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day,But there's no demand for a stationhand along the Castlereagh."
1853. `The Emigrant's Guide to Australia.' (Article on Bush-Cookery, from an unpublished MS. by Mrs. Chisholm], pp. 111-12:
"The great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out of salt beef and flour . . . let the Sunday share be soaked on the Saturday, and beat it well . . . take the . . . flour and work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it, and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as `Station jack.'"
1820. Lieut. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and Descriptive Delineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land,' p. 69:
"Their meal consisted of the hindquarters of a kangaroo cut into mincemeat, stewed in its own gravy, with a few rashers of salt pork; this dish is commonly called a steamer."
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 309:
"Our largest animals are the Kangaroos . . . making most delicious stews and steaks, the favourite dish being what is called a steamer, composed of steaks and chopped tail, (with a few slices of salt pork) stewed with a very small quantity of water for a couple of hours in a close vessel."
(2) In the case of a bank or a station, simply to rob.
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. c. xiii. p. 502:
"It was only the previous night that he had been `stuck up' with a pistol at his head."
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 187:
"Unless the mail came well armed, a very few men could `stick it up,' without any trouble or danger."
1857. `Melbourne Punch,' Feb. 19, p. 26, col. 1:
"I have been stuck up, trampled in the mud."
1869. J. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 140:
"Five or six bushrangers took up a position about a mile from town, and (to use a colonial phrase) `stuck up' every person that passed."
1869. Mrs. W. M. Howell, `The Diggings and the Bush,' p. 93:
"The escort has been `stuck up,' and the robbers have taken notes to the value of L700, and two thousand ounces of gold."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 253:
"We had a revolver apiece in case of being `stuck up' on the road."
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 168:
"We could make more money in one night by `sticking up' a coach or a bank than in any other way in a year . . . Any one who has been stuck up himself knows that there's not much chance of doing much in the resisting line." [The operation is then explained fully.]
1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c.viii. p. 68:
"Accounts of bushrangers `sticking up' stations, travellers, and banks were very frequent."
1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 26, p. 4. col. 6:
"The game of sticking up hotels used to be in the old days a popular one, and from the necessary openness of the premises the practice was easy to carry out."
(3) Humorously applied to a collector or a beggar. In `Twenty- five Years of St. Andrews' (vol. ii. p. 87), A. K. H. B. tells a story of a church dignitary, who was always collecting money for church building. When a ghost appeared at Glamis Castle, addressing the ghost, the clergyman began—that "he was most anxious to raise money for a church he was erecting; that he had a bad cold and could not well get out of bed; but that his collecting-book was on the dressing-table, and he would be `extremely obliged' for a subscription." An Australian would have said he "stuck up" the ghost for a subscription.
1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 297:
"You never get stuck up for coppers in the streets of the towns."
(4) Bring a kangaroo to bay.
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 24:
"We knew that she had `stuck up' or brought to bay a large forester."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 15:
"The fiercest fighter I ever saw `stuck up' against a red gum-tree."
(5) Simply to stop.
1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,' p. 68:
"This [waterfall] `stuck us up,' as they say here concerning any difficulty."
1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2:
"We are stuck up for an hour or more, and can get a good feed over there."
(6) To pose, to puzzle.
1896. Modern:
"I was stuck up for an answer."
"That last riddle stuck him up."
1897. `The Australasian,' Jan. 2, p. 33, col. 1:
"The professor seems to have stuck up any number of candidates with the demand that they should `construct one simple sentence out of all the following.'"
1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 197:
"They had only just been liberated from gaol, and were the stickers-up, or highwaymen mentioned."
1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 112:
"Which he cooked in the mode called in colonial phrase a sticker up. A straight twig being cut as a spit, the slices were strung upon it, and laid across two forked sticks leaning towards the fire."
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 55:
"Here I was first initiated into the bush art of `sticker-up' cookery . . . the orthodox material here is of course kangaroo, a piece of which is divided nicely into cutlets two or three inches broad and a third of an inch thick. The next requisite is a straight clean stick, about four feet long, sharpened at both ends. On the narrow part of this, for the space of a foot or more, the cutlets are spitted at intervals, and on the end is placed a piece of delicately rosy fat bacon. The strong end of the stick-spit is now stuck fast and erect in the ground, close by the fire, to leeward; care being taken that it does not burn." ". . . to men that are hungry, stuck-up kangaroo and bacon are very good eating." . . . "our `sticker-up' consisted only of ham."
1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria,' p. 103:
"Pounds of rosy steaks . . . skilfully rigged after the usual approved fashion (termed in Bush parlance a sticker-up'), before the brilliant wood fire, soon sent forth odours most grateful to the hungered way-worn Bushmen."
The Black Stilt— Himantopus novae-zelandiae, Gould; Maori name, Kaki.
Pied S., or Whiteheaded S.—H. leucocephalus, Gould; Maori name, Tutumata.
White-necked S.—H. albicollis, Buller.
H. leucocephalus (the White-headed Stilt) is also present in Australia, and the world-wide species, H. pectoralis, Du Bus. (the Banded Stilt), is found through all Australasia.
1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 121:
"It has been recently discovered by the writer of the animated article in the `Field' on Fishing in New Zealand [London, Nov. 25, 1871], that `stingareeing' can be made to afford sport of a most exciting kind."