Yellow-spotted B.--_Austral English

C. gutttata, Gould.

And the Regent-bird (q.v.).

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 140:

"The same person had the last season found, to his surprise,

the playhouse, or bower, of the Australian satin bower-bird."

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 28:

"Any shred of glass or metal which arrests the eye or reflects

the rays of the sun is a gem in the bower-bird's collection,

which seems in a sense to parody the art decorations of a

modern home."

1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':

"In one is a representation of the playing place of the spotted

bowerbird. These bowers are quite independent of the birds'

nests, which are built on neighbouring trees. They first

construct a covered passage or bower about three feet long, and

near it they place every white or bright object they can find,

such as the bleached bones of animals, pieces of white or

coloured stone, feathers, shells, etc., etc.; the feathers they

place on end. When these curious playing places were first

discovered, they were thought to be made by the native women

for the amusement of their children. More than a bushel of

small pieces of bleached bones or shells are often found at one

of these curious sporting places. Sometimes a dozen or more

birds will assemble, and they delight in chasing each other

through the bower and playing about it."

<hw>Box</hw>, <hw>Box-tree</hw>, <hw>Box-gum</hw>,

n. The name is applied to many Eucalypts, and to

a few trees of the genus Tristania, as given below, all

of the N.O. Myrtaceae, chiefly from the qualities of

their timber, which more or less resembles "Boxwood." Most of

these trees also bear other vernacular names, and the same tree

is further often described vernacularly as different kinds of

Box. China-, Heath-, and Native-Box (q.v. below)

are of other Natural Orders and receive their names of

Box from other reasons. The following table is compiled

from Maiden:--

Bastard Box--

Eucalyptus goniocalyx, F. v. M.;

E. largiflorens, F. v. M. (called also Cooburn);

E. longifolia, Link.; E. microtheca, F. v. M.;

E. polyanthema, F. v. M.; E. populifolia,

Hook. (called also Bembil or Bimbil Box and Red Box);

Tristania conferta, R. Br.;

T. laurana, R. Br., all of the N.O. Myrtaceae.

Black Box--

Eucalyptus obliqua, L'Herit.;

E. largiflorens, F. v. M.;

E. microtheca, F. v. M.

Brisbane Box---

Tristania conferta, R. Br.

Broad-leaved Box--

Eucalyptus acmenoides, Schau.

Brown Box--

Eucalyptus polyanthema, Schau.

Brush Box--

Tristania conferta, R. Br.

China Box-- Murraya exotica, Linn., N.O. Rutaceae

(not a tree, but a perfume plant, which is found also in India

and China).

Dwarf, or Flooded Box-- Eucalyptus microtheca,

F. v. M. (Also called Swamp Gum, from its habit of growing on

land inundated during flood time. An aboriginal name for the

same tree is goborro.)

Grey Box--

Eucalyptus goniocalyx, F. v. M.;

E. hemiphloia, F. v. M.;

E. largiflorens, F. v. M.;

E. polyanthema, Schau.;

E. saligna, Smith.

Gum-topped Box--

Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M.

Heath Box-- Alyxia buxifolia, R. Br.,

N.O. Apocyneae (called also Tonga-beanwood,

owing to its scent)

Iron-bark Box--

Eucalyptus obliqua, L'Herit.

Narrow-leaved Box--

Eucalyptus microtheca, F. v. M.

Native Box-- Bursaria spinosa, Cav.,

N.O. Pittosporeae. (Called also Box-thorn

and Native-Olive. It is not a timber-tree but a forage-

plant. See quotation, 1889.)

Poplar Box--

Eucalyptus populifolia, Hook.

Red Box--

Eucalyptus populifolia, Hook.;

E. polyanthema, Schau.;

Tristania

conferta, R. Br.

Thozet's Box--

Eucalyptus raveretiana, F. v. M.

White Box--

Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M.;

E. odorata, Behr.;

E. populifolia, Hook.;

Tristania conferta, R. Br.

Yellow Box--

Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. M.

E. largiflorens, F. v. M.

E. melliodora, A. Cunn.

1820. John Oxley, `Two Expeditions,' p. 126:

"The country continued open forest land for about three miles,

the cypress and the bastard-box being the prevailing timber;

of the former many were useful trees."

1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 55:

"The small kind of tree . . . which Mr. Oxley, I believe, terms

the dwarf-box, grows only on plains subject to inundation

. . . . It may be observed, however, that all permanent waters

are invariably surrounded by the `yarra.' These peculiarities

are only ascertained after examining many a hopeless hollow,

where grew the `goborro' only; and after I had found my sable

guides eagerly scanning the `yarra' from afar, when in search

of water, and condemning any view of the `goborro' as hopeless

during that dry season."

[See Yarra, a tree.]

1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 6:

"Belts of open forest land, principally composed of the

box-tree of the colonists, a species of eucalyptus (in no

respect resembling the box of Europe)."

1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 15:

"The Honey-Eucalypt (Eucalyptus melliodora). This tree

passes by the very unapt vernacular name Yellow Box-tree,

though no portion of it is yellow, not even its wood, and

though the latter resembles the real boxwood in no way

whatever. Its systematic specific name alludes to the odour of

its flowers, like that of honey, and as the blossoms exude much

nectar, like most eucalypts, sought by bees, it is proposed to

call it the small-leaved Honey-Eucalypt, but the Latin name

might as easily be conveyed to memory, with the advantage of

its being a universal one, understood and used by all nations."

1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 46:

"Poor country, covered with ti-tree, box, and iron-bark

saplings, with here and there heavy timber growing on

sour-looking ridges."

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 7:

"The clumps of box-gums clinging together for sympathy."

1888. J. Howlett Ross, `Laureate of the Centaurs,' p. 41:

"Box shrubs which were not yet clothed with their creamy-white

plumes (so like the English meadowsweet)."

1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,'

p. 59:

"These spears are principally made from a tall-growing box (one

of the eucalypts) which often attains to an altitude of over

100 feet; it is indigenous to the north-western portion of the

colony, and to Riverina; it has a fine wavy grain, consequently

easily worked when in a green state. When well seasoned,

however, it is nearly as hard as ebony."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 121:

"Native box is greedily eaten by sheep, but its thorny

character preserves it from extinction upon sheep-runs: usually

a small scrub, in congenial localities it developes into a

small tree."

<hw>Box</hw>, n. See succeeding verb.

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 67:

"Great care must of course be taken that no two flocks come

into collision, for a `box,' as it is technically called,

causes an infinity of trouble, which is the reason that the

stations are so far apart."

<hw>Box</hw>, v. to mix together sheep that ought to be

kept separate apparently from "to box" in the sense of to shut

up in narrow limits (`O.E.D.' v. i. 5); then to shut up

together and so confuse the classification; then the sense of

shutting up is lost and that of confusion remains.

1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 253:

"All the mobs of different aged lambs which had been hitherto

kept apart were boxed up together."

1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 356:

"After they'd got out twenty or thirty they'd get boxed, like a

new hand counting sheep, and have to begin all over again."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 84:

"At nightfall, the fifteen flocks of sheep were all brought in,

and `boxed,' or mixed together, to Ernest's astonishment."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 166:

"He must keep tally when the sheep are being counted or

draughted, I'm not sure which, and swear--no, he needn't

swear--when they get boxed."

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 54:

"But the travelling sheep and the Wilga sheep were boxed on the

Old Man Plain.

'Twas a full week's work ere they drafted out and hunted them off

again."

<hw>Boxer</hw>, n. This word means in Australia the

stiff, low-crowned, felt hat, called a billy-cock or

bowler. The silk-hat is called a bell-topper

(q.v.).

1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 9, p. 14, col. 2:

"And will you wear a boxer that is in a battered state ?

I wonder, will you--now that you're a knight?"

<hw>Box-wood</hw>, n. a New Zealand wood, Olea

lanceolata, Hook., N.O. Jasminea (Maori name,

Maire). Used by the `Wellington Independent' (April 19,

1845) for woodcuts, and recommended as superior to box-wood for

the purpose. See also Box, n.

<hw>Boyla</hw>, n. aboriginal word for a sorcerer.

1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 384:

"The absolute power of boylas or evil sorcerers . . . he

chanted gloomily:--

Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles?

Now boylas storm and thunder make.

Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles ?"

<hw>Bramble, Native</hw>, n. See Blackberry.

<hw>Bread, Native</hw>, n. a kind of fungus. "The

sclerotium of Polyporus mylitta, C. et M. Until quite

recently the sclerotium was known, but not the fructification.

It was thought probable that its fruit would be ascomycetous,

and on the authority of Berkeley it was made the type of a

genus as Mylitta Australis. It is found throughout

Eastern Australia and Tasmania. The aborigines ate it, but to

the European palate it is tough and tasteless, and probably as

indigestible as leather." (L. Rodway.)

1843. James Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian

Colonies,' p. 40:

"Natural Order. Fungi. . . . Mylitta Australis. Native

Bread. This species of tuber is often found in the Colony,

attaining to the size of a child's head: its taste somewhat

resembles boiled rice. Like the heart of the Tree-fern, and

the root of the Native Potato, cookery produces little change."

1848. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van

Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 157:

"11th October, 1848 . . . Specimens of the fungus known

as `native bread,' Mylitta Australis, lay upon the

table. A member observed that this substance, grated and made

into a pudding with milk alone, had been found by him very

palatable. Prepared in the same way, and combined with double

its weight of rice or sago, it has produced a very superior

dish. It has also been eaten with approval in soup, after the

manner of truffle, to which it is nearly allied."

1857. Dr. Milligan, in Bishop Nixon's `Cruise of the Beacon,'

p. 27:

"But that which afforded the largest amount of solid and

substantial nutritious matter was the native bread, a

fungus growing in the ground, after the manner of the truffle,

and generally so near the roots of trees as to be reputed

parasitical."

1896. `Hobart Mercury,' Oct. 30, p. 2, last col.:

"A large specimen of `native bread,' weighing 12 lb., has been

unearthed on Crab Tree farm in the Huon district, by

Mr. A. Cooper. It has been brought to town, and is being

examined with interest by many at the British Hotel. It is one

of the fungi tribe that forms hard masses of stored food for

future use."

<hw>Breadfruit-tree</hw>, name given by the explorer Leichhardt

to the Queensland tree, Gardenia edulis, F. v. M.,

N.O. Rubiaceae.

<hw>Breakaway</hw>, n.(1) A bullock that leaves the

herd.

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4:

"The smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within

whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky

beast, took the chance."

(2) The panic rush of sheep, cattle, or other animals at the

sight or smell of water.

1891: "The Breakaway," title of picture by Tom Roberts at

Victorian Artists' Exhibition.

<hw>Bream</hw>, n. The name is applied in Australia to

various species of Chrysophrys, family Sparidae,

and to other fishes of different families. The

Black-Bream (q.v.) is C. australis, Gunth.

The Bony-Bream is also called the Sardine (q.v.).

The Silver-Bream (q.v.) or White-Bream is

Gerres ovatus, Gunth., family Percidae. The

Red-Bream is a Schnapper (q.v.) one year old. The

popular pronunciation is Brim, and the fishes are all

different from the various fishes called Bream in the

northern hemisphere. See also Tarwhine and

Blue-fish.

<hw>Brickfielder</hw>, n. (1) Originally a Sydney name

for a cold wind, blowing from the south and accompanied by

blinding clouds of dust; identical with the later name for the

wind, the Southerly Buster (q.v.). The brickfields lay

to the south of Sydney, and when after a hot wind from the west

or north-west, the wind went round to the south, it was

accompanied by great clouds of dust, brought up from the

brickfields. These brickfields have long been a thing of the

past, surviving only in "Brickfield Hill," the hilly part of

George Street, between the Cathedral and the Railway Station.

The name, as denoting a cold wind, is now almost obsolete, and

its meaning has been very curiously changed and extended to

other colonies to denote a very hot wind. See below (Nos. 2

and 3), and the notes to the quotations.

1833. Lieut. Breton, R.N., `Excursions in New South Wales and

Van Diemen's Land,' p. 293:

"It sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind

to a `brickfielder,' on which occasions the thermometer has

been known to fall, within half an hour, upwards of fifty

degrees! That is to say, from above 100 degrees to 50

degrees! A brickfielder is a southerly wind, and it takes its

local name from the circumstances of its blowing over, and

bringing into town the flames [sic] of a large brick-field: it

is nearly as detestable as a hot wind."

[Lieut. Breton must have had a strong imagination. The

brickfields, at that date, were a mile away from the town, and

the bringing in of their flames was an impossibility.

Perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for fumes; yet

even then this earliest quotation indicates part of the source

of the subsequent confusion of meaning. The main

characteristic of the true brickfielder was neither

flames nor fumes,--and certainly not heat,--but

choking dust.]

1839. W. H. Leigh, `Reconnoitering Voyages, Travels, and

Adventures in the new Colony of South Australia,' etc., p. 184:

"Whirlwinds of sand come rushing upon the traveller, half

blinding and choking him,--a miniature sirocco, and decidedly

cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at Cape

Town. The inhabitants call these miseries `Brickfielders,' but

why they do so I am unable to divine; probably because they are

in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are

made."

[This writer makes no allusion to the temperature of the wind,

whether hot or cold, but lays stress on its especial

characteristic, the dust. His comparison with the sirocco

chiefly suggests the clouds of sand brought by that wind from

the Libyan Desert, with its accompanying thick haze and

darkness (`half blinding and choking'), rather than its

relaxing warmth.]

1844. John Rae, `Sydney Illustrated,' p. 26:

"The `brickfielder' is merely a colonial name for a violent

gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes

in to supply the vacuum and equalises the temperature of the

atmosphere; and when its baneful progress is marked, sweeping

over the city in thick clouds of brick-coloured dust (from the

brickfields), it is time for the citizens to close the doors

and windows of their dwellings, and for the sailor to take more

than half his canvas in, and prepare for a storm."

[Here the characteristic is again dust from the

brickfields, as the origin of the name, with cold as an

accompaniment.]

1844. Mrs.Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,'

p. 44:

"These dust winds are locally named `brickfielders,' from the

direction in which they come" [i.e. from neighbouring

sandhills, called the brickfields].

[Here dust is the only characteristic observed, with the

direction of the wind as the origin of its name.]

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 4:

"The greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by

colonists a brickfielder. This wind has all the

characteristics of a sirocco in miniature . . . . Returning

home, he discovers that the house is full of sand; that the

brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of

his books; at dinner he will probably find that his favourite

fish has been spoiled by the brickfielder. Nor is this all;

for on retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder has

intruded even within the precincts of his musquito curtains."

[Here again its dust is noted as the distinguishing

feature of the wind, just as sand is the distinguishing feature

of the `sirocco' in the Libyan Desert, and precipitated

sand,--`blood rain' or `red snow,'--a chief character of the

sirocco after it reaches Italy.]

1847. Alex. Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p. 61:

"The hot winds which resemble the siroccos in Sicily are,

however, a drawback . . . but they are almost invariably

succeeded by what is there called a `brickfielder,' which is a

strong southerly wind, which soon cools the air, and greatly

reduces the temperature."

[Here the cold temperature of the brickfielder is described,

but not its dust, and the writer compares the hot wind

which precedes the brickfielder with the sirocco. He in fact

thinks only of the heat of the sirocco, but the two preceding

writers are thinking of its sand, its thick haze, its quality

of blackness and its suffocating character,--all which

applied accurately to the true brickfielder.]

1853. Rev. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852

and 1853,' p. 228:

"After the languor, the lassitude, and enervation which some

persons experience during these hot blasts, comes the

`Brickfielder,' or southerly burster."

[Cold temperature noticed, but not dust.]

1853. `Fraser's Magazine,' 48, p. 515:

"When the wind blows strongly from the southward, it is what

the Sydney people call a `brickfielder'; that is, it carries

with it dense clouds of red dust or sand, like brick dust,

swept from the light soil which adjoins the town on that side,

and so thick that the houses and streets are actually hidden;

it is a darkness that may be felt."

[Here it is the dust, not the temperature, which

determines the name.]

(2) The very opposite to the original meaning,--a severe hot

wind. In this inverted sense the word is now used, but not

frequently, in Melbourne and in Adelaide, and sometimes even in

Sydney, as the following quotations show. It will be noted

that one of them (1886) observes the original prime

characteristic of the wind, its dust.

1861. T. McCombie,' Australian Sketches,' p. 79:

"She passed a gang of convicts, toiling in a broiling

`brickfielder.'"

1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia with Notes by the Way,' p. 155:

"The `brickfielders' are usually followed, before the day

closes, with `south-busters' [sic.]."

1886. F. Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch':

"The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard;

and red-hot Simoom."

This curious inversion of meaning (the change from cold to hot)

may be traced to several causes. It may arise--

(a) From the name itself. People in Melbourne and Adelaide,

catching at the word brickfielder as a name for a

dusty wind, and knowing nothing of the origin of the

name, would readily adapt it to their own severe hot north

winds, which raise clouds of dust all day, and are described

accurately as being `like a blast from a furnace,' or `the

breath of a brick-kiln.' Even a younger generation in Sydney,

having received the word by colloquial tradition, losing its

origin, and knowing nothing of the old brickfields, might apply

the word to a hot blast in the same way.

(b) From the peculiar phenomenon.--A certain cyclonic change of

temperature is a special feature of the Australian coastal

districts. A raging hot wind from the interior desert (north

wind in Melbourne and Adelaide, west wind in Sydney) will blow

for two or three days, raising clouds of dust; it will be

suddenly succeeded by a `Southerly Buster' from the

ocean, the cloud of dust being greatest at the moment of

change, and the thermometer falling sometimes forty or fifty

degrees in a few minutes. The Sydney word brickfielder

was assigned originally to the latter part--the dusty

cold change. Later generations, losing the finer distinction,

applied the word to the whole dusty phenomenon,and ultimately

specialized it to denote not so much the extreme dustiness of

its later period as the more disagreeable extreme heat of its

earlier phase.

those who have described it as a `sirocco.'--The word

sirocco (spelt earlier schirocco, and in Spanish

and other languages with the sh sound, not the s)

is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root sharaga,

`it rose.' The name of the wind, sirocco, alludes in

its original Arabic form to its rising, with its cloud of sand,

in the desert high-lands of North Africa. True, it is defined

by Skeat as `a hot wind,' but that is only a part of its

definition. Its marked characteristic is that it is

sand-laden, densely hazy and black, and therefore

`choking,' like the brickfielder. The not unnatural

assumption that writers by comparing a brickfielder with

a sirocco, thereby imply that a brickfielder is a

hot wind, is thus disposed of by this characteristic, and by

the notes on the passages quoted. They were dwelling only on

its choking dust, and its suffocating qualities,--`a

miniature sirocco.' See the following quotations on this

character of the sirocco:--

1841. `Penny Magazine,' Dec. 18, p. 494:

"The Islands of Italy, especially Sicily and Corfu, are

frequently visited by a wind of a remarkable character, to

which the name of sirocco, scirocco, or schirocco, has been

applied. The thermometer rises to a great height, but the air

is generally thick and heavy . . . . People confine themselves

within doors; the windows and doors are shut close, to prevent

as much as possible the external air from entering; . . . but a

few hours of the tramontane, or north wind which

generally succeeds it, soon braces them up again. [Compare this

whole phenomenon with (b) above.] There are some peculiar

circumstances attending the wind. . . . Dr. Benza, an Italian

physician, states:--`When the sirocco has been impetuous and

violent, and followed by a shower of rain, the rain has carried

with it to the ground an almost impalpable red micaceous sand,

which I have collected in large quantities more than once in

Sicily. . . . When we direct our attention to the island of

Corfu, situated some distance eastward of Sicily, we find the

sirocco assuming a somewhat different character. . . . The

more eastern sirocco might be called a refreshing breeze

[sic]. . . . The genuine or black sirocco (as it is called)

blows from a point between south-east and south-south-east.'"

1889. W. Ferrell, `Treatise on Winds,' p. 336:

"The dust raised from the Sahara and carried northward by the

sirocco often falls over the countries north of the

Mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture

and the sand falling together. . . .The temperature never rises

above 95 degrees."

1889. `The Century Dictionary,' s.v. Sirocco:

"(2) A hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing from the highlands of

Africa to the coasts of Malta, Sicily and Naples. . . . During

its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze."

(3) The illustrative quotations on brickfielder, up to

this point, have been in chronological consecutive order. The

final three quotations below show that while the original true

definition and meaning, (1), are still not quite lost, yet

authoritative writers find it necessary to combat the modern

popular inversion, (2).

1863. Frank Fowler, `The Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1:

"The `brickfielder' is not the hot wind at all; it is but

another name for the cold wind, or southerly buster, which

follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive

sweep of sandhills called the Brickfields, semi-circling

Sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or `brickfielder')

across the city."

[The writer is accusing Dr. Jobson (see quotation 1862, above)

of plagiarism from his book `Southern Lights and Shadows.']

1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' vol. ii. p. 11:

"A dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere.

This is generally known as a `brickfielder.'"

1896. `Three Essays on Australian Weather,' `On Southerly

Buster,' by H. A. Hunt, p. 17:

"In the early days of Australian settlement, when the shores of

Port Jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the

region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great

part of the Haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from

which Brickfield Hill takes its name. When a `Southerly

Burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always

heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in

consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of

`brickfielder.' The brickfields have long since vanished, and

with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind

continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern

name of `Southerly Burster."

<hw>Bricklow</hw>, n. obsolete form of Brigalow

(q.v.).

<hw>Brigalow</hw>, n. and adj. Spellings various.

Native name, Buriargalah. In the Namoi dialect in New

South Wales, Bri or Buri is the name for

Acacia pendula, Cunn.; Buriagal, relating to the

buri; Buriagalah == place of the buri tree. Any

one of several species of Acacia, especially

A. harpophylla, F. v. M., H.O. Leguminosae. J. H.

Maiden (`Useful Native Plants,' p. 356, 1889) gives its uses

thus:

"Wood brown, hard, heavy, and elastic; used by the natives for

spears, boomerangs, and clubs. The wood splits freely, and is

used for fancy turnery. Saplings used as stakes in vineyards

have lasted twenty years or more. It is used for building

purposes, and has a strong odour of violets.'

1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,'

p. 312:

"Almost impassable bricklow scrub, so called from the bricklow

(a species of acacia)."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 4:

"The Bricklow Acacia, which seems to be identical with the

Rosewood Acacia of Moreton Bay; the latter, however, is a fine

tree, 50 to 60 feet high, whereas the former is either a small

tree or a shrub. I could not satisfactorily ascertain the

origin of the word Bricklow, but as it is well understood and

generally adopted by all the squatters between the Severn River

and the Boyne, I shall make use of the name. Its long,

slightly falcate leaves, being of a silvery green colour, give

a peculiar character to the forest, where the tree

abounds."--[Footnote]: "Brigaloe Gould."

1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 79:

"Good-bye to the Barwan and brigalow scrubs."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 190:

"Now they pass through a small patch of Brigalow scrub. Some

one has split a piece from a trunk of a small tree. What a

scent the dark-grained wood has!"

1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia;' vol. iv. p. 69:

"There exudes from the Brigalow a white gum, in outward

appearance like gum-arabic, and even clearer, but as a

`sticker' valueless, and as a `chew-gum' disappointing."

1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 23:

"The glare of a hard and pitiless sky overhead, the infinite

vista of saltbush, brigalow, stay-a-while, and mulga, the

creeks only stretches of stone, and no shelter from the

shadeless gums."

<hw>Brill</hw>, n. a small and very bony rhomboidal fish

of New Zealand, Pseudorhombus scaphus, family

Pleuronectidae. The true Brill of Europe is

Rhombus levis.

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

<hw>Bristle-bird</hw>, n. a name given to certain

Australian Reed-warblers. They are--Sphenura

brachyptera, Latham; Long-tailed

B.--S. longirostris, Gould; Rufous-headed

B.--S. broadbentii, McCoy. See Sphenura.

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,'

vol. xv. p. 232:

"He (Mr. Caley) calls it in his notes `Bristle Bird.'"

<hw>Broad-leaf</hw>, n. a settlers' name for

Griselinia littoralis, Raoul; Maori name,

Paukatea.

1879. W. N. Blair, `Building Materials of Otago,' p. 155:

"There are few trees in the [Otago] bush so conspicuous or so

well known as the broad-leaf. . . . It grows to a height of

fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of from three to six; the

bark is coarse and fibrous, and the leaves a beautiful deep

green of great brilliancy."

1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of New Zealand

Institute,' vol. xii. Art. 49, p. 328:

"The broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis) is abundant in

the district [of Banks' Peninsula], and produces a hard red

wood of a durable nature."

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 103:

"The rough trunks and limbs of the broadleaf."

<hw>Broker</hw>, n. Australian slang for a man

completely ruined, stonebroke.

1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014:

"We're nearly `dead brokers,' as they say out here. Let's

harness up Eclipse and go over to old Yamnibar."

<hw>Bronze-wing</hw>, n. a bird with a lustrous

shoulder, Phaps chalcoptera, Lath. Called also

Bronze-wing Pigeon.

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 145:

"One of the gold-winged pigeons, of which a plate is annexed.

[Under plate, Golden-winged Pigeon.] This bird is a curious

and singular species remarkable for having most of the feathers

of the wing marked with a brilliant spot of golden yellow,

changing, in various reflections of light, to green and

copper-bronze, and when the wing is closed, forming two bars of

the same across it."

1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 31:

"The pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island;

they are called bronze-winged pigeons."

1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 57:

"Mr. Fitzpatrick followed his kangaroo hounds, and shot his

emus, his wild turkeys, and his bronze-wings."